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[Vermadus]

Hello!

I was wondering about a few things, which i dont know the answer of.

1: If a creature were to 'fall' 1 z-tile, how much damage would it take? And what for say 2 z-tiles or 3. Or does it vary per creature?

2: if i were to say, put a carp in a glass aquarium, or any creature at all surrounded by glass, what is the tile range for the dwarfs to get interrupted?

3: Do other creatures get scared/hesistant/flee-like of other wild creatures(behind glass)? ( example: goblins vs. bears behind glass)

4.

As you can see on the picture below, i have 2 bridges. My plan was to get some pressure plates a bit before the bridges. A example is: if some enemies were to walk towards the top bridge, they walk on the pressure plate, and the top bridge would close, and the bottom bridge would open. And then ofcourse when they reach the bottom pressure plates the opposite thing happens. How to get this to work?

[KenboCalrissian]

1. Fall damage varies by creature size, and is also based on a significant random modifier.  I'll use elves as an example because of a delightfully successful experiment I had with a bridgeapult yesterday.

1 z-level only rarely causes a broken bone, but seems to always stun the creature.  This was true for all elves who were flung through the air, their goods scattering to the four winds like popcorn, and then dropped 1 z-level.  2 or 3 causes significantly more damage, as demonstrated by one of the elves' mules which fell 2 z-levels into my dry moat - it sustained two broken legs, a broken ear, and several brown and light-grey wounds.  The poor fella was left for dead by the disgruntled elves, even though it was perfectly capable of hopping about on two legs.  It probably didn't hear them calling, since its ear was broken.

2 and 3. Caged creatures do not act as wards... though this is a pretty neat suggestion!  You could, however, cage a bunch of bears or something and use it for building-destroyer deterrent.  A troll smashes your terrarium only to find himself confronted with 20 grizzly bears... *jots that one down*

Another alternative is restraining an animal, though in my opinion they aren't that useful.  The animal will only be able to move one square away from the restraint, meaning it's toast if enemies shoot at it.  You could build some walls against its vulnerable side forcing the enemy to get close to it, but even then it's risky.

Enemies can and will shoot into barred cages (wooden or metal).  I don't know about glass ones.  But you could leave some barred cages outside with spare animals so that the enemies waste their ammunition on the cage instead of your dwarves!  *jots that one down too*

4: What you're envisioning won't work because pressure plates, like levers, are like on/off switches.  You can't have the same pressure plate turn one mechanism "on" and the other "off" at the same time. 

I've tried this before with floodgates, and it didn't work.  I have a waterfall with two exits, so you can toggle where the water spills out with levers.  I wanted these on one lever, so when one pair was "on" the other would always be "off."  So I connected the first two, pulled the lever so that the first two gates were "off," connected the other two, and tried it.  Unfortunately, the first two turned "on," leaving the second two "on," and pulling it again set both to "off."  I had to deconstruct the lever and start over using two separate levers.

Something else to keep in mind about pressure plates... they automatically reset after 100 steps if nothing else has activated it.  So you might want to rethink your defenses.

It sounds like you want the goblins to walk back and forth between the two bridges, changing paths to the other as the first closes.  The best you could do is dig a long, snaking path that acts as another way around the bridge.  It's longer, so the goblins will prefer the bridge over that path, but when the bridge rises they're forced to recalculate and take the longer path.  Along that path you could add traps, other pressure plates to change paths again, etc.

[Quietust]

2/3. A caged animal will never interrupt dwarves - on the contrary, dwarves that look at it will get happy thoughts (comforted by a wonderful creature in a cage lately). However, a "constructed" chamber using glass windows will cause dwarves to get scared and run away.

4. You'd probably have to hook the pressure plates up to some hatches/doors elsewhere that allow water to flow onto some other water-triggered pressure plates (and have some additional machinery to remove the water from the pressure plates afterwards so it can be retriggered), such that one bridge would be connected to a "0-1=on, 2-7=off" plate and the other would be connected to a "0-1=off, 2-7=on" plate. See the wiki article for more information.

[Vermadus]

1. Fall damage varies by creature size, and is also based on a significant random modifier.  I'll use elves as an example because of a delightfully successful experiment I had with a bridgeapult yesterday.

1 z-level only rarely causes a broken bone, but seems to always stun the creature.  This was true for all elves who were flung through the air, their goods scattering to the four winds like popcorn, and then dropped 1 z-level.  2 or 3 causes significantly more damage, as demonstrated by one of the elves' mules which fell 2 z-levels into my dry moat - it sustained two broken legs, a broken ear, and several brown and light-grey wounds.  The poor fella was left for dead by the disgruntled elves, even though it was perfectly capable of hopping about on two legs.  It probably didn't hear them calling, since its ear was broken.

2 and 3. Caged creatures do not act as wards... though this is a pretty neat suggestion!  You could, however, cage a bunch of bears or something and use it for building-destroyer deterrent.  A troll smashes your terrarium only to find himself confronted with 20 grizzly bears... *jots that one down*

Another alternative is restraining an animal, though in my opinion they aren't that useful.  The animal will only be able to move one square away from the restraint, meaning it's toast if enemies shoot at it.  You could build some walls against its vulnerable side forcing the enemy to get close to it, but even then it's risky.

Enemies can and will shoot into barred cages (wooden or metal).  I don't know about glass ones.  But you could leave some barred cages outside with spare animals so that the enemies waste their ammunition on the cage instead of your dwarves!  *jots that one down too*

4: What you're envisioning won't work because pressure plates, like levers, are like on/off switches.  You can't have the same pressure plate turn one mechanism "on" and the other "off" at the same time. 

I've tried this before with floodgates, and it didn't work.  I have a waterfall with two exits, so you can toggle where the water spills out with levers.  I wanted these on one lever, so when one pair was "on" the other would always be "off."  So I connected the first two, pulled the lever so that the first two gates were "off," connected the other two, and tried it.  Unfortunately, the first two turned "on," leaving the second two "on," and pulling it again set both to "off."  I had to deconstruct the lever and start over using two separate levers.

Something else to keep in mind about pressure plates... they automatically reset after 100 steps if nothing else has activated it.  So you might want to rethink your defenses.

It sounds like you want the goblins to walk back and forth between the two bridges, changing paths to the other as the first closes.  The best you could do is dig a long, snaking path that acts as another way around the bridge.  It's longer, so the goblins will prefer the bridge over that path, but when the bridge rises they're forced to recalculate and take the longer path.  Along that path you could add traps, other pressure plates to change paths again, etc.

Thanks for the response!

1: alright, that's nice to know, illl keep it at 1z tile drops for now.

2: question 2 originally came from my thought of having a huge dining hall, the walls being glass, behind the glass there is water and fishes. Not only would this be quite classy, the dwarfs would also be able to enjoy the full dining hall while the fishes (hopefully) scare them enough to make the dwarfs stick together(away from the walls) and socialize.

Quietust : hmmm, if they will run away instead of just keeping a distance... that woudn't quite work then.... It would keep parties away though.

3: For 3 i was thinking of a passage, glass walls, animals behind it, and having goblins walk trough the corridor, being frightened and all. I could totally go with your idea though!

4: If i recall correctly while lurking the forums there was a roudnabout way of making the pressure plate stay on or off, till you press the lever, kind of a one-time pressure plate minus the dissapearing. Needs more brainstorming!

[Quietust]

3: For 3 i was thinking of a passage, glass walls, animals behind it, and having goblins walk trough the corridor, being frightened and all. I could totally go with your idea though!

Only civilians will be frightened by dangerous creatures - soldiers and guards (and invaders) aren't afraid of them

4: If i recall correctly while lurking the forums there was a roudnabout way of making the pressure plate stay on or off, till you press the lever, kind of a one-time pressure plate minus the dissapearing. Needs more brainstorming!

That would be the "permanent effect pressure plate" system in the wiki article I linked above.

[Vermadus]

Only civilians will be frightened by dangerous creatures - soldiers and guards (and invaders) aren't afraid of them

Aw, that's quite a shame.

That would be the "permanent effect pressure plate" system in the wiki article I linked above.

I see, at the moment im thinking of a loop of sorts of premanent effect pressure plate. Instead of say, the floodgate open when i press a lever to let the water evaporate, i replace the floodgate with another hatch, and when the enemies walk towards the other sides pressure plates, the hatch would open, and the water land on yet another waster sensing pressure plate, which would close a bridge, and open the other.

then when they reach the first floodgate again, the water will get pumped away(somehow), and so on.

Now to actually give this a go since im not quite sure what happens after the second time.

[Vermadus]

Only civilians will be frightened by dangerous creatures - soldiers and guards (and invaders) aren't afraid of them

Aw, that's quite a shame.

That would be the "permanent effect pressure plate" system in the wiki article I linked above.

I see, at the moment im thinking of a loop of sorts of premanent effect pressure plate. Instead of say, the floodgate open when i press a lever to let the water evaporate, i replace the floodgate with another hatch, and when the enemies walk towards the other sides pressure plates, the hatch would open, and the water land on yet another waster sensing pressure plate, which would close a bridge, and open the other.

then when they reach the first floodgate again, the water will get pumped away(somehow), and so on.

Now to actually give this a go since im not quite sure what happens after the second time.


Edit: Huh. How did that happen.