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[assimilateur]

You know how animals can supposedly be used to screw with invaders' pathfinding, right? When I said supposedly, I meant that literally. In the latest fort we've been playing together with a mate, we've been using different species of livestock (dogs, cows, camels) to lure invaders, but it's not working.

At best, invaders will hesitantly stroll towards our chained animal, at worst, they will outright ignore it. Before you ask: we're positive about that animal being reachable, because it's in the same corridor we temporarily use for depot access, etc. We just put a bridge between the fort proper and the lure. The moment we pull out that bridge (if pull out is even the right word; I'm thinking about the opposite of retract, since it's a retractable bridge), invaders will come storming down that corridor towards our fortress, or most of the time they will, at least.

What are we missing there? It crossed my mind that this could be related to tags, as we're being besieged by all sorts of things (namely: we've made humans and elves hostile, and have modded cyclopes, giants and minotaurs to form civilizations; hostile ones, obviously), but even more or less* vanilla goblins aren't being lured reliably.


* By more or less, I meant the following: intelligent tag replaced with can_civ and can_learn, removed babysnatcher and ambusher, lowered progress triggers.

[KenboCalrissian]

I've noticed this behavior in my fort as well.  In early years, goblins would invariably attack my chained animals first, creating an effective early-warning system.  After a few years, they gradually started ignoring the chained animals more and more.

I can't seem to figure out what causes this behavior, but I have a suspicion (read: unproven and untested).  I think whether it's an ambush or a siege makes a difference, in that I believe ambushers are far more likely to go after the chained animal.  In an ambush, the enemy intends to single out a weak opponent and kill it before you get a chance to react, so a chained animal seems an ideal target to sneak up on (more likely, it happens to be the nearest, unaware, allied creature).  In a siege, sending a force to attack a lone opponent is less important than overwhelming the whole of the fortress, so siegers seem more focused on getting inside your fort (or as close to the largest concentration of your fort's population) than attacking that groundhog you have chained up outside.

In my fort, I had goblin squads who were often lead by humans, and oftentimes it was the human in the front of the party finding their way into the cage trap placed directly in front of the chained puppy or groundhog.  I don't believe race has anything to do with whether or not they'll attack a chained, isolated animal.

However, my fort has access to 3 different goblin civs.  This presents another variable.  Do tendencies of attacking isolated creatures first vs. heading straight for the highest population of your dwarves have anything to do with the civ?  I don't know, there isn't an easy way for me to determine which goblin civ is attacking me at a given time.

[Malrin]

Or maybe they're learning....

And then the cage trap becomes obsolete.... 

[assimilateur]

I can't rightly compare this with ambushes in the fort I'm playing now, because we're not getting any of those, only sieges. What you propose about besieging forces assessing whether a target is worth attacking is controversial, to say the least. One wouldn't expect such complex behavior from monsters that otherwise just seem to charge at you, kill, get killed or retreat.

Regardless, we need a way of more or less safely "suggesting" for them where to go. And by safely I mean far from any dwarves. Just making a skylight in my access corridor isn't gonna cut it, because part of the fortress is most likely going to be above ground.

[Khym Chanur]

In a siege, sending a force to attack a lone opponent is less important than overwhelming the whole of the fortress, so siegers seem more focused on getting inside your fort (or as close to the largest concentration of your fort's population) than attacking that groundhog you have chained up outside.

Unless, of course, while making a beeline for the opening of your fortress they spot a lone stray cat, in which case the entire squad will chase down the cat and make sure it's dead before getting back to invading your fort.

"No, wait, I have my defenses all set up for you!  Ignore the stupid cat and stop wasting my time!"