Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[farecoal]

So, like the title says, the game says I've found a cavern. Should I just ignore it and keep digging? Seal up the stairs?

[cyks]

You should ignore it and keep digging untill something more interesting happens.

[Mini]

Keep digging until you get to the third layer of caverns and build your fortress down in those caverns.

[Zesty]

I love the critters you can find in caverns. I picture Elk Birds to look like Dodo Birds with antlers.

In any case, no need to seal it up. Put some traps around anything connected to your fortress and no little raccoon-esque creatures will bother your Fortress.

Now, if you strike the nasty beasties, and you'll know if you do (there will be a pop-up warning), then I'd seal it up.

[BlackRat90]

i always add a good layer of say 5-9 cage traps between my stairs the the cave entrance, that way it stops little beasties from runnign wild in my fortress....

the reason i say 5-9 is that Elkbirds normally come in rather large packs, and so if you just have a couple of traps, the first few birds will trip them and the rest will make it through.

[BlackRat90]

I love the critters you can find in caverns. I picture Elk Birds to look like Dodo Birds with antlers.

Yea, Dodo Birds that continue to harass and have KILLED several of my dwarfs once lol

Like i said, lots of cage traps

[FleshForge]

A lot of interesting things start happening when you break into any cavern.  For one thing, trees and harvestable plants start growing on any suitable surface (soil or irrigated stone), and also cavern spiders start spinning webs in whatever their suitable places are, that can be harvested for thread and cloth.

[Tcei]

Imho the most annoying cavern creature is the naked mole dog. They spawn in large groups like elk birds, but also have a taste for dwarven food and drinks.  I actually lost a fort to them once, They spawned shortly after I broke into the cavern and before I could get traps up. While my military chased the largest portion of the group around a few made their way to my stockpiles and devoured over 1500 food and beer. My fort starved shortly after because I couldnt catch the little blighters once they got in.

But yeah, the caverns can be both fun and FUN, not only do you get various underground critters, but you can find tribes of beastmen living under your fort. You'll also get forgotten beast which are the underground equivalent of megabeast.

[Jelle]

Aslong as you have a way of stopping the beasties from coming out it shouldn't be a problem. My problem with the caverns is usually my dwarves wanting to go down there to do whatever.
If you leave the caverns open make sure your dwarves have no reason to go down there. As soon as you kill something  you have to forbid it etc.
Also make sure you have a pet impassable door, or the cats will go happely explore and get eaten up by troglodytes. Their owners don't like it when that happens to say the least.
Whenever I open up the caverns I do it from outside, so cavern life and surface life can mix up. Was quite funny seeing wild horses go down the second cavern layer