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Author Topic: Mass Pitting Problems, Possibly Pertaining to Precocious Pigs (Guinea)  (Read 921 times)

Xen0n

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So I read the article on mass pitting http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Mass_pitting  and basically made an exact replica of the design, with an empty room sealed with locked doors and a lever-controlled drawbridge underneath it to act as my "arena."  However, when I did a test run with just some crundles (didn't want to try it on the goblins until I knew it worked,) I got tons of "interrupted by crundle" cancellations and spent a while cleaning up the mess they made.  I was confused, but chalked it up to crundles apparently being one of the special types who can evade, like thieves. 

The next time, I tried it with some Cavy pups and Sows, and the same thing happened, despite the bridge to the arena being pre-raised, so they had to be escaping from the top floor, with the cages and hatches. Also, mysteriously, some peacocks that I didn't even realise I had in my cage area also got out and interrupted half my fort when I pitted the Cavies. 

In both cases eventually one or two would make it down to the arena, but not before several escapes and a lot of interruptions.

Now I'm still not sure if I'm doing something wrong or am just picking the wrong Guinea Pigs (Pun INTENDED HARDCORE) for my pitting tests, since I have had the expereince that any time I tell any of my dwarves to do anything with something that has the word "Cavy" in it's name, they escape and interrupt everyone (Happens if I order to butcher, cage, pasture, chain up and apparently Pit a Cavy, even tame).  Even the pups.  Given this aggressive behaviour and the words "Sow" and "Boar" i ntheir titles, I assumed a Cavy was some kind of ferocious warthog, only to wiki them and find out they are GUINEA PIGS. 

Are either of these expected behaviour?  Problems Mass Pitting non-thieves, or problems handling Cavies?
 I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong in either case :P
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Urist Da Vinci

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Re: Mass Pitting Problems, Possibly Pertaining to Precocious Pigs (Guinea)
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2011, 08:28:58 pm »

We currently don't understand why creatures escape from pitting completely. There are a few explanations involving strength, animal-related skills, agility, or seeing enemies. I think more research is required.


Do crundles or cavys escape if you pit them one-at-a-time?

(name here)

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Re: Mass Pitting Problems, Possibly Pertaining to Precocious Pigs (Guinea)
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2011, 08:31:51 pm »

This happened at DeathQuest with orcs. The problem appears to be that, once you drop one of the creatures, they'll interrupt the dwarves above and cause them to let go of the animals they're attempting to pit.

There are also some creatures that escape without outside intervention.
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Only in Dwarf Fortress would you try to catch a mermaid to butcher her and make trophies out of her bones 

Urist Da Vinci

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Re: Mass Pitting Problems, Possibly Pertaining to Precocious Pigs (Guinea)
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2011, 08:39:14 pm »

This happened at DeathQuest with orcs. The problem appears to be that, once you drop one of the creatures, they'll interrupt the dwarves above and cause them to let go of the animals they're attempting to pit.

There are also some creatures that escape without outside intervention.

The mass pitting room uses hatches, which you can pit creatures through, to block sight of creatures below.

Also, I can sometimes, but not always, pit goblin snatchers without difficulty. There is some unknown variable, perhaps a skill check, or perhaps a strength check, or perhaps the dwarf has to be faster than the pitted creature.

Xen0n

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Re: Mass Pitting Problems, Possibly Pertaining to Precocious Pigs (Guinea)
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2011, 09:01:54 pm »

Hmmm have not  piited any one-at-a-time yet, will have to try that out. 
If there is some skill check component to it then I would hate to go up against the cavies in war because they much have godly attributes given how often they escape typical handling around my fort.
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