Print

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

[Misterstone]

Hello,

The chasm creatures that I capture as gladiators for my arena have been turning melancholy/berkserk when released from the cage.  Normally I would assume that they are unhappy from being in a cage, but I notice that invaders (goblins/trolls) that are given the same treatment do not have this problem.  Here is a thread of my gladiatorial exploits... you will notice from the 1st and 3rd fights that the chasm creatures always go crazy as soon as the cage is opened.

cage match post

Also, another poster has mentioned that antmen in his fort are crazy when they appear on the map.  See Ravendas' report in this thread:

Thread about insanity

Bug or feature?  MAybe the chasm is a crappy place to live?

[ August 28, 2007: Message edited by: Misterstone ]

[Toady One]

It does that to them when they want to return to the chasm but can't for some reason.  It's actually for the merchants and diplomats (to unhinge them from the associated events so the game can continue), but the effect extends to other creatures.  I'm not sure why antmen would appear crazy from the beginning, but I don't know how long those antment were in ambush before being discovered.

[Ravendas]

Toady your message makes complete sense now. If they go insane from an inability to reach the chasm, then that is it.

The location that they go insane is in my Coin Castle. This is a section of my fort locked behind several doors, with just a sole dwarf living in it. I use an airlock system to transfer food / alcohol / metal into the Coin Castle, and I gave him a legendary bedroom, statue garden, and dining hall all for himself. Then he has his magma forge for minting coins, and a massive vault to store them. Included in all this is a single well in case I forget to restock his alcohol.

So all the ants that pop out of there are unable to reach the chasm, since they are locked behind a few doors. Therefor, according to your explanation, they go insane. Mystery solved.

Edit: Coins are kept separate from all other dwarves so that I can run an economy without dwarves spending all their time hauling coins around and splitting my 500stacks into 500 1stacks. They occasionally complain about not being able to reach their coins, but nothing bad ever happens. Strangely, the coins still split up when claimed, but they all remain in the same tile. So my 1 tile with 1 stack of 500 coins typically becomes 1 tile with lots and lots of smaller stacks of coins, without any dwarf touching them. Credit based dwarven society!

[ September 02, 2007: Message edited by: Ravendas ]

[ September 02, 2007: Message edited by: Ravendas ]

[Keiseth]

quote:(Ravendas' Coin Castle Post~)

"Don't let cash slow you down. Fast dwarves take faster money. Life takes Dwarf Fortress."

[Vengeful Donut]

The code that makes the merchants go insane doesn't seem to always work. I had the dwarven caravan decide to camp out in my fortress once and it didnt go die off even after several years. As you might imagine, this brought all immigration to a halt, and since my birth rate is lower than my death rate, I eventually gave up hope and abandoned the fortress (I didnt want to use channels and floodgates, because they would mar my pristine fortess floor)

[Toady One]

Yeah, the merchants seem to go a bit wrong when they are scared by passing wild animals.  That bug should be on the list.