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[hops]

Soooo, people of Bay12. I'm preparing for the my imminent first goblin siege. My guild of masons are building an outer wall. I'm planning on making the inner wall a really long hallway filled with weapon traps and repeating spike traps (I'm pretty sure I can make them all before the siege. Or at least I could handle the siege with what I have then co tinge the construction.

However, it won't really do to have my dwarves that go out to gather plants and cut trees to have to dodge the spikes, so how do I make a lever-activated shortcut that also seal off the other trap hallway (to prevent idiot pathing) ?

[Mr S]

Raised drawbridges opening/closing the alternate route, I'd say.

[EvilBob22]

Drawbridge.  Something like this maybe:

Code: [Select]

<outside>

#...###
#......   <to traps>
#___###
#___#
#OOO###
#......   <from traps>
#...###
#...#

<inside>
. = floor
# = wall
_ = pit covered by drawbridge when safe
O = wall location when drawbridge raised

Edit: Ninja'ed!

[Mr S]

EvilBob post-ninja'd my reply, but WITH PICTURES!!!!

Well played.

[darkgloomie]

Put doors at both ends of the corridors and lock them whenever a siege isn't around- re-lock the door leading to your fort as soon as a gobbo gets too close, so they'll all try to path back outside and again walk over the traps.

Though for maximum efficiency and micro-managing, two different exits leading to your fort are required, and juggling the locks of either as invader get close is required...

[Mr S]

Like invader Pong.  For added lulz, add some dodge-me's into EVEN MORE TRAPS!

[hops]

Lolz. I really did over complicated my plans.
Well I want it to be between the wall but I guess I can fix that by making the wall more thicker (I'm probably going to use half the overground fort for now until the goblinite delivery arrive).

Also my underground fort also have 3 different trap hallway that I can switch with ease for each different occasions (now currently goblins/ogres, elves, and dragon)

[thegoatgod_pan]

Make the drawbridge on top of the walls, using them as floors. When the bridge is down there is a straight shoot between two slopes/stairs one outside the wall, one inside, while it is up the line is broken--just a bunch of inaccessible points.

For automated security make the bridge multiple bridges wire to a lever, with a cage trap/weapon trap in a few spots between, so ambushes don't use the peasant shot-cut.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Security_design#Entrance_designs

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Building doors and manually forbidding them as appropriate is the easiest method (press q then move the cursor to the door then press lowercase L). 

Hatches work too, with potential added protection from building destroyers. 

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You can also use a bridge attached to a lever.  The typical method is to have a bridge set to raise in line with the hallway, so that when it's up, it forms a wall.  Pull the lever to on to raise the bridge and close the hallway.  Pull it to off to lower the bridge and open the hallway.  If the bridge is built over solid land, closing the bridge on top of things is dangerous. 

Doors, floodgates, hatches and such can also be linked to levers.   

----

Using bridges as paths is pretty powerful.  Two hallways on different z-levels.  There are ramps leading to the lower hallway.  When the bridge is down, it covers the ramps leading to the lower hall, closing it, and at the same time unblocking the upper hall.  When the bridge is up, the upper hall is inaccessible, making the lower hall the only path.

Bridge down
....__....
    \.....

Bridge up
....  |...
    \.....

(Bridge is marked in red.) 

See also: Dwarven airlock for some added design concepts on how to control multiple parts of the paths with one lever pull. 

----

Another option is to have a second path that's longer, and designate the trapped path as "restricted" (press d o r then select as usual.)  Although the dwarves will still attempt to up the goblinite and so forth, unless you manage that somehow (such as with o F, but that can add more micromanagement than it fixes.)  The safe hallway can even be 3-wide so that caravan wagons can get through, but the stupid guards and outpost liasons will still get themselves spiked to death. 

In short, if the path is marked as restricted, the cost is 25.  If the path is normal, the cost is 2.  Simple math, (25 / 2) is 12.5.  So, if the longer safe path is under 12.5 times the length of the short trapped hallway, they will take the longer path. 

To give an example, if the short trapped hallway is 10 tiles long, and the longer safe hallway is 124 tiles or less, they will take the longer hallway.  But if the longer hallway is 126 tiles or more, they will opt for the trapped hallway.  To simplify the math, I'm assuming the paths start and end at the same spot.  But obviously, you have a huge fudge factor, so you don't even need to do the math since you'll usually have something like a 10 long trapped hallway and a 30 long safe hallway. 

[hops]

The spike traps are activated by manual labor (so I will keep the goblins out until the dwarves in the burrow are set towork) and the pressure plates only trigger on goblins. That's why that hallway is extra long and have more traps for ogres. I guesswhen things blow over I will take extra caution to lower down all the spikes so my dwarves can get the goblinite.

I'm working on the construction now and I made a tall stone structure bridge (walls, not real bridge) that can be closed by lever, and also have an extra chunk of walls above to cause cave-in just in case.

I think my security is a bit too much, but eh, I'm trying to conquer clowns first before intentionally handicapping myself. (Sneaking in is nigh-impossible too because I have 3 different chokepoints with 10 war dogs each (long story short: intentional dogsplosion)

I guess the goblins won't stand a chance. For the first siege, at least.