You could change these for something else like serrated blades traps. Those are pretty strong, although they can jam and when the dwarves release the trap it cuts them in two.
I'm surprised nobody else has quoted you already to point out that the bit in bold is complete bullshit. If weapon traps jam 50% of the time they're triggered, and unjamming them killed the mechanic that got them working again, they'd be even more useless than goddamn stone-fall traps (which used to be lethal but these days are so crap they rarely do much more than leave a few bruises)
The dark yellow spots are where dogs are chained, so that you can see those sneaking goblins and kobolds, which otherwise walk over your traps.
This line could also do with a bit of clarity - only the kobolds don't trigger traps. Ambushing goblins cannot be seen but my trap corridors can damn well testify that they will trigger traps (and in
some cases, like cage traps, one of the group triggering a trap will reveal that ambusher's whole squad...this won't be all of them - there could be several 8-goblin squads and each triggered trap only reveals one squad - but it's notification to you that ambushers are present without the use of chained animals)
Really though, having only traps and no military leaves you with less flexibility and ability to save dwarves outside of your fort, and it also reduces the chance of survival if something goes wrong. Even having a moderately trained squad with copper armor/weapons can make a huge diffrence.
...in your opinion. I very rarely have an active military force (though all adult dwarves are armed just to be on the safe side - they all have mining or woodcutting as an active labour and carry the appropriate tool for that task) and have no trouble with survival because I design my forts fairly meticulously and consider fortress defence to be a key priority in ANY fort I build. OK, anyone outside the walls is fairly screwed but then they probably would be even if you have a military because by the time your soldiers get there to try and save them they've often already been turned into a goblin archer's pincushion.
The weakness with these traps are that if you open the grates then the only pathable way in is though the red zone, which means they will take that way. This can be prevented with a bridge in the red zone which can be raised to create an instant wall, few monsters can destroy. Another flaw is if you somehow get a flying forgotten beast outside. It will fly over the grate holes, ignore all your traps (since it got trapavoid) and ignore the bridges falling on its head (some monsters are immune to it, probably to prevent abuse). Really though, if you are avoiding a military the only sure way of being safe is walling yourself in and thats just lame imo.
The weakness is not in the traps, but in crucial flaws within your design - you've designed that in such a way that you leave an untrapped path in even when the trapped way(s) is/are blocked for one reason or another. It's like booby-trapping your front door and windows while knowingly leaving the back door wide open and just hoping it won't be used.
There are NO creatures in the game that can destroy a raised drawbridge. None. Zero. A raised drawbridge is basically just a wall, end of story.
See that flying forgotten beast ignoring your traps? It's not ignoring the bridges falling on its head, it's destroying them. Yes, it's to prevent abuse (bridges were a cheap way of killing end-game nasties in the 2D version of DF years and years ago, so Toady made them and other big brutish creatures immune to bridge traps in the 3D version by having the bridges break if brought down on an immune creature or fail to activate if a creature standing on a bridge is too heavy). Flying forgotten beasts are rare enough that this isn't such a big deal but again it goes back to poor design on your part by not having anything in place to take care of flying enemies and particularly tough creatures like forgotten beasts. It does NOT mean that traps as a primary (or even sole) line of defence are bad.
With or without military, walling yourself in is the only way to 100% guarantee your dwarves' safety. Poor trap defence designs are about as effective as conscripted peasants - they might take down a goblin or two but the goblins will overcome their inherent weaknesses, whether that be by skill (i.e. being more adept at killing peasants, being able to dodge traps) or simply by sheer volume of numbers. Good trap defence can leave you perfectly free to never use a military and still be fairly assured of your dwarves' safety, and I absolutely mean that (it's how I've run 99% of my forts over the past five years). It
might fail, but then your squads of legendary soldiers with the best-quality weapons and armour you could give them could also fail.
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Topic: Fortress Defense? (Read 3594 times)