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Author Topic: I need a mechanical trap design  (Read 720 times)

weenog

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I need a mechanical trap design
« on: July 30, 2013, 10:57:06 am »

I'm playing my first evil biome embark.  Well, it's not so much Embark as Reclaim #3 right now.  I have automatic reanimation, husking clouds, and a necromancer tower as a neighbor.  I have 4 dwarfs alive inside the sealed fortress right now, and I am up to my ass in undead.  I want to reestablish contact with the surface, without another wipe-out.

I'd like to create a lever-activated trap that remotely forces invaders into an atom smasher for permanent destruction.  I'm thinking it will be some kind of flush trap, but I have no experience making those.  Complicating matters, I have no aquifer, and caverns 1 and 3 have no water (haven't found cavern 2 yet), so I'll need to use minimal water collected carefully from murky pools, and be able to drain and recycle that water to reload.  I have found magma, but with only 4 functional dwarfs I dare not risk substituting that as my flushing fluid.

People who know how to handle this kind of thing, hook me up with design plans, please?
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Bandreus

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2013, 11:09:22 am »

If you want an effective and easy to set-up atom-smasher trap, just make your usual long corridor lead into the inner fort, and line it up with drawbridges: connect all of those to a lever and BAM, anything standing in the corridor gets smashed into nothingness at your command. (well, not actually everything, as a few things can't be disposed of via atom-smashing).
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Crashmaster

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2013, 12:51:17 pm »

Bridges can be built over constructed impulse-bug track ramps.

entrance hall has multiple trenches across it, each trench contains a linear minecart accelerator that uses impulse ramp lifts to return the cart back over the top of the entrance hall. At the end of each accelerator build small atom smashers.

Merendel

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2013, 02:51:17 pm »

I generaly find you dont need a complicated flushing system to draw enemies into an atom smashing trap.  Try this instead.  Build a standard Zig zag trap coridor with each leg 9 tiles long and 1 wide.  you can add as many legs as you wish but I recomend 3 for safetly (just in case you get something really really fast and lucky).   Cut back 1 extra tile on each leg and ancor a raising drawbridge in that extra tile.  If done correctly you should end up with a zig zag coridor that is passable when the bridges are both up or down with only 1 safe tile free from being atom smashed between each leg.  Once done hook it up to the repeater of choice and the bridges should open and close while everything tries to path through there geting crushed in the proccess.

I however wouldnt recomend leaving this type of coridor open to the outside all the time as your dwarfs will happliy path through the deathtrap to retrieve a migrants sock.  Bait animals pited in from above are ideal but you could also rig up a pit with a hatchcover linked to a preasure plate to block pathing if a dwarf trys to get out that way.   also have a way to seal it in a hurry if something not atomsmashable shows up.
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Crashmaster

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2013, 09:41:39 pm »

Since straight atom-smasher bridges are too fast/easy and water-flushing too complicated here's

The Linear Compacter;

Basically a minecart grinder variant that sort of mechanically flushes invaders into atom smashers where they are pummeled to death. Corpses are smashed. Wagon passable.

Everything red is constructed track ramps. The hatches are all operated by one lever and the minecarts sit on them while idle. The atom-smasher bridges (not illustrated) are built in the 6 unused empty tiles on z-1 and cover the 6 NS track ramps to their left/west where minecart collisions sweep the victims for disposal. Bridges up for operation. Minecart hatches closed when atom smashing. Don't cross the beams and it shouldn't jam - I think. It self re-started each cell after being jammed with unconscious War Elephants as they came to.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

test
http://youtu.be/DEJKF6NodO4

A few fast ones make it through, it kills armored legendary axedwarves just fine and everything dead from this run except for that one tooth ended on the atom smasher tiles. Not too complex, simple materials, 4 dwarves could make one twice as long as this in less then a year.

Stack-able, can be made more powerful with a longer accelerator on z-1 (but probably more messy so the esthetics and foot-print of this design win out)

War Elephants (size: 5,000,000) were too big to knock-back into the atom smashers with a silver minecart accelerated by the 6 or so impulse ramps used here but 80% killed or crippled first pass through.

WanderingKid

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2013, 10:27:19 pm »

Brutal, Crashmaster.  Deliciously brutal.

So they end up going down onto Z-1 as they path in, get shoved into the smasher, and squish.  Nice.  Why do you use the Z+1 part?  What's that for?

Crashmaster

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #6 on: July 31, 2013, 01:44:40 am »

Thanks, an afterrnoon well spent.

Each minecart spins around in a vertical loop so that it hits the invaders from the same side each time so they are always knocked towards the atom smasher's tile. Z+1 is the return path back over the top. The loop directions are staggered to keep it more compact.

WanderingKid

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2013, 03:43:11 am »

Oh, Nice!  Definately compact.  I'll have to try that out at some point.

WhimsyWink

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2013, 08:39:46 am »

...
War Elephants (size: 5,000,000) were too big to knock-back into the atom smashers with a silver minecart accelerated by the 6 or so impulse ramps used here but 80% killed or crippled first pass through.

I love a good design but this is way over my head yet ... my question is: is it possible to use loaded carts?  Is the game designed to make that significant?
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Bandreus

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2013, 09:12:54 am »

The game is not designed to make it significant, but rather to make it murderous. Remember: in the end, everything is the way it is to please Armok.

Just 2 designs which were among google results. Plenty more can be found in the forums.

Dwarven Auto-Shotgun
Fully Automated Watergun
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Check out Enôrbomrek: Bluewhips a community fort and story by me.
Clearly, our top dwarven scientists are hard at work creating a new breed of SUPER WAGON that can survive being scuttled by enemy wagonmancers! These new super wagon troopers will be able to carry TWICE the cargo, be 1/3 the size, and NEVER scuttle!

weenog

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2013, 11:14:56 am »

That minecart design looks pretty excellent.  I'll need to study up on minecart physics to see if I can reshape it at all without screwing it up, rather than just copying it by rote.

Out of curiosity, can minecarts be made out of platinum?  I seem to have a little of that in the walls (as well as silver, copper, tin, iron... sadly no flux).
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Listen up: making a thing a ‼thing‼ doesn't make it more awesome or extreme.  It simply indicates the thing is on fire.  Get it right or look like a silly poser.

It's useful to keep a ‼torch‼ handy.

AutomataKittay

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #11 on: July 31, 2013, 12:44:15 pm »

That minecart design looks pretty excellent.  I'll need to study up on minecart physics to see if I can reshape it at all without screwing it up, rather than just copying it by rote.

Out of curiosity, can minecarts be made out of platinum?  I seem to have a little of that in the walls (as well as silver, copper, tin, iron... sadly no flux).

Yes you can, it and wheelbarrow can be made out of any craftable metal, at least I'm seeing capacity to make gold and lead ones in manager's job list. I think it might be metalsmith job, haven't made a metal one yet, though.

Heavier stuff would probably hurt more, so good thinking! No idea how it'd affect dwarves' hauling capacity if have too much lead, though, I've only made wooden ones so far.
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WanderingKid

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Re: I need a mechanical trap design
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2013, 12:59:41 pm »

Minecart weight comes into play when they're dragging it overland, not when it's tracked, as far as haulers go.  Platinum can definately be used to build minecarts, and is incredibly dangerous to any poor sap in front of them.