Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Magma Crab out of nowhere?  (Read 630 times)

falcn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Magma Crab out of nowhere?
« on: June 28, 2014, 06:40:01 am »
Magma Crab appeared out of thin air (it seems) and killed a child in the corner of abandoned mining site. That level was 100% revealed through exploratory mining, and everything usable was dug out decades ago.

Yes, I already discovered magma, but it is 100+ levels below the crime scene, and it is UNOPENED. The magma sea itself is not revealed, just a few warm stones. The route to magma is a 1-tile-width corridor/stairs, and there are dwarves moving up and down/working on all levels - and nobody have seen the damn crab? Impossible.

I checked and double-checked - my fort is sealed.

Here is the crime scene, level 119


Here is the magma, level 14


Damn, I need a good explanation for this.
Logged

falcn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Magma Crab out of nowhere?
« Reply #1 on: June 28, 2014, 07:14:33 am »
Battle log:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The first line leads to level 107, which has nothing special on it, just a corridor and stairs (I dig it to avoid cavern and go deeper)

All other lines are on level 119, where he was eventually struck down.

Questions:
Quote
Tekkud Lesastonul, Dwarven Child cancels Drink: Interrupted by Magma Crab.
What was he drinking 40 levels below the dining room when crab interrupted him? There was no flask or barrel on the body.

Why he attacked the crab first instead of running away?

Quote
The Dwarven Child punches The Magma Crab in the right wing with her right hand and the severed part sails off in an arc!
Dodok Bimthedak, Dwarven Child cancels Drink: Interrupted by Magma Crab.
He was really eager to finish that drink, isn't he?
Logged

Larix

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Magma Crab out of nowhere?
« Reply #2 on: June 28, 2014, 07:42:45 am »
The interruptions and battle log suggest the crab originally was on a main staircase or in some narrow passage. Especially when dwarfs and wild creatures try to path through each other and collide, you'll see random civilians attacking critters - it's their reaction to being immediately adjacent to an unfriendly unit (non-hostile animals may also lash out at dwarfs that get too close - "attacked by a giant kea" and the like is typically the result of flyers pathing too close to a dwarf on the ground and striking at them because they feel disturbed). The crab and child were practically on top of each other when they noticed one another.

Was the magma really untouched? Could you build magma workshops? A staircase touching the magma sea is already enough for a magma crab to get through.

Jobs are declared the moment they're taken - a dwarf on the way to the drink stockpile will already show "drink" as the job; there's nothing peculiar about the cancellation notices.

You realise the two drink cancellations were from two _different_ dwarven children?
Logged

falcn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Magma Crab out of nowhere?
« Reply #3 on: June 28, 2014, 09:01:56 am »
Quote from: Larix on June 28, 2014, 07:42:45 am
The interruptions and battle log suggest the crab originally was on a main staircase or in some narrow passage. Especially when dwarfs and wild creatures try to path through each other and collide, you'll see random civilians attacking critters - it's their reaction to being immediately adjacent to an unfriendly unit (non-hostile animals may also lash out at dwarfs that get too close - "attacked by a giant kea" and the like is typically the result of flyers pathing too close to a dwarf on the ground and striking at them because they feel disturbed). The crab and child were practically on top of each other when they noticed one another.

Thanks for your explanation.

Quote from: Larix on June 28, 2014, 07:42:45 am
You realise the two drink cancellations were from two _different_ dwarven children?
Oops, missed that.

Quote
Jobs are declared the moment they're taken - a dwarf on the way to the drink stockpile will already show "drink" as the job; there's nothing peculiar about the cancellation notices.
Thanks, somehow it slipped my mind.

Quote
Was the magma really untouched? Could you build magma workshops? A staircase touching the magma sea is already enough for a magma crab to get through.
The stairs are the main suspect indeed.
It's the curious case though:



Clippings show how stairs look on "z" and "z-1" with and without warm stone highlighting. Stairs as they are do not reveal magma sea.

Channeling any of the 2 staircases immediately reveals magma sea.
I savescummed and alternated channeling spot to make sure that both staircases are indeed sit in the solid gabbro blocks under the floor. They do.

(Interestingly, the magma below staircase is 4 z-levels below compared to normal magma being 1 z-level below, and the level doesn't change over time )
« Last Edit: June 28, 2014, 09:03:29 am by falcn »
Logged

falcn

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Magma Crab out of nowhere?
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2014, 09:10:49 am »
Btw if the magma sea was not revealed (it was not), the code probably doesn't generate magma creatures at all. I did not even once used dfhack "reveal" and it's derivatives.
Logged