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[dwarf_reform]

RAAGH! So I get the brilliant idea to chain up this elf crossbow-zombie I caught during a siege as a kind of infinite ammo auto-turret, which is the only part that worked well out of this whole thing.. too well..

I want that zombie back in a cage! :| Here's the setup, resplendent with high-definition detailed hand-labelled schemata:


On the right is the bottom/ground floor, left image is one z-level up and above the nest box room. Pictured is the charming elfzomb on a gold chain with a bridge to the right that can be lowered so the zombie has visibility to fire downward and eastward over my fort entrances.. I realized very shortly after chaining him there (he shot the dwarf that chained him in the ass before he could dive back downstairs..) that he was going to be a disruptive force..

For a while he served as a pretty decent kea repellent, but I hadn't thought that he's on my 2nd z-level and was going to shoot at any life-form who dared try and build above the 2nd floor since that zombie room was roofless.. I've since broken down and made an obsidian roof using dfhack over the northern portion of the room so my construction can continue.. At first I tried making a single obsidian tile suspended in the air above the zombie's chain, hoping the block would fall and punch the chain through the floor, setting the zombie free, but the tile of obsidian also spawns with its own flooring/support and won't fall.. (dfhack needs a function for dropping projectiles! And for abusing extracts/blood/fluids/syndromes..)

For a second I hoped that maybe I'd constructed the chain on a tile that was created by the central walls in the nest box room below, so I could dismantle that wall on z-1 and destroy the floor on z-2, but its built on a dwarf-built floor tile I've even considered dfhack-dropping a tile of magma in there and burning him free, but there is quite a bit of raw wooden fort around that room (and around the whole complex) and I already had a tough time using dfhack-water to extinguish a forest fire..

Can I deconstruct or otherwise destroy the tile his chain is on from below, or use some secret dfhack trick I don't know about? I've already got cage traps set up to collect him no matter what direction he goes once set free, so that's handled.. I deconstructed the staircase that led up there so that invaders (or my own dwarves) couldn't climb up there and kill him once he started firing.. I just want him back alive (or as alive as a zomb can be..) so I can install him in a proper 3-z-level tall bridge-walled turret-box with a roof..

[pisskop]

You arent supposed to be able to chain zoms.  It a glitch that you could.  If you cant put him back into the cage then you could consider killing him outright.

To catch him again you have to get him over another cage trap.  Somebody has to release him and somebody.  You could try to deconstruct every tile around him to restrict his movement and ultimately get him to fall onto a cage trap, but . . .

[omega_dwarf]

Yeah, if you're good with killing the zombie, you can either collapse the entire room he's in, or you can set up a good ballista a while away. Except that might make the bolt fall, idk (does that only happen after it hits a wall/travels its maximum distance?)

Orrrr you could, you know, get a military. If you put someone in full iron/steel, even untrained, they'll probably hold their own. But you must have a crossbowdwarf you could armor and send to your third floor, right?

And it might not have been a glitch that he chained the zombie - do you have any vampires, necromancers, etc., among your population? (I might be wrong about that, but I see no reason why a vamp wouldn't be able to carry out the order.)

Ninja edit: Also, what stone are you using to make your fortress green? Is it green glass?

[khearn]

Ninja edit: Also, what stone are you using to make your fortress green? Is it green glass?

If this is 40.13, my bet is on vomit.

   Keith

[dwarf_reform]

Bahaha, its not vomit, or not all of it The rose gold floor around the glass statues outside is Vomit Park, where all the cave adapted pukers hang out Up north is the glass castle and the only vomit on it so far is the little bit the workers have chucked on it There are definitely a ton of puking dwarves around, though

But yeah, its 40.13 version and Sir Zombie was certainly in the list of chainable critters :> Also have a zombie melee-dwarf in a cage but he has other jobs.. Chainable zombies shouldn't be a bug, though! :|

Anyway, I do have a competent-to-legendary military I could wipe him out with, but.. he's my infinite-ammo turret Any dwarves I send to put it back in the cage either get shot at or flee in terror (most of my dwarves don't care much about terror, though, but they do hate silver bolts threatening their throats..) If I were a bit more wise I would have put him in a lever-activated cage up there and set him free/unchained, but in this new age of climbing I was worried he'd climb (or fall) down..

EDIT: No vamps here, just two were-hyenas (one "wild" one and one of my fort-dwarves that got bit..). I make them live together in their own walled off area..

[omega_dwarf]

Wait, how is it infinite ammo? And how did it come armed in the first place? I thought all zombies came without weapons. And if it's an elf who got misted, or raised by a necromancer...still shouldn't have infinite ammo, right?

[pisskop]

Wait, how is it infinite ammo? And how did it come armed in the first place? I thought all zombies came without weapons. And if it's an elf who got misted, or raised by a necromancer...still shouldn't have infinite ammo, right?

No, he'll take almost infinite bolts to the chest due to how zombies die in this version.  Hes a good target to shoot, until parts fly off (do bolts pulp parts?  Id imagine so, with luck/skill)

[omega_dwarf]

I didn't mean he'd take infinite hits; I meant, how does he [the elfzombie] have an infinite number of bolts to shoot? The original poster indicated that this elf was an "infinite-ammo turret."

[dwarf_reform]

He's been chained up there for quite a while now and he's always had a spare silver bolt to share with any and all passing birds.. I'm not sure its unlimited, but he hasn't ran out yet.. This zomb-elf showed up with 80+ of his friends led by a human necromancer who'd gathered human, elf, and dwarf zombies into his little army.. There were plenty of other crossbowzombs there too, armed with at least a crossbow and something to shoot out of it..

EDIT: I covered half the open zomb-roof with dfhacked obsidian and just noticed I did not build over the chain, so now I think I can sneak some builders up there and suspend a wall over the chain and drop it through the floor, hopefully destroying/dismantling the chain and freeing the zomb.. Problem here is the zomb is pretty froggy, almost always jumping around the 9 tiles he can reach, and he likes the center tile.. If he gets hammered with a falling wall he may not fare so well :| I guess a bit more savescumming will guarantee his freedom..

[omega_dwarf]

Oh, huh. Who knew? Maybe that's new behavior with 0.40? (Armed zombs, that is.) Or maybe I'm just derping.

Can you check his ammunition with v->i->scroll to quiver->enter/k/whatever it is?

But I'm all for bringing those asdfjalslaskgh keas to justice.

[dwarf_reform]

He's got himself a set of tattered clothing, a steel crossbow, and what appears to be an empty pig tail fiber quiver.. :O His steel crossbow says he's only ever killed a single kea, though..

By using dfhack walls I made and dropped a wall and set him free.. He can climb like a cat :| He went west, up the wall and onto the obsidian roof and instantly bashed a carpenter in the stomach, blowing the part into gore :> Turned away and climbed away along a 4 z-level tall wall like he's got floors beneath him everywhere he goes :|

Savescum-exited that run, and will revise the trap layout.. Didn't expect it to act like a cat :|

[Urist McVoyager]

Yeah, in .40.x they come armed and dangerous. I'm certain I've seen reports of people facing crossbow zombies in the past, and they are not pleasant things to face.

[Larix]

Can't your civs just walk right up to and past the chained zombie? I know that .34 civilians at least had no issue with chained human invaders in the middle of the meeting hall or chained wild creatures in their bedrooms.
If it doesn't spook your civilians, you could just build cage traps right next to the chain. As soon as a non-fort non-trapavoider gets on a trap, it triggers. I definitely got a wild creature re-caged like that and i think i also managed to do it with an undead in DF2012.