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Author Topic: Attacked by cheese man zombies  (Read 842 times)

Ekaton

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Attacked by cheese man zombies
« on: March 22, 2017, 04:31:52 am »

I was resently besieged by a group of cheese man zombies with a standard message suggesting that I should hide while I still can. I sealed my fortress for a couple of months and then sent my military to clear the land. They walked all around but didn't find any enemies, yet the siege would not end. What should I do?
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Amostubal

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Re: Attacked by cheese man zombies
« Reply #1 on: March 22, 2017, 09:03:56 am »

nothing.  its a common bug, the siege tag generally ends after a season or 2, no more than a year generally.  happens all the time with zombies and other sieges.  I try to not close off my base completely until they are very near, they don't move too fast anyway, and will wander in a direction to reach a dining room/meeting area.  if their is not a meeting area or dining room that can be pathed too, they hide and then never exit hiding (undead especially).  I think this is both a raw error and a vanilla DF issue.  I'm not very far into understanding creatures, but it seems that something about undead lets them hide, but something else about undead refuses to let them ambush...   so don't close up base without them close enough that they can't become hidden.  try to keep a tower central above any gate/entrance system with training warriors(I prefer melee warriors, archers piss me off).  if you lock the guards into the tower (hatch/door forbidden) and they can't climb over the wall (a roof over the room) and they can't get hit through a fortification (fortification outside, window inside that way they can see/ but not shoot or be shot) because if they do get shot at they can(which by murphy's law means they will) jump into the fortification to dodge then will go outside the fortification to reach the enemy.  The guards will be on alert that there are enemies right outside and the enemies wont be able to hide + the enemies will just meander right outside the gate waiting to get access to the guards they can see.

Similarly build an artifact item in range of the tower and watch as every titan/megabeast/dragon (+many siege units) sits there trying to destroy it while you build up your army inside.
I've actually built walls and a roof over one once, just had to maintain about 11 squares distance to keep from having whoever you send to build from canceling the job or charging the target.  afterwards used it as an archer training facility (it was a bronze titan).

its a pain.  Everyone has had it happen at least once.
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"...peering into the darkness behind the curtains, evokes visions of pixies being chased by dragons while eating cupcakes made of coral iced with liquid fire while their hearts burn out with unknown plant substances..." - a quote from the diaries of Amostubal

redivider

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Re: Attacked by cheese man zombies
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2017, 11:32:03 am »

Ive never actually encountered this "bug" it was ALWAYS either 1. An invader still somewhere, in a place hard to reach or 2. invader/s hidden for ambushes, usually in trees, the only way to bait those is to walk around the whole map (this is why tree embarks suck and glaciers are the way to go, among FPS issues) and hope you trigger their ambush. For me the tag always goes away if I actually do kill every single invader. I think thats the problem with most people, they bring up the creatures menu and since there are no more invaders on the list they insta-assume there actually is noone around and forget about hidden units with that assumption.

Or Im just a very lucky guy.
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Amostubal

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Re: Attacked by cheese man zombies
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2017, 04:32:59 pm »

yes if it was elfs, kobolds, any other thiefs, or any other race that likes to skulk around I can always find them ..... cut down all the trees.... or set fire to the outside embark... but I never find undead unless I cheat (chase em down through dfhack and force them to be unhidden), and then they appear right where my troops were looking for them at.  An ambush unit will trigger around 2 range jumping at the ambushed target.

I've also had a charging army that never hid, fell off a series of triggered bridges and all die, and the siege tag refused to drop.  I had an invasion appear beside a herd of giant elephants...  there was goblin bits everywhere. same situation... there is definitely a requirement for sieges to be killed by your own units.
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"...peering into the darkness behind the curtains, evokes visions of pixies being chased by dragons while eating cupcakes made of coral iced with liquid fire while their hearts burn out with unknown plant substances..." - a quote from the diaries of Amostubal