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[Pumble]

Hey guys.

I am looking for some advice on a matter. I have safely disarmed captured goblins in cages, but I've encountered another threat. Sometimes, roughly 25% of the time, when the goblin is pulled from the cage to dump them into a deep pit I built to kill them, the goblin starts attacking the dorf dragging them. I've taken to having a unit of warriors stationed near the cages, but the goblin still tries his luck and often badly injuries the dragging dorf, even if he only gets a few hits in.

Anyone have any suggestions how to safely move a goblin/elf/human from there cage, toss them down the pit, and do it without getting attacked?

[trib]

Put the cages right next to the pit so that the dwarves don't need to do dragging and will just straight up toss them in.

Alternatively, make a retracting bridge ontop of the pit, put your caged prisoners around the bridge and connect them to a lever. Then just pull the lever to release them and then open the bridge, most should fall down, but you may need to cycle it a couple of times as they tend to get stuck on the cage edge.

This is how it should look like

W=Wall
C=Cage
B=Bridge

WWWWW
WCCCCCW
WCBBBCW
WCBBBCW
WCBBBCW
WCCCCCW
WWWWW

[Pumble]

I'll try that for sure, sounds clever.

[trib]

I'll try that for sure, sounds clever.

You can even make it multiple stories tall if you want more cages to be set, just remember to set the bridges to the same lever so that they'll all activate at the same time. Also, Kruggsmash discovered when he did this in Futurelanters that it's much faster to built multiple levers and then connect those to the cages as if you have a ton of cages then you'll fill up the queue on a single lever quickly, but you can queue all of them to be linked up on multiple levers at the same time.

[Vodrilus]

A surefire way used to be to construct the cage on top of a constructed wall, link the cage to a lever and then remove the underlying wall. After pulling the lever, the subject should fall directly down. The cage may require some floor or wall next to it, but I can't recall the details right now.

Here's a diagram as a suggestion:

Code: [Select]

__+c#
__+X#
  # #
  # #
  # #
.....


_ floor
c cage
X removed wall
+ door
# wall


[Merlota]

Minecarts!

Load the filled cage into a minecart and fling it at a fortification.  I line of 10 impulse ramps into a straight track into a missing floor into a fortification will fling the cage out of the cart.  Leave a 1 tile space and have a second fortification to remove things from cages.  Contents and cages fall into the pit.  Minecart falls into the missing floor in front of the first fortification which can be the start of a second track to reset things.

  I use this to burn prisoners and clothing leaving the goblinite behind.

[Dunamisdeos]

Gonna put an angry bear in my minecart-goblin-flinging pit.

Two bears.

[gchristopher]

Minecarts!

Load the filled cage into a minecart and fling it at a fortification.  I line of 10 impulse ramps into a straight track into a missing floor into a fortification will fling the cage out of the cart.  Leave a 1 tile space and have a second fortification to remove things from cages.  Contents and cages fall into the pit.  Minecart falls into the missing floor in front of the first fortification which can be the start of a second track to reset things.

  I use this to burn prisoners and clothing leaving the goblinite behind.

This really the only ethical approach. The same idea works if the minecart is traveling upwards on a ramp; the ejected cage will fly upward at a roughly 45 degree angle, and the prisoner will similarly fly in a parabolic arc. Unfortunately, dwarven psychology has not advanced to the point where they can get positive thoughts from watching prisoners crash into a wall high above and rain down in a shower of body parts. Fingers crossed for a future release, though!

[Sarmatian123]

1. Build the mass pit underground. (no bird scares)
2. Use mass pit design from wiki with no deviations: dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Mass_pitting#Building (no construction fails)
3. Clean mass pit's area. No blood. No pools. No dirt. Construct/deconstruct floor over mud, or just smooth rough rock with mud on. (no slippery floor)
4. Right before using mass pit check for any blinking animals. Re-pasture or re-chain blinking ones. (no pathing bugs)

There is a pathing bug alike the one in point 4, which happens upon invasion arrival, on map's edge. I dunno what causes it and how to solve it, but it is very very rare. So long you took those listed above precautions, your attempt at mass pitting prisoners should work now, 99% of the time. You still should make save before pitting. In case you missed some blinking animal still stuck somewhere on map.

To make things easy with the blinking animals bug, you could consider livestock husbandry on surface under roof and walled off and thief sniffing animals located deeper in entrances. If same bug happens with dwarves, then I have no clue what to do with dwarves... Draft them, station them and release back to civilian life, maybe?

[nuget102]

Expanding on the bridge cage dump method, why not put the bridge between the entrance to your fort and the cages? Would be much easier so like this

Code: [Select]

WWW
WCW
WBW
WBW
WBW
WDW

W=Wall
C=Cage
B=Bridge
D=Door to fort
Most if not all creatures (especially Goblins) Will try to path to your fort and you just pull the lever, dropping them into your pit or whatever. You can make the bridge as long and wide as you need it to be, and you could replace the door with a draw bridge in case you have anything that is particularly scary. (like clowns.)

[Oafsalot]

I just line up 40 or so cages in a room, seal the entry and throw a lever to release everyone. Then my marksdwarves shoot them from a gallery. Pay attention to remove all their weapons, as some times they will climb up to your fortifications and shoot in.

[Atarlost]

If your goal is falling goblins you can also make them path over a narrow catwalk or ledge with a large number of weapon traps each with single training weapons. 

[Libash_Thunderhead]

I just dig holes in the ceiling of the barracks. Throw them down to feed those hungry soldiers.