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[Iniqui]

I'm a light player and I've never had enough time to play out a fortress and abandon it for starting a new one before a new build of DF comes out.  I remember reading long ago that there used to be a way to ensure that your most interesting items are available for reclaim or adventuring dwarves by moving them to the trade depot.  That kind of sounds like an exploit (that may not even still work), but before I pass judgment on the idea, I'd like to hear what other folks consider as the most fun way to prep for fortress abandonment.  BTW, by 'fun', I don't mean killing all my dwarves... I mean fun with respect to reclaim / adventure.

thanks

[Martian]

You could try putting things you want your adventurer to get in lead bins. The heavier the bin the less distance it moves.

[Iniqui]

Thanks - that's good to know.  So it sounds like it might make sense to use up all steel and try to make a few masterwork pieces easy to find.

Anything else that could make second visits more interesting or are there any guides on the game mechanics for post fortress visits?  For example:
- Will my caged dragon be around or the artifact statues be subject to the same weight / distance rule?
- Do traps become dangerous?
- Will magma/water/cave-in mechanisms be available for reclaim / adventure action?

Asking so many questions because I don't get many chances to abandon a fortress and there's no going back.

[QuantumSawdust]

I heard that items only move on the same z plane that they originated on, so if you were to build a large tower or pit and throw the more interesting items in there, they should remain in the same place.
This was a few versions ago though, so it might not be the case anymore/ever

[BurnedToast]

Thanks - that's good to know.  So it sounds like it might make sense to use up all steel and try to make a few masterwork pieces easy to find.

Anything else that could make second visits more interesting or are there any guides on the game mechanics for post fortress visits?  For example:
- Will my caged dragon be around or the artifact statues be subject to the same weight / distance rule?
- Do traps become dangerous?
- Will magma/water/cave-in mechanisms be available for reclaim / adventure action?

Asking so many questions because I don't get many chances to abandon a fortress and there's no going back.

Animals in cages die when you abandon the fort, you will have a cage with a dead dragon in it. This is, as far as I know, unavoidable. Animals who are not caged will leave the map with the dwarves (I think). Constructed statues won't move at all, though AFAIK there is no way to desconstruct them in adventure mode (yet!).

Traps are off for adventure mode by default. You can turn them on in the init file, though it's not recommended- there is no way to search for them or disarm them, and your adventurer is no tougher then a goblin so chances are you will be slaughtered by the first one you land on. Cage traps will trap you and right now there is no way to get out of them at all so it messes the game up

Levers still work even with traps off, so yes your drawbridges and magma floodgates and rigged supports and so on should all work fine. I don't know for sure if pressure plates work with traps off or not, so you should test those before you make anything important that relies on them.

As for keeping stuff in the same place, as someone mentioned heavy bins (lead, platinum, so on) work. You can also stuff lots of heavy things in the bin, and that counts too. So even a wooden a bin full of steel armor should stay put if it has enough stuff in it. note that adamantine is very light, so you must be careful to weigh that down alot to get it to stay.

[LegacyCWAL]

Animals in cages die when you abandon the fort, you will have a cage with a dead dragon in it.

Erm...last time I visited an old fort with an adventurer, its caged dragon was running around and tried to eat me.

I don't know if the animals died spontaneously because the dragon had wounds that it didn't have when it was captured.  That's the only way my adventurer survived, in fact: the Dragon kept passing out as I was beating on it.

[Dakk]

One fun fun thing about reclaiming: Any berserked dwarves you left behind when you abandon fortress TEND to stay behind. I once came back to a experimental fortress and found my old berserked lumberjack still going batshit with that axe of his on the skeletal animals.
I don't know if this works for adventurer mode, but i'll try someday.

Also, every semi-megabeast/megabeast i find on adventurer mode tends to pass out when i arrive on the map and keeps doing so, even as i fight it. The only rare exception are cyclops.

[(name here)]

That's because they lost a limb at some point.

[MC Dirty]

- Do traps become dangerous?

Well, I'm working at a project to build fun stuff in Fortress Mode with Adventure mode in mind, i.e. traps, levers, loot and eyecatchers.
And it looks like traps don't work. Even with the init option at "ON". I feel like I have been had. Obviously, this init option is bugged, so traps are completely harmless in Adventure Mode.
Pressure plates have the same mechanics, so they don't work, either.

[LegacyCWAL]

Honest question: Have you tried taking a nap on a trap?

[Murphy]

Erm...last time I visited an old fort with an adventurer, its caged dragon was running around and tried to eat me.

Was the dragon untamed? I would suppose that tame animals die and others stay alive. Not sure about goblins and the like, gotta check that out myself.

[Xonara]

- Do traps become dangerous?

Well, I'm working at a project to build fun stuff in Fortress Mode with Adventure mode in mind, i.e. traps, levers, loot and eyecatchers.
And it looks like traps don't work. Even with the init option at "ON". I feel like I have been had. Obviously, this init option is bugged, so traps are completely harmless in Adventure Mode.
Pressure plates have the same mechanics, so they don't work, either.

I believe you're supposed to set it to "YES".

[Cheshire Cat]

yarrr, we set it to yes. normal traps are not ment to work because they can be far too deadly. think hitting a cage trap in the main hall of your fort in adventure mode. stupidly powerful. but nobody could seem to get even pressure plates to work, and they are ment to be fine. this means that all those things you can do with water and magma and timed mechanisms seem to be out.

also, tamed animals will either all die or dissapear. any named (EDIT: named and not tame) creatures in cages will stay. so capture things like crocodiles, GCS, batmen, goblin invaders, berserk dwarves and elves, and cage them all up and attach them to levers to add fun to your adventuring. levers and everything they attach to including cave in devices work fine. to get a wild animal to have a name, you need to feed a dwarf to it. once it has killed the dwaves will name it. you then need to recage it to make sure it stays. you can do this with carp in 4/7 water. which would make an awesome encounter.

remember the "I CANT HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF ME DRILLING HOLES IN ELVES!" thread. an adventurer can use anything as weapons. so get those adamantium ballista bolts and serrated discs for throwing purposes, its fun.

waterfalls are nice but tend to kill fps, which i find unbearable in adv mode. also, water pressure behind locked doors is allways fun. and you can knock out champion dwarves with cave in dust to trap them in cages so your adventurer can find and release them. its nice having champion hammerdwarves in full adamantium plate as friends.

and dont make things too fatal. its annoying just dying over and over. and remember dwarf armor does not fit humans or elves, and vice versa.

[Pilsu]

Tame animals die even when not in cages

That dragon probably wasn't tame so it got loose and started running about

[LegacyCWAL]

Yeah, my dragon was untamed.  But he didn't say only tamed ones died.