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[Moogie]

My dwarves are requiring spare unbuilt cages in order to release goblin captives from built cages. I am considering this a bug because:

* A free cage should not be needed to let already-caged captives out to their freedom,
* The goblins fail to be freed even when a dwarf is allowed to haul an empty cage over to them.

To illustrate that second point:



When I deconstructed an (empty) built cage, a dwarf came along and hauled it to the stockpile. A few seconds later, another dwarf appeared, picked up the empty cage, and then went to release my goblin captives whilst hauling the cage.




When he got there, however, he immediately cancelled his job and carried the cage back to the stockpile. The announcement came again that "Nil cancels releasing large creature: Needs empty cage."

[Quietust]

Goblins are hostile creatures - your dwarves would be fools to simply let them out of their cages, so they instead find an empty cage to transfer them into. If you want to actually let them out so they can try to escape, you'll need to hook it up to a lever.

I'm fairly certain this is 100% intended behavior.

[qoonpooka]

Does lever-linking to a cage simply open the cage?  Or does it deconstruct the cage and let whatever is inside out?  The latter will generate a job to haul the empty cage and require extra precautions.

If it doesn't deconstruct the cage: is it possible to assign goblins from cage-to-cage by Qing the built, linked cage in your arena?

[assimilateur]

Does lever-linking to a cage simply open the cage?  Or does it deconstruct the cage and let whatever is inside out?

It's the latter, which is a pain in the ass as it means you need the rebuild the cage and link a lever to that cage every time you want to "open" it. As for precautions, I'd recommend just placing the cage outside and then linking, and subsequently "opening" it. This should release the goblin far enough from your dwarves so he's not a threat anymore. Other than that, you might want to try forbidding the cage after it has been placed and linked. That shouldn't change the functionality of the linked lever, but keep your dwarves from retrieving the cage as soon as it has been deconstructed, and while the goblin might potentially be still in range.

[qoonpooka]

Or use floodgates to 'seal' the arena...

[numerobis]

You can also designate a pit and tell your dwarves to drag a goblin there.

[Niveras]

Does lever-linking to a cage simply open the cage?  Or does it deconstruct the cage and let whatever is inside out?

It's the latter, which is a pain in the ass as it means you need the rebuild the cage and link a lever to that cage every time you want to "open" it.

It also slowly consumes your mechanisms because, while the built cage deconstructs into the cage furniture and a mechanism, the lever still has its mechanism that originally linked to the cage inside it. You have to periodically deconstruct the lever as well in order to free the mechanisms.

It is probably intended at some point that levers linked to cages become repeatable, much like how every other object you can link to levers don't deconstruct when you first use them. I am not certain where to look for it among the development tasks, though.

[Ankheg]

If you want to release the goblins without losing any cages, I've had good success by waiting for a caravan, then marking the goblin cages for trade.  The dwarves will try to bring the cage on its own to the depot, and get interrupted by a suddenly free goblin.