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[OcelotTango]

I understand why ambushes are in the game, and they do add to the game play early in the game. But when you get entire sieges that also happen to be ninja's it gets a bit old. It would be nice if there were a way to spot them from a distance, or if a certain amount of enemies were expected, they wouldn't come in ambush format.
If the little bastards want spy glasses just so they can see an army marching up the barren mountain side to their guard towers made entirely of windows, that's fine with me. I just want to be able to plan for 50 goblins, rather than learn all at once just how much trouble I'm in.

[Cotes]

To my understanding you spot ambushes simply by having a dwarf see them. In other words, stop complaining and make guard posts. Even chaining watch dogs further away from your entrance should work.

[cephalo]

I always make 'puppy forts' like so:

Code: [Select]

. . . . w . . . .
. . . w ^ w . . .
. . w w ^ w w . .
. w ^ ^ d ^ ^ w .
. . w w ^ w w . .
. . . w ^ w . . .
. . . . w . . . .

^ = weapon trap(try to use bronze weapons at least, iron less effective)
w = wall
d = puppy on a chain

The puppy is protected from ranged attacks and when the goblin path to him, they usually end up leaving the map afterwords. Sometimes the puppy even survives.

[OcelotTango]

That does totally work, but it still does not make any sense that a dwarf cant an army of goblins that are standing in plain sight.

[thijser]

There is a bigger problem ambushes cause a lot of lag. It might be a good idea to make an init option to stop hidden units.

[NW_Kohaku]

There is a bigger problem ambushes cause a lot of lag. It might be a good idea to make an init option to stop hidden units.

You could simply raw-edit out ambushing entirely.  There's only three races that do it, after all, so it's hardly more work than an init change.

[Lord Darkstar]

Puppy? PUPPY? PUPPY?!?!? cephalo, you cruel monster! Wasting good puppies like that! You should use male kittens or cats instead. Puppies grow up to be war dogs and hunting dogs. Very useful creatures. Or dinner. Much more meat on them than cats. Cats are really only good for skulls and kitten leather gloves...

[cephalo]

Puppy? PUPPY? PUPPY?!?!? cephalo, you cruel monster! Wasting good puppies like that! You should use male kittens or cats instead. Puppies grow up to be war dogs and hunting dogs. Very useful creatures. Or dinner. Much more meat on them than cats. Cats are really only good for skulls and kitten leather gloves...

This game has hardened me. I no longer have feelings.

[Hyndis]

You can use dwarves as your early warning system. Create a burrow that covers the entire surface. Assign dwarves you don't like to that burrow. They will helpfully detect any ambushes for you!

If you're feeling generous you can give them armor, weapons, and military training so they can play soldier. Get enough of them defending the surface burrow (like, 30-40 dwarves up there at all times) and ambushes or sieges will be mopped up easily.

[cephalo]

You can use dwarves as your early warning system. Create a burrow that covers the entire surface. Assign dwarves you don't like to that burrow. They will helpfully detect any ambushes for you!

If you're feeling generous you can give them armor, weapons, and military training so they can play soldier. Get enough of them defending the surface burrow (like, 30-40 dwarves up there at all times) and ambushes or sieges will be mopped up easily.

Will this cause them to actually chase distant enemies?

[Hyndis]

Yes, that is how defend burrow works. If there is anything hostile within the burrow, be it a wild troll, goblins, kobolds, or Urist McBerserk, the on duty dwarves will rush over there to start stabbing things.

There is no limit to how large you can make a burrow. You can make a single gigantic burrow that covers the entire map, assign a large number of soldiers to the burrow, and your dwarves will automatically defend your entire fortress from all threats.

The larger the burrow the more dwarves you need to cover all of that ground of course, since when there is no threat they will randomly wander around the burrow.

[Silverionmox]

One problem with ambushes is that dwarves don't reliably run inside after activating an alert.

[Hyndis]

You probably don't want your civilians hanging out around the edge of the map to begin with.

[kilakan]

I just mass produce ropes, and put a puppy/kitten every 20 squares or so all the way along all the edges, and surround them by cage traps, that way wildlife gets caught, and all ambushes get spotted (course you need alot of animals, but after 1-2 years if you took enough females at the start, you probbly have enough.)