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[premetheas]

After losing the third caravan when it arrives at nearly virtually the same time as a goblin siege. And after looking up some info on how others protect them. will it be possible for me to manipulate where the caravan spawns by "Switching" which side of a river my only usable entrance is on when they spawn and then hopefully switching before gobbos arrive.  or am I going to have to use the raised bridges on the edge of the map trick. 

to explain further I already have one entrance into my fort heavily guarded,  and the other side of the river is still unreachable. I hope that by building a second heavily guarded entrance on the other side of the river and using just two or four raising bridges alter which area of the map (split by the river) can access my fortress. 

My questions are will the gobbos only spawn on edges of the map that can reach me?  Can trolls destroy a lowered bridge to get to any covered entrances or raised bridge if they are used like a wall? If I make the other side of the river the only side that has access to trade depot but keep it closed off to my fort will the trade caravan still spawn there even if they know that no dwarf has access to it until i lower a bridge?  How exactly would I go about sealing off part of the edge of the map as to have it isolated from the map enough that sieges can't spawn there? What happens to a siege if it should arrive first and I switch sides before it gets to me and so that I know when the caravan does come it will be safe coming in on the other side?

Also if there is any other way at all I can get the trade caravan to enter my map in a controlled and safe fashion?.  Or maybe a better way to handle sieges? And any other edge of the map tricks I should know about? Or changes since 3.12 regarding this I should know?

[Sphalerite]

When the game decides to send a caravan, it first checks if there is any three tile wide path from your trade depot to any spot on the map edge.  If there is, the caravan will appear on a randomly chosen spot that can reach your trade depot by a 3 tile wide path.  If there is not, the caravan will appear on any random open map edge tile.

Sometimes which edges a caravan can appear on is restricted by surrounding geography.  This appears to be fixed and unchangeable during fortress mode, such as by building a bridge across a river.

Seiges will appear on any random open map edge, regardless of whether that map edge spot can reach anything.  The same is also true for diplomats and immigrants.

On some of my fortresses I manipulate edge effects to keep traders safe from sieges.  I dig a 3 tile wide tunnel from my underground trade depot to near the map edge.  I then dig a ramp up to the surface, and pave a 3 tile wide road from that opening to the map edge.  I then use walls and raising drawbridges to seal this 3 tile wide path to the edge off from the entire rest of the map.  Traders will only appear on those 3 tiles.  Sieges, ambushers, and thieves appear randomly at any map edge point, and only very rarely appear on the 3 tiles that can reach my fortress.

[Sarudak]

I tried this (restricting the three tile path to one point on the map edge and it didn't seem to work. Is this in the new version?

[NecroRebel]

I tried this (restricting the three tile path to one point on the map edge and it didn't seem to work. Is this in the new version?

Sometimes the caravans need to come from one and only one edge of the map. Also, did you make sure that you had a 3-wide space all the way to the map, where the (D)epot route map showed a clear route to the outside with one and only one square accessible? I know for a fact that the method works in 31.18, as I did it in my last fort.

[Sarudak]

Scratch that there was a boulder on my route