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[kaypy]

Ok, Ive got my GCS in a nice enclosed area, now how do I make it gimme the good stuff?

Having a recruit blow raspberries through the fortifications doesn't seem to work. Any other ideas? Has anyone had much experience with critters long range attacks and how to trigger em?

---

quote:
I want to build a fortress that produces silk clothes from a (tamed) GCS. [...] Is there any advice for easier finding one?
—barak177
My advice would be to give up now and check yourself into a padded room.
—McDoomhammer

[Goblin Dragoon 085]

The GCS needs a path to its target, or else it wont attack.

Pressure plate+bridges can allow you to create an automated system.
But whatever you do, make sure that you have a few cagetraps to prevent an escape.

WHat you can do:
Bridge over a channel allows GCS to attack dwarves.
To cross the bridge it has to pass a pressure plate, that triggers the bridge resulting the GCS to fall down into the channel. In order to be able to collect the webs, create a second access with lots of trap falls behind it. Open the 2nd access when there are enough webs.
Works very well, once you figured out the timing.

[Kagus]

Giant cave spiders will only shoot webs if they can walk to the target they're after.  There are two ways of accomplishing this that I can think of:

1) Tame it, and then drop goblins and other wild animals into its reach.  Send a dwarven cleanup crew in afterwards.

2) Make a very long hallway that wraps around and connects to the area around the spider's fortification den.  Send in a couple targets, open the hallway (note: GCS's are building destroyers.  Use bridges or drawbridges to restrict access) and then quickly close it again.  If all goes well, the spider should shoot webbing through the fortification, take a few steps down the hall, and then stop (once you've closed it off again).

However, it may very well decide to not shoot webbing until it's got a clear shot at whatever it's webbing up.

[Duke 2.0]

Or you could make a deathpit/arena/spider silk collection area.

First, a maze with channels for walls. Release the GCS somewhere in the center, and then release something to be killed. Entertaining AND practical. Then to collect the webbings, have a bridge open up a path to a restrained bait animal, with a cadge trap the only way to reach it.

It's all about utility.

[Sevrun]

So where do I get the spider?

[C0nscript]

The deep depths of hell itself

[Duke 2.0]

quote:Originally posted by C0nscript:
<STRONG>The deep depths of hell itself</STRONG>

Sometimes they crawl out via chasms to gather dwarf bodies to feed their young, ensuring they they will never be able to be tamed. It is said they prefer babies and elderly not because they are weaker, but because it is more cruel.

But yes, some chasms have 'em. They start out hidden, so the only way to find them is to stumble upon them. This means death for the discoverer.
Make sure you line the entrance to the chasm with cadge traps.

[Sevrun]

Never felt ballsy enough to stick my nose into a chasm if I knew where it was... course, goblin ambushes still make me edgy.  (has had bad experiences)

[kaypy]

quote:Never felt ballsy enough to stick my nose into a chasm if I knew where it was...

I would normally leave things alone, but my fortress this time is a 'gear up and go for the HFS' theme, so I figure catching a GCS is a good warm up 8-)

Its pretty safely isolated- to get to my fort proper it would need to kill a chained dog (giving a warning message), then go through 3 screens of tunnels before I got the drawbridge at the other end raised. Anyone in the actual chasm area might be toast, but thats what disposable peasants are *for*.

Hmm. Several comments here refer to cage traps. I thought native critters were immune? And taming it is out of the question- it has already feasted upon explorer-dwarf*

I hadnt noticed the buildingdestroyer tag. Lets see if I can get a wall built before everything goes pearshaped down there 8-)
"Failed military trainee #2, report for duty!"

--

* read 'expendable brain damaged failed military trainee'

[kaypy]

OK, Koganrimtar, FMT#2, has constructed an emergency barricade. But he wasnt particularly quick about it.

It seems that as a building destroyer, Absamginet, GCS, is rather ineffectual. He is still sitting next to a locked -Chert door- without showing any signs of getting through it. But then, for about half the time it took Koganrimtar to get there, he was at the other end of the room, so maybe he's just insufficiently interested...

OK, time to make Koganrimtar try some of these suggestions.

[BurnedToast]

toady fixed the bug where resident creatures were immune to traps a while back I think.

anyway, GCS like all building destroyers will only destroy a building if they have a path. to destroy doors they must have a path through it. Unlocked doors will be smashed, locked doors will not unless there is an alternate path they can take, if the locked door is a shorter path they will smash it to get through - so if you have only one entrance and lock the doors the creature can't find a path and won't try to smash the doors, making it rather easy to keep things out.

[kaypy]

Ok, some progress:

The 'long passage' approach doesnt seem to work. The spider just lurks around without doing anything.

Spider;cage trap;dog-onna-rope works but is kinda fiddly.