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[ledgekindred]

I've been doing a little !SCIENCE! with zombies.  I'm in an area that's partly evil and raises the dead.  My fort is mostly on the non-evil side, but I've dug a tunnel into the evil zone where I've been dumping corpses.  And live goblins.  To see how long it takes for them to reanimate.  Then I've been sending soldiers in to chop them up in an attempt to see under what conditions a zombie is finally considered "dead" and refuses to reanimate anymore.  (So far inconclusive.)

I also have a wereape skeleton.  Which I dumped into the arena along with all the (by now) zombie goblins.  I have yet to see if it will reanimate and then turn into a full-fledged wereape again at the next full moon.  I hope so, because that would be fantastic.

However, I also have a Roc skeleton.  After I determine whether or not skeletons can reanimate, I'm considering chucking the Roc skeleton down the pit into the reanimation center.  I'm assuming it will be able to fly and likely fly back up the pit into the main fortress.  I'm tempted to do it anyway even though it would almost certainly cause quite a bit of chaos.  Then again, what's not to like about a little chaos.

edit: My wereape skeleton has reanimated.  It is now an undead wereape skeleton.  Now, time to see if it completely heals when it turns back into a wereape!

[Kromgar]

Do you mean when the wereape turns back into a human? I dont think it will turn back into a human if its a skeleton

[Linkeron]

It's hard to say wereape without also saying 'where rape!'

[AWdeV]

I advise you to be thuper-careful with that there roc. Undead critters can still fly and it's still a friggin' roc. And as far as I know, things will keep on respawning untill they leave the evil lands.

[Loud Whispers]

Do you mean when the wereape turns back into a human? I dont think it will turn back into a human if its a skeleton

It does turn back (undead version though)

[cerevox]

From some forts I have run, I can assure you that zombies will keep getting back up. I had 4-5 zombies get stuck on top a 10 serrated disk trap. Every time they stood back up(every 5-15 days, average res time of about 8 days) they would immediately get sliced(it was crap blades so no actual cutting, it was all impact damage) back down. This went on for 2 years. Until body parts can be pulverized to goop I don't think it will be possible to finish off zombies without magmaing their corpse after they go down or using atom smashers.

Also, on the were critter, every full moon it will turn into a full were, no corpse anything, and attack the other zombies. The zombies can actually be infected with wereness so eventually all the zombie will be converted. They also do seem to heal from that, I actually had were-elephants and after the full moon I would have zombies with scars from healing. I wasn't watching too close so I don't know how fast they healed or at what point, but they were healing.

[Loud Whispers]

In my experience, you can kill zombies to the point where every time they res, they immediately fall back down and die. So yeah, the solution to killing zombies is killing zombies.

[Kromgar]

From some forts I have run, I can assure you that zombies will keep getting back up. I had 4-5 zombies get stuck on top a 10 serrated disk trap. Every time they stood back up(every 5-15 days, average res time of about 8 days) they would immediately get sliced(it was crap blades so no actual cutting, it was all impact damage) back down. This went on for 2 years. Until body parts can be pulverized to goop I don't think it will be possible to finish off zombies without magmaing their corpse after they go down or using atom smashers.

Also, on the were critter, every full moon it will turn into a full were, no corpse anything, and attack the other zombies. The zombies can actually be infected with wereness so eventually all the zombie will be converted. They also do seem to heal from that, I actually had were-elephants and after the full moon I would have zombies with scars from healing. I wasn't watching too close so I don't know how fast they healed or at what point, but they were healing.

Were elephants oh lord

[Nil Eyeglazed]

I want you to reanimate the roc.  I assume you have a good double-walled vacuum lock on your reanimation chamber?  So you should (hehe) be able to do it safely.

I just want to see about megabeasts, FBs, etc.  But I'm on a reanimating biome now myself, so if you don't find out, I'll just wait until I have a chance to test.  (Would be a hell of a lot easier if I could find a single tile of ore someplace....)

[Frogwarrior]

I think they heal from the transformation? That is, when they demorph, they demorph into a perfectly healed form.

[MarcAFK]

According to the raws biome specific reanimation takes a week, I modded mine to a month because it was a bit much for my starting 7 to deal with.
Even then it's still a handful when you're trying to dump the corpses and a single reanimated one will scare your haulers away, i also experimented with artificial floors over the evil terrain but i think the corpse still reanimated, next i'll try elevated artificial flooring and see if it makes a difference..

[TheLinguist]

Forgotten beasts can definitely be raised, IIRC. I've had at least one issue with those.

I don't think artificial flooring of ANY kind will help, either. It seems that the reanimation effect affects all z-levels, based on my experience. There might be a way around it, but I get the feeling that our options in the current version are magma, atom-smashing, or hauling the corpses to a non-evil area.

However, dumping the corpses in a pit is at least somewhat effective, possibly with the aid of a retracting drawbridge so your haulers don't get scared by what's already in the pit.

[MarcAFK]

My pits never work since they're not deep enough and the haulers get scared before droppig anything in the hole, a workaround might be to scare them when standing on a bridge, they drop the corpse on the bridge then i can open it to be dumped in the hole... or maybe dig the hole deep eough that everything inside is invisable? ... uh, ok i just realised how to do it, you put the bridge 1 level below the hole, so stuff will be dumped onto it, you pull the level to flush it down ....
Another solution might be wanted, what i need is a priest that can make consecrated ground that the dead won't rise in... I must do science to see if theres something dead won't respawn on...
EDIT: I suppose i could atomsmash em..

[Blizzlord]

In my experience, you can kill zombies to the point where every time they res, they immediately fall back down and die. So yeah, the solution to killing zombies is killing zombies.

What was it that killed them? Bleeding? Cus thats fixed.

[TheLinguist]

uh, ok i just realised how to do it, you put the bridge 1 level below the hole, so stuff will be dumped onto it, you pull the level to flush it down

Yup.

Level 1: retracting bridge (not raising, unless you're going for atom-smashing), and lever. Ideally with a door separating the two.
Level below that: hole.

Put corpse(s) on bridge, close and lock door, pull lever. When bridge retracts, pull lever again, in order to seal pit, and prepare for future dumping. If fliers come out of hole, station military outside of door before unlocking.