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Author Topic: Vampire hunting  (Read 12422 times)

Mimodo

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Vampire hunting
« on: June 26, 2012, 06:53:40 am »

Edit: Found a solid suspect. Only thoughts are caught in the rain, and satisfied at work. Hasn't claimed a bedroom, and no complaints about not having one... The question is what to do with him (her?)


So, I just found one of my archers completely drained of blood, after being missing for over a week. Guess someone's been on the prowl.

So, short of stabbing a stake through the heart of every dwarf I have, or trying any other archaic methods of vampire eradication, how do I find this bastard who decides to start murdering my dwarves. My world is really young (25 years), and I've got about 60 dwarfs.

Once I find him, what suggestions do you have for dealing with this blood sucking undead dwarf? Do I devise some painful death for him, or do i lock him away and make him work like a slave? Do I draft him into the military, and force him to train to legendary status in all aspects.

I've got 9 children and babies, is it possible any of them would go sucking blood?

Thanks, and until a reply, I'll keep a good eye on my sleeping area
« Last Edit: June 26, 2012, 07:42:29 am by Mimodo »
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Mimodo

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2012, 07:22:44 am »

Ok, I may have found the culprit... How long do dwarves naturally live? This one appears to be 106 years old (as I said, my world itself is only 25). She seems to be refusing to go to archery practice. It says as her job "go to archery practice", but she's just standing in the craftsdwarf's workshop, refusing to move. She has a crossbow and quiver, is in a content mood, and there is nothing in thoughts and preferences about food or drink (whether good or bad), although, like all, needs alcohol to get through the working day. She isn't wounded, and has perfect access to the archery target

Edit: She seems to obey station orders, and is now standing in the middle of my stone stockpile, saying "go to archery practice", without moving. There are sufficient bolts
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nanomage

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2012, 07:26:14 am »

Find a dwarf with no thoughts from eating or sleeping or drinking and wall him up forever.
You can also make him a manager and bookkeeper, or make him pull levers.
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Mimodo

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2012, 07:32:17 am »

Well, it's not the stubborn suspect... She just got thirsty. Still don't know why she didn't want to train though...

It's a lot to look though, so here goes nothing. Is it possible to be a child?
« Last Edit: June 26, 2012, 07:41:04 am by Mimodo »
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Anathema

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2012, 07:46:02 am »

Vampires are great - it's as bad as Salem witch trials.

"You there, Marksdwarf! Have you had a decent drink lately?"

"Why, I.. I don't remember my last drink."

"VAMPIRE! SEIZE HER!"
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nanomage

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2012, 07:47:12 am »

Well, it's not the stubborn suspect... She just got thirsty. Still don't know why she didn't want to train though...

It's a lot to look though, so here goes nothing. Is it possible to be a child?
It never takes me more than 2 minutes to find a vampire. Why do you thinks it a lot to look through? It's like v-enter-escape-escape-down through all your dwarves, and that's but 60 of them.
I think children can't become vampires in worldgen because they just do nothing until they turn 12.
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Mimodo

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2012, 07:59:01 am »

Well, it's not the stubborn suspect... She just got thirsty. Still don't know why she didn't want to train though...

It's a lot to look though, so here goes nothing. Is it possible to be a child?
It never takes me more than 2 minutes to find a vampire. Why do you thinks it a lot to look through? It's like v-enter-escape-escape-down through all your dwarves, and that's but 60 of them.
I think children can't become vampires in worldgen because they just do nothing until they turn 12.

It's boring and time consuming... although I got lucky finding the right one that way... Either way, she's a master cook, and I'm thinking I'll just confine her to the kitchens and produce masterwork food, whilst making sure she doesn't make it to the sleeping quarters
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Snaake

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2012, 08:20:16 am »

Lock him away for now. You can assign him a bedroom, then lock the door when he goes inside while on break/no job. That's what I did in my fort. Painful death is still an option, because he drained my only high-skill armorer.

The all-combat-legendary training would sound cool too, maybe have him fight in the gladiator pits. I guess they don't drink from (hostile?) goblins/kobolds/elves/dwarves (that arrive as part of a goblin siege) though, just fight and then refuse to drink from the corpse. :(

...Either way, she's a master cook, and I'm thinking I'll just confine her to the kitchens and produce masterwork food, whilst making sure she doesn't make it to the sleeping quarters
Don't give the vampire access to the rest of the fort. Use automatically quantum-stockpiling railways to drop stuff to him, and for him to drop stuff out the bottom of his room. Or just have the tracks on one level, eg. O=.=O, where the Os are track stops, = tracks, and . an open-space channel (channel, then remove the ramp). Dwarves can't path through, but the cart will jump over the gap (according to other people's testing, haven't gotten this far in my minecart !!SCIENCE!! fort yet). Both sides dump contents, one side loads raw foods, the other side loads prepared meals. You might get some job cancelled spam though, as other dwarves attempt to haul the food in the confinement area. I don't know if there's any way to avoid this, if you use the vampire for any sort of crafting like this.

He'll slow down eventually due to lack of alcohol, though, a problem faced by all dwarven vampires...
« Last Edit: June 26, 2012, 08:32:36 am by Snaake »
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terko

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2012, 08:56:36 am »

One Vampire: Mayor (I've got a Baron too, so he's not really needed anymore). Another Vampire: Manager/Bookkeeper.

Both: Pump Operator for magma for my Obsidian Caster in an locked area.

Above their Room, which is built above the magma spire: a hatch where sometimes food and booze gets dumped, just for the fun of it. It's quite relaxing that way.
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Sutremaine

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2012, 09:21:27 am »

Can I have the save? I never get vampires and I'd like to test an anti-no-drink syndrome.

You should confine her physically. Do the quantum-dump thing to get materials in and out of the kitchen area, but be careful dumping in from above -- I've seen combat reports of pieces of thread jamming skulls through brains. To get around that you can use a minecart track with gaps in it, and make the minecart fast enough to jump the gap.
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Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.

ledgekindred

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #10 on: June 26, 2012, 12:59:53 pm »

Lock him away for now. You can assign him a bedroom, then lock the door when he goes inside while on break/no job. That's what I did in my fort. Painful death is still an option, because he drained my only high-skill armorer.

Is it just me or do vampires have a preference for high-skilled dwarves?  It seems like whenever I have had a vampire get into my fort, they always go for my Master Weaponsmith or Legendary Miner versus one of the dozen Cheesmakers and twenty Fisherdwarves.  If they had a tendency to go for the peons, I'd be more tolerant of them.  As it is, I will chuck them into the caverns at the first opportunity.  (Assign them to military, station them in the caverns, seal the caverns off, let them "explore" for things like FBs and GCSs.)
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I don't understand, though that is about right with anything DF related.
I just hope he dies the same death that all dwarfs deserve: liver disease.
The legend of Reg: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=65866.0
Atir Stigildegel, Legless Hero of Diamondrelic: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=83136.0

Gukag

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #11 on: June 26, 2012, 01:15:49 pm »

Maybe blood from highskilled dwarves taste better. If they liked child blood better vampires could actually be an awesome addition to a fortress. Automatic population control. You can recreate that by locking away all children and vampires in a sealed off section of the fort and dropping food/drink occasionally, but it's not the same :(.
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Maxmurder

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #12 on: June 26, 2012, 01:25:15 pm »

Vampires' taste for blood is based on several criteria:

# of friends/relitives, Blood is sweeter when you know that the person you are killing will be missed.

skill level, the better a dwarf is somthing the better thier blood tastes.

skill desirability, would you rather drink the blood of a legendary cheesmaker or a legendary weaponsmith?

nobles/milita captians, in my experiance vamps have a sweet tooth for people of athority.

Also despite being soleless killing machines they are almost always elected mayor. I had a vamp get elected while still in prision from the 10 odd convictions against him...
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Thudde

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #13 on: June 26, 2012, 03:34:01 pm »

For some reason, almost every Vampire I've caught has been a Cook.  I wonder about just what they've been cooking.  Generally I wait for them to go to their bedroom and wall them in.  I check back in a month to see if they are hungry or thirsty.  If not, that's the Vampire.  My current fort's latest Vampire is the Mayor.  I walled him into his suite which is where he's been for about 2 years.  No-one seems to mind, they keep re-electing him.  I expect his social skills will degrade eventually and he'll get replaced.  Ironically, he just asked for a window in his office.

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Mimodo

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Re: Vampire hunting
« Reply #14 on: June 26, 2012, 11:29:34 pm »

So, common opinion is to wall her into some confined area, with just enough to keep her happy. Fortunately, she doesn't have a bedroom, so it's not likely she will go down there except to drink blood, in which case I will confine her to making food (and maybe drinks once she's legendary at cooking). I have her assigned to F2, so at least I don't have to search
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