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[Callista]

So I ordered some cave crocodiles from the Mountainhome... because let's face it, cave crocodile eggs are delicious. Put the females in nest boxes and they're feeding my fort. Chain up the males for guard animals.

But you can guess what happened, right?

Everybody's cleaning up after a siege... the nest boxes are unwatched... and suddenly I get multiple instances of "Cave crocodile hatchlings have hatched!" and then combat messages from all those hatchlings biting each other's faces off.

I now have 365 cave crocodile hatchlings (one for every day of the year, apparently), and half the fort is occupied in stuffing them into cages. They should be mature in a couple of years.

But here's the question: What do you do with hundreds of cave crocodiles?

[Wrex]

Link them to a pressureplate to release the horde when someone steps on it.

[ClkWrkJester]

Link them to a pressureplate to release the horde when someone steps on it.

This.  Bonus points if you somehow make the crocs on fire when they're released.

[crazysheep]

War cave crocs?

[Togre]

I'd make some really spiffy boots for everyone.  Urist McDwarf be pimpin'!

[Mageziya]

These will be the new cats. Give EVERYONE a pet cave croc.

[SirAaronIII]

At least cave crocodiles can fight.

[Callista]

I'd make some really spiffy boots for everyone.  Urist McDwarf be pimpin'!

You wish. They don't give leather--no skin, just "scale". And, for some weird reason, nose cartilage.

[Mageziya]

Well, he can use some crocs economically, for security, for traps, for pets, war animals, science, and !SCIENCE!.

[MrWillsauce]

Build an arena where your prisoners can fight crocodiles for their freedom. If they kill 25 crocs, release them outside and give them a 10 frame head start before siccing your military on them.

[misko27]

Build an arena where your prisoners can fight crocodiles for their freedom. If they kill 25 crocs, release them outside and give them a 10 frame head start before siccing your military on them.

Only if they are disarmed before hand, and take them all at once.

Also, keep in mind crocs produce the most eggs of any animal. The crocsplosion from that would kill frame-rate instantaneuosly. Yes, Im in favor of putting them in one cage, breeding more, putting them in the cage, etc. Frametrate will collapse if you use it, but hell, 365 crocs should be enough to put a decent sized dent in HFS, and more may win entirely.

[Callista]

Yeah, my FPS went from 75 to 20 when those crocodiles were born. Took a year to cage them all, too, but the FPS has recovered now.

The military has no problem with sieges; took the last one down with no casualties--I think siccing the crocodiles on the gobbos would just be adding insult to injury, considering that the goblins usually bring cave crocodiles (and giant cave sparrows, and elk birds, and giant olms) of their own, and about a month later those animals are all baked into roasts and being munched on by dwarves.

Taking on HFS with cave crocodiles does sound rather attractive, though. I'll have to see if I have a hollow candy spire somewhere where I can set up that cage. It might very well crash the game, though. Clowns and ridiculous numbers of cave crocodiles are both really hard on FPS.

They cannot be trained for war--I assume they will defend themselves if cornered and attacked, just like any animal will, though.

[misko27]

They cannot be trained for war--I assume they will defend themselves if cornered and attacked, just like any animal will, though.

Yeah, but the definition of cornered can be abused. I have a pit of "cornered" untrainable black bears, but that hasn't stopped them from performing as admirably as any war beast. And I doubt HFS is going to ignore them, so a simple "pressure plate connected to cage" should work. I would get a few more crocodiles, as the number of clowns spawned may reach 100, and 3 crocodiles to 1 clown isn't very fair, so more may be needed. In terms of FPS, just leave your computer on for a few hours, and when you come back the battle will probably be over. Probably. As always, please post results.

[MrWillsauce]

"pressure plate connected to cage" should work.

Clowns can't set off pressure plates.

[Callista]

Levers work just as well.

Anyhow, I've still got to wait for the crocs to grow up. Hatchlings are no good; I need full-grown ones. How long is their adolescent stage?