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[doublestrafe]

I had a fort, 0.34.11, for which I foolishly deleted the save, with a tame giant cave spider. I built a farm for it with a set of instructions similar to the ones currently in the wiki, but without the surrounding drawbridges; I figured I'd just drop the bait beast into a cage trap when I wanted to gather silk. The first thing I captured was a grasshopper man, so I dropped it in, and silk started spewing. But I had left the door open, and I found something very surprising.

My weaver just wandered in and started gathering webs like nobody's business! He wasn't scared of no damn grasshopper furry. I just left him to it. He occasionally got webbed, and every now and then someone would try to walk through with a bin and cause some cancel spam trying to get it back, but it just went on forever like that. Infinite silk, no muss no fuss.

So in my new fort I just did the same thing, but I used a goblin, and of course my weaver freaked. I had to set up the whole bridge deal to make it work, and eventually I gave up because it was just too big a pain. (I'll try again if I ever get a damn land animal, but no, everything I get in this stupid place either flies or is a goblin.)

So it seems like some animals aren't as scary as others? I can't find anything in the wiki. Is there !!science!! on this?

[GoombaGeek]

I think the difference is pretty simple, but this is just a guess.

Hostile = OMG PANIC TIEM
Wild Animal = "As long as it's not too close, okay? Jeez."

Try it with cavern-dwelling animal men - some are hostile, some are benign, and it doesn't depend on the species, so they should make ideal test subjects.

[Quietust]

It might be [LIKES_FIGHTING] and/or [LARGE_PREDATOR] that makes a creature scare Dwarves away.

[Volfgarix]

In 'o'rders are 'W'orkshops orders, in it is 'w' Auto Collect Webs, you can turn it off, that can be helpful in keeping dwarves away from GCSs.

[doublestrafe]

In 'o'rders are 'W'orkshops orders, in it is 'w' Auto Collect Webs, you can turn it off, that can be helpful in keeping dwarves away from GCSs.

I award you the Dastot McCheesemaker Award for Outstanding Performance in Reading Comprehension.

[Aviator CJ]

I've noticed that my dwarfs seem totally relaxed around Kestrel men, so perhaps it's animal men that they are calm about. Should be simple enough to test.

[thegoatgod_pan]

In 'o'rders are 'W'orkshops orders, in it is 'w' Auto Collect Webs, you can turn it off, that can be helpful in keeping dwarves away from GCSs.

I award you the Dastot McCheesemaker Award for Outstanding Performance in Reading Comprehension.

. still helpful, brief and, at the very least, about webs

[Di]

Yes, most animal men seemed completely non-aggressive to me, they've only attacked dwarves that were hauling cages/reloading traps in which their pack leader stepped. And soldiers aren't very keen on killing them either, until they attack somebody.

[Kamin]

Wow. I consider myself decently knowledgeable about DF, but it never crossed my mind to introduce a tamed GCS to some sort of caged animal in order to get it to shoot errant webs everywhere. I learn so much from you guys 

[acetech09]

Wow. I consider myself decently knowledgeable about DF, but it never crossed my mind to introduce a tamed GCS to some sort of caged animal in order to get it to shoot errant webs everywhere. I learn so much from you guys 

That's the whole concept of the popular, tried, and tested silk farming method that's been used for ages... Lots about it on the wiki.

[Kamin]

Wow. I consider myself decently knowledgeable about DF, but it never crossed my mind to introduce a tamed GCS to some sort of caged animal in order to get it to shoot errant webs everywhere. I learn so much from you guys 

That's the whole concept of the popular, tried, and tested silk farming method that's been used for ages... Lots about it on the wiki.

To be honest, silk has never been my top priority. Ever. I have harvested it from caverns, but usually just trade for it.

[doublestrafe]

It took five years, but I finally caught a large rat and dumped it in front of my spider. Success! Atir Idenbavast isn't the least bit scared, and is gathering silk like mad. With this setup there's no need for drawbridges around the silk farm, or any management. Just set it somewhere out of the way and forget it. The Extremely Simple Silk Farm looks kinda like this:

Code: [Select]

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      ☼☼☼
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The weaver has gathered webs right up to the side of the rat's enclosure. I don't think the rat can scare him at all.

I've added this to the wiki under Giant Cave Spider.

[Mr S]

Was this tame GCS from a breeding program?

[doublestrafe]

No. Can't breed GCSes without modding in [CHILD]. Haven't played with modding much.

[Hyndis]

No. Can't breed GCSes without modding in [CHILD]. Haven't played with modding much.

If you mod in USE_ANY_PET_RACE a civilization might just have tame cave spiders you can buy from caravans. You'd still need to capture a wild animal though, but those should be plentiful. Just grab a plump helmet man from the caverns or something.

A very fun side effect of  USE_ANY_PET_RACE is that if you give a hostile civilization this same tag, in pretty much every single siege, every goblin will have a mount. That single tag doubles the things you get to play with and torment. Its wonderful!