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[SuicideJunkie]

It appears that the zigzaggy path is quite longer than the caravan path...

They don't take the zigzag path by choice.
It happens to be a dead end, with the only opening being at the outside of the fort.

The goblins will take the bridge, and fall into the zigzag path after dodging a trap.

[zuglar]

It appears that the zigzaggy path is quite longer than the caravan path...

They don't take the zigzag path by choice.
It happens to be a dead end, with the only opening being at the outside of the fort.

The goblins will take the bridge, and fall into the zigzag path after dodging a trap.

If you really want to be mean, make the dodgeme also be the only way out. Then, even demoralized and retreating invaders will keep entering the grinder as long as they're alive, because it looks like the only exit.

[SuicideJunkie]

If you really want to be mean, make the dodgeme also be the only way out. Then, even demoralized and retreating invaders will keep entering the grinder as long as they're alive, because it looks like the only exit.

I like that idea!
Far too often, the Goblinite is a long walk away down a trail of blood.  Keeping it all contained in the killbox will greatly improve efficiency!

They'll dodge once on the way in, play the inner grinder until they panic, and then dodge for the rest of their lives on the way out.

A minimalist dual grinder killbox:

Code: [Select]

            OOOOOOOOOOOOO
            O^^^^+++^^^^O
To Outside RO!!!!R+R!!!!OR To Fort
            O^^^^+++^^^^O
            OOOOOOOOOOOOO


[DanteThanatos]

That last one deserves a cookie.

Btw... on a side note... Do Silver Spiked Balls do any damage? I only have silver on this embark and I want at least some degree of safety to my dwarves.

[SuicideJunkie]

Spiked balls should crush bones pretty good.  They make 3 attacks per ball, so don't use them on the dodge bridge unless you put a 2z high containment fence to keep the goblinite from dodging completely out of the killbox.

[PainRack]

Do thieves and ambushers always take the shortest route? My bridges don't seem to suggest that, since I seen kobolds crossing the bridge at the centre of my map as opposed to those nearer map edge.....

[DrKillPatient]

Item thieves are an exception; they'll take the shortest route to the most valuable item. Maybe it's not absolute and the route cost is weighed between the value and the path length, I'm not sure.

[Gormaz]

On a site note and while talking about traps, been a while since I played and getting used to all the new stuff.

But is glass still a good (at least "ok" for starter) material to make serrated disks for weapons traps?

The wiki lacks some data on the non-ore materials for traps components and my first experiences did not bring great results.... (FUN was induced though ^^)
Opinions from people having more experience with the current release?

[acetech09]

Glass will bounce off any armor, but even leave one square inch of skin exposed and you'll find that part missing.

[Sutremaine]

I've been pondering the efficiency of the following:

.dh.......DH...-> fortress

The d is a meh-quality serrated disc, intended to open up some nasty wounds.
The h is a reasonably good hammer, intended to slow an attacker through nausea, pain, or broken legs. This does not slow the bleeding, and with luck the attacker will bleed out before having a chance to jam the next disc / hammer pair.
The D and H are the really good discs and hammers, the ones you expect to one-shot anything that passes. These go next to the fortress.

The thinking here is that instadeath traps are better sprung last. Their chances of killing an individual goblin are the same wherever they're placed, but their chances of forcing the squad to retreat due to casualties increases the fewer members of the squad make it that far. Also, if your enemies retreat before hitting the insteadeath traps, they're still available for the next threat should you not get a chance to unclog all sprung traps. If your good traps are hit first, they'll be the first to jam.

The 'field of traps' approach is nice, but those trap components don't make themselves, and if you're putting down traps as the components are made then you might as well be picky about which ones you put down first.

[Armv]

I'm much more a fan of falling falling, and this design can easily be combined with it all. A line of spiked ball traps next to a channel that goes down a three dozen z levels? Works like a charm.

[Ubiq]

One more option is to channel out the area beneath the Safe-T Grinder and then completely fill the area with constructed walls. Proceed to construct the walls and traps as normal. After the surface work is done, remove the constructions below the traps and replace the former walls with more traps. So the goblin will fall through a suspended trap and land on another trap before having to make the trip out.

Repeat for levels below as needed/wished. You could easily make this a ten z-level trap drop if you wanted to put the time into it.

[Triaxx2]

Why blocks of traps? Why not lines of traps?

Code: [Select]


OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
+++^^^^^^^+++
+++OOOOOOO+++
+++^^^^^^^+++
O+++OOOOOOO+++O
O+++^^^^^^^+++O
O+++OOOOOOO+++O
O+++++++++++++O
O+++++++++++++O
O+++++++++++++O
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
This provides multiple short paths, all of which are shorter than the trap-free path, but that provide a long goblin grinder. If you want a dodge me, leave holes in the walls, where they will drop down to a lower level and have to walk a trap maze to an outside exit in order to try again. Even 1z is enough to offer a chance of stunning, and that can cause those lower traps to do a tremendous amount of damage. Or even have a retracting bridge that covers the entrance if you have spare gobbos trapped inside, allowing you to control their ability to exit, or lack of, or even have multiple exits that alternately open and close, causing them to walk around on the traps repeatedly. You can even set up a flood system to drown any that try to stop moving.

[loose nut]

Why blocks of traps? Why not lines of traps?

Probably so it is a bit less likely that, for example, the top line of traps in your version gets clogged with goblin pieces, thus allowing a safe path for the remaining enemies.

Your version's a decent stopgap until you proceed to one of the other takes on the concept, though, if you're short on trap components.

[Iosyn]

Gratz, it looks quite nice. unfortunately they won't go to the corners of the square, they'd all congegrate at the middlepoint.

Code: [Select]

Most likely gobbo route.

 x   |   x
|  x | x |
|    x    |
|______|

Something like that. I'd combine it with drawbridges to lock them in like you said, but from the size I think there would be at least some escapees from it.