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[Seraphim342]

So, thinking of starting a new fortress and was coming up with a "theme."  I decided I'd embark on the border between a normal biome and a terrifying biome, then build a massive wall between the two.  Center the fort around defending dwarfkind from the horrors of the undead, et cetera... which sounds less and less original the more I think about it.  Might as well just embark on a Tundra biome and make the wall out of ice, and have all my military dwarves wear black cloaks while I'm at it...

Anyway, my question is, if I cut the map in half from edge to edge (using bridges to close the gaps at the ends), will I only get undead coming from the evil side, or can they spawn at any map edge?  I've noticed that caravans, etc, usually seem to come from the general direction of the nearest settlement of that civ, but I've never paid attention to where mobs spawn on a "border" embark. 

So, will it be possible to create the Night's Watch?  Or will I still get undead pouring in from the "good" side I'm trying to defend?

*EDIT*  Also, if the evil biome has condition-inducing weather, will it affect the whole map or only the evil section?

[Imp]

I like your style and taste.

I dont have any definate answers to your questions, though I've heard that evil weather moves and is not limited to the evil side of the map (though it may start there).  Any attackers you get, from thieves to seiges (and your caravans) may spawn on any side of the map though.

Perhaps some science is due?

[GreatWyrmGold]

The evil stuff should usually only affect the evil side, although evil critters might wander over hue border. Beware evil syndrome-bearing stuff being brought to your side.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I hear walls stop evil weather, so you could definitely contain it on the evil side. Zombies might still show up on the good side though.

[megahelmet]

Undead will only spawn on the undead side of the map. Typically, the side where undead spawn will also re-animate....so plan accordingly. The borders between areas can be a little rough, so make sure you get it walled off properly. Larger contrast biomes are easier to tell. terrifying desert and a joyous shurbland are easy to tell apart. Evil rain will only fall on the evil side of the map as well. Evil clouds are a bit trickier. Evil clouds can spawn anywhere on the evil side and start moving in any one direction. Typically if they start at the edge and head towards your good border they will dissipate near it. Some of it will cross, but it won't move to far across it.

This has been my experience with multi-evil biome embarks at least.

[Seraphim342]

Nice.  I can deal with a few random zombies occasionally popping up on the "good" side, especially because they won't reanimate there (right?).  I'm sure I'll have to have a plan in place for dealing with flying zombies anyway, so it should be alright.  I'll probably do it in a seasonally-snowy biome instead of a tundra/glacier biome since it's my first evil embark and I don't want to get over-ambitious.  You only get ice wolves in tundra/glacier though, right?  Trying to think of a situation where I'd have ice wolves modded to be tamable as well as surface vegetation for sliver barbs... might as well go all the way, right? 

So, a plan forms.  Snowy savage/terrifying embark, giant ice wall, tamed ice wolves and black cloaks, and some creative drawbridge/tunnel arrangements to turn goblin/human/elf sieges into "recruits" north of the wall... maybe even dig a deep, deep hole up north and hold off ALL the evil... though the prospect of fighting clown husks frankly terrifies me to the point I shudder when I look at the ampersand on my keyboard.  This is going to be fun in every sense of the word.  I can't wait. 

Something I just thought of:  Can zombies freeze to death like sentients? 

[Hans Lemurson]

Something I just thought of:  Can zombies freeze to death like sentients?

From what I've heard, they won't even burn to death.  I imagine they'd be unaffected by the cold with no blood to freeze.

[Orange Wizard]

Zombie + water + cold weather = ice tile and no zombie
Zombie + magma = flaming zombies and screams of "OH ARMOK WHY!?"

[I am Leo]

Flying giant zombies will destroy you before the end of your first year. The exploity solution is to safely contain some non-flying zombies to stop others spawning.

[krisslanza]

In regards to reanimation, things only reanimate on the "evil" side. IF it has the curse - not all evil biomes have the Curse of Undeath. Just make sure the zombies die on the non-evil tiles, otherwise... well, yeah.

Extra fun if the caravans decide to spawn on the EVIL side...

[Seraphim342]

I'll probably be treating it like a standard evil embark at first, aka, dig, dig, DIG! then come out and start on the Wall when I've got a sufficient military going.  And the Wall itself will be a little ways into the non-evil side of the map so they don't keep endlessly reanimating outside my gate without the use of !!fire!!. 

As for the reanimating evil biome, I hope that's the type I get =p

[Sutremaine]

Extra fun if the caravans decide to spawn on the EVIL side...

You can force caravans to spawn in a certain area by making that area the only one that has depot access. It won't do a thing to control diplomats and liaisons, however. But if you can cut the map entirely in half and run a tunnel network from underneath the dividing wall / channel to various points on the edges of the evil parts of the map then those randomly-spawning idiots will duck below ground ASAP. Because the tunnels don't need to have wagon access you can carpet them with traps.

[Seraphim342]

Well, as far as diplomats go, I don't really trade much with caravans anyway after the first few years when I can produce everything myself.  All I really use them for is dumping socks.  So if the humans and elves get angry because their diplomats got killed, that's just more "allies" for me to strand north of the wall for zombie-cleansing.  So, by the time I get The Great Northern Wall up, I figure the diplomats will be more or less irrelevant.