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[maltapotamus]

I was just thinking about the best way to explore the caverns. i know of using kittens and such, but i am talking about using my military.

i don't know how well station orders would be since they could then run off and get food/booze/sleep when ever they damn well please, potentially screwing the rest of them. (though im sure i could lock them in...)

my next thought was using a burrow. set a small one that is to be defended, then while they are all in the burrow, add another section to it farther into the caverns, then delete the first one. this should force them to walk to the new site correct?

is this to much micro management?

any other good ways to do it? thanks for the ideas!

[Varnifane]

I like to build looms and then set useless dorfs to weaving. If there is silk they will explore the entire cavern. I suppose you could set weaving as the task for off duty military dwarves and let them explore. Make sure they wear their uniform off duty.

[Loud Whispers]

I don't know how well station orders would be since they could then run off and get food/booze/sleep when ever they damn well please, potentially screwing the rest of them.

Nope. Military Dwarves will never abandon their orders even under threat of starvation, sleep deprivation or dehydration. They are a perfectly acceptable way of cavern exploration.

Just be sure to bring Marksdwarves.


<alternatively>

Release a breeding pair of small animals into the caverns. Things like bunnies that flee from everything - these do not die.

[Sutremaine]

Nope. Military Dwarves will never abandon their orders even under threat of starvation, sleep deprivation or dehydration. They are a perfectly acceptable way of cavern exploration.

They will wander off eventually. I find that their tolerance for drowsiness is much less than their tolerance for hunger. Thirst isn't really an issue since I issue waterskins early. The best time for exploration is when you can see pond grabbers on the unit list, as they stay in the water and prevent anything else from spawning while they're there. Giant olms and elk birds can be nasty if cornered, but they prefer to run away from dwarves.

You could also dig alongside the cavern wall until you start approaching the unrevealed areas, and then carve a fortification to expose the next expanse of wall.

[maltapotamus]

They will wander off eventually. I find that their tolerance for drowsiness is much less than their tolerance for hunger. Thirst isn't really an issue since I issue waterskins early. The best time for exploration is when you can see pond grabbers on the unit list, as they stay in the water and prevent anything else from spawning while they're there. Giant olms and elk birds can be nasty if cornered, but they prefer to run away from dwarves.

You could also dig alongside the cavern wall until you start approaching the unrevealed areas, and then carve a fortification to expose the next expanse of wall.

yes in my experience (i give no backpacks or waterskins, may change that now) any time i station my mili some where, at least half of them run off for food and booze and a few to sleep. so it usually takes them a while to get where i want in any large number.

i don't have any pond grabbers.... just at least 3 or 4 FBs thats one reason i wanna get in there so i can have some fun! hopefully make some nice FB skull totems to try and display!

guess ill just give them waterskins and send them down there

[Eldestish]

IMO just throwing down cage traps and a door then letting weavers do the rest seems to work.
If you are desperate for metal/wood then a miner would work too.

[Patchy]

I use the fortification carving method almost exclusively. Carve one and explore a wide section all at once. Then move on and repeat near some more unexplored area. These little leftover spyholes I made usually later get expanded into marksdwarf nests for policing the caverns.

[CaptainArchmage]

I use the fortification carving method almost exclusively. Carve one and explore a wide section all at once. Then move on and repeat near some more unexplored area. These little leftover spyholes I made usually later get expanded into marksdwarf nests for policing the caverns.

Do you have a one-tile passage behind the fortifications, or more tiles? A reasonable corridor should be two or three tiles, but I've heard people have issues with fortifications, resulting them in using one-tile passages.

[Patchy]

Well the actual nest is a little 1x5 room. Really not much to them, quick and easy to build. But pics might help, so here we go.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is what the thing looks like while I'm just exploring the cavern. There will be a bunch of them made in order to get full vision of the caverns. Just long thin tunnels through the roof of a cavern, with fortification spyholes carved out into them. The passage going up leads to more of these spyholes, and the passage running off to the right leads to another spyhole and eventually on around to the initial cavern breachpoint. A single miner/engraver can explore an entire cavern very easily and safely like this.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And this is essentially the same spyhole upgraded into a nest. Real quick and pretty effective when you got bunches of these littered around the caverns for bringing your marksdwarves to bear on a fb or anything, whereever it may be hiding. Like I said, nothing fancy about them.

[Kilroy the Grand]

Patchy, I think that's really neat. I usually pick a single random dwarf, put come copper armor on it, and let it explore everything.

[thegoatgod_pan]

Cage traps are key. Make a barracks behind the cage traps, and over them, put a crundle factory (tame crundles in a pasture, nest box). The crundles will draw in and trouble all the really good cavern stuff: jabberers, rutherers, giant cave spiders and cave dragons. The bad shit (e.g. steel quadraped, beware it's deadly dust!) will engage and butcher the crundles while you either close up the fort or send the military patrols in.

I find having a permanent cavern barracks with a squad is best, since if the whole squad goes down to necrosis dust, you should still have a surface squad to handle goblins.

[Findulidas]

If you dont want to risk anything you can build bridges and raise them in such a way that it blocks the entrance from the caves to the fort. Ive found that raised bridges are impossible to destroy. Its really cheap though.

Another way to use bridges in a less cheap and more amusing way is to dig a pitfall under it and raise the bridge when something is on it, causing it to fall 10+z levels and instantly killing it. Obviously wont work on too heavy or flying creatures though.

[Bigheaded]

i find it amusing just getting legendary dwarves in full steel metal masterwork gear to just mash up everything.
All you need is a 2 man team to remain in a squad for ~1 year if starting at proficient or above. Less for some (hammer takes 3 seasons), then that's the legendary sorted out. (would need to be 2-3 years if teaching from unskilled). The other positives from this, is that they get RIDICULOUS attributes, such as extremely agile (about 3 times as fast as other dwarves) so making them run down 80 z levels isn't a problem.

I would suggest a minimum of full iron armor (2x low/high boots, 2x gauntlet, greaves, breastplate, helm (not cap!) and iron or better weapons (i.e silver warhammers)), the better the armor, the higher the chance of survival if you come across something difficult. Although one legend in full steel is more than enough to kill 10 crundles taking no damage (i teach dodging at embark too though).

As long as i find a nice patch of hematite, i'm ready for caverns within my first year of embark. GCS's are probably the biggest threat.