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Author Topic: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk  (Read 1602 times)

Blue_Dwarf

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Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« on: April 23, 2013, 01:49:26 am »

Last human caravan has brought with it a demonic "human" diplomat. I didn't think much of it, until it had to leave and ran into some undead. Turns out it could spit silk webs, which were probably farmable. Unfortunately it left before I could capture it.

So, maybe next summer I'll get another one :) How does one go about capturing it?

My embark is an undead biome. One thought that crossed my mind was killing it somehow, and letting it reanimate, hoping it would become an immortal undead silk shooter. I'm thinking, civilians run past it, get scared and run away while it spits silk everywhere that I can gather.
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Crafting Statistics 42.06Farming Statistics

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Lav

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2013, 01:59:16 am »

Maybe humans can offer Demonic Diplomat's Silk in their trade agreements?

Capturing diplomat should not be difficult. Try walking him through a retracting bridge with cage traps below. Fall should knock him out long enough to be trapped.
« Last Edit: April 23, 2013, 02:02:40 am by Lav »
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Astrid

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2013, 04:14:23 am »

As far as i know undead loose their special ability, ergo, once he's undead he cannot spit silk anymore.
Dunno if that's still the case.
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fractalman

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2013, 04:28:09 am »

I know that undead continue to use tags like trapavoid and possibly flier...
best to drop him a short distance onto some cage traps.  Few things are more annoying/FUN than a webspinner/other major threat reanimating two frames after you killed it...
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Fenrisson

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2013, 04:35:59 am »

Consider what you learned from this - there are clowns in your world with the ability to spin silk - ergo there is THE FUN-WAY to get a couple of this clown-species in stock ;)

hint: they can be found in all biomes
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Geldrin

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2013, 07:47:45 am »

Regarding this bridge-drop cage trapping method; how does it works against trap-avoid creatures?
I already know that the webbed cages can catch everything, but is it possible to use this method as a "low budget" everything-trap?
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Tirion

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2013, 07:57:58 am »

Bridge-drop won't work against a demon. The bridge won't operate when under him. Supports, on the other hand, allow you to drop a whole piece of constructed floor he's on.
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Geldrin

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2013, 08:24:11 am »

Hmm, all right then, it seems i have to stay with the GCS method.

I think It will neither work on creatures who are immune to be knocked out...

Thanks in advance, Tirion.
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Blue_Dwarf

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2013, 08:42:55 am »

Next caravan brought a regular diplomat :(

I even tried to save-scum a little, his name was different every time, but he remained human. Bummer.
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Larix

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2013, 09:41:56 am »

Demonic diplomats are generally _the_ human law-giver. AFAIK, they'll only visit once, and there's only the one. Sorry, but it's a one-shot opportunity.

It might be possible to get some effect out of triggering a cave-in next to a demon - unless their girth or demonicness somehow prevents them from getting hurled around. With a diplomat, you'd also have the choice of detaining them (probably by walling them off somehow) after they finished their diplomatic business and wait for them to go insane. A berserk demonic diplomat should happily provide all the silk you want. A stark raving or melancholic one would be a lot less useful, though.

If a demon diplomat shows up, it's always a good idea to check the creature description right away; demons usually have some Forgotten-Beast grade property, which is explicitly mentioned in the description ("Beware its [special feature]!"). If it's a poisonous sting, bite or blood, it's typically quite harmless; if it's fire, you better make sure they don't run into anything hostile while in your fort; if it's noxious secretions/dust/other overkill contaminant, lock them out until you can lure them into a place where you can hit them with a cave-in or repeating spikes. And if they spin webs, try your best to keep them.
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darkflagrance

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2013, 01:24:42 pm »

I think you were the victim of the bug where any given being can only arrive once to the fortress map, because once it arrives it gets scrubbed out of existence by the game?
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MonkeyHead

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2013, 01:49:10 pm »

Of note is the fcat that FB and demon silk has minimal value, so clothes made out of it will be cool, but valueless when compared to more orthadox silks.

i2amroy

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2013, 03:02:20 pm »

Webbing demons and FB's cannot be captured in cage traps in vanilla due to the fact that they are both immune to webs and have [NO_STUN]. The only way to capture them is to lure them into your desired area and trap them there by either building walls or raising bridges. With normal demons/FBs this is usually accomplished through a bunch of buildings to knock down, but with a diplomat you might need to get creative.

And yeah, right now any official that visits your map loses their titles as soon as they leave, which is why they didn't show up again.
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zzedar

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Re: Capturing a human diplomat to farm his silk
« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2013, 03:32:42 pm »

One thought that crossed my mind was killing it somehow, and letting it reanimate, hoping it would become an immortal undead silk shooter.
Can clowns become undead? I looked at the generated raws for my current world, and all the demons had NOT_LIVING, so I think they can't be raised.

Consider what you learned from this - there are clowns in your world with the ability to spin silk
It's easy to discover what randomly generated creatures are webbers. Just check the custom settings for silk stockpiles; it'll have a list of every possible kind of silk, so there'll be entries for, e.g.,  "brine demon silk thread".

Hmm, all right then, it seems i have to stay with the GCS method.
If you already have a GCS, what do you want with the web demon? (Also, as i2amroy pointed out, webbers are themselves WEBIMMUNE).
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