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[Dareon Clearwater]

Main question:  will dwarves shoot at/attack hostile chained creatures?

Background:  I just got done fighting off a goblin ambush, thanks to savescumming twice and rigging a hasty cage trap bottleneck.  This left me with six caged goblins (And one caged corpse that bled to death after getting caught while fleeing).  After stripping them naked, I thought about what to do with them.  Pitting them into the lava or off a high tower would be the obvious solution, but I can't spare the glass right now, since the need to savescum twice makes it obvious I need to finish my wall. (Desert, glass fort, aquifer, magma pipe, you know the drill.)

After a bit of thought, I hit on the following idea:  Set up an extension to one of my barracks, where the goblins could be released in a controlled environment, letting new marksdwarf recruits train under live fire conditions.  The easy thing would just be to link up the cage(s), but that's joost nae dwarven, laddie!

Concept:  After forging chains from the goblins' equipment (Swords to plowshares?  Not quite.), I hitch up the goblins on one end of the room, then open the floodgates blocking off fortifications on the other end of the room, letting the marksdwarves behind it fire on the helpless dancing gobbos.

So, are chained hostiles still counted as hostile, or would the dwarves think, "Ah, those guys aren't going anywhere, let's go have a beer."?  I don't have the resources to set it up yet, but having the answer will tell me if I can plan for it or if I should just focus on a more traditional method of POW treatment.

[Loctavus]

I think a restrained creature is a restrained creature, else not only would your marksdwarves think 'lets put bolts into that' but your random haulers would probably end up going 'holy... run awwwaaaayyyyy!'

This is what I think would happen anyway, by all means try it. The worst that can happen is your marksdwarves going 'I fancy a beer.'

[Wild Goose]

Maybe...if you had the resources, hook up the cages to levers, move them to that extension, and then pull the levers, so the goblins are in a locked room with fortifications for the Dwarves to shoot through?

[Heavy Flak]

What about doing something like this?

code:

  
+$++++$+
+ #  # +
+ #  # +
+ #  # + 
++++++++

Where
+: wall
$: door
#: fortification

Empty your goblins into one of the channels, and pump your marksdwarves into the other.  The goblins will get a benefit for being behind fortifications, and your marksdwarves are forced to fire from far away so they don't negate the bonuses.

This would only really make sense if you gained experience just for firing, not for hitting.  Otherwise it would be a waste of bolts.

[ June 10, 2008: Message edited by: Heavy Flak ]

[telemachus]

I just set up a pit for the same general idea (it's about 4 zlevels deep, so as to wound on the drop but not kill).

Strip goblins/trolls of weapons, toss em in, have marksdwarves in need of training patrol the walkways above.

Retractable bridge to a stairway in the middle allows me to retrieve any iron gear I wanna melt once the buggers are dead.