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[Cocoprimate]

I opened and cage-trapped a small entrance to the caverns. Through the years I trapped and tamed a cave crocodile, a giant olm, a giant toad and a giant cave spider. I modded them so they could breed and everything, and was very excited to breed and feed my dwarves solely on cavern creatures. These were the only ones I took, I didn't kill any of these species.

But as the years passed I got none of those creatures again, no breeding pairs. They literally never seemed to spawn in the area. I decided all the cavern creatures were spawning in other places of the cavern I couldn't see. Sure enough, I used df-hack's reveal command, and it showed cavern creatures spawning in different places of the caverns, but never again in my corner.

So I decided I would wall off all entrances to the cavern, all borders, except the border near my cage-trapped entrance. In this way, I would be able to control where cavern creatures spawn right? Well, I did it. But after walling off all of the cavern borders except mine, no more creatures are spawning. Occasionally one spawned in a little square I missed, so I would go and patch it up.

It's like the game is deliberately avoiding my border to spawn cavern animals. And now that everything is closed off except the entrance I left, no cavern creatures are spawning.

What is happening and how can I fix it? I would appreciate any help.

[Garath]

I know that above ground creatures need a border with their biome to spawn, for example, I need a desert biome border for Giant Desert Scorpions to spawn. I know biomes also influence cavern reactions such as in a reanimating biome. I'd guess that closing the borders at some places doesn't cause the cavern creatures to spawn elsewhere. I don't know any of the mechanics, so I could be on completely the wrong track, so lets stick to what I do know. Have you considered making some more 'entrances' with cage traps?

[Cocoprimate]

Mmm. I placed some water squares at the borders and opened up a couple more entrances, still no spawns. What could it be?

[Cocoprimate]

Can I make biome squares with DFhack?

[Garath]

no, I don't think so.

There is also the spawn limit. Sometimes it happens that first all of the previous spawnings have to wander off the map, be killed or be captured. If something is stuck somewhere, nothing will appear

[Cocoprimate]

Yes, I'm constantly wiping out all spawnings, even surface ones, though I'm pretty sure I read somewhere they don't count for cavern spawns.

I'm stumped.

[Sutremaine]

Building right up to the cavern edge may break that spawn point in some odd way. I think maybe stuff is still picking that edge to spawn at, but can't do it because there's a wall in the way.

[AWellTrainedFerret]

This could be a mash up of several spawning mechanics.
- even though they look all the same, caves are effected by the biomes above, effectively dividing the caves into separate biomes.
- each "cave biome" has a set number of creatures it will spawn, so you've probably used up the ones in the biome your entrance is at.
- caves can only have a set numbers of creatures in them at a time before new ones will spawn. Worse yet, finding and disposing of them can be a pain because a few of them (pond grabbers, most notably) will hide and never wander around, blocking all further spawns.
- I've never walled off the caves before, but I know that you can break surface spawns by casting obsidian wall at the edge

[Cocoprimate]

The issue was the obsidian walls were ruining the spawns. I reloaded to an earlier save and just did the dorfy thing and cage-trapped lots of entrance without sealing them, and now I own all manner of cavern creatures and I'm happily breeding giant cave spiders, rutherers and giant olms.

[Sutremaine]

Well, you can seal them, just not at the edge itself. Put a floor or something on the edge to stop tree overgrowth, build a wall one tile in, and then build a fortification above the floor or whatever. Make room for whatever means of entry you've decided on. All my land entrances lead to one of two crushers / spike traps / shooting ranges.

[Nuoya]

If you make a 1-z-level wall at the edge of the caverns, monsters can and do spawn right on top of that wall on the next z-level, and then can never move anywhere until they decide to leave. Something to be aware of.