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[jimboo]

Aren’t really necessary since silk moths can be farmed and the cocoons boiled in the kitchen for standard silk.  But rare silk is worth more and I’ve just finished a turn in a community fortress that was nearly wiped out by tantrum spirals.  Since a dwarf’s happiness level depends in part upon everything he owns including the clothes on his back, I set up a Rare Silk Farm.

Quietrust developed the Silk Farm that is on vanilla Wiki for Giant Cave Spiders but that layout is unnecessarily complex for Masterwork.   Since various tame spiders are offered by caravans as pets, all that is needed now is an enclosed room with a raising bridge divider, and separation over a ditch.  Tame spiders are pastured on one side of the divide and linked cages with wild animals/invaders are set on the other.  “Targets” are released one at a time, the bridge is lowered and webs begin flying everywhere.  In the layout below, the ditch is two tiles wide and empty of up-ramps.  Each side of the room has an entrance and the L (target) side is also blocked by a raising bridge – in case the surface traps should catch a building destroyer and this also gives the room possible double duty use for squad training by beating on prisoners with sticks.  The bridge when lowered only covers half the ditch so the webs fly but the spiders are unable to otherwise engage.  And there’s nowhere for the released invaders/wild animals to go. 







Meph nerfed the spiders way back after the screenshot "I hate spiders" was posted on the “What’s Happening in Your Fortress” thread:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So in this setup, 4 Giant Blade Spiders are pastured on the R side and there are looms on each side of the divide ready to collect the rare webs.  After a hundred or so webs are on the floor, the separation bridge is raised, the L entrance bridge is lowered and a squad waiting outside enters and makes short work of the one webbed captive.  Webs are collected by plebes and then woven into cloth by a legendary weaver.  A legendary dyer then colors the cloth before handing it off to a legendary tailor.  When a set of ☼clothes☼ is finished, leather and rare silk appliqués are applied by a legendary leatherworker and the tailor.  The finished value depends upon which dye was used but cotton fiber thread is worth 6, the virgin rare silk thread is worth 24, sliver-dyed it’s 44, it goes up from there so eventually all the dorfs are wearing sets of masterwork clothes worth thousands.     

Stupid Dwarf Project but it was something to do in this stable fortress while trying to learn the .4g magick/sorcery system.

[Verviticus]

do you have a backup tailor for when all the clothing decays and he kills himself

[kamikazi1231]

The loss of masterwork clothes is a valid point. You could do a few things. Burrow that dwarf and drop animals 20z levels to their deaths near him. After enough you'll get the trait "doesn't really care about anything anymore" and should be resistant.  I think there's also a way to lobotomize a dwarf and remove all emotions.  Might not get as many masterwork but if he's legendary you'll still get plenty.

Also thanks for the design. I've been considering making one for a while. Any idea how close spiders have to be? 1 space in between. 2? I know 3 spaces in between doesn't work.

[Verviticus]

oh, is that what a lobotomy does.  neat!

[mahrgell]

oh, is that what a lobotomy does.  neat!

It has some more.... side effects

[kamikazi1231]

oh, is that what a lobotomy does.  neat!

Yep 20% slower speed, no fear,no pain,  , no emotion ie no happy or sad thoughts, likes fighting. Also mental stats down to 1. They make great hold the line tank fighters especially if in a guild. They are also good crafters once legendary.  I don't know if they can have strange moods or not. They also make great lever pullers when your fortress is already invaded.

[Meph]

"HODOR, PULL THAT LEVER"
"Hodor."
 - Hodor then proceeds to walk through goblins, demons and flames to pull the level, not caring at all.

[jimboo]

This is in a stable, self-sustaining fortress of 120 dwarves with a strong military and layered defenses so the labor pool is not a problem.

Range: 15 is max but effectively it’s less, so just to speed things up the L wall was moved in closer.  Doors get blocked by parts and clothes and butterfly wings so there is another isolation bridge.

Decay of clothes: doesn’t happen.  Dwarves on their own initiative change to the higher-quality duds when available, cast-offs showing wear accumulate in a stockpile that is next to the Depot making for quick and easy trading.  A Smashing Bridge over the stockpile would also work, I just like to get rid of as much “stuff” as possible to optimize FPS.  When a ☼somethingorother☼ is traded, there’s no accompanying bad thought like when a thief makes off with it.  Masterwork clothes don’t seem to “deface” when wearing out.

Spacing: the 4 spiders are pastured in a 1x10 line right next to the separation bridge.  They wander around a bit but being spiders, they don’t seem to mind.  I put a Farmer’s workshop in there planning to milk the venom but, doesn’t seem to happen.  At least, the farmers always prefer to milk some dewbeetle being farmed elsewhere for leather studs.

Backups: yeah, each legendary dorf has several apprentices; I train migrants as they arrive to have a moodable skill.  Males are trained for military. Fems for everything else.  This farm generates more silk than would ever be required but it’s just a Stupid Dwarf Project.  If something happened to it, a plot of rope reeds would still generate more than enough thread.  The legendary dwarves are warrened in what is basically “everything except the exposed surface.”  Cave adaptation isn’t a problem because the main meeting room, Depot and main hallways are all -1z, with roofs channeled and covered.  Dimple cups are supplying the primary dye and it’s been pretty impressive just how valuable the clothes are.  There are many ways to keep dorfs ecstatically happy, this was just something to do while waiting for the mages to level up in this fortress as I try to learn sorcery.  It's taking a long time to home-grow a White Witch Hunter.

               *****************************

Edit: this is just a test, 14 February, to see if modifying an old posting moves it up on the Masterwork screen directory. 

[kamikazi1231]

"HODOR, PULL THAT LEVER"
"Hodor."
 - Hodor then proceeds to walk through goblins, demons and flames to pull the level, not caring at all.

Bonus points if it's a naturally strong dwarf with gigantism.