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[Loci]

The game gifted me with two dragons, so I modded in a [CHILD] token and started a breeding program. With a clutch of young dragons available, I dug out a testing chamber to better understand dragonfire.

Dragonfire is a rather impressive-looking attack with a range of 20+ tiles and a spread of roughly 10 tiles, but no vertical spread. My first goblin volunteer was stunned from the drop onto his pedestal and failed his first (and only) block attempt. The second managed to block, providing me with a test chamber that was regularly engulfed in dragonfire. I started tossing in items; anything organic burst into flames immediately. This included nethercap (logs and an unbuilt floodgate), despite its fixed temperature. Normal stone was also quickly destroyed, with gabbro boulders and unbuilt stone furniture melting and boiling away. Surprisingly, though, metal items appear to be completely unaffected. Even non-fire-safe metals, like tin and lead, have survived countless rounds of dragonfire. I added a couple blocks of special stone (raw admantine and slade), and they too seem unaffected by the flames.

When victim volunteer 3 finally failed a shield roll after months of testing, I modified my testing chamber. I placed the bait pedestal one z-level above the dragon, and added bridges and some built furniture. When I dropped in volunteer 4, the dragon resumed breathing fire, but, since dragonfire cannot traverse z-levels, the goblin appears quite safe, along with several stone bridges on the upper z-level. The stone bridges (gabbro and obsidian block) on the dragon's z-level  melted almost immediately. The copper bridge, despite having a lower melting point, is still intact. An obsidian door also survived (presumably because dragonfire cannot enter its tile while it remains closed). A tile containing 1/7 water also appears unaffected.

With this knowledge, plans to construct a dragonfire trap are forming. Placement of the bait and sight-blocking bridges on a different z-level should allow safely harnessing a full blast of dragonfire on command. A staggered column layout at around 10 tiles out should prevent line-of-sight (and, thereby, arrows and bolts) from reaching the dragon while still allowing the flames to flow through and cook enemies. Unfortunately, any creature with a shield normally has a 99+% chance to block dragonfire. Adding additional "fuel" (anything organic--withered crops, corpses, etc.) should provide a source of non-blockable fire to ignite pesky shield-carriers. It may also be possible to use a syndrome-dispersing beast to temporarliy stun enemies as they walk through the dragonfire. Beyond the shear dwarfiness of harnessing a megabeast for fortress defense, one advantage of a dragonfire trap would be that all refuse is incinerated on site, leaving only the fire-safe metal items for manual dwarf processing.


In Summary:

1. Nethercap burns in dragonfire.
2. Metals don't melt in dragonfire.
3. Water doesn't boil in dragonfire, but magma from melted rocks does.
4. Shields almost entirely nullify dragonfire.
5. Dragonfire can't cross z-levels, but dragons still try to burn hostile creatures on other z-levels.

[Loam]

From my (non-scientific) observations in the arena, I can attest that dragonfire will melt almost anything: I have seen metal weapons and armor melt. Which makes sense, as dragonfire is 50,000 degrees Urist (for comparison, the highest possible temperature is 60,000 - 10,098 is the internal temperature of a dwarf, I think?). So... that metal stuff should be melting. Maybe if it's furniture it takes longer to heat up, because it has more mass than weapons.

Also, yes, shields block everything, even wooden shields. It really makes dragons kind of wimpy opponents.

[misko27]

From my (non-scientific) observations in the arena, I can attest that dragonfire will melt almost anything: I have seen metal weapons and armor melt. Which makes sense, as dragonfire is 50,000 degrees Urist (for comparison, the highest possible temperature is 60,000 - 10,098 is the internal temperature of a dwarf, I think?). So... that metal stuff should be melting. Maybe if it's furniture it takes longer to heat up, because it has more mass than weapons.

Also, yes, shields block everything, even wooden shields. It really makes dragons kind of wimpy opponents.

Reminds me of helmets v. Giant cave spiders. This big, angry, poisonous, unrelenting thing can come, web down a dwarf, grab him, and then spend forever trying to eat through his helm.

Dragonfire is still dangerous to everything else though. Even Collosi get a run for their money due to melting.

[Zammer990]

It takes a very long time to heat up items on the ground to the point where they will melt, if it's even possible.

[Loci]

From my (non-scientific) observations in the arena, I can attest that dragonfire will melt almost anything: I have seen metal weapons and armor melt. Which makes sense, as dragonfire is 50,000 degrees Urist (for comparison, the highest possible temperature is 60,000 - 10,098 is the internal temperature of a dwarf, I think?). So... that metal stuff should be melting. Maybe if it's furniture it takes longer to heat up, because it has more mass than weapons.

Was that in the current version? Because I have a lead goblet and tin crown that have survived a full year of constant dragonfire.

I did manage to melt lead and tin chains by dropping in a troll; the troll caught fire, and the flaming troll raised the tile temperature sufficiently to melt non-fire-safe objects.

It appears that the dragonfire isn't using temperature at all. When I probe a tile with dragonfire in dfhack, it shows the temperature is still ambient (10015). I normally have temperature disabled (to combat lag), but I re-enabled it for these tests. Would the temperature-disabled-status somehow nerf my dragon? I would also wonder if a young dragon is unable to produce full temperature dragonfire, but stone melts and boils quite convincingly.

In other news, the z-level targetting bug works with web-spitters as well. Installing the bait on a different z-level will allow better efficiency for silk farming. Other material emission attacks are probably likewise affected, so forgotten beasts may be persuaded to sprinkle their lovely syndromes liberally.

[Button]

Other material emission attacks are probably likewise affected, so forgotten beasts may be persuaded to sprinkle their lovely syndromes liberally.

I can say from experience that Deadly Dust attacks do travel up Z levels. Lost one of my early fortresses that way. (Necrotizing Deadly Dust + marksdwarves "safely" behind fortifications a Z level up.)

[Dirst]

Other material emission attacks are probably likewise affected, so forgotten beasts may be persuaded to sprinkle their lovely syndromes liberally.

I can say from experience that Deadly Dust attacks do travel up Z levels. Lost one of my early fortresses that way. (Necrotizing Deadly Dust + marksdwarves "safely" behind fortifications a Z level up.)

The Dust may have shot in the direction of your Dwarf on the emitter's own Z-level and then spread up (and sideways) using normal dust/mist/cloud dynamics.

So, important safety tip: Deadly Dust is deadly.

[vanatteveldt]

So, important safety tip: Deadly Dust is deadly.

Do not touch deadly dust with remaining tissue!

[Loci]

I can say from experience that Deadly Dust attacks do travel up Z levels. Lost one of my early fortresses that way. (Necrotizing Deadly Dust + marksdwarves "safely" behind fortifications a Z level up.)

Deadly dust attacks use cave-in clouds, which do travel through z-levels. Other FB special attacks (toxic vapors, noxious secretions, and spitting) likely use the material emission code, which is z-level limited. I had one with gaseous noxious secretions, and I was disappointed when I couldn't get it to drop syndrome clouds on invaders one z-level below.

Hmmm... Perhaps a spittle-producing beast could be encouraged to fire several z-levels above a hallway, with the resulting blobs plummeting down on enemies below. Set it up above the dragonfire trap, so that enemies who are hit by falling globs might then fail to block the dragonfire, and the globs themselves might burn or boil, potentially making the trap even more deadly. Of course, by the time you've acquired all the components, you probably don't even need the trap...