Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[PatientRock]

I have a bit of an exotic pet obsession. I have tons of cage traps around and purchase any animal the elves have for sale. All those cage traps have also resulted in numerous goblin and troll prisoners. I collected all those invaders in one cage in a locked room (door & wall grate) and once it had gotten to 50 creatures, set up my archers a few Z levels above for some live target practice. A dwarf pulled the lever for the cage and they all came spilling out into a hail of bolts.

A few of those nasty creatures fell but I quickly learned a hard lesson about the token "buildingdestroyer" + trolls. Trolls and goblins were EVERYWHERE. My military were a few floors up and stuck among the panicked citizens fleeing for safety.

Suddenly, the dozens of pets that are usually idling in my meeting area came charging down the stairs. The Rattlesnakes bit and wrestled. The Black-Crested Gibbons scratched and whirled around Goblin Spearmen. My pair of Giant Monitor Lizards alone were visions of death as I watched them tear six Trolls apart by themselves. Not one animal was hurt and my tardy military finally arrived to finish off the job.

I had no idea. I've locked the Lizards up in a breeding room. I shall have more of them, please.

Anyone had an unusual, non-war-trained pet fight like that?

[MrsStick]

I've had crocodiles from the elves fight off gobbos, so not surprising in the least. I'm rather glad that I'm not the only one who buys up exotics from the elves. They usually turn out to be useless for much other than meat industry and leather, but they're fun to say you have. Now if they'll only bring a male jaguar...I'll have babies and have more than my 2 war ones. Or another grizzly...

[PDF urist master]

I have an army of dragons. But they aren't very effective against goblins so I use giant cave spiders instead.

[PatientRock]

Now if they'll only bring a male jaguar...

I'll have to ship you a few! Have a war jaguar assigned to every citizen.

[RailroadRider]

I have an army of dragons. But they aren't very effective against goblins so I use giant cave spiders instead.

Mind if I sig this?

[ribby]

I have a Giant Python that's killed dozens of goblins in its lifetime. It once fought off 5-6 trolls all by itself, they just couldn't seem to hurt it.

[KiBoy]

Anyone had an unusual, non-war-trained pet fight like that?

What pets? ... You mean those rotting corpses in front of my fortress?

...

You get the idea...

[Duuvian]

I had a jaguar once that was a pet of one of my military dwarves. He earned a name for himself killing goblins. I was sad to see it die.

[BlitzDungeoneer]

I have an army of dragons. But they aren't very effective against goblins so I use giant cave spiders instead.

Seems legit. Then again, I don't have much experience with dragons, so it might be possible.

[fucduck]

.

[m-logik]

I'm a big fan of large dangerous animals, too.
In one of my first successful-ish forts giant coyotes made up the bulk of my defenses. This was how I learned to love the exotics. A lot of them ended up getting names. Incidentally, that fort also taught me how not to use bins; before it finally crumbled I had ammo and armor and finished goods bins all over the map. I didn't know about dumping then, so I would just pature a giant coyote on top of every bin that was left out the wilderness. The keas and kobolds would still try to steal them...

In my current fort I've got an absurd number of animals. Cave crocs, giant dingos, giant leopards, cheetahs, giant warthogs, and more. The real stars of my menagerie have been the giant black mambas. I've dug holes near all the ambush/siege hot spots and buried cages with giant black mambas. A pull of a lever and a bridge retracts, and enormous poisonous snakes swarm the invaders. It's a beautiful thing.

[BlackFlyme]

I have an army of dragons. But they aren't very effective against goblins so I use giant cave spiders instead.

Seems legit. Then again, I don't have much experience with dragons, so it might be possible.

It's mostly because of friendly fire. Any allies caught in it are usually goners. Plus you can actually block fire with shields.

That and webs are incredibly effective, though still capable of catching allies. Webbed creatures are as easy to hit as unconscious ones, and the cool down on the webs is short enough that the spider can web some slower opponents repeatedly without them being able to do anything about it. Plus it doubles as a source of thread, and can be used to make cage traps capture creatures that are normally trap-immune.

More on-topic, the only aggressive non-war-trained animal I've seen was a modded jackalope creature. They were incredibly aggressive, considering the fact that they were just rabbits with antlers.

[PDF urist master]

I have an army of dragons. But they aren't very effective against goblins so I use giant cave spiders instead.

Mind if I sig this?

sure. go wild.

I also have a bunch of cave crocodiles and they attack goblins and trolls on sight. I didn't give them the [TRAINABLE] tag so they aren't war trained. I've found these guys to be way more effective than grizzly bears or lions so I think I should use them as backup instead.

[IndigoFenix]

Some behavioral tags seem to affect pet behavior.  If I recall correctly, LARGE_PREDATORs will regularly attack enemies even if they aren't trained, as will animals that are PRONE_TO_RAGE.  Most others will flee unless cornered, but sometimes their pathing might get mixed up (especially in underground tunnels).

[PDF urist master]

Some behavioral tags seem to affect pet behavior.  If I recall correctly, LARGE_PREDATORs will regularly attack enemies even if they aren't trained, as will animals that are PRONE_TO_RAGE.  Most others will flee unless cornered, but sometimes their pathing might get mixed up (especially in underground tunnels).

I think LIKES_FIGHTING also does that.