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[Neo_Spade]

Hey, provided that the new version of the game is stable now, I might risk it... I found an evil tundra next to an ocean on the map. I'll see if our friend the Doom Whale will make an appearance. If not, I'll make that really tall Whale Murder Chute fantastically engraved obsidian skylight in a noble's bed chamber, and we'll do some more !!SCIENCE!! to see if dropping Whales, or anything for that matter does more damage than simply dropping it from the arena height limit.

Also, as an aside: I was trying to squash a Dwarf with a Sperm Whale in a minecart, the Whale kept getting out, so in the end I had the Dwarf push the cart himself then [j]ump in it's path. I've discovered that a Dwarf can sufficiently push a minecart with enough force to break his own leg with said minecart after it moves only 2 tiles along. This also could mean that things travelling horizontally do more damage than those moving vertically. I'll try that before I make that fortress, and post the results here.

Also, also: I love Doom Whales, I had two duke it out in the arena! I found that Doom Whale "gout" magma from their wounds, apparently "gouting" means to splash or drop especially when relating to blood. Do other creatures "gout" from their wounds, if so how did I miss this? xD

[Wimopy]

You don't need an evil region near an ocean. I made it so there's 1-2 in every ocean region. I mean any sort of ocean, not just savage or evil. Removing the savage tag might not have worked though, so your best bet is a savage region.
Luckily, I added the NOT_LIVING tag, so at least you won't see doom whale husks/zombies/thralls. I mean, how boring would it be if they didn't bleed magma?
It's unfortunate that magma disappears so fast since it only appears in "small" pools, still I love it as an extra detail.

Not sure about gouting. I have only seen doom whales "spray", "ooze" and "gush" their magma. Although, they seem to bleed pretty easily. At least, when facing similarly OP enemies.

Update: Oh gosh, I managed to get one to burn to death by facing dragons. Even her heart was burned before she died.
Oh and they light on fire in magma. I'm going to update my previous post by adding FIREIMMUNE_SUPER to the base slade whale. I advise everyone to do that, it seems silly for something made of slade to burn in magma. Simple FIREIMMUNE is enough if you think dragonfire should burn them.

[Neo_Spade]

Update: Oh gosh, I managed to get one to burn to death by facing dragons. Even her heart was burned before she died.
Oh and they light on fire in magma. I'm going to update my previous post by adding FIREIMMUNE_SUPER to the base slade whale. I advise everyone to do that, it seems silly for something made of slade to burn in magma. Simple FIREIMMUNE is enough if you think dragonfire should burn them.

Interesting, I found that it didn't make much difference to a Doom Whale when I made it drink it's own Magma blood off of the floor, then again it was already mortally wounded, so that might be why it didn't notice anything. I'll make a new one drink the old one's blood to see if it burns up

EDIT: Yeah, I can't do that nearly fast enough, the blood despawned a bit too fast. I also burned both the Doom Whales to death in the lava, both took about 100 or so turns (I think) to burn alive, so they're probably more of a danger when set alight (given how long they burn, and can still fly after being submerged in lava), they could easily burn down a Fortress unless proper disposal methods were employed. The mushroom cloud that comes off of them is quite spectacular by the way

[Wimopy]

Yeah... I noticed the mushroom cloud. I have no idea where that comes from. It just says smoke. Probably because they're on fire. Actually pretty awesome.

It seems their blood is a bit glitchy. It says magma, but in all truth, it's still blood. When their 'magma' blood encounters real magma, it turns in to 'Lava mist'. It still has the freeze/boil points of blood, but the looks of magma. Too bad, it would be really cool if they would actually burn everything apart when bleeding. I'll see if I can do that.

[Neo_Spade]

Yeah... I noticed the mushroom cloud. I have no idea where that comes from. It just says smoke. Probably because they're on fire. Actually pretty awesome.

It seems their blood is a bit glitchy. It says magma, but in all truth, it's still blood. When their 'magma' blood encounters real magma, it turns in to 'Lava mist'. It still has the freeze/boil points of blood, but the looks of magma. Too bad, it would be really cool if they would actually burn everything apart when bleeding. I'll see if I can do that.

You could add a syndrome to it that causes things to melt on contact, if that's at all possible. I've also got to get into adding new creatures and that, it's a combination of seeing the Doom and Slade Whales, coupled with seeing the Dwarf Fortress from Scratch thread that have gave me the itch to do it again! (and properly this time too)!


Also, an update on the whole making a fort designed around capturing and weaponizing one of these beasts: I made a small world with Very High Savagery and after the first failed embark (my first time embarking on an Evil Glacier, the whole embark was wiped out by an evil mist that arrived not 10 days after embark and killed them all instantly xD), the new embark is on a half normal half savage ocean, with a river. The river being totally in-accessible right now. Once I get it going I might actually take it to the Community Games & Stories thread, it's quite the embark.

Also due to the lack of resources the fort will mainly consist of Wood and Microline.

This all relies on whether or not the changes in 0.40.03 have had any bearing on the consistant crashes I was getting in Fortress mode, hopeful this is the case, otherwise I'll be forced to wait! (Which may not be a bad thing given that the Doom Whale might become an even more badass foe for Urist McAhab.

EDIT: Grammar fixes to aid in clarity.

[Wimopy]

Well, good luck, you're going to need it. I don't know how ocean creatures spawn exactly, maybe I should have added a FREQUENCY tag to the slade whale, but nevermind that now.
I can't recall what I've heard about caged OPPOSED_TO_LIFE creatures. I think they try to attack even if they get tamed. Not sure what happens after that though. Either a loyalty cascade or you simply can't attack back. Should be Fun.

Weaponizing this thing shouldn't be hard. It hates the guts of everything except undead. I think it should get along with undead just fine. And even then, you can try dropping it on them. (Well, you can't because it flies)
I look forward to hearing tales of the horrors this thread let loose. So far, I've only seen three creatures kill a doom whale: another doom whale, a dragon and my 'adventurer' race. And the last two are extremely inconsistent.

[Neo_Spade]

Well, good luck, you're going to need it. I don't know how ocean creatures spawn exactly, maybe I should have added a FREQUENCY tag to the slade whale, but nevermind that now.
I can't recall what I've heard about caged OPPOSED_TO_LIFE creatures. I think they try to attack even if they get tamed. Not sure what happens after that though. Either a loyalty cascade or you simply can't attack back. Should be Fun.

Yeah, that'll be all part of the !!FUN!!, at least getting it to attack won't be a problem, so goading it into the traps will be the easy part. If push comes to shove, if I can't get one to spawn, I'll see what I can do with external programs and force it, but that'll sort of be against the spirit of the endevour.

Weaponizing this thing shouldn't be hard. It hates the guts of everything except undead. I think it should get along with undead just fine. And even then, you can try dropping it on them. (Well, you can't because it flies)
I look forward to hearing tales of the horrors this thread let loose. So far, I've only seen three creatures kill a doom whale: another doom whale, a dragon and my 'adventurer' race. And the last two are extremely inconsistent.

I'm sure the Goblins will have a fun time with him, if I can manage capturing it I might tie it down in an arena with an Adamantine Chain, or the sole entry point to the fort. Better still I'll breach the candy, collapse the cavern behind him and see if he can beat all the clowns solo.

There's always dropping the entire fortress on him if things get too rough. It'll be a bizzare reversal of the OP, wherein I'll be dropping all the Dwarves and the Fort in tow onto a Whale... which might survive if I'm unlucky...

...ooh theres a thought... creating walls in the arena and dropping them on things, may as well see if it works just in case worst comes to worst the Doom Whale turns out to be too much !!FUN!!

[Wimopy]

"Doom whale 1 has been crushed under the collapsing ceiling."
It works.

[Neo_Spade]

"Doom whale 1 has been crushed under the collapsing ceiling."
It works.

Wow, that's both really awesome and slightly sad. That'll have to be a last resort in killing the thing, otherwise where's the challenge? xD Also, for a creature of that size and considering what it's made of it's so weird that it still gets destroyed by that. I wonder if there will be (or already is) a creature that doesn't die from being crushed by cave-ins?

[Wimopy]

Even a bronze colossus died, so it's safe to say that being flattened by a block of stone is a sure-fire killer.

[scriberman]

OK, I know this thread has gone far off Into the Woods¹ from the original experiments, but I just had to say:

So, it looks like hundreds (thousands?) of whales are being killed (Sperm Whale-icide?), simply to understand a little bit more about how a dwarf is able to dodge such a huge thing and survive, for the sake of !!Science!!.  Fine (obviously).  But.  Will no prepossessing person ponder the pitiful plight of the pulped porpoises²?

What I mean, of course, is that shouldn't we also be wondering how such a huge creature can fall *from* *the* *«*sky*»* and ... fail to die ... SO spectacularly that, upon impact with the round ground, instead of silently thudding, it still felt physically vigorous enough to attack an opponent?  (Let alone increasing its power by transforming it into a flying volcano!)

p.s.
First forum post; long time reader of epic threads and crumbler of fortresses (since 0.34.10).

¹Definitely weird:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAuqQ-h7vA Disney is remaking that movie:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zxQ0b9H8fU
²Preemptive citation supporting usage of "porpoise":  http://marinelife.about.com/od/marinelife101/p/wdp.htm

[Wimopy]

To be honest, it seems that due to its immense size, its tissues are so thick they just absorb the impact. I just dropped a giant sperm whale 4 z-levels and its left eye, head and upper body took the impact (in that order).
Right now, it's drowning and stunned, but perfectly alright otherwise.

Besides, it's likely the same reason why it can't actually damage a dwarf; something makes it fall slowly.

I dropped a second giant sperm whale on the first one. The first one, WHILE STUNNED, jumped away. This time the left false ribs got jammed into the liver, the neck was pulped into the body and the left flipper's bone was bruised.

Now, here come the bugs! I slapped the GSW1 while controlling GSW2. The attack passed through the lower body. It seems that at some sizes, the enemy is so big its density approaches 0. This is what causes it to receive/deal no damage while falling.
In other words: the size is so big that its cells/molecules are far enough apart that the tail of a giant sperm whale PASSES BETWEEN THEM.

I think this should make a bug report. The larger the size, the more common it is that the creature is rendered without weight and attacks pass through (no weight is shown by the fact that a dwarf can charge into it and make it fly across the room; strangely, charges can't pass through, they can only miss or hit).
I'm guessing it's more an engine limitation or something but I'll add it to bug tracker if it hasn't been added yet.

[JoeJoe]

Is it possible, that in some calculations values larger than 2 billion are computed (maybe when the weight is multiplied with the speed)? If signed 32-bit integers are used that would cause an overflow.

[Wimopy]

Is it possible, that in some calculations values larger than 2 billion are computed (maybe when the weight is multiplied with the speed)? If signed 32-bit integers are used that would cause an overflow.

I guess so. I have no idea about the tech part, but I'm pretty sure it's an engine limitation. Forced me to resize monsters in the MH mod and give them tougher skin/bones instead. Which is silly, since they're not supposed to be tougher than some smaller monsters, but well, that's that.

The strangest thing is that, in theory, all creatures spawned in the arena are average in size/stats. I don't think they vary. Still, some will be bugged, some won't. Totally random.

[JoeJoe]

One could mod a bunch of creatures that are identical except for mass or volume and watch how fall damage increases/decreases with size and if there's maybe a point at which there's a sudden decrease in damage.