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[Mimodo]

I managed to find and capture myself a giant cave spider (woohoo!), and instantly set to work setting up a silk farm.

I heard someone had problems with a tame spider not shooting webs, so I've kept it wild, and set up.

Things didn't quite go to plan... I've only got 1 z-level to work with, and set it up as shown in the wiki. And nothing happened. Frustrated, I tried to remove everything and start again.

Upon removal of the bridge, spidey goes nuts with his webs, and now I have absolutely no way of retrieving the cave spider, or that poor dwarf stuck in the webs. Any idea what I can do?

[martinuzz]

This is why you always leave a cage trap, so you can recapture the spider. Look at this picture: if I unlock the pen's doors, with the bridge down, or even completely gone, the spider will path to the dwarf, and get itself trapped in a cage.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mimodo]

I think I found a way to recover my GCS, but it may cost me a miner... Totally worth it. I'll take a shot at your setup and see if that'll encourage shooting

[Loci]

Likely you chose the wrong bait; animals no longer work reliably, but, as you saw, a GCS still enjoys webbing dwarves.

As for recovery, I'd suggest digging a tunnel to above or below the spider, installing two cage traps (one for the miner, if he's lucky, and one for the spider) then digging through to the spider's level with an expendable miner. If you're digging in from above you want to dig out the tile first, remove any rocks, and then channel downwards. If you're digging below, leave the tile intact and designate a ramp to release the spider. Dropping the spider is probably preferable, since it would be more likely to break line-of-sight to the hapless dwarf above.

Code: [Select]

side view:

 #S#____
  ▲^^____

▲=ramp, ^=cage trap, _=floor, #=wall/fortifications


[Mimodo]

My method of capture was similar, except involved mining behind said spider, which is now to be the permanent re-capture point. Even better, the miner didn't even get caged. GCS was too busy webbing the previous dwarf to even notice that someone had popped a hole in the wall behind him

I was using a dog, which didn't work, although the bridge must have been causing some problems too, because the spider didn't attack until the bridge was removed (I made sure to flip it both ways to be sure).

[nasobema]

The comment on animals not working properly anymore made me thinking.

I also set up a silk farm with a webbing FB but it worked poorly. There was no pattern on when the FB would try to web the bait (a goose in this case). Also the output was only a few webs.
Also strange that the bridge meant to block line of sight for harvesting purpose deconstructed after a few cycles for unknown reasons (no creatures whatsoever where in the way, however probably a few webs).

Since dwarf apparently still work fine, could it be that tame animals are considered close to neutral by the FB/GCS?
So would a war dog attached to a chain work properly?

Time for !!SCIENCE!!

[Mimodo]

The comment on animals not working properly anymore made me thinking.

I also set up a silk farm with a webbing FB but it worked poorly. There was no pattern on when the FB would try to web the bait (a goose in this case). Also the output was only a few webs.
Also strange that the bridge meant to block line of sight for harvesting purpose deconstructed after a few cycles for unknown reasons (no creatures whatsoever where in the way, however probably a few webs).

Since dwarf apparently still work fine, could it be that tame animals are considered close to neutral by the FB/GCS?
So would a war dog attached to a chain work properly?

Time for !!SCIENCE!!

Well to answer your last !!SCIENCE!! question, no. Mine WAS a war dog, chained up with only 1 fortification between it and GCS. What a FB would do, I'm not sure. I'm just going to use a dwarf as bait now... much easier

[Tacomagic]

Hmm.  I wonder if there's a way to use gabbos to do this.   Web collection would be the tricky part.

[Mimodo]

Hmm.  I wonder if there's a way to use gabbos to do this.   Web collection would be the tricky part.

A tame GCS would attack a goblin

[Mimodo]

Alright, my GCS isn't even attacking a dwarf now...

any clue why not?

[Loci]

A tame GCS would attack a goblin

Attack, yes. Web, no.

Alright, my GCS isn't even attacking a dwarf now...

any clue why not?

In older versions, webbers would not shoot through multiple layers of fortifications. Only a single fortification next to the webber works. (This is probably because they lack the necessary marksspider skills to ignore fortifications.) If that's not it, a screenshot of your setup might help.

[Mimodo]

Really basic setup. Top right you can see where it was. Pretty similar to martinuzz. I removed the drawbridge a bit earlier, and the lever was used as an incentive for a dwarf to come close to the spider, who sat there doing pretty much nothing

[Rafatio]

Alright, my GCS isn't even attacking a dwarf now...

any clue why not?

Use a military dwarf, thats the only one I could reliably get webbed.

[martinuzz]

Alright, my GCS isn't even attacking a dwarf now...

any clue why not?

How far is it away? I've never seen a spider web anything that is more than 4 tiles away. So in my picture Spider - fortification - bridge - bridge (when it's lowered)- bait, makes 4. If the bait backs up one step, and gets to range 5, spider won't fire.

[TacoSundae84]

That was me who was having trouble with the tamed GCS webbing. I probably should have updated the thread once I got it working. All the following is assuming tame GCS, I haven't tried wild.

They will not web chained creatures at all. They will attack them and kill them, but at no point will they shoot a web. They also will not web any wild creatures, such as troglodytes. They will eventually web hostile creatures, but it has to be only 1 tile between them if it's through a fortification. I set up something similar to the high volume silk farm on the wiki silk farm page, and it works great. Here's a diagram.

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The goblin is standing on a hatch linked to a lever with a cage trap on the level below. The spider just climbs right out once I unlock the hatch above I used to pit it in. Make sure to let your spider out once in a while to get retrained.