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[HungryHobo]

I've been playing DF for about 2 weeks now.
Started up a fortress near a volcano and a river and I've been doing quite well but there are a few things I'm curious about.

Story so far:

I decided after the first small siege that I didn't want any enemies getting out alive so on all the access points around the edge of my map I built a 1 tile wide channel with lots of bridges all linked to a lever to allow caravans to cross but which I can retract in a few moments if need be.

When a siege arrives I let them cross then pull the lever and they get trapped between that and the sea of traps outside my gates and the stonefall trap minefield.

A bronze colossus turned up, I ordered all my dwarfs inside but he just... stood there and wouldn't go close to my fortress, happily a merchant guard wrestled with him and knocked him into the channel where he found a few goblins to tear limb from limb.

For a while I used him for target practice but he didn't seem to want to die so I left him there and am currently working on a tunnel so I can flood magma on top of him.

Next a load of goblins turned up with trolls to lay siege.
they're standing at the edge of the map.
the doors of my fortress are unlocked but they don't seem to want to come any closer.

as I write this a dragon just turned up.

With luck it will eat the goblins and then get into a godzilla vz giant robot style fight with the colossus.

My questions:

1:what can destroy doors/hatch covers?
the wiki touches on this but a lot of the info seems to be from older version of the game. Do I have to worry about the dragon tearing the doors out?

2:Can anything destroy constructed walls?
I mean I get the strong impression that since I have magma being pulled through a pump and water being pulled through a pump all I would have to do to make my fortress utterly enemy proof would be to wall up all the entrances, set up some greenhouses and forget about the world above.

Let the sieges come, let the traders come, let the migrants come, let them all battle to the death on the surface while I live underground building my population purely from births.

3:Why when I build walls or channels do dwarfs always, always, always choose to stand on the side that will leave them trapped in a 1x1 room.
At one point I tested this.

Designate a wall to be built to close off a 1x1 space with lots of other angles which he could work from.
Dwarf walks into the 1x1 space and begins work.
Cancel.
repeat 3 times to make sure this isn't random.

Designate a wall to be built to close off a 1x1 space with lots of other angles which he could work from and forbid path the spot I don't want him to stand on with cost 100.
Dwarf walks into the 1x1 space and begins work.

Designate a wall to be built to close off a 1x1 space with lots of other angles which he could work from and forbid path the spot I don't want him to stand on with cost 100 and try multiple combinations of making that wall to be built the second or 3rd in a line starting from another location which would force him to walk through a large forbidden cost 100 path in order to stand in the 1x1 "bad" square.
Dwarf walks into the 1x1 space and begins work.

I mean WFT? Do they want to wall themselves in and starve to death?

Is there any way to mark a square as "don't stand here even if your life depends upon it, pretend it's a chasm"

4:
When I was using the colossus as target practice were my dwarfs getting any experience or do they only get experience when they get a kill?

[ March 15, 2008: Message edited by: HungryHobo ]

[ March 15, 2008: Message edited by: HungryHobo ]

[GrimmSweeper]

1. All creatures with the [BUILDINGDESTROYER:2] tag can destroy doors. This includes dragons. Just check the creature_standard.txt in the raw for a better list.

2. Nothing can destroy constructed walls, except if you designate them to be deconstructed. You could become a hermit dwarven fortress easily.

3. Dwarves approach building, mining and channelling things with a methodical approach. If one side is accessible (I believe they always prefer the top, then bottom, followed by the two sides, left then right, before trying diagonally for mining/channelling only), then they will choose that side, no matter if they might close themselves off.

I don't think it is possible to mark a square as 'forbidden' like items.

4. Your dwarves get experience when they shoot bolts, not when they kill stuff. Otherwise they would not get anything from Archery Targets.

[HungryHobo]

just thought of another question.
I'm considering the chance that my fortress will get wiped out.
I would like to try to reclaim it in that case.
I currently have a large system of pumps which with a few adjustments could be rigged to flood most of my mine and then empty it again.
I've heard that there are many nasty creatures which take over a fortress when it's been abandoned.

1: Would most of these creatures be killed by being submerged in water for a long time.
2: are mechanisms/pumps destroyed when you abandon/reclaim.

[Othob Rithol]

I never quite thought of that approach. The reclamation squad shows up, one dwarf  goes civilian and flips a lever conveniently outside the front gate. Pure maggot milk cheese if you ask me, but novel.

[zagibu]

I don't think installed pumps will remain in the same spot, and if they do, the axles, etc. are probably scattered about.

[numerobis]

quote:Originally posted by zagibu:
<STRONG>I don't think installed pumps will remain in the same spot, and if they do, the axles, etc. are probably scattered about.</STRONG>

Quite the contrary: buildings definitely stay put.