Print

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

[Leelas]

So, it finally happened.

It's Spring 555, I'm carving out a new entrance to my fortress, and all of a sudden, a dragon appears, complete with legendary nickname. I sound the alarms to get everyone indoors, mobilize the militia, and watch in anticipation as he traverses the southern mountain, where my new entry is being built, hops down into my old pastureage area, walled off between the northern and southern mountains, and proceeds to torch every single one of my reindeers and dogs (I had them in pastures to control their whereabouts) until there's absolutely no hint that they even existed, setting off a blaze that rips through the densely wooded valley and probably would have reduced the entire map to ash had it not been for some timely rain.

Anyway, he enters my fort and is promptly caught in a trap that I had placed for Giant Kea. I set my best non-militia animal trainer to tame him, and he immediately became "well-tamed". I have a little nook of the fortress set aside for him, free of flammable plant life and blocked off with a one-tile entrance. My questions are as follows:

A. Is it safe to let him out of his cage? If I set him to a pasture adjacent to the training area, will he respect the pasture?

B. How many trainers can I expect to lose before he becomes a war dragon if he's only "well-trained" but not domesticated? How can I increase his training level?

C. My ultimate plan is to shack him up in a cave with my elite marksdwarf vampire, either on the ridge west of the map, or on the peak of the southern mountain, above the new entrance to the fortress. Will both dragon and vampire respect any burrows I place within this cave, or will I need to create some sort of a barrier that I would open in the event that their services were needed? What are the odds of one of them killing the other if they're left alone with nothing to do for an extended period of time? Say, if the vampire tantrums and tries fighting the dragon, and the dragon incinerates him? Also, do vampires ever feed on animals? And could one kill a dragon?

Anyway, that's my current situation. My ultimate goal is to keep both dragonfire and hungry vampires as far away as possible from my elite and absolutely deadly military. I'm also considering some strategic logging to make sure that the upper branches of trees in the valley don't connect. Possibly diverting the river into a series of bridged channels to prevent the spread of groundfire as well. In short, retooling the valley for dragon combat.

[LordUbik]

Well, nice catch! I'll try to respond to your questions:

A - It is safe... but it would be safe-ish to keep him caged. He will probably respect the pasture, but a sudden burst of flames can kill anything near him. If you really want to let him roam freely, keep a lot of cage traps nearby, to catch him promptly in the case he goes wild.

B - If you put a trainer without any other job (really, nothing else, no hauling of sort, no cleaning... nothing!) a single one should be sufficent to keep him under control.

It will never become "domesticated" sadly. To domesticate a creature, you have to have a trained breeding couple of them, and the offspring would be domesticated. You can only keep him trained. When the training level starts to lower, you trainer will automatically re-train him, and it could be more or less trained.

C - Nope. Burrows are respected only by your own dwarves, and only when they are performing any kind of job, so if the vampire is idle he can freely roam the map, unless you keep it with locked doors or similar.

Having nothing to do do not increase the chances they will try to kill themselves, but you have to remember that the dragon will slowly turn wild.

Vampires do not feed on animals, only on your population.

And for the latter... if the dragon hit the vampire with his flames, the vampire is pretty quickly dead, but dragons are the classical "glass cannons". If the vampire survives enought to hit the dragon a couple of times, it has high possibility to kill it or at least cripple it very badly, expecially with the help of a crossbow.

[Leelas]

Got it. So I need to keep him in some location where a trainer can constantly get to him. He'll need food and such for that, correct? I'm thinking pairing him with the vampire might be a bad idea. Suppose I pair him with my adamantine-shield-equipped melee squad. Adamantine blocks dragonfire, right? And they'd cover for him quite nicely as well. What are the odds of losing one of my treasured axe lords to friendly dragonfire?

Thanks for the help, by the way. I really appreciate it.

[smakemupagus]

Any shield can block dragonfire if a skilled user is actively blocking it, but adamantine doesn't make the wearer fireproof.  The odds of getting friendly fire are probably pretty high, whether from direct fire, or from secondary blaze that he starts.

[LordUbik]

Yep, any shield can block dragonfire, but you have to be sure your soldiers are not wearing anything flammable, like clothes. A metal claded dwarf can withstand dragonfire quite well befure starting to take damage.

By the way, you have to remember that dragons are... pretty big! An axe could have some problem in dealing real damage to it, a spear would be better. But, frankly, adamantine coated axelords can easily bring down anything.

So, be simply sure to fight the dragon with two things in mind: no clothes on your dwarves, and nothing flammable nearby, like grass, trees...

This way you should avoid any loss!

And you're welcome of course!

[Ruhn]

People with pet dragons often put them safely behind barriers until needed.  Elite marks-goblins can do bad things.

[Loci]

A. Is it safe to let him out of his cage? If I set him to a pasture adjacent to the training area, will he respect the pasture?

Animals tend to escape pastures periodically. If you're going to use a pasture, there's no reason to create a separate training area--just enable training on the pasture. But, for dangerous critters (including dragons), I prefer to use a restraint placed inside a training zone. Restraints are much harder to escape, and if your dragon reverts to wild it will stay contained and (relatively) harmless.

B. How many trainers can I expect to lose before he becomes a war dragon if he's only "well-trained" but not domesticated? How can I increase his training level?

Training is, by itself, not dangerous. Do avoid having any hostile creatures wander by your dragon; any nearby dwarves can be easily incinerated by an errant burst of dragonfire.

C. My ultimate plan is to shack him up in a cave with my elite marksdwarf vampire, either on the ridge west of the map, or on the peak of the southern mountain, above the new entrance to the fortress. Will both dragon and vampire respect any burrows I place within this cave, or will I need to create some sort of a barrier that I would open in the event that their services were needed?

First, burrows don't work like that. Burrows only restrict which jobs a creature can take, not where it can go.

Second, dragonfire is limited to a single z-level--no raining down fire from above.

Third, I would definitely separate them; I've seen ridiculously stupid dwarves walk right into dragonfire on more than one occasion.

[omega_dwarf]

From the wiki: "If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's."

So just make sure forgotten beasts don't have access (even through fortifications) to your dragon/vampire complex - even though it would probably end up more poorly for the beast.

Although I don't know whether or not that only applies to domesticated animals...

[wierd]

Yep, any shield can block dragonfire, but you have to be sure your soldiers are not wearing anything flammable, like clothes. A metal claded dwarf can withstand dragonfire quite well befure starting to take damage.

By the way, you have to remember that dragons are... pretty big! An axe could have some problem in dealing real damage to it, a spear would be better. But, frankly, adamantine coated axelords can easily bring down anything.

So, be simply sure to fight the dragon with two things in mind: no clothes on your dwarves, and nothing flammable nearby, like grass, trees...

This way you should avoid any loss!

And you're welcome of course!

clown silk makes great undergarments. It's soft, it breathes well, and most importantly, it is fireproof. Makes a great underlayer for added resistance.  (Not sufficient alone though.)

[PillarsOfSalt]

Why not make the vampire his trainer? That would solve one problem atleast.

P.S. What's the life span of a dragon anyways?

[omega_dwarf]

Quite long. I've heard figures like 1,000 years to mature, although that might have been world length.

[Chevaleresse]

Dragons take 1k years to reach full size, but they're polar bear sized by 3 years and double every year iirc.

The best application of a dragon in a defensive plan is dropped in a bunker with fortifications allowing him to spew flames in only desirable directions.

[gunpowdertea]

So, it finally happened.

It's Spring 555, I'm carving out a new entrance to my fortress, and all of a sudden, a dragon appears, complete with legendary nickname. I sound the alarms to get everyone indoors, mobilize the militia, and watch in anticipation as he traverses the southern mountain, where my new entry is being built, hops down into my old pastureage area, walled off between the northern and southern mountains, and proceeds to torch every single one of my reindeers and dogs
[...]
A. Is it safe to let him out of his cage? If I set him to a pasture adjacent to the training area, will he respect the pasture?

To my knowledge if an animal has ever fought dorfs (or "members" of your civ, like pets) it will continue to do so even when tamed... so the answer would be:
no, it is not safe to do so.
It might have changed in the new version, but somehow I doubt it.

[Bumber]

P.S. What's the life span of a dragon anyways?

Growth stops at 1000 years, but they're immortal.