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[Bearskie]

I'm sure we all hate birds in dwarf fortress.  Whether they be packs of roving kea eager to steal your priceless artifact socks, or lone peregrines eating up all the vermin and having your cats starve to death, BIRDS ARE ANNOYING AS HELL.

Well, perhaps you'd like to know of a little project we here at Roadkill Industries have been working on... ^{evil cackle}

Serious stuffs

The Orbirdal Defense Network is a series of minecart tracks shaped as in below.  In this example, there are 6 z-levels of the same arrangement stacked above one another.  Minecarts are kept in perpetual motion by the four impulse ramps, reaching deadly speeds very fast. 

I've been fortunate enough to have a low embark with about 15 z-levels of sky.  This contraption extends from z-level +9 to +14.  +15 requires too many bridge-walls to be worth it, and anything below +9 should be useless once I get some war dogs to scare them away from the ground.

Now, see that peregrine falcon there?  He's been acting like a dick lately, flying over all my little ponies and scaring them from their pastures.  Well now him and his little smarts has just wandered into the path of an incoming minecart.  Lets show him who's boss.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Peregrine falcon enters the device, on a direct collision course with the minecart.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

COLLISION!  The falcon is run over by the minecart, who speeds off like a hit-and-run offender.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The falcon is stunned, unable to fly or escape from the device, and is thrown back by the force of the collision!  Even if he was knocked off the ledge, he would have plummeted into the ocean below and drownt anyway.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He skids all the way to the end of the device, where he bumps into the map's edge.  Note the severe injuries.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Read the severe injuries.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just when he thought he was getting a break, the psychotic minecart returns for a second round.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bye bye birdy.

For all you blood-thirsty maniacs, another bird bites the dust in this spine-chilling 1HKO video: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-2719-projectroadkillexplodingbirds


So what are you waiting for? Get the Orbital Defense Network today, and you no longer have to worry about pesky fliers ever again! ^{now, about the corpses...}
__________________

Original post:

Okay, so a little background:

I'm currently running a small fort intended to catch large creatures from the ocean, much like Sphalerite's legendary sea serpent farm.  In fact, my setup is pretty much the same.  One of the key components of this fort is that the edges of the embark square need to be sealed off with raising drawbridges to prevent land animals from spawning, so that ocean creatures can spawn instead. 

Unfortunately, after sealing up the map, I noticed one thing - the BIRDS are still spawning! I seem to catch them being spawned from the edges of the ocean embark (ie the sides with no visible land below it).  So, what gives?  Did spawning rules change recently or something?

Either way, I'd also like to ask: where do ocean creatures spawn from?  If they spawn on the ocean level (z=0), and the birds spawn at (presumably) above sea level (z=+1), can I just wall off z+1 the same way and see some fishes coming in?

And lastly, if all else fails, just post your funny/interesting ideas in getting rid of those darn birds.  I might just consider turning this into a duck hunting fortress instead.

[Skullsploder]

Create a patrol route with a corner at each map edge. Equip patrollers with crossbows. Your fort will look like an anti-aircraft battery with the amount of bolts that will fly.

[Psieye]

Remove [FLIER] from the raws for all the birds. Problem solved.

[KingBacon]

I support crossbows over editing raws (unless you are forcing elves to siege you )

Had a similar problem with giant peach faced love birds, though they were attacking my dorfs. Mass conscription and crossbows for everyone. True Dwarven Egalitarianism.

[Naryar]

quoting for relevance

Build a couple of anti-buzzard SAM sites marksdwarf towers and your fortress will look like Baghdad in 2003 from all the aerial bolt spam. You waste a lot of ammo and everything is covered in unslightly exploded buzzard bits and broken bolts.

Baghdad Fortress !

Honestly you can build marksdwarf towers but then your ocean will be full of bird corpses. Removing flier from the tags does the same.

I would simply remove the birds from your region raws while you have no more (living) birds in your fort. Or restart a fort without birds, if you feel like it.

[utunnels]

Maybe you can generate a world with low altitude, play a 1x1 map, floor every level and ...

[Bearskie]

^ You're crazy. I like you.

Editing raws is a lil' too cheesy for me, this is a fun fort anyway.  And what better fun than to go all DAKKAAAAAAAA on the local bird population.  Baghdad fortress it is.

However, I do want to try a little plan of my own.  Basically, imagine a bunch of straight minecart tracks, one on each z-level.  Using some minecart magic, is it possible to have the minecarts travelling perpetual motion style back and forth along the track, grinding all birds who fly past?

If it is, I have dibs on the name project Roadkill.

[Arx]

It is totally possible. You might need to do it as a loop not back-and-forth, but impulse ramps would let you do it pretty simply.

[Bearskie]

I'm not very experienced with minecart contraptions, but the (simple) setup you made me consider is this:

Code: [Select]

O.O.......O..
/=▲=======▲=\
\=▲=======▲=/
..O.......O.O

= straight tracks
O walls
\ turns
▲ impulse ramps

Considering how much I've heard about the awesome power of impulse ramps, I think 4 should be enough for acceleration.  If anyone has a better design (probably), please do chip in

Now the only question would be: will collisions throw a cart off it's rails?

My own personal experience says no, but I've never dealt with such high speeds before.

[utunnels]

Well even if it works, building so  many tracks is not an easier task than blocking all edges with floors and bridges.

[Bearskie]

Hehe.  But... roadkill.

And besides, I still dont understand the spawning mechanics for fliers, so blocking the edges might or might not work (they might spawn above the bridge instead). 

I can also reduce the number of z-levels I have to cover by restraining animals to certain portions of the sky, so the birds can be herded into the track area.

[draeath]

I'm a fan of the duckhunt personally. Give it a few years and you'll have squads of tick-shooting snipers...

Since birds are (always?) unarmored you can use cheap wood (or bone) bolts without much worry. Wood is pretty cheap to import, and if you're grinding lots of critters you'll have a ton of bone on hand.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

What about obscene quantities of siege engines?

[Arx]

Last I checked, catapults were ineffective and ballistae uneconomical but vicious. The trouble might prove to be getting a decent rate of fire going, without wasting tons of bolts on irrelevant Z-levels.

When siege engines are overhauled, it'll probably be more possible.

[Skullsploder]

If you could somehow engineer a fortress which produces enough bolts and competent siege operators to have ballistae covering every z level to the point where a bird literally can't fly past without exploding... you, sir, will have won.