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[Insert_Gnome_Here]

I think catapults would probably work fine. I've never seen a lump of flying rock be beaten by an albatross.

[Naryar]

Killing birds with fucking BALLISTAE?

Now that is the most dwarven suggestion of this thread. Do it !

And don't forget to record your exploding birds in this thread for posterity.

And yes, catapults should work. Ballistae are noticeably more dwarven though.

[utunnels]

But when will new critters spawn? After the whole group of birds are dead?
In my experience sometimes a single critter can prevent next group from spawning.

[Bearskie]

I think catapults would probably work fine. I've never seen a lump of flying rock be beaten by an albatross.

Is it because nobody has ever seen a lump of flying rock hit an albatross?

Alright, this is just theorycrafting for a while.  What we know: hitting a target on a single z-level is hard enough with siege engines, let alone on a 3D level.  This is compounded by siege engines only firing targets on their own z-level.  If we're going to use the literal approach (ie Skullsploder's suggestion) without cheap tricks, war animals will have to be used to herd the birds into a smaller 'slice' of the z-axis.

Then comes the problem of wasting all the ballista bolts.  A possible arrangement would be to have the ballista bolts hit a wall on the other side of the embark, and thus fall downwards.  To avoid hauling those bolts all the way back to the original battery, we can have another series of ballistas (on a different z-level) there too, which essentially means that the ammo will go through a continuous 'cycle'.

Side view

Code: [Select]

..B----------------------->.O
..B----------------------->.O
..B----------------------->.O
O.<-----------------------B..
O.<-----------------------B..
O.<-----------------------B..

B ballista
O walls
-> direction of ballista bolt fire

Then again, the scale of this device is compounded by each B being a row of ballista batteries covering the horizontal axis, instead of just a single ballista.

[utunnels]

By the way, you can try hunting birds as well.
Air battle usually cause the victim to fall from a heigh that can kill them instantly.

[Bearskie]

By the way, you can try hunting birds as well.
Air battle usually cause the victim to fall from a heigh that can kill them instantly.

Actual hunters only very rarely target birds, due to their flight status.  Using marksdwarves is alright but you have to station them within range of the target first before issuing the kill order, otherwise they tend to walk away complaining about 'unreachable target'.

[Bumber]

By the way, you can try hunting birds as well.
Air battle usually cause the victim to fall from a heigh that can kill them instantly.

Actual hunters only very rarely target birds, due to their flight status.  Using marksdwarves is alright but you have to station them within range of the target first before issuing the kill order, otherwise they tend to walk away complaining about 'unreachable target'.

I think he meant hunting as an adjective. I.e., birds (or bats) that have been trained for hunting.

[Bearskie]

Whoa.  Wait, will that actually work?  Will my giant bats and cave swallows engage in epic dogfights 30 z-levels in the air? :O if so, holy shit.

[utunnels]

Well I'm not sure. I only see stray peregrines hunting vermines like cats.
Wild buzzards will fight other birds, so I guess maybe it is possible.

Giant bats are easiest hunting "birds" to train, so maybe someone can give it a try.

[Stopkilling0]

I tried to do this same thing awhile ago, take a look a this thread I started awhile back,
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121754.msg3954842#msg3954842

Heres a preview of my setup


I didnt have good luck, but I hope you get some results!

[Detros]

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.

That will be a bird version of Frogger: "dodge siege arrows and get to the other side of this fortress".

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Ballistae Bird Frogger sounds like an epic plan. So does Peregrine Dogfighting. Either one sounds like fun. Too bad you can't just flood the map edges.
Also:

Well I'm not sure. I only see stray peregrines hunting vermines like cats.
Wild buzzards will fight other birds, so I guess maybe it is possible.

This makes me think of peregrine falcons eating cats.

[Bearskie]

Success reported.  Two tiercel peregrine have already been asploded through the use of the Orbirdal Defense Network.  Pictures will be coming soon (and hopefully a video).

Edit - Does anyone know how to change the title of a thread?

[Bumber]

Edit - Does anyone know how to change the title of a thread?

Edit the subject line in the first post.

[Bearskie]

Thanks   .  Also to all the people who chipped in for this discussion.

Currently some collisions still jam the device and require it to be reset.  Using metal minecarts should fix the problem.

I hope you enjoy this game of Minecart Bird Frogger.