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[Ifeno]

So I've dug a 9 z-level deep moat, and much to my dismay have found the fall damage to be non-lethal.  In other words, I'll need to add something to the moat to make it so.  The idea is that whatever falls in the moat, friend or foe, is dead.  The easiest way to ensure this would be to fill it with magma, however I like looking at the blood and carnage inside my moat.  Next option would be Water, but that seems a little bland.  I want things dying on impact, not drowning.  My next thought was upright spikes but I was unsure if those would need cleaning, and if it was necessary to have 10 in each slot.  The idea is that there will be no entrance or exit to the moat.  Once it's set up, I'm removing the stairs and anyone that falls in it stays in it.  Preferably in a non-living state.  If anyone has advice / thoughts on a spike pit or other ideas of how to ensure falling into the moat will be lethal, please let me know!

[Orange Wizard]

Magma is always good. Other options include upright spikes or weapon traps.

[Lovechild]

Upright spikes/spears don't require cleaning. You can have between 1 and 10 in each slot, depending on your budget.

[Uggh]

Mabe something based on minecarts entering the moat by falling and then running over everything. The minecarts would be one use only and would add to the general untidy look you are going for. You could even load them with more refuse, e.g. from the butcher, before throwing them into the moat.

Edit: not  necessarily immediately lethal but close.

[LMeire]

If you make the floor out of something abnormally dense like cinnabar or platinum, gravity is much more likely to be lethal; since the game calculates fall-damage by hitting the creature with a "hammer" made of the landing material. Similarly, you can make a lethal fall relatively harmless by flooring it with something like featherwood or candy.

[kirmaster]

stupid question: why not dig it deeper?
Also, you can use the moat as a garbage chute dump zone- falling objects hit hard, and skeletons 9-z down are unlikely to be raised or if raised to be a problem.

[Dunamisdeos]

I can't find the thread, but my very first project dropped live saltwater crocodiles onto injured fallers.

What I'm saying is, fill it with crocodiles and in between 3-4z of water.

[BoredVirulence]

Seriously? Zombies. Throw a necromancer behind a fortification, remove the stairs, drop some corpses. Smooth those walls first.

You want carnage, that's what you do. You could even put retracting bridges down there, deepen the pit, and "retire" some of the zombies when there are too many. When there are too few, dump more corpses.

Although, I imagine invaders falling onto zombies ought to pulp them, and at some point it becomes reaches equilibrium. Although, that's probably too many zombies for FPS...

[The Bard]

War cavies.

The 9z will stun the faller and then they will be ripped to shreds by guinea pigs.

[Ifeno]

stupid question: why not dig it deeper?

Due to poor fortress design.  i didn't expect things to survive a 9 z-level fall, thinking back to times when a 2 z-level fall could be fatal, so I dug it 9 z-levels and then but my stockpile room right underneath it.

[Dunamisdeos]

Ok, so what you do is you get some crocodiles, some goblins, and a necromancer.

[Loud Whispers]

Necromancer + corpses is guaranteed death by attrition to all that can be killed by combat. Though I am personally partial to filling moats with spikes, a hilariously expensive and gibtastic method of moat men disposal.

[Skullsploder]

You could channel out the bottom and then place retracting platinum bridges instead of the floor. Then you can open the bridges after a siege and everything will conveniently fall right into your stockpile room! Also marksdwarves. Give them a training room two z above the bottom of the moat with fortifications looking out and they should automatically finish off whatever survives the ludicrous density of platinum.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Put a roller-powered minecart loop in it. Make lots of platinum minecarts. Fill the minecarts with more minecarts or anvils if you really want to be able to dump everything in there. Result: insta-kill and lots of gore.

[StupidElves]

Find a way to fill it with something that eats things and can only be in water. They'll be in the water, and the monsters will kill them horrifically, leaving blood and body parts.