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Author Topic: Another odd battle report  (Read 1864 times)

blue emu

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Another odd battle report
« on: April 27, 2015, 08:25:42 am »

Playing a 40.24 unmodded noob-friendly fort just to get used to the recent game changes.

Invaders off. Breached the top caverns a year before, but sealed it up again (or so I thought?!?!)... no trouble since then.

Then suddenly, in my main axial stairwell dozens of levels above the caverns, I get reports of a bunch of Dwarves freaking out about a Giant Cave Spider. I took a look... saw nothing unusual. Checked the 'u' menu... and there is indeed a freshly-killed GCS corpse in my stairwell.

Checked the combat logs, and the first entry shows the GCS to be SPARRING with a civilian ("... lightly taps the Farmer..."). Then all Hell broke loose, and my unarmed Bookkeeper punched the GCS's lights out. No injuries.

How did it get in? How did it get dozens of levels above the caverns before being found? WHY WAS IT SPARRING WITH MY CIVILIANS?

WT_actual_F is going on?
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blue emu

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2015, 09:28:08 am »

When I get home, I will post a screen-shot confirming that the GCS was "sparring with civilians" just before the fight started.

I'd post it now, but I was already caught once playing DF on National Defense computers, and it was not happy fun times.
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TheFlame52

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2015, 09:54:54 am »

This happens a lot. Most times, when a creature initiates combat, the first move is a tap.

Dirst

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2015, 10:33:29 am »

I'd post it now, but I was already caught once playing DF on National Defense computers, and it was not happy fun times.

This happens a lot.
Reminds me of The Man with One Red Shoe.

Cooper: Hulse, I want you to put a special mike on him tonight, one that isolates everything he plays from the rest of the orchestra. Carson, you link it into the GBLX 1000 computer.
Maddy: The GBLX?
Cooper: Yeah. That thing'll break any code.
Maddy: But that's in control of our entire missile defense system!
Cooper: Honey, will you please - what are the odds of the Russians attacking on a Thursday night?
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Just got back, updating:
(0.42 & 0.43) The Earth Strikes Back! v2.15 - Pay attention...  It's a mine!  It's-a not yours!
(0.42 & 0.43) Appearance Tweaks v1.03 - Tease those hippies about their pointy ears.
(0.42 & 0.43) Accessibility Utility v1.04 - Console tools to navigate the map

Pirate Bob

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2015, 11:31:08 am »

GCS have ambusher skill, and will use stealth to sneak up on your dwarves.

Keep in mind that most critters can climb now, and can also move between diagonal squares.  Without seeing your map, my guess is it got in through something like this:
Code: [Select]
.0
0X
where
. = empty space (in caverns)
0 = wall
X = stairs

I have had this happen before where I thought I sealed the caverns, only to have a ton of crundles come in.  Fortunately those were easily massacred by civilian dwarves.

blue emu

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2015, 12:24:40 pm »

I certainly don't have any of those diagonal "leaks" in the X-Y plane... I checked for them specifically. It's possible that I screwed up and have a similar leak in the X-Z or Y-Z planes, although I looked and couldn't see any.

I'm going to spread around a few cage traps on my central staircase anyway... GCS are NOT tagged as TRAP_AVOID, correct?
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Eldin00

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2015, 12:29:07 pm »

Correct, that GCS are not trapavoid. And a diagonal that crosses Z-levels is the most likely culprit for how it got in, if you've looked for diagonal breaches. The ones that cross Z-levels can be hard to spot.
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Pirate Bob

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2015, 12:35:08 pm »

Indeed, I should have specified that the actual leak could be in x, z, or both dimensions.  If you want to be safe, build hatches spanning your staircase 2 or more levels above the caverns, and then lock them to both dwarves and pets.  This will keep out everything (except vermin).

FeBeardAuFinger

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2015, 12:41:29 pm »

I'd post it now, but I was already caught once playing DF on National Defense computers, and it was not happy fun times.

I'm imagining Snowden's next dump of leaked data will include the DF raws. When the tin foil hat crowd learns the US is developing giant cave spiders and rat-men, they will have to change their pants!
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BoredVirulence

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2015, 05:35:05 pm »

I'm sorry, but the image of a man eating spider sneaking through a fortress, stealthily stalking a dwarf, and lightly tapping them like a kitten playing, is just too adorable. Quick, call the cartoonists, this image must be brought into pixely glory, and I have not artistic talent!

And its just like dwarf fortress for the adorable man eating spider playing with dwarves to get killed by a bystander that freaked out. If that can be portrayed as well, that would be great...

I'd post it now, but I was already caught once playing DF on National Defense computers, and it was not happy fun times.

I'm imagining Snowden's next dump of leaked data will include the DF raws. When the tin foil hat crowd learns the US is developing giant cave spiders and rat-men, they will have to change their pants!

Psh, the NSA wants to play DF, they do it by using their malware to execute DF on one of the better super computers in the world. Probably not the best ones, they would be watched closely, but say top 100. What other use is it for if they can't get better performance in their games while they don't read any of that sensitive information they're stockpiling?...
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utunnels

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2015, 07:23:13 pm »

I only know magma creatures can spawn without an map edge. That is if you dig into the warm stone layer they will appear out of thin air, occasionally.
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Risen Asteshdakas, Ghostly Recruit has risen and is haunting the fortress!

Pancakes

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Re: Another odd battle report
« Reply #11 on: April 28, 2015, 04:36:49 pm »

That whole "starting off with sparring" thing is probably from Toady adding the new levels of combat, from non-lethal to no-quarter.
It's most likely a minor bug or an intended feature where the combat escalates quickly after the first blows.
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