Print

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

[Deathworks]

Hi!

I just had my first antman. Basically, the messages it generated say it all:

quote:
An injured antman has sprung from ambush!
ThŒkut Tobuldoren, Farmer cancels Load Stone Trap: Interrupted by antman.

(I have to admit that I was initially a bit surprised by the "injured" - I thought invaders started in mint condition - until I read the second message )

I have to admit, that was quite brave, injured and without equipment (geesh, had to reload two stonefall traps and didn't even get a copper dagger).

Did I mention that my fortress is connected to the chasm only by a single-tile corridor with 8 stonefall traps ?

Deathworks

[Tarrasque]

Aww, that is boring, I purposefully dug out a lot of area north of my chasm area to increase the chances of them attacking me. I need more darn bones for my crossbow practice. Also, I am only putting some weapon traps around there so that they can do some fun stuff. I am putting weapon traps to keep them away from my food production though. It would be bad if they got into that area of my fortress, very bad.

[Dreamer]

I think occasionally injured animals pop up, but in your case it appears he was silly enough to walk into a trap and chase that farmer into another...  That's kinda funny.

[gloogorshkin]

I always like it when a kobold thief pops up out in the wilderness--and then bumps into a kobold ambushing party, exposing them.  And quite frankly, those ambushers are pretty unforgiving when it comes to mistakes--the hapless thief gets plugged full of bolts before the skirmishers speed off the map.

I've only actually seen this a couple of times, and they were all on the same map, but I have to think that, somehow, the thief and the skirmishers uncovered each other, because there was no one else around.  And that makes it even more funny.

[utunnels]

Once I saw this message: "A gaint rat has sprung from ambush". So I recruited my nearest dwarves. That rat disappeared before my eyes, quite amazing.

Did it jump back into the chasm?
 

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Well, I would say that was one smart rat.

In addition, that antman of mine must have been very patient. The thing is, I don't have any workshops or rooms or anything between the river and the chasm, my fortress being entirely built between outside and the river. I have a little bit of ore mining going on between the chasm and the river, but I don't think that farmer was involved in that.

My traps there have been loaded long ago, so the trap the farmer wanted to reload was probably the one that injured the antman. Which means the farmer must have taken a stone and walked a few screens while the antman was lying there waiting.

Well, since I started getting rid of unnecessary animals (all puppies and foals), I have more bones than I can process, so there is no need for extra imports. After all, I can now regularly scrape goblin thieves from my entrance area (this year I got them twice, the second time during the dwarf caravan which was quite nice cause I could sell their clothes directly to the dwarves).

And since that antman didn't have anything I could use or sell besides its corpse, I wish I could have just kicked his corpse right back into the chasm.

As for other encounters, I find it quite interesting that elves are complaining so much about me killing stuff, but yet they had no qualms about putting a kobold thief into the dead book who happened to cross their path.

Deathworks

[Asehujiko]

The injured thing is realy weird. Most of the time they pass out immediatly.

I just had a colossus die in a very funny way: He hacked his way to the main dining room and picked a fight there with a dog right next to the waterfall in the middle.(the dwarves were drafted and stationed in the lever room). The mangled the lower body, dog bites back, colossus dodges.
.
.
.
Into the waterfall.

GIVE ME BACK MY MASTERWORK BRONZE STATUE!!!

[Deathworks]

Hi!

So, the miraculous dodge does not only happen to the people in adventure mode...

But this just confirms that dogs are more trouble than anything else

Anyhow, for reasons unknown, I had a ratman invasion. First there were about 6 ratmen, of which only one survived the traps long enough to actually harass the dwarf who came to refill the traps. That ratman was actually killed by that dwarf (more like a mercy-killing).

But then, another five ratmen show up. With the stonefall traps at the chasm depleted, they have two (albeit empty) screens to roam in. To make matters worse, the dwarves seemed quite determined to refill those traps - even though they ran when seeing the ratmen. So, I had four ratmen (one lost interest and returned to the edge of the chasm) chasing some seven or eight dwarves and horses. Actually, they ran past one rather slow mechanic dwarf without attacking him (!?).

Fortunately, my dwarves ran straight for the bridge over the cave river to my fortress proper, so that the stone traps guarding the river (between the fortress and the bridge) were able to handle most of the ratman issue.

Unfortunately, one of my cats decided to take matters into his own paws and went toe-to-toe with a ratman. Both were seriously injured when some cowardly mutt showed up and stole the kill. The cat has a red upper body and also had several other serious wounds, but he will live.

Still, this was way too annoying, so I will replace the stonefall traps at the chasm with weapon traps. Fortunately, kobold and goblin thieves regularly donate daggers, so I should have enough traps up and working soon.

Deathworks

[Marsume]

Wow. Cat's are usually to damn worthless to do anything but leave rotting vermin corpses lying around. That's why it's usually a good idea to cage/ chasm them to worthless fluffball heaven. Why to dwarves of all people tolerate them? I'd assume the terribly bi curious elves would love them, but dwarves?

[Kylaer]

quote:Originally posted by Deathworks:
<STRONG>
And since that antman didn't have anything I could use or sell besides its corpse, I wish I could have just kicked his corpse right back into the chasm.
</STRONG>

You can, it's an option under Refuse orders - "Chasm corpses."

[Novocain]

Interestingly enough, after reading this thread, I got

code:

An injured cave crocodile has sprung from ambush!

It's stunned, and lying in a puddle of its own blood with its tail ripped off. I suddenly love accidental cave-ins.

Edit: Five minutes later, it's dead, thanks to my new metalsmith/competent wrestler. Both became over-exerted after two minutes of intense unconcious-crocodile-wrestling action, but it's been a positive experience overall, as he scraped away with only a bruised leg.

[ August 21, 2007: Message edited by: Novocain ]

[Deathworks]

Hi!

This just shows how diverse the game is (although the unconscious/sleeping elite fighters can sometimes be annoying ).

I started changing my traps as I said I would, but with one weapon trap finished, the ratmen attacked again, and probably the first one of them got stuck, jamming the weapon trap! (I think it has something to do with it using daggers and swords rather than the discs I usually have). Anyhow, now there are five weapon traps, the two dagger ones and three disc ones. Let's see them swarm that

Marsume: Well, I have had quite positive experiences with cats, and I am a bit unhappy at how unfairly they are treated by the game (all animals that team up with a dwarf get a name automatically, only cats remain unnamed, and they get no burial in a coffin, while those stupid mutts .... I digress).

Right now in the second ratman raid, they really saved the day. As I have described, there are the eight traps near the chasm (7 at the time of the ratmen attack, because the second weapon trap wasn't finished), then a long distance of corridor and a few strip-mining tunnels, until we get to the bridge over the cave river. On the other side there are four or five layers of stonefall traps before a small hall with double-engravings and fortifications.

Well, the traps broke most of the ratmen attack, especially the bridge traps, but there was one ratman near the bridge who got seriously injured (not unconscious, though) in a stonefall trap and couldn't decide whether to retreat or carry on attacking.

All the while, four or five dwarves who had wanted to refill the stone traps had gathered in the hall and didn't dare to come out because of the ratman. It was really an annoying freeze situation. To make matters worse, I don't have a military, my sheriff was probably well away attending another party at our old meeting room, and I currently had no hunters after a deer and a pack of wolves killed the last one.

So, there I was with several dwarves stuck, racking my brain what to do, when suddenly a small gray 'c' walked through the hall's door and went straight for the ratman. Yup, one of my cats decided to take matters into his own paws and finished off the ratman single-pawedly.

As the cowardly dwarves began moving beyond the bridge again, I checked the chasm area. Just as before, there was another ratman who had not given chase but remained near the depleted traps. It didn't have any obvious wounds not blinking in any way, (though I didn't 'v' it to make sure).

Again I was worried what to do. Especially since the worker dwarves were getting closer and even if I recruited someone, they would have taken ages to get there. And behold, a grey 'c' races past the mason who was in the lead. With great vigor, the cat jumped at the ratman, driving it back and finally killing it off.

I guess, someone told my cats that these are ratmen

Anyhow, unlike my dwarves (those ungrateful xxxxx), I really appreciate the cats and kittens and what they have done for me.

Kylaer: I know, but with my luck, they would probably first want to chasm the deer corpses from the stockpile next to my butcher. After all, those deers are much closer to the dwarves than the chasm creatures.

Ah, in my mind, I could really see that gigantic, astral boot materializing and then kicking that wretched creep back into the hole from which it came.

Edit: I finally uploaded a new map. It is in 1061, and you can see the protected chasm here:
http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-1102-mytakeonthechasm

Deathworks

[ August 22, 2007: Message edited by: Deathworks ]