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Author Topic: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?  (Read 1371 times)

PatrikLundell

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How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« on: July 10, 2016, 12:38:44 pm »

I'm trying to determine if bones from an undead dwarf can be used for crafting the same way as bones from e.g. an undead goblin (while bones from regular goblins and dwarves can not be used), and I happen to have a number of subjects at hand. The problem is that my embark is shallow, so the 25 levels I have between the bottom of the thick aquifer and the magma sea isn't enough for a splatterer setup (I've tried dropping onto lead and steel and both just leads to various injuries, and a menacing spike trap at the bottom just results in a dead, but undivided, undead. Slade is not available (unsurprisingly), nor is any of the heavy kinds of stone, unless the human caravan next year brings some. My civ is dead, so there's no dwarven caravan to order stuff from).
Thus, I'm looking for the trap type that leads to the largest number of bits, and my experience of traps other than cage ones is limited. Candy is not yet available.

As an alternative to investigating this myself, someone else might already know the 0.43.05 answer?
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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2016, 12:48:23 pm »

When it comes to dismemberment, I believe slicing attacks - that is, EDGE attacks with high contact area - cause dismemberments. Tried giant axe blades, either in a trap or hurled from a minecart?

Of course, I'm not too sure about maximum dismemberment, there.

Skorpion

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2016, 01:04:24 pm »

Glass serrated disks. 10 of them in a weapon trap, and use more than one trap.
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The *large serrated steel disk* strikes the Raven in the head, tearing apart the muscle, shattering the skull, and tearing apart the brain!
A tendon in the skull has been torn!
The Raven has been knocked unconcious!

Elves do it in trees. Humans do it in wooden structures. Dwarves? Dwarves do it underground. With magma.

PatrikLundell

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2016, 01:19:49 pm »

Thanks for the answers. Since I've got sand, glass serrated disc production is reasonably straightforward (although it will take some time).
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MonkeyHead

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2016, 01:22:25 pm »

Dropping things a long way tends to cause things to burst into much gore.

freeze

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2016, 01:31:51 pm »

PTW
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steel jackal

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2016, 01:52:46 pm »

axes have the highest contact area of native weapons, and your gonna need something to to get the undead to go down your hallway of glass serrated disk.

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They Got Leader

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2016, 04:27:07 pm »

axes have the highest contact area of native weapons, and your gonna need something to to get the undead to go down your hallway of glass serrated disk.

This, along with :
Dropping things a long way tends to cause things to burst into much gore.

This is going to be your best bet for survival. I would recommend a hallway with at least 5 glass serrated disks per trap, and then a layer of cage traps with a militia armed with axes. If you catch any undead, drop them into a pit somewhere. Specifically from a great height.

Serrated disks get 3 hits per disk, and if I recall correctly, glass disks get a random value of damage, which means that you play the roulette of death with them (I can not find my source on that information, unfortunately. I do have this thread).
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 03:37:18 pm by They Got Leader »
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Skorpion

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2016, 04:29:56 pm »

axes have the highest contact area of native weapons, and your gonna need something to to get the undead to go down your hallway of glass serrated disk.

Dump the undead into an area with weapon traps scattered around semi-randomly. It works well enough for butchering wildlife.
Or just bait them with a baby or a noble or something.
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The *large serrated steel disk* strikes the Raven in the head, tearing apart the muscle, shattering the skull, and tearing apart the brain!
A tendon in the skull has been torn!
The Raven has been knocked unconcious!

Elves do it in trees. Humans do it in wooden structures. Dwarves? Dwarves do it underground. With magma.

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2016, 05:10:18 pm »

Or just bait them with a baby or a noble or something.
A cat is fine too.

More seriously, I believe forbidden/locked by mechanism doors would stop any undead which survive dead in their tracks.

PatrikLundell

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2016, 03:01:03 am »

Dropping things a long way tends to cause things to burst into much gore.
As I said in the OP I don't have enough head room for a splatterer (I've tried, as indicated there as well), which thus would require a mighty high tower on the surface instead (and that might hit a sky limit instead?). I don't fancy making another hole in my 9 level aquifer just to get additional room for a splatterer either.

I don't need it for defense, as I've got cage traps for that purpose (not enough yet, but I've got a severely limited work force): I need it for !!SCIENCE!!. My chosen setup is a long corridor with a lever linked cage trap with the test subject at the end, a 10 glass serrated disc trap inside of that, and then a cage trap to catch it if it "survives" inside of that. The construction will later be modified into a gobbo atom smasher, but it's probably 10 years until they arrive, so I've got plenty of time. My atom smasher will consist of 3 10 tile long raising bridges triggered by a pressure plate (where the serrated disc trap will go initially), a door I lock while smashing (both to keep any unsmashed victims in and my dorfs out (they're prone to clean blood splatter or collect cages or mechanisms otherwise). There's a small raising drawbridge outside of that for when building destroyers (typically trolls) are in the need of processing.

Edit: The serrated disc trap worked great. Theory confirmed. Undead dwarves are hauled to the refuse stockpile and their bones are available for crafting (as proven by a set of dwarf bone greaves). I'll need to bag a necro and a goblin siege to determine if sapients killed, reanimated, and rekilled are considered refuse or corpses.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 05:43:27 am by PatrikLundell »
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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #11 on: July 11, 2016, 08:03:26 am »

Nice to hear. Finally, an use for danger-roomed babies.

Lozzymandias

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2016, 04:56:16 pm »

To add a new idea to the pool: mine carts. Gold or platinum mine cart. Accelerate it through a billion impulse ramps and collide yer undead beast with it. That or you load them into a minecart and shotgun them into a platinum wall with plenty of whirly blade traps. You can achieve some truly beautiful dismemberment with collisions
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2016, 06:01:34 pm »

If you want to be super sure, drop them from maybe like 20z up onto a lead floor. Everything will come off.
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darklord92

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Re: How do I cause maximum dismemberment to an undead?
« Reply #14 on: July 11, 2016, 06:02:12 pm »

A small note from my own undead forts. Grazers that die of starvation cannot be butchered, but ones risen and then killed can. An odd quirk I thought I'd point out in a thread on undead butchery weirdness.
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