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Author Topic: Easy archer tower design that stops dwarves from jumping through fortifications  (Read 8432 times)

Halnoth

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I find it very annoying when marksdwarves jump through fortifications and into the middle of an army. So, I designed the system below to fix it.
                                   
Build floors on either                     _____ <---- roof
side of an outer wall -------> ___   F dwarf
Ground level ____________    |___|||||||
Channel two ------------->   ^_|         
squares in front of wall     

This way if a dwarf jumps through they only fall 1z and can get back through a door or draw bridge. Just make sure the inside where the dwarf falls is sealed off. I just connected the outer wall to the inner wall 2 squares from any fortifications (to prevent dwarves possibly jumping on top of the constructed floors).     
« Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 11:12:42 pm by Halnoth »
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

FantasticDorf

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Nice. I guess the overhang also stops creatures from climbing up the wall manually too, forcing them to enter the building/entrance (with some neatly placed traps or a platoon of dwarves waiting a reckon)
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Halnoth

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Nice. I guess the overhang also stops creatures from climbing up the wall manually too, forcing them to enter the building/entrance (with some neatly placed traps or a platoon of dwarves waiting a reckon)

Exactly
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

Linkxsc

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Code tags would make that look a lot better.
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Dunamisdeos

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I build all my archer towers like raised pillboxes.

Fully enclosed/roofed with no way out but pathing through the fort out the front door.
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Halnoth

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I build all my archer towers like raised pillboxes.

Fully enclosed/roofed with no way out but pathing through the fort out the front door.

Dwarves can jump through fortifications now. So there is in fact another way out.
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

Dunamisdeos

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I build all my archer towers like raised pillboxes.

Fully enclosed/roofed with no way out but pathing through the fort out the front door.

Dwarves can jump through fortifications now. So there is in fact another way out.

Intentionally? I haven't observed this yet. That's awful D:
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FACT I: Post note art is best art.
FACT II: Dunamisdeos is a forum-certified wordsmith.
FACT III: "All life begins with Post-it notes and ends with Post-it notes. This is the truth! This is my belief!...At least for now."
FACT IV: SPEECHO THE TRUSTWORM IS YOUR FRIEND or BEHOLD: THE FRUIT ENGINE 3.0

steel jackal

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I build all my archer towers like raised pillboxes.

Fully enclosed/roofed with no way out but pathing through the fort out the front door.

Dwarves can jump through fortifications now. So there is in fact another way out.

Intentionally? I haven't observed this yet. That's awful D:

if they cant path to the target any other way they will go through it.

its actually kind of impressive considering that ive always imagined fortifications to be a small hole in a wall, maby baseball sized
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Devin

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I always thought of fortifications as being arrow slits maybe a hand wide, maybe Toady's thinking of them like ramparts?

In any case, does the overhanging floor outside the tower keep archers from shooting at things that get closeish?
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Halnoth

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I always thought of fortifications as being arrow slits maybe a hand wide, maybe Toady's thinking of them like ramparts?

In any case, does the overhanging floor outside the tower keep archers from shooting at things that get closeish?

Ya it impedes line of sight for the tiles below the floor and I think one tile out. You can reduce this by digging away one tile beneath the outer wall this way the overhang is actually under the outer wall. Then you could of course omit the outer floor (you still need the inner one though so the dwarf that falls doesn't climb the outer wall. Really though the blind spot doesn't matter that much unless you are on a 1x1 embark or are in the caverns where space is limited.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2016, 11:18:53 pm by Halnoth »
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

puke

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Based on their ASCII tile, and the fact that Dwarfs use crossbows, I always expected them to be crossbow slits.  Which is like an arrow slit, but shaped like a cross to accommodate the weapon.

One of the interesting things about them, is that they have always been open at the top.  That is, if there is 7/7 water or magma flowing through the fortification, swimmers or magma creatures will be able to swim over and past.

So I guess it stands to reason that dwarfs can jump through?

Three questions on these guard tower designs:

1 - how bad is the reduction of visibility created by the overhang?  I expect this means archers can't target nearby enemies, because they would be occluded?  Maybe the overhang should be a few levels below the fireing platform, to reduce it's impact?

2 - can archers fire through floor grates?  If so, it might be nice to let them stand on an overhanging platform and just fire through the floor

3 - I'm pretty sure archers can fire through double fortifications.  Would having that be enough to prevent pathing by jumping? 
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Sanctume

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I've not witness a marksdwarf jumping out of bunker fortifications. 

There are 2 different constructed fortifications.

The one without a roof is b-C-F which constructs a fortification without a ceiling, and that is a path a dwarf can jump through.  This issue has been there since 40.24.

The other one with a roof is a 2-step: b-C-W which builds a solid wall, then d-A designate to carve fortification.  This one does not have any pathing for jumping out of. 

It is still possible for a stray arrow from a bow goblin to shoot through a fortification and Urist marskdwarf dodges that arrow onto the fortification tile as dodging will let a dwarf go into or though a passable tile. 

This issue is similar to barracks sparring making the dodging dwarf pass through a solid wall and out of the fortress.

Halnoth

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Based on their ASCII tile, and the fact that Dwarfs use crossbows, I always expected them to be crossbow slits.  Which is like an arrow slit, but shaped like a cross to accommodate the weapon.

One of the interesting things about them, is that they have always been open at the top.  That is, if there is 7/7 water or magma flowing through the fortification, swimmers or magma creatures will be able to swim over and past.

So I guess it stands to reason that dwarfs can jump through?

Three questions on these guard tower designs:

1 - how bad is the reduction of visibility created by the overhang?  I expect this means archers can't target nearby enemies, because they would be occluded?  Maybe the overhang should be a few levels below the fireing platform, to reduce it's impact?

2 - can archers fire through floor grates?  If so, it might be nice to let them stand on an overhanging platform and just fire through the floor

3 - I'm pretty sure archers can fire through double fortifications.  Would having that be enough to prevent pathing by jumping?

I answered #1 literally in the post above yours. Line of sight is disrupted for the tile below the floor and 1 tile out. Also, you don't want the dwarf that jumps to fall more than 1z.

2. Not sure, I haven't heard of anyone testing it but the xbowman would only have a view of what is below him so probably not very practical.

3. Possibly but then new xbowmen would not be able to use the fortifications because noob xbowers have to be directly next to the fortification in order to fire out.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2016, 02:19:51 pm by Halnoth »
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

Halnoth

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I've not witness a marksdwarf jumping out of bunker fortifications. 

There are 2 different constructed fortifications.

The one without a roof is b-C-F which constructs a fortification without a ceiling, and that is a path a dwarf can jump through.  This issue has been there since 40.24.

The other one with a roof is a 2-step: b-C-W which builds a solid wall, then d-A designate to carve fortification.  This one does not have any pathing for jumping out of. 

It is still possible for a stray arrow from a bow goblin to shoot through a fortification and Urist marskdwarf dodges that arrow onto the fortification tile as dodging will let a dwarf go into or though a passable tile. 

This issue is similar to barracks sparring making the dodging dwarf pass through a solid wall and out of the fortress.

All of my fortifications are block walls that I then engrave fortifications into. They are definitely jumping through not dodging. I have had dwarves jump through into a seige which had only melee (no xbows or bows in the enemy army). It doesn't happen that often but it really really annoys me and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
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One of the dwarfs walked in front of Thor to get a better view of the prye, and Thor kicked him irritably into the middle of the flames, which made Thor feel slightly better and made all the dwarfs feel much worse.

Cloth Armor Mod http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=158967.msg7063531#msg7063531

Fleeting Frames

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Did you try putting hanging statues surrounding the fortifications on outer edge?

Harder to set up, granted.
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