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[stillrabbit730]

as the title suggests how long should i make my spike trap maze to take care of demons that spew forth from hell,

my question is, how many tiles (roughly) can demons travel before a pressure plate triggers?

I ask so i can maximize the efficiency of my spike trap maze

also, any tips you can give about such a maze will be greatly appreciated.

thank you for your time <3

[GhostDwemer]

It depends entirely on what type of clowns are in the clown car. Snow clowns are going to pop on the first hit, while clowns of fire might melt your spikes. Also, they are trap avoid so don't depend on pressure plates.

[stillrabbit730]

how can I reliably get the spike to rigger then?

[Libash_Thunderhead]

Spike traps linked to a lever works fine.
It is just fire demon will heat the surrounding area, making other demons avoid the tiles as well. I don't know if this is a bug bug once it happens, your dwarves can't even be commanded to do jobs near the area, because it is hot.

[GhostDwemer]

Spike traps linked to a lever works fine.
It is just fire demon will heat the surrounding area, making other demons avoid the tiles as well. I don't know if this is a bug bug once it happens, your dwarves can't even be commanded to do jobs near the area, because it is hot.

I've found with new job system, nobody will sit at a lever pulling it all day long. Even with two Pull Lever jobs queued with high priority on both, they will just pull it once and walk off. So you get much, much less frequent triggering. Might be worth using a repeater for clearing HFS, either that or you need a really, really long spike hall.

[stillrabbit730]

just for clarification, what is a repeater? 

[Libash_Thunderhead]

either that or you need a really, really long spike hall.

I do the latter.
Yeah, but you need a safeguard like a series of doors/hatches and/or a draw bridge.

[GhostDwemer]

A repeater is a system for making repeating triggers, for traps, or clocks, or computers, or whatever. They can be built in a number of different ways, using water, or trapped creatures, or mine carts. There is a page on the wiki giving details: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Repeater

[Fleeting Frames]

...If you have some artifact furniture (well, excluding few types), they'll travel precisely to two tiles from it and no further. Otherwise, they take a fair bit to destroy buildings, so adding even normal doors placed so that they'll stand on spikes will help make them into kebabs.

...Provided your spikes are sharp enough to pierce them, of course.

[PatrikLundell]

Menacing spike traps on repeat by a mine cart repeater is what I use, and I've added a few candy spikes at the end in case of extra hardy ones. As an answer to the original question, I've seen tough ones get quite some distance, so I wouldn't trust 30 traps full of 10 spikes each to be enough. I also use drawbridges at the end to close the thing of should they get uncomfortably close to getting through, and normal doors to slow them down sufficiently to let the miner get out.
A couple of caveats, though:
- With 0.43.05 you have weapons breaking, and reports say that weapons breaking in traps causes DF to crash.
- Campers: I've had several instances of clowns who decide to just stop in the plumbing and sit(?) around reproducing. That requires alternative methods to clear out.

[stillrabbit730]

two questions:

1: Does anyone know if perpetual motion mine carts are still a thing?

2:can demons be hit by mine carts (preferably lead ones)?

[Fleeting Frames]

1. Yeah, iirc minecarts don't take damage from collisions (probs should test). Though even if they do, it wouldn't destroy a building component so it'd be non-crashy.

2. I don't see why not though with demon weight I wouldn't expect a single unladen lead cart to catch 'em all (perhaps it'd even melt near the fire ones); the accounts of demon-slaying by minecarts I've read of have used water guns and percussion damage.

[PatrikLundell]

As Fleeting Frames said:
1. Yes
2. I haven't tried, but they're corporeal, and moving mine carts are not traps, so they should be hit unless they dodge (so you probably shouldn't use single tile thick walls). The amount of damage taken is another question, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if the impact of a mine cart vs several clowns could slow a cart enough for it to fail to reach the next roller/impulse ramp. Clowns are not better at dodging lead mine carts than those made out of any other substance (and I'd prefer gold, as it's both heavier and flashier)

[Killgoth]

A trick to get dwarves to repeatedly pull a level is to simply have a lever room with only one entrance with a door. Once the dwarf goes into the room to pull the lever lock the door/forbid it. As long as there is no food or drink in the room, the dwarf will pull the lever over and over. The only thing you have to worry about is sleep

[PatrikLundell]

A trick to get dwarves to repeatedly pull a level is to simply have a lever room with only one entrance with a door. Once the dwarf goes into the room to pull the lever lock the door/forbid it. As long as there is no food or drink in the room, the dwarf will pull the lever over and over. The only thing you have to worry about is sleep

It still works poorly since the jobs rewrite, because the bugger will pull the lever, walk away 10 steps, walk back, pull once more, ...
Making the room a two tile one may cut down on the traveling time, but the "wait a while before taking a new job" delay will still be there. A repeater is the only way to get a reliable repeat nowadays as dwarves are too slow.