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[mikekchar]

I have a fortress that I retired and unretired several times.  There is a bug where visitors end up being marked "hostile" and sticking around forever (it seems) after you unretire.  They aren't actually hostile, though, and just mostly hang around.  After I got to 200+ "hostile" I started a purge, but it is pretty depressing work -- "Help me!", hack, hack, arm off, both legs off, "I have suffered a major injury.  There is no hope" kind of thing.  I'm trying to think of more humane ways of solving the problem.

I noticed that these "hostile" creatures will actually be caught by cage traps and since they occasionally wander a few tiles, I could potentially catch them in cages.  This led me to wonder if I could somehow find a way to wash them off the map using water pressure.  Really, I just want to set them packing, but there seems to be no way to do it.  Any ideas?  Probably dropping the cages into magma is the best way, but I would like to avoid it.

[SkeleBret]

"Help me!", hack, hack, arm off, both legs off, "I have suffered a major injury.  There is no hope" kind of thing.  I'm trying to think of more humane ways of solving the problem.

I fail to see the problem here! Sounds more like a blessing to me.

I unfortunately don't know of any ways to get them off the map without killing them, but if you try flooding the cages off the map edge please let us know how it goes, for !!SCIENCE!! purposes.

[mikekchar]

Alas, it has been studied before and it seems impossible: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=129902.0

[SkeleBret]

Before losing hope entirely, bear in mind that those tests were done on native dwarves and tamed animals, visitors may or may not behave differently.

[imperium3]

I don't think you can flush them off the map, but perhaps you could wash them into a very, very deep hole so that the fall kills them? Items (I believe) can indeed be flushed off the map, which includes their corpses.

[mikekchar]

I have discovered one interesting thing.  These hostile-but-not creatures can be pastured.  So I'm building a pasture for them. My plan is to group them all up and then come up with an idea for them later.  At the very least they won't be strewn all over the map.  I may use them as sentries, etc.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

See if you can cage them to maximize FPS. Assign them, and if that doesn't work then knock them out with cave-in dust over a field of cage traps.

It's too bad they can't be sold into slavery to a caravan. At least, that *shouldn't* work. Worth testing.


Creatures which fall into the glowing pits of hell are just sort of gone. Creatures caught in a dwarven atom smasher are instantly teleported to heaven.

[mikekchar]

Catching in cage traps is surprisingly easy.  Because they are marked 'hostile' they fall into traps.  But because they aren't actually hostile, you can safely put a cage trap next to them.  They tend to wander around every once in a while, so if you watch where they tend to wander, you can put a cage trap there and they will get caught.  Once they are in the cage, you can pasture them, which is weird.  However, having been pastured, they don't move any more.  The advantage to this is that you get the cage back.  I assume I can assign them back to a cage if I want at this point, but I haven't tried.  So it looks like this is a pretty simple way to manage them.  At that point I can assign them to pastures at strategic locations and they will essentially be eternal guards for the fortress.  After the purge, I'm left with about 120 of these guys, so I'm hoping for a decent sized siege (which I think won't come because I'm surrounded by piddly dark pits with only a few goblins in them, but I live in hope).

[Bumber]

Can you flush caged dwarves off the map?

[fearlesslittletoaster]

Magma is always the humane option. It works so quickly they don't even have time to scream!

[Thisfox]

Can you flush caged dwarves off the map?

.... if I could somehow find a way to wash them off the map using water pressure....

Pretty sure they'll get caught at the edge of the map closest to where the water is flowing away, either underground through fortifications or above ground in a river/brook. If you look carefully, even if the water level is quite deep, if your fort is old enough, there is usually a stack of old debris that dorfs who crossed the water have dropped. It has been slowly washed to the edge of the map. Buckets, cages, xXclothingXx, artifacts, corpses, rotten reindeer cheese roasts, and so on.... I was once very glad that my reanimating biome was on the UPSTREAM edge of the map, as there were a few corpses of animals and dorfs in my downstream river edge.

[SkeleBret]

there is usually a stack of old debris that dorfs who crossed the water have dropped. It has been slowly washed to the edge of the map.

Ahh, now I understand why there was a crowd of eternally winded fish at the end of a river in one of my older forts.

I also wonder if pasturing too many of these bugged 'hostile' visitors in one space makes them overcrowd and fight.

[mikekchar]

I'm also secretly wondering if they will breed...

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

I'm also secretly wondering if they will breed...

remember the AI

who slaughtered a bard

because there were already enough breeding males

[Proudnerd]

I started a purge, but it is pretty depressing work -- "Help me!", hack, hack, arm off, both legs off, "I have suffered a major injury.  There is no hope" kind of thing.  I'm trying to think of more humane ways of solving the problem. Probably dropping the cages into magma is the best way, but I would like to avoid it.

You are seriously playing the wrong game here. Mermaid farms anyone?