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[andrian]

GUYS! I FINALLY GOT MY FIRST DRAGON AFTER YEARS OF PLAYING DWARF FORTRESS!!! AND I CAUGHT IT IN A CAGE TRAP!!!!

*ahem*

Sorry about that. So, as I said, I've caught a dragon. I managed to do so before the dragon attacked anyone or anything on the map, and its description lists no kills. I'm hoping this means that the dragon can be safely tamed. I am, however, uncertain as to what to do with it. I do have a cage in my temple which houses a captive Roc, and the two would probably make an excellent pair. However, there are other possibilities, as well, that I don't want to ignore. For example, this mighty dragon might be of great defensive value to my fortress if properly cared for.

One possible use I'm imagining is as... basically a siege weapon of a sort. If I placed the dragon in a 1-tile wide room with fortifications on one side, it could breathe fire at any hostile enemies without exposing itself to much risk. Should the dragon prove unruly, this could still possibly be accomplished by using a drawbridge to block its line of sight until I want the dragonfire. My only concern with this strategy is that the dragonfire might melt the mechanisms controlling the drawbridge, making it virtually impossible to raise or lower the drawbridge once its fire has been unleashed upon my enemies.

It's a shame that I can't get an uncaged dragon to ride in a minecart, as that would allow it to serve as a mobile flame turret.

[PatrikLundell]

Dragons can be trained, but not fully tamed (their training level will always decay, requiring retraining.
It can also be noted that there's a bug with megabeasts that causes instant and automatic hostility between megabeasts and any military personnel (militia, caravan guards, etc.) regardless of training.

[Flintfakeer]

Congrats!

Mechanisms in a drawbridge shouldn't melt. The dragon will probably attack/be attacked by a caravan before you are sieged so it may kick off a war. Personally I'd put it on a fireproof chain and use it as waste disposal or place it behind a bridge to my entrance, still chained, and keep the bridge open only long enough for a single burst. Fortifications can be jumped through. You could line the entrance with boulders so the dragonfire will turn it to molten rock. A wood buckler in even the most unskilled hands can stop dragonfire cold ironically enough. Having molten granite splashed on your boots on the other hand is largely unblockable.

You could use it for deforestation. You can give the dragon a collar by deconstructing the chain while the dragon is attached. If you feed it named creatures it may become worshiped as a god. Dragon leather and bones are heat proof when made into armor and weapons. They can be assigned to individual dwarfs as a war animal and they will follow them around the fortress and into war.

You can place a small fluid stockpile near the entrance and have the dragon fire on it creating a cloud of boiling gas that might have the properties of the base fluid but will definitely be very hot; I'd recommend beer or any poison you can buy off the caravan. You can test a multiple z level approach but they're iffy. Flammable supports.

 Leaving it wild opens more options. Also you could try zombifieng it as that makes it harder to kill while making it stronger and still able to breathe fire. Naked dwarf shield practice? Strip POWs in wood cages then place the cages near the dragon with a lever to open a single cage (if tame) or just wait till the dragon breaks one cage and boomf no more gobos. Mine cart shotgun with megabeast/forgotten beast rounds?

[anewaname]

One possible use I'm imagining is as... basically a siege weapon of a sort. If I placed the dragon in a 1-tile wide room with fortifications on one side, it could breathe fire at any hostile enemies without exposing itself to much risk. Should the dragon prove unruly, this could still possibly be accomplished by using a drawbridge to block its line of sight until I want the dragonfire. My only concern with this strategy is that the dragonfire might melt the mechanisms controlling the drawbridge, making it virtually impossible to raise or lower the drawbridge once its fire has been unleashed upon my enemies.

Magmaproof materials might be all you need to avoid the melting of bridge components, as iron was mentioned in other threads; but others will speak with more certainty.

I would plan for these things...
- The tunnel giving access to the pillbox should include a couple of bends and have cage traps near those bends. (For retrapping. The bends would block LOS, allowing any material for the cages)
- There should be a dragonfire-safe door in the tunnel that is not be pet-passable. (the concern is that a wardog might follow an animal trainer and attack the tame dragon. Again, someone else will be certain if war animals trigger it or not.
- Several animal trainers should have most hauling labors turned off and little else to do.
- No animal trainers should be in the military (because a call to arms might happen at feeding time).

I wish you luck in getting a mating pair of dragons!

[andrian]

So, it sounds like keeping the thing wild might be more useful and less !!FUN!! I could have the dragon safely isolated from the fortress without much trouble.

As for jumping through fortifications, I've never observed this behavior, despite years of locking goblins, giants, minotaurs, animal men (including flying ones), and basically anything else I catch that can't be butchered in a 1x1 room with fortification walls and using them as target practice for my marksdwarves. Obviously, if there's an open roof, something might be able to leap in or out, but what kind of moron would I be if I left an open roof on my dragon pillbox? That's just asking for way more !!FUN!! than I like to have in my fortresses.

[Sanctume]

I'm curious if Armor Vision will render the dragon in 1 tile, or multi-tile based on its size.

I'd use it as a filter for HFS to weed out those dragon-fire immune clowns by having the circus path some dragon-breath target room.

[Fleeting Frames]

Other players have experienced the jumping, even when underground (so wall above fortifications). Don't use archers much myself.

I am, however, uncertain as to what to do with it. I do have a cage in my temple which houses a captive Roc, and the two would probably make an excellent pair.

What if they mated?

...

No, really. Could you get a fast-growing dragon who could fly, can be tamed and breathes dragonfire?

Magmaproof materials might be all you need to avoid the melting of bridge components, as iron was mentioned in other threads; but others will speak with more certainty.

It used to be that dragonfire didn't melt metal. This was fixed in 43.03. Nowadays, only materials without melting and boiling points are completely immune (even if very brief exposure leaves others more safe- i.e. enables even a wooden pump to pump magma) - that is, slade, ash, potash and pearlash. (Though haven't tried, as I've instead executed the only dragon I've caught when I had to retire a fort.)

[andrian]

It used to be that dragonfire didn't melt metal. This was fixed in 43.03. Nowadays, only materials without melting and boiling points are completely immune - that is, slade, ash, potash and pearlash. (Though haven't tried, as I've instead executed the only dragon I've caught when I had to retire a fort.)

Well, crap... Um... hmmm... I think I might still be able to rig a dragon pillbox if I did it right, though... Maybe... If I made the dragon's room have a drawbridge entrance that would be in the opposite direction of where it would be spewing flames, with a narrow hallway and a cage trap or two just beyond it, I could lower the bridge to let the dragon see my enemies and burninate them, then lower the entrance drawbridge and let the dragon path over the cage traps and get caught again. Then everything could be reset once the coast is clear. Alternatively, I could do the same thing with an up stair and a floor hatch above, which might actually be easier and more reliable... Even if the dragonbreath managed to burn or melt the floor hatch, it would just escape into the cage trap hallway...

[Sanctume]

Has anyone test the accuracy needed to shoot through 2 fortifications? 

I'm thinking of a bunker setup:

Dragon [fortification] [raising bridge] [fortification] Target path.

Raising bridge might melt, but fortifications should not.

[anewaname]

Has anyone test the accuracy needed to shoot through 2 fortifications? 

I'm thinking of a bunker setup:

Dragon [fortification] [raising bridge] [fortification] Target path.

Raising bridge might melt, but fortifications should not.

The wiki says this, "Except for dragonfire, fire won't burn rock or metal. Constructions (wall, floor, etc.) will never burn, no matter what. " I do not know if the dragon will choose to breathe as it is not adjacent to the second layer of fortifications, but the dragonfire should pass through both fortifications if it chooses to breathe (giant cave spider webs go through multiple fortifications, but my spider-bait was between the fortifications so the GCS was only targeting the bait through the fortification it was adjacent to).

...then lower the entrance drawbridge and let the dragon path over the cage traps and get caught again.

That would be what you need to do if the dragon has become wild. If you keep it tamed, and keep it penned in the pillbox, then the burn-side drawbridge could be rebuilt each time you open the bridge and the dragon burns stuff. A risk is that the dragon might see something while the bridge is being rebuilt, or an on-duty military dwarf with a crossbow will see the dragon.

Ideally, you don't need to rebuild anything. I wonder if an artifact floodgate with an artifact mechanism could survive dragonfire? That could replace a drawbridge to block line of sight.

[andrian]

Artifacts would do it! They're indestructable! Granted, useful ones for this purpose are rare (mechanisms not so much, but doors or floodgates are a pretty slim chance), and I'd need several of each to make the design I have in mind work properly, but it could be doable.

I have decided that, should my dragon be weaponized, I will not bother to train it. There's too much of a danger of the dragon attacking or being attacked when it shouldn't, and I try to avoid !!FUN!! in my fortresses whenever possible. It's far safer (and actually easier) to prevent a wild dragon from ever seeing a target I don't want it to by using bridges and cage traps, even if it does require the whole thing to be rebuilt after every use. After all, chances are I won't need to use this very powerful weapon very often, and dwarven labor is cheap now that the manager has gotten a much-needed overhaul.

[Fleeting Frames]

Artifacts can melt. They're immune to wear (so wooden ones will be on fire forever), but not to heat itself. It's may not be instant to heat up so much, granted.

Though, once you use artifact doors instead of ash raising bridges, dragon bone and leather doors are also an option. They don't need all their legs - shotgun them with something sharp from behind (warning: might kill target, so save before).

Looking at raws, wood also lacks melting point/non-solid states - though brief forum search suggests that nether-cap items at least used to catch on fire from dragonfire, which erases wood in under a day unless they're artifacts. (A brief check with magma reveals nether-cap bridge being fine from that, at least, though nether-cap floors don't cool their tiles.).

I suppose you could combine artifact nether-cap door with a (periclase) mechanism - the first will keep the latter cool. Make sure you have room for extinguishing mechanism later, or simply do quick test first to check if nether cap still catches fire.

Combined nether-cap and (pearl)ash bridge might be interesting, depending on the ages of materials, if the attributes are combined. I suspect not, but have a speculation.

[Montieth]

I have had a stone bridge of i think gabbro with iron mechanisms melt after a dragon i had penned behind fortifications breath past it. I had it secured with an iron chain too and that also melted.