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Author Topic: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?  (Read 968 times)

Grimwulf

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Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« on: February 01, 2021, 09:22:41 am »

I have a nigh-invulnerable FB in my fort that I absolutely need to be caged.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

He's been wandering the 3rd layer of my caverns for over 10 years, and nobody was able to harm him in any way. Crystal glass seems to be impenetrable, while his webbing ability makes any battle one-sided.

My arena is nearing its completion, with many contestants already waiting for their moment of glory in the cages, including a bronze colossus. But I have troubles caging this one, since he is immune to giant cave spider webs and stunning. I do have a few more ideas, but all of them will be a hellish pain in the butt to set up, so maybe someone tried these before?

1. Using smoke. The creature is immune to fire, but I know that he can be blinded by smoke. One of the other FB's that challenged him, a giant fire-breating mite, managed to ignite the caverns and proceed to beat the titan for more than 23 pages of combat. The titan didn't respond due to being unable to see through the smoke. The smoke eventually evaporated, and the battle was over in an instant. So, do smoke-blinded creatures trigger traps?

2. Using water. Even though he can't be stunned, maybe a high-pressure water beam can knock him prone. If he falls on the trap, will the trap trigger?

3. Using FB webs. I can't be 100% sure if he is immune to all webs. He fought a FB spider and a FB tarantula. The combat log was very unclear, but someone definitely got webbed. It went smth like "the FB is caught in FB's webs", "the FB is free from FB webs", etc. If that is the case, will webbing the traps with another FB's webs make them effective?

Aaand, I think that covers my ideas for now. Of course I could sorta "lure" him inside the arena and seal inside, but that option comes with its own drawbacks. I would rather leave as a last-resort one.

Another thing. Does anyone happen to know if dwarves are capable of starting to worship a megabeast out of the blue? What if they personally witness the creature slaying all megabeasts remaining in the world? I'm pretty sure I saw HFs worshipping megabeasts, but I don't know what causes this behavior exactly.

Edit: almost forgot. If a weapon is left within humanoid-FB's reach, can it pick up and use this weapon?
« Last Edit: February 01, 2021, 09:24:30 am by Grimwulf »
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2021, 11:43:03 am »

1. Being unable to see just makes it unable to attack back.
2. Dodge can trigger traps, but I suspect you need stun, and that this critter can't be caged.
3. Web immune is web immune.
4. Worship: It happens in the world, typically after the critter has razed the settlement. Suspect it doesn't happen in a fortress.
5. Shouldn't, as they aren't sapient, and thus don't know how to use weapons. Having said that, I don't think I've ever encountered a humanoid FB or Titan.
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Schmaven

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2021, 03:32:32 pm »

I thought webbed traps could catch anything.  FB capture however is one area I'm really inexperienced with.
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Stench Guzman

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2021, 07:07:47 pm »

An unconscious creature can trigger traps.  You'll need to cause a cave-in.
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Grimwulf

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2021, 01:18:53 am »

Quote
1. Being unable to see just makes it unable to attack back.
2. Dodge can trigger traps, but I suspect you need stun, and that this critter can't be caged.
3. Web immune is web immune.
4. Worship: It happens in the world, typically after the critter has razed the settlement. Suspect it doesn't happen in a fortress.
5. Shouldn't, as they aren't sapient, and thus don't know how to use weapons. Having said that, I don't think I've ever encountered a humanoid FB or Titan.

Then nothing's gonna work, huh. Thanks for clarifying.

Quote
I thought webbed traps could catch anything.

Mostly anything, yes. If you can't web it into a cage trap, you can usually stun it instead (using water/caveins/what have you)

Quote
An unconscious creature can trigger traps.  You'll need to cause a cave-in.

He is immune to that. It's literally in the thread title.
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gchristopher

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2021, 03:38:56 am »

One easy and relatively simple way is to at least immobilize it forever is to use artifact furniture as bait. Ideally an artifact door, hatch, or floodgate, to lure it and immobilize it in a predictable location.

Making lots of dorfs have mason as their highest moodable skill is a great way to get artifact furniture. (IMO more worthwhile than artifact weapons/armor) Dwarves with preferences for doors/hatches will always produce those as their artifact from a mood.

This worked for the duck-loving dwarves of Duck Fortress, and while it was terrifying at the time to hit unpause, it's a pretty reliable way to trap a FB in one place. (Which can be part of a plan to stun/cage it if you want to attempt a cave-in or maybe falling to stun it? Not sure what will work there.) In your place, I'd build the silk farm first and lure/trap it there.



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gchristopher

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2021, 03:39:18 am »

Double post somehow.
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Grimwulf

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2021, 04:05:12 am »

One easy and relatively simple way is to at least immobilize it forever is to use artifact furniture as bait. Ideally an artifact door, hatch, or floodgate, to lure it and immobilize it in a predictable location.

Making lots of dorfs have mason as their highest moodable skill is a great way to get artifact furniture. (IMO more worthwhile than artifact weapons/armor) Dwarves with preferences for doors/hatches will always produce those as their artifact from a mood.

This worked for the duck-loving dwarves of Duck Fortress, and while it was terrifying at the time to hit unpause, it's a pretty reliable way to trap a FB in one place. (Which can be part of a plan to stun/cage it if you want to attempt a cave-in or maybe falling to stun it? Not sure what will work there.) In your place, I'd build the silk farm first and lure/trap it there.

My goal has nothing to do with silk farms. I already have plenty of spiders for that. What I wanted to do is to place the caged beast inside the arena for dwarven entertainment and more engraving/storytelling material. Also for the sake of !SCIENCE!, because I'm genuinely interested if the beast can beat a bronze colossus in battle (I have one caged inside the arena already). Both of them have incredible armour, and while bronze will supposedly perform better than crystal glass in combat, the FB also has webs.

Besides, there aren't many megabeasts left in the world, and I was curious if the dwarves start worshipping the last one remaining, considering they will personally witness the beast murder every other pretender in duels.

There is no need for an artifact door to immobilize him. This set-up works just fine:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So the beast approaches the spider/fortifications from the north. The spider starts shooting webs (cage traps are beneath the webs, can't see them on the screen). The beast is triggered and looks for a way to reach the spider. He walks through the corridor and bumps into a simple bronze door. The door is locked. He stands there for some time, apparently thinking if it's worth the effort. Probably not. He starts walking back and sees the spider. The spider shoots webs at him. He is triggered and looks for a way to reach the spider. It's an endless loop.

If I remove the spider however, he simply goes back to the caverns and resumes his genocide. Anyway, he is immune to the effects of stunning, unconsciousness, exhaustion, webbing, fire, Armok knows what else - guess I can't cage him after all. I'll have to build an intricate personal maze for this titan to be able to move him in and out of the arena.
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gchristopher

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2021, 05:19:30 pm »

Is a building destroyer not going after your doors if you remove the spider? That's weird.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Caging creatures immune to webbing and stunning?
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2021, 04:18:37 am »

Is a building destroyer not going after your doors if you remove the spider? That's weird.
FB behavior changed in 0.47.X, so they ceased to go after bait doors (which made it a major pain to eliminate them), despite still having the building destroyer flag set. The only way I've found that's a reasonably reliable way to eliminate FBs is to trap FBs between locked doors and then use menacing spikes on repeat to kill them. It's a lot of boring single step fiddling, though, as they'll enter the trap only when it provides a path into the fortress, and they'll turn around as soon as the door in front of them is locked.

"Normal" building destroyers (such as ogres) seem to target doors as before, while necro experiment ones have been observed to both target doors and to turn around when the door is locked. I don't know if it's variation in the behavior of individuals or if it's based on the experiment "species".
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