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[Relee]

This is the first fort I've had that had cave spiders in it. I'm a bit curious about the mechanics of vermin, now.

My fort has a couple of neat things on the map, which turned out to be really close together, and right where I was building my fort. The bottomless pit with the lava glob was obvious from the start, and I built next to it. The underground pool I discovered while my miners were digging out a housing block... which made it a really frustrating discovery, but interesting as well. I walled it up so the monsters couldn't get out, but a cave spider had already escaped and I started finding occasional spider webs in my fort.

There's a lot of spider webs around the pool, and the monsters don't seem to be interested in leaving the water so they don't break them.

My first question about these things is, do they work as real spider webs? As in, do vermin get caught in the webs and killed by the spiders? I've noticed miasma clouds appearing in regions of the bottomless pit where I can only see spider webs, and a number appear in a certain corridor in my fort. The corridor is just four blocks away from the underground pool.

So my other question is, are vermin calculated in larger areas than block-by-block? Along with the cave spiders and webs that occasionally appear just in that small area of corridor, I've seen a few olms appearing. It would make sense if the region around the water was spawning olms where it could, even though the pool is completely walled in.


What in the heck ARE olms anyway?

[Cthulhu]

It's a blind cave salamander-ish thing.

[Aqizzar]

Yeah, vermin just kind of pop into existance anywhere the area is correct, and once they appear, they kind of phase their way around, including through walls.  Blocking off the pool won't stop them.

As far as I know, webs (vermin spider ones anyway) don't actually catch anything.  As for the miasma clouds, look for piles of bones or dead creatures in your unit list.  I've noticed that chasm creatures occasionally kill each other.

And these are olms I guess.  Relatively big, very rare worms.  Makes me wonder what gave Toady the idea.  And what Giant Olms are.  Or olmmen for that matter.

[LrZeph]

And these are olms I guess.  Relatively big, very rare worms.  Makes me wonder what gave Toady the idea.  And what Giant Olms are.  Or olmmen for that matter.

Dude Three words.... Cave. Swallow. Men. i couldnt stop laughing at them. oh and olmmen must be fishfaces

[sweitx]

Yeah, vermin just kind of pop into existance anywhere the area is correct, and once they appear, they kind of phase their way around, including through walls.  Blocking off the pool won't stop them.

As far as I know, webs (vermin spider ones anyway) don't actually catch anything.  As for the miasma clouds, look for piles of bones or dead creatures in your unit list.  I've noticed that chasm creatures occasionally kill each other.

And these are olms I guess.  Relatively big, very rare worms.  Makes me wonder what gave Toady the idea.  And what Giant Olms are.  Or olmmen for that matter.

I once embark near a cave (needless to say, wasn't prepared for it, and got mauled to death by a dozen snakemen, a dozen lizardmen, and a giant olm.  However, in the short time I'm alive, I notice that any vermin olms that touches the web dies immediately (while destroying the web in the process).  So I guess spider webs do catch some vermin (they're not giant cave spider web).

[Jing]

the webs can be collected for spider silk thread.  On a map that naturally has spiders of some sort (I once had phantom spiders) they'll get killed by kittens, but repopulate and make webs again.  It makes for rather easy money and nice clothing for your dwarves.

[Hyndis]

Webs will catch and kill vermin, thus resulting in massive amounts of miasma or very busy refuse haulers.

You can fix this by having plenty of looms and weavers. They'll automatically collect the webs, thus limiting the amount of miasma that can be generated by them.

Also, vermin tends to stay in the vicinity of the biome. For example, if you're digging and suddenly see a few olms running around, you're close to an underground river. Olms, spiders, and fire snakes are good hints that the feature is nearby.

[Deon]

and suddenly see a few olms running around

Someone, show me how an olm can RUN?! o_O

[MathijsBuster]

and suddenly see a few olms running around

Someone, show me how an olm can RUN?! o_O

Look closely!
Olms aren't worms but salamanders. They actually have paws.
Salamanders run fast...

Makes me wonder what gave Toady the idea.  And what Giant Olms are.

I think this would get rather close to a giant olm. Though it wouldn't surprise me if giant Olms are even bigger.
I can imagine dwarves being threatened by that thing. ... and if you're still doubting how harmful it would be, just think of Komodo Dragons... they're a serious threat to even humans as well, and we're talking about little dwarves here!

[Hyndis]

and suddenly see a few olms running around

Someone, show me how an olm can RUN?! o_O

An olm is just a pale, eyeless salamander. They have legs and move around like any other salamander. They're just blind since they're cave adapted. No reason to have eyes if there's no light, nor is there any reason to have pigmentation if nobody can see anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm

[Skizelo]

Wasn't one of the early freaks-of-the-week on X-Files an olm-man? The one that lived in the sewers?

[Dwarmin]

It was the Flukeman!