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[matakuka]

This may well be my next project, and may be something for those already shrugging off any invasion and a satisfied king in a bed made of demon bones (matakuka cancels announce: went exaggerative):

A fortress with a lot of opening and closing gates and bridges and doors and trap doors and water flows.... operated by stray animals pitted into a tunnel with a large number of tunnels. Ideally, the fortress' ways will become so random that a dwarf can die of thirst while trying to find a booze stored just ten tiles away; and a goblin group wandering in the sewers for years. Complete inpredictabliness will be the task. Maybe with some "offering" altar where the dwarves may dump vermin to get the cat's (and kittens', since the system will be auto-reproducing) attention...

Has anyxone tried this? Will it be fun?

[Hishan]

That sounds sweet! But getting a running fortress out of this would be difficult, perhaps better to biuld it all first then activate when your fort is mature. Imagine how fun it would be in adventure mode!

[Rhodan]

Using animals as random triggers is an awesome idea. Their breeding might be tricky though, so perhaps mules would be perfect for this.
On the other hand, imagine a trap triggering more frequently every time your cats breed, making the fortress dangerouser and dangerouser until it's the most dangeroustest.

Would a tamed creature with the lever-pulling tag work the same way?  Do those still exist, even?

[Techhead]

Only pit the male animals, easy.

[Rhodan]

In DF, animals don't really care if they're on the other side of the map in different cages submerged in their own magma vent covered with obsidian.  I think they breed by telepathy or something.

[i are not good with compu]

This sounds a lot like using animals to compute (ahem) which would be interesting to integrate into it.  I imagine something like this could be done with levers as well, so that you have to use your adventure (adventurers can pull levers, right?) to compute and access an area(s). 

[matakuka]

I don't know... I will do it with pressure plates. My major concern, though, if the creatures really will wander around aimlessly, and not sticking to one end of the CeriouslyElaboratedRandomNetwork. This would detroy the whole idea. Well, I have to see.

And for the breeding... It may be not THAT difficult to add a Random-Seed-Destruktor-'Laser' module with occasional cat reduction, extra style if tossed out of the system. This may well be called "debugging dekittening the fortress"

[Rhodan]

True. You could put in a drawbridge to fling out excess cats.  The cat triggering said bridge would survive, so you can't lose.

[i are not good with compu]

True. You could put in a drawbridge to fling out excess cats.  The cat triggering said bridge would survive, so you can't lose.

Which is also an interesting way to make the maze frustrating dynamic.  "Oh thank God, I found a path" *step* *Drawbridge raises ahead, blocking path*

[Rhodan]

How about a field of drawbridges in front of your fortress. Gobbos arrive, step on switch. Somewhere in your fortress, a cage opens, cats spill out, and start wandering across the bridge switches...
Once the Gobs are gone, just round up the cats again.

[Ninjacrat]

First thought: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDcSeUvkOw

[brainfire]

In DF, animals don't really care if they're on the other side of the map in different cages submerged in their own magma vent covered with obsidian.  I think they breed by telepathy or something.

Yeah, but if you only have male cats in the pit then the babies will all be born outside the pit.

[Rhodan]

Good point, I didn't even think of that.

Hmm, kittens get born outside of their mother's cages, no?  Someone should design a pit like this:

Code: [Select]

#######
#c+++c#
#c+++c#  + - Part of bridge raising north or south.
#c+++c#  c - Female cat in cage
#c+++c#  ^ - Pressure plate triggering bridge
##^^^##


[Mohreb el Yasim]

i would go with that:

Code: [Select]

#####
#^^^#
#^a^#
#^^^#
##D##

a is a chained animal
^ is a pressure plate
# wall
D door
then you make as many "control rooms" as many "independent" random source you need, and by limiting the place of the animal wich it can wander you can put, more-less possibility

[Skanky]

Hmm, kittens get born outside of their mother's cages, no?

Yes, but only if the mother was caged while pregnant. Animals don't get impregnated while in cages.

Of course, swap the cages for chains and that will work as advertised although the chained cats will wander 1 square around the tile they are chained on.