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Author Topic: Help me be more efficient with sieges.  (Read 1727 times)

worldspawn

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Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« on: December 06, 2008, 08:13:40 pm »

Currently I'm trying to build some megaprojects on my map but have made zero progress due to sieges. They're not a challenge or anything since I have 50 axedwarves (my fort wound up being named Axeclan so I had to), the issue is the cleanup. I don't have a chasm or other bottomless pit to use so here's my technique and if anyone has a more efficient or time saving solution other than just outright hiding the items let me know.

I send out my army and slaughter everything(I wait till the siege is right outside my fort), and all their items are forbidden. I then send my dwarves back inside and mass dump everything. I then go into the stocks screen and undump corpses and parts (I want those in the refuse pile not my main fort). Everything else is then dumped in a garbage tile that's near but not next to a pit with magma in it. Once it's all dumped I mass designate melt on the pile. Anything that's metal is marked so I unforbid them and let the dwarves haul it to my stockpiles where it later gets melted. Then I move the garbage dump zone to my magma pit and dump everything that's left in there.

I thought this was a good method, but even with a full population it takes so long that before I'm even done dumping everything, another siege comes. This has gone on for like 5 sieges now and I'm not getting anything done so is there a quicker way because this is getting tedious.
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beorn080

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2008, 08:25:35 pm »

Cage traps. Hundreds of cage traps. Only need 2 hauling jobs for them.
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Ustxu Iceraped the Frigid Crystal of Slaughter was a glacier titan. It was the only one of its kind. A gigantic feathered carp composed of crystal glass. It has five mouths full of treacherous teeth, enormous clear wings, and ferocious blue eyes. Beware its icy breath! Ustxu was associated with oceans, glaciers, boats, and murder.

worldspawn

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2008, 08:38:00 pm »

I was going to say I didn't want iron in my magma pit but you're right. I should put the cages in a room and flood it with magma, then collect my lovely iron. Trouble is replacing the cages I don't have much wood on my map and screw using metal cages blah.

edit: daw forgot no bauxite for controlling magma flooding
« Last Edit: December 06, 2008, 08:40:42 pm by worldspawn »
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beorn080

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2008, 08:43:43 pm »

If your just disposing of the goblin's via magma then order in a large number of lesser metal cages from the dwarven trader guy. Otherwise hook them up to a lever and let your military get some free training in. Then its all in one neat area. If you have water you can use the water pressure to move the stuff out of the room when your done.
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Ustxu Iceraped the Frigid Crystal of Slaughter was a glacier titan. It was the only one of its kind. A gigantic feathered carp composed of crystal glass. It has five mouths full of treacherous teeth, enormous clear wings, and ferocious blue eyes. Beware its icy breath! Ustxu was associated with oceans, glaciers, boats, and murder.

Foa

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2008, 08:43:52 pm »

I was going to say I didn't want iron in my magma pit but you're right. I should put the cages in a room and flood it with magma, then collect my lovely iron. Trouble is replacing the cages I don't have much wood on my map and screw using metal cages blah.

edit: daw forgot no bauxite for controlling magma flooding
You don't need flood gates, just make a pit for said lava intake, just make it so you can walk the perimeter, dig under the said perimeter, then flood w/ l, then dig, then channel, then collect debris, then re-dig the flow tunnel.

And don't waste the POWs, make a 15x15 arena, excluding the moat, which goes down stairs to yet another viewing/fighting area.

And make sure to take their items, and yes you can take their items without harming anyone.


Better version coming soon

« Last Edit: December 06, 2008, 09:00:56 pm by Foa »
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jester

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2008, 01:20:26 pm »

cage traps and then a nice deep sacrificial pit with an drawbridge garbage disposal down the bottom.  Raise the drawbridge, chuck in your POWs, take what you want then pull the lever for the bridge.  If you can make them land somewhere near your smelters then you will save on hauling as well.  If you dont need iron just chuck the baby snatching bastards straight into the volcano, no fuss, no muss.
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LegacyCWAL

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2008, 02:29:04 pm »

Currently I'm trying to build some megaprojects on my map but have made zero progress due to sieges. They're not a challenge or anything since I have 50 axedwarves (my fort wound up being named Axeclan so I had to), the issue is the cleanup. I don't have a chasm or other bottomless pit to use so here's my technique and if anyone has a more efficient or time saving solution other than just outright hiding the items let me know.

I send out my army and slaughter everything(I wait till the siege is right outside my fort), and all their items are forbidden. I then send my dwarves back inside and mass dump everything. I then go into the stocks screen and undump corpses and parts (I want those in the refuse pile not my main fort). Everything else is then dumped in a garbage tile that's near but not next to a pit with magma in it. Once it's all dumped I mass designate melt on the pile. Anything that's metal is marked so I unforbid them and let the dwarves haul it to my stockpiles where it later gets melted. Then I move the garbage dump zone to my magma pit and dump everything that's left in there.

I thought this was a good method, but even with a full population it takes so long that before I'm even done dumping everything, another siege comes. This has gone on for like 5 sieges now and I'm not getting anything done so is there a quicker way because this is getting tedious.
First, how far away from your entrance is your dump?  If you put a spot that's near your entrance but safely out of the line of fire, each trip will take a LOT less time than having to haul every sock and loincloth halfway across the fortress.

Second, don't necessarily dump everything.  How far away is your trade depot from your entrance?  If it's close, put a finished goods stockpile near it and unforbid - but NOT dump - the GCS stuff.  That not only shortens the cleanup trip, but saves a trip later when you want to get it near the depot so that it can be traded later.  The same goes for weapons and armor stockpiles: you can just have the gear taken to those if they're close by, and have them melted down from there.  It'll be a slightly longer melting job, but a much faster cleanup job.

Third, you may have to just have to resign yourself to a cluttered entryway until the sieges die down.  Getting that many sieges that close together is very uncommon unless cleanup is taking a VERY long time.

Fourth, if all else fails, you can pump some magma up there to dump on the stuff.  The iron gear will be fine and can be picked up afterwards, but all those (narrow gremlin leather codpieces) laying around won't need cleaned up afterwards.



Edit: Just wanted to add a method I used in my last fort.

1) Dig a 1x1 channel next to the usual battlefield.  I mean like practically on it.
2) Put a bridge over it, and link the bridge to a lever.
3) Dig a tunnel between the bridge-covered pit and your fort so that you can get to it from underground.
4) Put a deactivated garbage dump zone where your guys will dump things in the pit when it's activated.
5) After a fight, retract the bridge, activate the garbage zone, unforbid the corpses so they're taken to their usual spot, and mark everything else for dumping.  Everything will be taken and thrown in the pit after a trip of a half-dozen tiles or so.
6) After everything is cleaned up, pull the lever again to cover the pit with the bridge.
7) Now the crap is where your dwarves can do whatever you want with it, even during a siege.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2008, 02:40:29 pm by LegacyCWAL »
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Earthquake Damage

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2008, 03:26:02 pm »

You don't need bauxite mechanisms or elaborate constructions if you don't mind tweaking the raws.  I recently discovered you can build adamantine mechanisms (forge only;  cannot be assigned by the manager).  If you add [ANY_USE] (or whatever it is) to steel, you should be able to build steel mechanisms as well.
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Magua

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2008, 06:53:42 pm »

Channel a moat around the entire map.  With a legendary miner or three, should be done ina season, depending upon the size of your map.  Now goblins can't attack.

Optionally, build a wall, just in the case of annoying bowgoblins.

I did this in the obsidian monolith map, and it worked a treat.
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worldspawn

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2008, 07:59:37 pm »

Yeah the problem is my lava dump and trade depot are too far apart since I do save the GCS items. However, I forgot about atom smashers so I'll just build one outside and put a garbage dump zone under it. I can salvage iron items if I want or smash them if I feel I have enough bars.
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beorn080

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2008, 10:09:55 pm »

Just dig to the middle of the normal battlefield underground and then drop a channel covered by a bridge to it. Keep the bridge down over the channel until after the siege then open it up and use that as a dumping ground. Afterwards close the bridge and sort out the goods you want to keep from the pile then you can close the bridge thats over that dump and clear the rest of it out.
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Ustxu Iceraped the Frigid Crystal of Slaughter was a glacier titan. It was the only one of its kind. A gigantic feathered carp composed of crystal glass. It has five mouths full of treacherous teeth, enormous clear wings, and ferocious blue eyes. Beware its icy breath! Ustxu was associated with oceans, glaciers, boats, and murder.

userpay

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2008, 11:32:57 pm »

Well you could add [SPEED:1] to your dwarves to make them supper fast. I only do this though when an incomming caravan keeps dieing or there was a big seige and I'm trying to clean up. Heh watching a couple of marksdwarves with [SPEED:1] is pretty damn funny, slightly faster than the machine gun they usually are.
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Foa

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2008, 11:35:36 pm »



This is an example of a Single Bulkhead, made in the Dwarven Vault Community Fort, currently discontinued, it blocks out both sides with bridges, and the center contains a layer of flood gates.

You may be prompted to place an Achery Tower on the top of it, I recommend one that is 2z tall as in the bulkhead is below the two floors of archers.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2008, 11:39:17 pm by Foa »
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numerobis

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #13 on: December 07, 2008, 11:57:46 pm »

First off: a floodgate for magma can be made by building a tunnel just above the magma entrance, with a source of water on one side, and a sink on the other.   To open, channel the tile that blocks the magma.  To close, push water through.  Make sure to have a destination for the magma so you can drain the room again.  You can build that using a door linked to a lever.  It will be consumed, but so what.

Second: an alternate way is get your bookkeeper to perfect the records.  After the fight, use the stocks view to just dump all the clothing that isn't armor, and melt the rest.  This halves the hauling effort. 
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BurnedToast

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Re: Help me be more efficient with sieges.
« Reply #14 on: December 08, 2008, 12:19:41 am »

You could turn invaders off in the init file, if you just don't want to deal with them anymore.

What I did is remove all the goblin's clothes (except loincloths and armor, of course) from their entry in the raws (don't remember which file offhand, sorry) which makes cleanup ALOT easier. Considering clothes offer almost no protection this has no real effect on the game so I don't consider it cheating. Unfortunately, you need to make a new world for it to take effect so it won't do you any good now, but it's something to consider for the future.

Otherwise, I can't really think of a better way of doing it, other then just dumping everything into a drainable magma cistern. even without bauxite you can use water to turn magma into obsidian to make a plug, then channel it out to get it flowing again (assuming of course you have water).
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