Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sergius]

Well, after managing to capture a Giant Cave Spider that was roaming around the surface killing goats and kobold thieves (dunno if she appeared from outside or was a resident, but she fell into my cage without any problem, so I suppose she was a visitor... also she was hidden and a camel spotted her or something and yelled 'Ambush!') I started making a ridiculous long spider maze involved a ton of cage traps and rope chains with kittens tied to them, for the purpose of getting free spider silk. It failed miserably.

However!

I discovered a quick and efficient method of milking the damn spider nearly indefinitely, and I didn't even need to constantly release and re-cage her. This is what I finally built:

Code: [Select]

###########
^D   S   D^
+++++++++++


     @

D = door
^ = cage trap (if you want to recapture)
+ = fortification
# = wall

The idea is to station a single wrestler (set to harass, but not chase) then lock both doors. Once the spider is properly released, unlock the door that's farther from the spider, and watch as she webs the hell out of your wrestler and tries to get away. Before she does tho, lock the door again. Repeat ad nauseam until you think you got enough silk, then start collecting!

It's important not to make the area too big. About 20 long fortified wall works just fine I think (don't make it too short or the spider won't have enough room to walk and shoot spiders before reaching the door), also it's important that the spider can actually see the exit (seems pathing to a target needs to actually see the clear path). Likewise, don't place the soldier too far away (not sure what's the range, it seems fine at about 7 spaces).

Note that every time you lock the spider again, she'll want to move to some default location, so position your soldier properly and unlock the farthest door.

[Rysith]

A) does a chained animal work as well as a wrestler?

b) don't your silk harvesters spam "Urist Silkybeard cancels harvest silk: interrupted by Giant Cave Spider"?

[userpay]

A) does a chained animal work as well as a wrestler?

b) don't your silk harvesters spam "Urist Silkybeard cancels harvest silk: interrupted by Giant Cave Spider"?

I think you can set in orders to collect webs or not.

[LegoLord]

A) does a chained animal work as well as a wrestler?

b) don't your silk harvesters spam "Urist Silkybeard cancels harvest silk: interrupted by Giant Cave Spider"?

I think you can set in orders to collect webs or not.

But if they see the GCS, they will cancel their current job to flee, unless they happen to be in the military or they are cornered.  The thing to do is put some drawbridges in front of the soldier-side of the fortifications, so that you can have a temporary wall allowing the  s to harvest the silk without canceling their job.

[Sergius]

I tried chaining various animals, including war dogs in the position of the wrestler, and so far the spider wants to get out to eat it but doesn't shoot any webs. I think she needs the dwarf to be some sort of military type so she feels threatened. Of course, she'll shoot webs anyway once she's gotten free, but we don't want that do we

The idea is to let the spider shoot webs once or twice (she'll cover about 5x5 area but only like a 1/4 spatter will be covered in webs), then closing it and letting dwarfs collect. Also doesn't seem like the dwarfs notice the spider as long as she is behind the fortification. So far I've been able to make them walk all in front of her and nobody flees.

[dragonflare]

I'm not sure if this works with untame spiders, but what I find easier is just to leave the doors unlocked, and just pet-lock the doors.

That way, there will still be a path to the food creature, but it can't actually walk out the door.

Also, not sure if it's actually better, but I usually just put the food directly in front of the spider, and forbid the closets row of web so the dwarves don't get scared ever.

Just make sure no-one comes in and shoots something. That happened to me several times.

[Sergius]

I'm not sure if this works with untame spiders, but what I find easier is just to leave the doors unlocked, and just pet-lock the doors.

That way, there will still be a path to the food creature, but it can't actually walk out the door.

Also, not sure if it's actually better, but I usually just put the food directly in front of the spider, and forbid the closets row of web so the dwarves don't get scared ever.

Just make sure no-one comes in and shoots something. That happened to me several times.

The problem is that if the spider can't come out, it won't find a path to its victim and won't shoot webs at it. The trick so that it doesn't get killed is to make the place really out of the way (so that marksdwarves have no reason to go there), and only unlock the door for really short periods, and locking them as soon as your soldiers or the spider get anywhere near it.

[dragonflare]

I hope it doesn't make a difference, but I tried this using tame GCS's modded into embark buy-able pets, and a captured non-tame animal(werewolf). All doors are unlocked, but pet-forbidden.

It seems like if the doors are unlocked, even if they can't go through them(pets/animals?), it still counts as a path.

I got a pretty fill room in around a minute or less.
Also, this may cause a slowdown, locking all the doors might help, haven't looked at this enough.

What I did was this, but i'm sure there are better setups:

#=fortified wall
D=door

###
DXD
###
DSD
###

[Dorten]

What I did was this, but i'm sure there are better setups:

#=fortified wall
D=door

###
DXD
###
DSD
###

Yay this works!!!

[Fist_Of_Armok]

I hope it doesn't make a difference, but I tried this using tame GCS's modded into embark buy-able pets, and a captured non-tame animal(werewolf). All doors are unlocked, but pet-forbidden.

It seems like if the doors are unlocked, even if they can't go through them(pets/animals?), it still counts as a path.

I got a pretty fill room in around a minute or less.
Also, this may cause a slowdown, locking all the doors might help, haven't looked at this enough.

What I did was this, but i'm sure there are better setups:

#=fortified wall
D=door

###
DXD
###
DSD
###

What's the X? An up/down staircase

[worldspawn]

What creatures do wild GCS web? I dug out a room, chained a cat inside and put the GCS cage in as well and hooked it to a lever. Then I completely walled off the room and pulled said lever. The GCS just milled about for a year and never touched the cat, even when standing right next to it. Once I deconstructed the wall THEN it made a mad dash for the exit and was promptly trapped again.

What should I be using as bait?

[Dorten]

We all knew, that cats are evil heart-stealing beasts. Now there's the prove!

I used horse foal. It worked.

[dragonflare]

What's the X? An up/down staircase

The X is anything the GCS will attack.

[schm0]

#=fortified wall
D=door

###
DXD
###
DSD
###

This doesn't look very effecient. One silk at a time?

[Shoku]

#=fortified wall
D=door

###
DXD
###
DSD
###

This doesn't look very effecient. One silk at a time?

That's two lines of fortified walls- maybe the silk will go through the second line for the actual collection area?