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[Silverionmox]

I couldn't leave it out there in the cold.

The smallest ones ought to be the size of a wagon.

They are essentially a mountain composed out of gigantic turtle shell on the outside, and gigantic turtle bones and assorted gigantic turtle organs on the inside, interspersed with rivers of giant turtle blood. They may be covered with additional soil, or even sedimentary rock. Normally, it would be sleeping and function as a regular mountain.

When awake, their feet, head and tail are pushed outward slowly, pushing aside any soil in the way. Sedimentary stone can prove to be a problem, and many gigantic turtles die this way after an extended hibernation, the duration of which increases with their age - they're otherwise immortal. Such shells should be rare according to their size, and a living gigantic turtle should be even rarer. Their diet consists of plants and sand - to get minerals to grow their shells.

Digging into a turtle would awake it. Continuing to dig into it would kill it. As dwarves are far faster diggers than a giant turtle can try to seek relief for the pain in the water, it would be easy to kill. After that it's just a giant turtle shell filled with soon-to-be rotting gigantic turtle meat, however. Once it moves around, it breaks all structures connecting it to the surrounding landscape if it is strong enough. With every step, all structures left on it are subjected to a small earthquake.

Foreseeable problems:
The obvious one: defining a creature as a 3d group of tiles. As soon as that's done, however, hibernating gigantic turtles would not be a problem. Having them move around would require smoothly moving and recentering the map. If in fortress mode, there might be the option to split off a group of dwarves and declare the turtle a new fortress.

Since turtles move so slowly, that wouldn't be a big problem: just wait until there's room and then shift one appendage a square, or if possible push. After 3 appendages have shifted, shift the shell. Repeat.

It's rarity would be commensurate with it's size, however. Which means that the chance that two of them would mate in-game is virtually nihil.

Edit:
This one came up in the underground diversity thread, here:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=22308.msg384436#msg384436

There's a topic in the eternal voting list now.

[penguinofhonor]

The mountain on top of their shell should be normal dirt/rock so you could build a fort on it and then awaken it. Imagine a roughly conic mountain on top of a roughly disc-shaped turtle, covered in busy dwarves with ballistae and catapults ready to defend their moving fortress from harm.

[LumenPlacidum]

But... what could possibly threaten your mobile fortress?  I think it would be interesting, but I don't see the point.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Threat: The giants living in their cloud cities.

I like this idea. In a fantasy environment, you might see landscape that's actually made up of giant sleeping turtles, enormous dragons, world-serpents, vast slumbering trolls, giant skeletons/corpses, continent-sized elementals, city-sized golems/collossi, what have you.

It would be great if it could be modeled.

I *don't* think it should be easy, or wise, to try to kill such a creature.
There should be major and immediate repercussions, and-to use the turtle as an example-it shouldn't be at all easy to penetrate such a shell. It'd probably be several degrees harder and more resilient than a normal turtle shell. Not to mention, slow or not, such an awesome beast should/would be able to defend itself.

They might even have protectors.

[Cthulhu]

That is what happened when I read that suggestion.  It is so great my mind couldn't handle it.

[penguinofhonor]

But... what could possibly threaten your mobile fortress?  I think it would be interesting, but I don't see the point.

Imagine when enemies get more interesting. Goblins come flying in on giant bats to distract the fortress while their trolls attempt to knock your turtle down. If they complete that, they push a siege tower up next to the turtle and attack the fort on top.

[SirHoneyBadger]

And how easy could it be for your dwarfs to actually control such a turtle? Not to mention, it's gonna get sleepy again, after it's eaten it's fill. That's if you get lucky and it doesn't detect a mate...

[andrea]

now, lets think about it: your fort is on turtle, and turtle walks off map. fun, isn't it?

[Apegrape]

now, lets think about it: your fort is on turtle, and turtle walks off map. fun, isn't it?

Why not let the map reload every year or so to prevent that?

I want this really bad. Especially now that I've seen Iron Lore's upcoming game Demigod that includes giant "rooks" that are like walking cities.

[penguinofhonor]

And how easy could it be for your dwarfs to actually control such a turtle? Not to mention, it's gonna get sleepy again, after it's eaten it's fill. That's if you get lucky and it doesn't detect a mate...

You wouldn't control it. You'd just go with the flow. Someone in the Underground Diversity thread (which probably inspired this one) suggested that it would move incredibly slowly, about 50 tiles per year. The map would, of course, update whenever the turtle got close to the edge.

[Fossaman]

You ought to be able to prod it in vulnerable areas to make it turn, at least. Giant turtles feel pain too, obviously.

[Ampersand]

I'm a fan of the idea. They might be controllable by inserting mechanisms in their head or around their necks connected to two levers. When the right one is on, it trends toward the right, when the left is on, it trends toward the left, when they're both on, it moves forward, neither on, it stops.

Do you think we could have elephants standing on the shell too, holding up the the mound of earth on their backs? and perhaps we can have names for the turtles. Names like A'tuin.

[SirHoneyBadger]

You ought to be able to prod it in vulnerable areas to make it turn, at least. Giant turtles feel pain too, obviously.

Prodding it in a vulnerable area would probably just cause it to shake violently, until you-and everyone you know-gets violently dislodged, trampled on, ground into sand, and eaten.

[Foa]

I'm a fan of the idea. They might be controllable by inserting mechanisms in their head or around their necks connected to two levers. When the right one is on, it trends toward the right, when the left is on, it trends toward the left, when they're both on, it moves forward, neither on, it stops.

Do you think we could have elephants standing on the shell too, holding up the the mound of earth on their backs? and perhaps we can have names for the turtles. Names like A'tuin.

No you shit-balled twat, that'll shorten it's life expectancy.

Use the Dungeon Master, and his guild mates, FOR THEY SHALL OVERCOME THE BEAST, AND MAKE IT ONE OF YOUR TOYS!!!


Just station your Guys all over it's parts, ( head, legs, tail ( as to why, LESS DELAY TIME!!! ) , and then command ( 'command > -action- ' ) the turtle, when you send that command the appropriate slaves will handle it.

Slaves will be used to control movement. ( just press 'command > select movement path' and your slaves does the rest, for less finger smashing )

[Ampersand]

My proposition was made in order to make it still move according to it's own will in general. The levers wouldn't make it step, but more like, force it's head to turn to one side, to make it move in that general direction, like reigns on a horse. I like the idea of it's movement being mostly out of your control. Mostly is important.

Being a turtle, it should also be able to swim and float on water.