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[jockmo42]

Well, I've captured one of the most coveted creatures in the world. How should I use it? Not sure if it climbs walls or anything trippy like that, so I don't really want to throw it in a pit without some advice. Here's some questions.

*How can I get it in a pit and running around safely (for my favored dwarves, at least, not the poor sods I throw in there).
*How much is it worth to trade?
*Any way to find out more about it while it's in a cage?
*Any awesome ideas of how I could put it to use?

No chance of taming it, as the beast tasted blood devouring one of my woodcutters.

Thanks for reading.

[Smew]

There was a topic earlier today on silk farming, try searching for that, that'll net you way more money then you would get if you just sold the thing.

[Jim Groovester]

There are many potential uses for a giant cave spider, most of them gruesome.

1. Noble dispatcher.
2. Arena entertainment.
3. Migrant killer.
4. Silk farming.

Once you decide what you want to do with it, you can transport it in the cage and release it with a lever. It's the safest way. Doing it any other way might be fortress ending.

*Any way to find out more about it while it's in a cage?

Find out what about it? Giant Cave Spiders are always female, they have an abdomen, a thorax, and a cephalothorax, eight legs, mandibles, and shoot giant cave spider silk that entangles any creature that walks into it. They also have [NO_PAIN], so they won't stop fighting just because of a missing limb, if that's what you're wondering.

[Guy Montag]

I heard its worth building an elaborate set up to collect silk from it.

You basically build a cage on one end of a maze dug out with channels to maximum travel time. attach the cage to a lever, and While the GCS paths in for the kill on a chained kitten or whatever, it shoots web at the cat protected by a fortification, and is caught in a cage trap to be used over again. The fortification might be unnessicary. Not sure if they stop once their target its webbed or not or if the silk is collectible if it actually entangles its target.

Not sure if that works, but in theory it should, somebody else might confirm, its my plan if I ever find one. Whatever you do, don't try to pit the thing.

[Albedo]

Once you decide what you want to do with it, you can transport it in the cage and release it with a lever. It's the safest way. Doing it any other way might be fortress ending.

If you want to risk a worker rather than waste a mechanism, you could set up a "spider lock", connecting multiple doors and drawbridges (to be used to block halls when "open") to create the lock-out system.  If the spider gets past barrier X, you don't open barrier Y.

Of course, that will use far more mechanisms than you'd lose, but if it's the principle of the thing, then it's an option.

[Gask]

So can they climb up walls?  Also, do they lay eggs or produce any young?

[Jim Groovester]

I could check really quickly, but I don't think they have any breeding information, so no eggs or little giant cave spiders running around tearing up your fortress.

And no creature can climb walls currently.

[ThtblovesDF]

Sadly they dont eat goblins, imo the biggest Flaw currently.

[IceShade]

Slightly offtopic, I never got the deal with silk farming for clothes or trade anyway. If I need silk, I buy it in ridiculously large quantities from caravans (for moods only, since I don't produce clothes. Clothes only make the fortress a mess in the current version.. at least, in my experience). For trading? Who needs money? With every single ambush or siege I get so many goblin corpses, full of really expensive giant cave spider clothing. Bones and skulls serve nicely as crafts and totems for trade.

I'd say, noble killer pit spider!

[jockmo42]

Sadly they dont eat goblins, imo the biggest Flaw currently.

Really? What about kobolds?

Right now she's just raging in the middle of my main entrance hall. The dwarves keep organizing parties around her.

[Pilsu]

GCS need a path to spit web at anything. Abuse the broken pet unpathable doors for this, they just think they can get to the prey through those. Raise a bridge to block LoS when harvesting

I'm not entirely sure whether hostile animals work for this though

[LegoLord]

It should as long as they don't have the [BUILDINGDESTROYER:2] tag.

[Shoku]

They're Buildingdestroyer:1's