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[Da King]

So, I now have the urge to drop a squad of full plate clad marksdwarves from the highest level of the map directly into the middle of a siege/ambush. Dropping them is easy enough, all it requires is a tower and a small platform to cut off from the tower, but the problem is, I have no idea how to ensure that they survive 16+ levels of falling. Will maxing out their stats work? What about making them drop into water? Any ideas on how to make this actually work?

[Alex Encandar]

Fall damage is tricky in that it's not reliable, but 16 levels is enough to kill even the luckiest/toughest dwarf. The water idea has merit though. Not sure much testing has been done in this area.

[Aspgren]

One of my legendary dwarves recently dropped like 5-6 levels and mangled his hip. Trust me he was maxed out and he still hasn't healed .. I have no idea why, he's super agile, strong and tough yet he isn't healing at all. In the same cave-in a child was injured and the CHILD has almost healed.

So your dwarves WILL hurt themselves and just because they're tough-as-nails (oddly) doesn't mean they can recover quickly. I think you'd have to edit or mod something in the game ... but I don't know what or how.

[Untelligent]

One of my legendary dwarves recently dropped like 5-6 levels and mangled his hip. Trust me he was maxed out and he still hasn't healed .. I have no idea why, he's super agile, strong and tough yet he isn't healing at all. In the same cave-in a child was injured and the CHILD has almost healed.

So your dwarves WILL hurt themselves and just because they're tough-as-nails (oddly) doesn't mean they can recover quickly. I think you'd have to edit or mod something in the game ... but I don't know what or how.

If I remember correctly, at the start of every season, all dwarves with broken/mangled wounds have a small chance of healing. A dwarf with a high toughness level has a higher chance of healing during this event.

Of course, it's all up to chance, so it can still lead to some odd results like this.

And I don't think it's possible to mod in better survivibility from falling.

[ArdentPenguin]

Get them in cages somehow. I once put a bunch of goblins in cages on a platform and dropped them 20 levels, and none of them took any damage at all. I don't know if that still works, but I haven't heard anything about fixing it.

I guess the trick is to let them out at the bottom...

[Lexender]

You could always make a complicated system with a retracting bridge each level of the fall, opening only right after they touch it, so that they fall quick enough but sustain minimal damage. You could use a stairway-shaped water canal with a pressure plate each level, and make the water fall down at the same time your dwarves will fall, to control the timing.

[Mister Thou]

You could use a stairway-shaped water canal with a pressure plate each level, and make the water fall down at the same time your dwarves will fall, to control the timing.

I guess this would be more like a toilet than a drop pod, but it might just be even more awesome. Keep your army locked in room and open up the floodgates to flush them out in the event of a seige or ambush.

I take back what I said earlier. This would definitely be even more awesome.

As far as the drop pods go, I can't see this working reliably, although I would love to be proved wrong. Maybe instead of drafting useless soapers and whatnot, you could put them in the drop pods instead of using champions. They would almost certainly die, but they might stun a goblin or two if you're lucky. Come to think of it, this might be more effective than drafting them and sending them into battle as shock troops, particularly against archers.

[Da King]

So if I connected 10 or 20 water pumps to a narrow 1 tile wide corridor, and then placed my military in said corridor, I could have my dwarves surf into battle?

Also, on the idea of cages, I suppose I could have a room full of starving angry dwarves, then when they go beserk, capture them with cage traps. Then I could drop screaming, foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics on them.

[Cthulhu]

Maybe you could build big wooden or stone boxes full of water, put dwarves inside them, and then deconstruct whatever's attaching them.  I'm betting the dust from the impact would knock them out though.

[ThtblovesDF]

Both idears would most likely result in either drowning dwarfs stuck in the water cannon / Drop Pod. We really need to test "hitting" water. I guess a pool with ramps (dont forget solid underground) could work, or just drop 2 z levels of water ahead of them;



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[Mister Thou]

So if I connected 10 or 20 water pumps to a narrow 1 tile wide corridor, and then placed my military in said corridor, I could have my dwarves surf into battle?

You could, and should. I was thinking of just having a reservoir of water, but a large group of pumps might move the water (and your soldiers) more quickly. Having a reservoir elevated would pressurize the water and might also work well.

Either way, someone should do this and post a video.

[Aspgren]

We really need to test "hitting" water.

I'll pitch in with my (limited) experience.

A fall from (dont remember) about 6 Z levels, hitting water and sinking an additional 3 Z levels caused my miner to explode in gore. (older version)
Merely falling into 3 Z levels of water hasn't hurt any creature I've seen fall into it. That would include elves, oxen, goblins and dwarves. Can't say if this is because of the water but a regular 3 Z level fall would hurt SOME wouldn't it?

[Vattic]

If they land on those pesky goblins it should cushion their fall.

[Aspgren]

Those pesky iron-clad pointy-thing wielding goblins.

[Volfram]

I do seem to recall someone saying that if a creature lands on top of another creature, it takes no fall damage(though the cushion tends to get turned into hamburger.)

The water drop idea reminds me of the High Density Gas from the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie.(The first CGI one with the cheezy spiritualist theme, not the newer half-sequel to FF7.)  That was one of my favorite science-fantasy aspects of the movie, and I've been trying to come up with a reliable shock troop delivery system like it since then.