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[Sinoj]

Me and a friend have debated this topic for a while now, and since none of us have any experience catching and taming animals, and we can't find any definitive answer on board nor wiki, I bring the question here now.

If one were to catch and tame an animal that is already dangerous and aggressive, say a Giant Eagle, and then chain it outside ones fortress, would it attack hostiles such as invading goblins? (I am well aware that Giant Eagles can only be tamed, not trained, without modding, so my question is limited to tame animals)

My friend vehemently claims that only trained war or hunting animals will attack hostiles, but I feel that tame animals should attack hostiles. If this question has been answered before I apologize, I searched the forums and the wiki to the best of my ability and found nothing to settle the matter.

Thanks in advance.

[inaluct]

Unfortunately, your friend is right. Tamed animals won't attack unless forced into contact with the enemy, as far as I know.

[Loki]

Yeah, but if that tamed animal is sitting outside your entrance, then he'll be forced into contact when they try to enter, so they would fight, wouldn't they?

[Aspgren]

Yeah, but if that tamed animal is sitting outside your entrance, then he'll be forced into contact when they try to enter, so they would fight, wouldn't they?

This would depend on the animal ... war dogs attack, cats flee, horses flee, goats flee .. I had a giant jaguar, it fucking chased goblins down. It.. had its eyes gouged out and died though.
Now if you place a horse by a rope and a goblin walks up to it the horse will run away from it. Basically it'll stretch the rope as far as it can and when the goblin is right up taking swings at his ballsack he will fight back in desperation.

Most likely he's already broken something by then and the gobbos have ganged up so he's pretty much screwed...

[Hyndis]

I've noticed this, and I haven't been able to change the behavior. I modded my game so fire imps can reproduce and be tamed by the dungeon master.

I was thinking of chaining them up, so any invaders would be destroyed by swarms of fireballs, which would then set the world on fire in a blazing inferno.



Didn't work out so well. 

Turns out fire imps are scared of things, and won't even fling fireballs once they're tamed. Well, they do, but with far, far less enthusiasm than they nuke my herbalists.

[cjet79]

Yeah, but if that tamed animal is sitting outside your entrance, then he'll be forced into contact when they try to enter, so they would fight, wouldn't they?

This would depend on the animal ... war dogs attack, cats flee, horses flee, goats flee .. I had a giant jaguar, it fucking chased goblins down. It.. had its eyes gouged out and died though.
Now if you place a horse by a rope and a goblin walks up to it the horse will run away from it. Basically it'll stretch the rope as far as it can and when the goblin is right up taking swings at his ballsack he will fight back in desperation.

Most likely he's already broken something by then and the gobbos have ganged up so he's pretty much screwed...

Yeah I am more curious about the exotic pets.  Like I have been slowly breeding a large amount of blackbears (unmoded)...would they be useful in combat?  Or would I have to chain them places to get them to fight?

[Aspgren]

Yeah, but if that tamed animal is sitting outside your entrance, then he'll be forced into contact when they try to enter, so they would fight, wouldn't they?

This would depend on the animal ... war dogs attack, cats flee, horses flee, goats flee .. I had a giant jaguar, it fucking chased goblins down. It.. had its eyes gouged out and died though.
Now if you place a horse by a rope and a goblin walks up to it the horse will run away from it. Basically it'll stretch the rope as far as it can and when the goblin is right up taking swings at his ballsack he will fight back in desperation.

Most likely he's already broken something by then and the gobbos have ganged up so he's pretty much screwed...

Yeah I am more curious about the exotic pets.  Like I have been slowly breeding a large amount of blackbears (unmoded)...would they be useful in combat?  Or would I have to chain them places to get them to fight?

Don't know. I think one of the goblins shot and wounded the tiger's owner.. that might be why. Gobbos shoot chained animals and that's that .. they're done for. I have no idea how you'd use them in combat, after all not every dwarf wants to adopt a black bear, they prefer horses and dogs.. do tell us when you have results though.

[Teferi]

it depends on the animal, most domesticated animals (cats, goats, etc.) flee from danger. but creatures with the [liKES_FIGHTING] tag on it will charge into battle (once had a tamed hydra chase down a thief)

[cjet79]

Yeah, but if that tamed animal is sitting outside your entrance, then he'll be forced into contact when they try to enter, so they would fight, wouldn't they?

This would depend on the animal ... war dogs attack, cats flee, horses flee, goats flee .. I had a giant jaguar, it fucking chased goblins down. It.. had its eyes gouged out and died though.
Now if you place a horse by a rope and a goblin walks up to it the horse will run away from it. Basically it'll stretch the rope as far as it can and when the goblin is right up taking swings at his ballsack he will fight back in desperation.

Most likely he's already broken something by then and the gobbos have ganged up so he's pretty much screwed...

Yeah I am more curious about the exotic pets.  Like I have been slowly breeding a large amount of blackbears (unmoded)...would they be useful in combat?  Or would I have to chain them places to get them to fight?

Don't know. I think one of the goblins shot and wounded the tiger's owner.. that might be why. Gobbos shoot chained animals and that's that .. they're done for. I have no idea how you'd use them in combat, after all not every dwarf wants to adopt a black bear, they prefer horses and dogs.. do tell us when you have results though.

Its been hard to get anyone to adopt the black bears.  I didn't do it intentionally but somehow I allowed cats onto the map, so a lot of dwarves just adopted them.  I try and slaughter off the kittens as soon as they are born but they get adopted so fast.

Anyways right now most of my blackbears just sit around in the dining hall, but I'm thinking I should cage up about ten of them just outside my interest and connect a lever to open the cage when gobbos are nearby.  Then I guess I'll find out how tame black bears act when confronted with combat.

[kefkakrazy]

First, I have a walled pit with about fifty rhesus macaques. Prisoners are summarily thrown to the monkeys.

Second, I have recently modded my game to allow war rhesus macaques.

Yes.

[Ter13]

Chained animals can't be shot if you know what you are doing. You need to create a hallway leading into your fortress, and then create an up/down stairwell. The room with the stairs should be about 5x5. At the edge of the room, chain 13 animals of your choice, that way, whenever anything comes up the stairs, it gets mobbed. Gobbos will essentially line up to be slaughtered by 13 animals they have no chance of shooting before they get annihilated.

[Fossaman]

I have a walled pit with about fifty rhesus macaques. Prisoners are summarily thrown to the monkeys.

Sigged.

That is absolutely awesome.

[Haven]

Hmmm. Well, I know regular tamed dogs will attack things, though I'm not sure that they stick around to finish the fight. Had them take out a few skeletal critters shortly after embark.

[Enzo]

Hmmm. Well, I know regular tamed dogs will attack things, though I'm not sure that they stick around to finish the fight. Had them take out a few skeletal critters shortly after embark.

Fact. I regularly have named dogs before I build my kennels, due to them mauling anything smaller than they are. Goats, kobolds, fire imps... I can't recall them ever coming across something big and staying to fight though, so size might be the factor.

[iambap]

Well I had a dragon caught in a cage trap, had the dungeon master tame him, and chained him up outside the entrance... he shot fireballs at any goblins that tried to make their way inside, but eventually died due to not having enough protection.  Overall, he was a great defense mechanism, for a while.

Entrance way looked something like this:
X - Wall
D - Dragon

Code: [Select]

    X   X  ^
    X   X  | To Fort
    X   X
 XXXX   XXXX

<- Outside ->

 XXXXXDXXXXX
     XXX