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[Lummox JR]

After waiting for the next siege to show up, I was surprised to see a titan show up at my fort. Problem is, he blundered right into the cage traps outside (albeit while moving very quickly) so I didn't even get to see if my corridor o' weapon traps or several legendary champions would do the trick. Pity. Anyway, after recently drowning 50 goblins (technically 49 and a quisling dwarf) I now have a stock of 9 goblin prisoners and a titan. I want to do something more with them, like put them in a pit and have my marksdwarves gain experience by shooting the crap out of them.

What I'm unsure about here is what effect an arena will have on my civilian dwarfs. I don't want to freak any of them out, but without doing that I'm having a hard time figuring out where I'd build the thing. I'm also not sure if grates are something a titan can destroy, so instead of using a portcullis to hold the creatures in I'd basically be building a pit in which the stairway out was reachable only by a retractable bridge.

Does anyone have any insights on how to design, and how not to design, an arena? Is it even possible to avoid scaring the civvies? And before anyone says magma, I have yet to find the magma pipe (or flux, sadly) that is supposed to be on the map somewhere, so that's a non-starter.

[a.random.persona]

Build it as far away as possible from the booze/food. With a lond passage filled with traps the only way out. As far as I know Titans cant break grates. If your civilians never see the titan or goblin outside of their cages then they'll be fine.

[Gergination]

A couple of things.

1.  Put the cages right next to the pit you want to throw them in.  It gives them no chance to escape.

2.  I just dug my arena out and then constructed a wall.  Walls don't count as buildings so they can't be destroyed by the titan.  I'm not sure about hatch covers working and I can't really tell if doors work as my messages get spammed like crazy.

3.  I found that building a bridge over the pit will prevent your dwarves from freaking out at the hostile creatures in the pit.  They can still throw the guys through it too.

[Albedo]

"Building Destroyers" can destroy anything built unless it is a "Construction", built with the <b, C> keys.

Problem is, he blundered right into the cage traps outside (albeit while moving very quickly) so I didn't even get to see if my corridor o' weapon traps or several legendary champions would do the trick. Pity.

Many experienced players decline using (some) traps for defense for just that reason. (I'm not there yet...)

[Gergination]

The only reason I use cage traps is for throwing gobbos into my arena to have fun with the other beasties in there.

I'm working on a bridge system to drop them onto a massive hallway of spike traps.  This is also so I can kill human caravans so they'll start trying to siege me.

[Derakon]

Any creature with the building destroyer ability can destroy any construction that is not made via the b -> C menu (i.e. walls, floors, staircases, and fortifications). In other words, yes, they can destroy grates, assuming they can reach them.

Of course, titans don't appear to have the building destroyer tag, so your grates are safe.

[Byakugan01]

Seriously, don't provoke human sieges-their mounts get spooked and run away, making them annoying to fight more than difficult (and it seems after the first siege, *all* their sieges will be mounted). At best, they become just another iron ore. You're better off giving the BIOME_ANY tags to the mounts for gobbos and orcs.

[Lummox JR]

It seems then like the best approach will be to design a shallow pit like I intended with the only exit being a bridge, closing off the whole structure to civilians when not in use, and stationing marksdwarves inside above the pit when it is in use. As a bonus I also have the option of stationing my other fighters there and releasing a lot of unarmed goblins with the bridge down and the outer door locked.