Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Shadowics]

Setup: I have a channel designed to flash-freeze invaders by pumping water up from underground and exposing it to freezing surface air, forming an ice wall on top of an extended bridge. This newly formed 'Ice Wall' often (but not always) fails to kill or even stop sieging goblins, they walk straight through the solid ice tiles.

Trials:

A military dwarf stationed on the bridge died instantly when the ice formed. "has been encased in ice".
A military dwarf stationed next to the bridge, then ordered onto the bridge after the ice formed took one step into the Ice Wall, sharing a tile with solid ice, before realizing his mistake, and flashing '?' as he walked back out, unharmed.

Goblins walking across the bridge as the ice forms may be killed. I would estimate, based on observing a relatively small number of trials, that they are killed approximately 50% of the time.
Goblins walking onto the bridge after the ice has formed are completely ignorant of the solid ice, and pass through the Ice Wall as if it wasn't there.


Removing the bridge, and replacing with constructed floor tiles appeared to give the expected result; Goblins were killed, and could not walk through the Ice Walls.


Additionally, any item in the path of the ice - Goblins, Dwarves, Rocks - was instantly destroyed when the ice froze. This could be the intended behavior, but looking through the known bugs list I saw:
000713 □ [dwarf mode][items] (Report) items can disappear when ice melts after being imbedded
I have not, in this entire period, seen any item, either preexisting or on a creature who was killed, appear in the Ice Wall. When the Ice melts, the tiles are always completely empty.
Addition: It's come to my attention that the items that were frozen, including inventories of the killed units, do still exist. They show up on the stocks screen, and zooming to them takes me to the tile. However, they cannot be seen with 'k', nor can that be retrieved by dwarves, or dumped.

[Untelligent]

I laughed when I read about the dwarf walking into the ice wall.

"Oh dear, I seem to be violating several quantum exclusion principles. I suppose I'd better get out of this thing."

[Shadowics]

Watching again, One-step at a time, I think I know the reason the freeze's lethality is hit-or-miss against goblins. The water in the tunnel doesn't necessarily get pumped in, or freeze uniformly. If the water freezes on a goblin, it appears to kill him, however, the water may freeze one tile in front of a goblin, allowing him to step inside the ice, and avoid being frozen when the water is poured into the tile he was on.

Additionally, forbidding a door in between the goblins and my dwarfs while the goblins are walking through the ice causes all the goblins to become 'winded' as they apparently realize they can't breath ice, however, they are still able to turn around and walk back out, through the ice.

Also just to confirm; The items that were in the frozen tiles, such the the inventory of killed goblins, appear to be stuck in an alternate dimension on that tile. They show up on the stocks menu, and zoomed to. But can't be seen or gathered by dwarves. Additionally, they don't respond to physics, retracting the bridge beneath the tiles, or even deconstructing it doesn't appear to affect them at all.

[Sowelu]

Also just to confirm; The items that were in the frozen tiles, such the the inventory of killed goblins, appear to be stuck in an alternate dimension on that tile. They show up on the stocks menu, and zoomed to. But can't be seen or gathered by dwarves. Additionally, they don't respond to physics, retracting the bridge beneath the tiles, or even deconstructing it doesn't appear to affect them at all.

That's before, or after you mine them out?

[Corona688]

Off-topic, but that ice trap sounds absolutely badass.  How did you do it?

[Shadowics]

Also just to confirm; The items that were in the frozen tiles, such the the inventory of killed goblins, appear to be stuck in an alternate dimension on that tile. They show up on the stocks menu, and zoomed to. But can't be seen or gathered by dwarves. Additionally, they don't respond to physics, retracting the bridge beneath the tiles, or even deconstructing it doesn't appear to affect them at all.

That's before, or after you mine them out?

The moment the ice freezes, everything that was in that tile vanishes. It only shows 'Ice Wall' when looking at the tile. I'm not mining them out though, I'm melting the ice.

Off-topic, but that ice trap sounds absolutely badass.  How did you do it?

Thanks. I wrote about in a thread in the discussion forum, but it kind-of stalled when I hit these bugs. I updated the first post with the latest design, but I don't know if it'll go any farther right now; It's not terribly practical in it's current state.


Another note on the items frozen in ice (should I make a separate thread for that?) I noticed that designating the freezing path of death for Reclaim Items/Building (D-B-C) did reclaim all of the goblins' equipment, as seen on the stocks screen. However, I noticed that the listings were still Purple.

dark purple   part of a construction, forbidden or designated for dump/melt

They are not forbidden, dumped, or melted. Nor are they mysteriously embedded in any of my constructions (I checked everything in the area with 'T'. My theory now is that they are still 'inside' the 'Ice Wall' 'construction', which was never 'deconstructed', only melted.


Another another note- Success! My theory in the previous note proved correct. The goblin bodies, equipment, etc were stuck in the melted ice walls. Pouring more water into the same tiles, letting it freeze, then mining it out spontaniously generated huge piles of garbage, as dozens of dead goblins poured out. This appears to be on the known bugs list as bug 000713 □ [dwarf mode][items] (Report) items can disappear when ice melts after being imbedded. Bug: When ice melts, as opposed to being dug out, embedded items remain embedded in nothing.



Edit Again: Back on the main topic; I tried replacing the bridge with a series of Floor Hatches. The result was the same. The goblins walked straight through the Ice Walls that shared tiles with the Floor Hatches. It seems that Floor Hatches and Bridges have 'precedence' both graphically, and in terms of pathfinding, over frozen Ice Walls.

(Actually, it was not exactly the same. The Ice deconstructed the Floor Hatches when it was melted.. so much for that)