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[Vynergy]

I am just starting dwarf fortress again, also relearning the game.

How could I make a passive defense system, that requires minimal maintenance but is very effective? I want to eventually create a giant killzone that requires very few dwarves to maintain, just so I can sit back and laugh maniacally.

Any ideas would be appreciated. Might go with magma but... I've had bad luck with the stuff...

[armouredturtle]

Weapon traps. Use obsidian if you have it. Maybe about 200 copper axes in a hallway or something similar.

[Albedo]

Depends on what mods you're using, but with vanilla stonefall traps are adequate, tho' it'll take quite a few to deal with a megabeast.

Depending on the age of the fortress, I've usually relied on about 1-3 rows of cage traps (for the meat and amusement factor) followed by maybe 2-5 rows of stone traps, and then weapon traps (once I have exceptional mechanisms and weapons to spare) for anything that can make it through the previous.  And then my guard animals & military.

[Skorpion]

Low-maintenance?

Ranged weapon traps aplenty. They don't jam!

[Derakon]

Ranged weapon traps do need to be reloaded frequently, which counts as maintenance.

Magmafall traps have pretty low maintenance, as they can't jam and automatically destroy the uninteresting loot. Make a bridge and hook it up to a lever. Trap your opponents on the bridge using whatever methods seem appropriate, then flip the bridge to drop the enemies one z-level lower down. Pour magma into that z-level. Have the magma drain through bauxite (or iron) grates in the floor, into the cistern that feeds the pumps that pour the magma in. Easy-peasy, everything that isn't useful metal is burned away.

[Tunk]

First time posting, but I personally use a 'firewall trap'.

Basically dump some coal/lignite/burnable substance on the ground, put in just enough lava (or other ignition source) in to ignite the fire field then drain/evaporate.

Trapdoors/grates above to refuel as needed by dropping fresh fuel into the fire.

For fun set some pressure plates/levers to the refueling area and use booze bombs above to make it explody.

Great for dealing with almost all annoyances, eg:
elves, immigrants, elves, nobles, elves, caravans, elves, 'invaders', elves, humans, elves, random wildlife, elves, diplomats.
And especially elves.

Advantage: Fire, possibly explosive.
Disadvantage: Fire, possibly explosive.

[Luke_Prowler]

the problem with stone/cage traps is that they have to be changes after each use, and weapons traps get jammed from time to time. a trap that you would want would be a long hallway of a pressure plate/Drawbridge combo.

[RedWarrior0]

or upright spike/pressure plate combo if you want loot
or cage and tame some dragons/colossi/GCS and use those.

[Angellus]

or upright spike/pressure plate combo if you want loot
or cage and tame some dragons/colossi/GCS and use those.

Pro the Spike thingy, just do it with a lever, more fun and only one dwarf to micromanage everything <q, a, P> and you can laugh manically for years! 

[RedWarrior0]

<q, a, P>

I think you mean <q, a P, r>

[Vynergy]

Pro the Spike thingy, just do it with a lever, more fun and only one dwarf to micromanage everything <q, a, P> and you can laugh manically for years! 

GENIUS! I was inspired by that =D I SHALL HAVE A CHILD PULL THE LEVER. AND THEN, AFTER THREE YEARS OF PULLING, HE WILL BE VLAD THE IMPALER OMFG

[puke]

a drawbridge with a small ditch is impervious to anything.  of course, this will cause invaders to just wait for you to open it again.  so you might want to create a long back-enterance to your fort that passes through a narrow trap-land or something.

[RedWarrior0]

Abuse pathfinding with some traps and doors...

Code: [Select]

WWWWBWWWWWWWW
W^^^B^^^D..WW
W^WWBWWWWW.WW
^^WWBWWWWW...
W^WWBWWWWW.WW
W^^^B^^^D..WW
WWWWBWWWWWWWW
the ^s are traps, Ds are doors, . is floor, W is wall, the line of Bs can be replaced be trap corridor of arbitrary length and twistyness. Enemies come from left. Before the doors is a pressure plate that closes the nearby door and another that opens the other one.

[Xinael]

I find that glass works really well, too. If you start your glass industry asap making raw glass, you'll have a nice stockpile for the gem cutters to train up on eventually. Then you can start churning out masterwork glass serrated discs, which despite doing 50% damage still raise hell when there're 10 of them in a weapon trap with a good mechanism.

The advantage of glass is that it's completely free and inexhaustible, so you can just plaster the whole fortress with traps. After a squeeze down a tunnel lined with 2000 discs, there's not going to be much of that siege left.

[Angellus]

Well that's my second row of defence, for when I'm too slow with pulling the lever to my glass spikes