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Author Topic: Ambush generation  (Read 1259 times)

eviscerator

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Ambush generation
« on: July 23, 2009, 12:13:46 am »

Ok, here's the question: how does DF decide wheret ambushers will appear?  I had thought it would be on a map edge with an open path to the fortress, but since the only root to my plateau is through tunnels, the entrances being guarded by a single line of cage traps (or one line of heavy duty weapon traps) and the ambush just appeared in the center of this in front of my fort.  The tunnels are come together into one exit which has two lines of weapon traps and 3 lines of cage traps.  No blood spatter or caged goblins.  the cages have caught 100% of goblin thieves so far though.

My other question is: how do you seperate usable armor from unusable armor.  I made a stockpile for unusable armor and got regular stuff put into it, including my superiouly crafted steel leggings....

Basically, I want a stockpile such that all the narrow and large metal armors get dumped onto it sans binsand a seperate one for all the narrow leather in bins.

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Skorpion

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2009, 12:20:06 am »

The armour and weapon stockpiles have a 'usable' and 'unusable' qualifier to them. If you want to exclude bins and seperate by materials, play with the menus. Max bins to 0, and forcing one stockpile to be metal only and the other to be leather only.
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A tendon in the skull has been torn!
The Raven has been knocked unconcious!

Elves do it in trees. Humans do it in wooden structures. Dwarves? Dwarves do it underground. With magma.

Rvlion

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2009, 12:39:43 am »

From what I noticed a Siege starts from the maps edge, but ambushes only when someone discovers them. So who knows they also start at the edge of the map and walk stealthly untill discovered, maybe even able to evade traps.

Personally I am not really a trap person, more like a hunting dog person, letting them watch the outside through 4 fortifications each.

         W...W
          F...F
        DF...FD
   WFFW...WFFW

Since I use this, attempts to enter my fortress are a lot less common, but appearently they are all waiting outside. Often when my dwarfs collect wood they find 5-6 thiefs or snatchers within a 20 second timeperiod.
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eviscerator

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2009, 01:12:52 am »

In reply to Skorpion, the stockpile is set as Unusuable but is getting normal dwarf-make armor in it.  I'm doing 3 things, seperating goblin/human metal armor onto a bin-less stockpile for melting, putting the rest of the goblin/human clothing and leather stuff into a binned trade pile, and into that same trade pile dumping low-quality non-metal dwarf armors (normal, well and finely crafted).  Basically, trying to get a setup going where I can get the dwarf to wear only better gear.

I think the game may be broken.  I restored to a seasonal autosave early on, and the normal save hasn't worked since then.  Also, Animal stockpiles don't work at all, no cages empty or otherwise get placed on them.  Occasionally, the dwarves will drag half a dozen cages and dump them on a triggered cage trap (one that had caught a fox, for instance).
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Phantom

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2009, 01:34:58 am »

For the ambush, Gobbos and frilly tree huggers like to sneak around so they probably dodged the traps like kobolds, that or theres a human hiding in a bin moving around undetected while giving out information to the enemy,in that case it would be me doing the sneaking.
Note,Did you check every exit/entrance? Fun is coming...
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Graven

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2009, 01:43:44 am »

Yeah, the ambush appears on the outskirts of the map, but is stealthed until bumping into something, or falling into a trap. In regard to your situation, there probably exists another way in, because I've never had a ambush that doesn't activate the cage traps.

If advanced ambushes can do that, just chain some useless animals at the very ends of the trap tunnels, those discover thieves and ambushes 100% of the time.
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Hyndis

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2009, 01:51:30 pm »

Goblins can ambush but they are not TRAPAVOID, so while they're invisible, they will still trigger traps.

Kobolds ambush and are also TRAPAVOID, so they ignore traps.
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Slogo

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #7 on: July 23, 2009, 02:01:55 pm »

Kind of related (kind of not) but there's no way to separate out clothing that's not usable is there? It's annoying having all the narrow spider silk X get in your clothing stockpile.

Hyndis

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2009, 02:57:26 pm »

You can periodically order all of the spider silk stuff to be dumped.

Alternatively, simply mod out clothing for goblins. My goblins wear armor, but none of that narrow silk stuff.
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buzz killington

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #9 on: July 23, 2009, 03:13:46 pm »

I think he means to weed out [narrow] items, which isn't possible.
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nil

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #10 on: July 23, 2009, 04:11:35 pm »

Is your embark site rectangular?  There was and I think still is a bug where ambushes and seiges come in from the edges of a square whose width is the same as the smallest dimension of the map.  Basically if you have a square map they come in at the edges like they are supposed to, but if the embark is 2x4 they can spawn a full embark tile away from the left and right borders.

Shrike

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #11 on: July 23, 2009, 09:59:43 pm »

[...]that or theres a human hiding in a bin moving around undetected [...]

A box?
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durt101

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2009, 03:30:11 am »

I just wanted to say that TRAPAVOID creatures cannot escape guard animals.
And on this note, I'd like to mention that I bought some tame grizzly bears from the elves. I now have guard bears.
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SimRobert2001

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2009, 03:47:36 am »

I just wanted to say that TRAPAVOID creatures cannot escape guard animals.
And on this note, I'd like to mention that I bought some tame grizzly bears from the elves. I now have guard bears.

*KNock knock*

*Dwarf* "WHose there?"

*from the other side of the door* "Goblins!"

*Dwarf* "One moment"

*Moments later the door opens, and a grizzly bear runs out, mauling several goblins*

*Dwarf* "This is Urist, the bear. he'll be mauling you this evening."
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Shakma

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Re: Ambush generation
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2009, 08:01:53 am »

I think he means to weed out [narrow] items, which isn't possible.

At the bottom of the armor stockpile there is an option for useable and unuseable which is supposed to do just this.
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