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[koruth]

I have heard much of the legendary catsplosion, and I've taken steps to prevent it in my own fort.  However, I think I've run into an entirely different problem that I'm having a bit more trouble dealing with.

My current fort is a running experiment, I'm trying to see how big of a population I can get from births only, no immigration.  It's running slow, but it's been a surprisingly successful fort so far, and the population is gradually starting to climb as more and more of the original 7 dwarves marry each other.

Early on, however, a pair of wild camels fell into one of the dried out murky ponds surrounding the walls of the fort.  I thought nothing much of it at first, but then I found out that this was a *breeding* pair of camels.  They seem to be much inclined to repeat my own experiment, on a much faster scale.  The pond is now completely full of red-and-brown 'C' s, and despite them not having much space to move around in, they seem to be slowing down my frame rate.  It's not gotten unbearable yet, but their population seems to be increasing exponentially, despite (perhaps BECAUSE of) the cramped quarters.

I can't send hunters out to take care of this, since the fort is immensely rich, and surrounded by goblin ambushes despite the low population (right now 20 dwarfs, 12 of them children.)  Just about any time the merchants stop by, they're immediately slaughtered.

I've tried tunneling *under* the murky pond, but the miners get scared away by the camels' threatening noises about 3 spaces away from the damn things.  Not to mention, it would probably end up flooding the fort with an innumerable horde of one-humped, fornicating, homicidal camels. 

The only solution I've come across so far is to build a 10-story-high pumping tower (needs to be that high to avoid their threat radius), with a bridge running out from the top directly over the camels' pit, and drown the beasts.  However, this project is going to take time, especially with my frame rate gradually dropping.  I've already had to use the reveal utility (since revealed forts seem to run faster on my system for some reason) and set the affinity of the fort to a single dedicated processor every time I start it up, and that's just making it *bearable*

Does anyone have a faster solution to the problem?

[Jim Groovester]

Try digging ramps at the edges of the pool. If that doesn't work, like I expect it won't, dig a ramp about ten tiles away, and then link the ramp and the pool together by digging. Then hope your miner gets away fast enough that he doesn't get trampled.

[Skorpion]

My solution begins with 'fill it with' and ends with 'magma'.

[koruth]

My solution begins with 'fill it with' and ends with 'magma'.

The magma pipe's underground, and a long ways away from the pond.  Though it'd be more dwarfy (and MUCH more satisfying) to drop liquid flaming death onto their heads from on high, I'm gonna have to take the (comparatively) reasonable approach and drown the bitches with the pumping tower.

Jim Groovester: I just tried your solution, and didn't get far.. In addition to the camel pond, there appears to be a roaming goblin ambush, *and* a kobold thief in the area, who both spotted the miner immediately.  I fear they may be colluding with the elves, and the burgeoning orgy of camels, to concoct a vile scheme.

[Uber dwarf2.0]

Wiki up the termal catsplostion just with camels becareful

[koruth]

Wiki up the termal catsplostion just with camels becareful

I replaced the one-humped camels' normal homeotherm line for
   [HOMEOTHERM:40000] [SEVERONBREAKS]

... and the camels don't seem to be detonating when I reload the fort.

[Jim Groovester]

Temperature off?

[koruth]

Shouldn't be, since the only reason the camels haven't drowned every time the spring rains come along is that the 3-4 filled ponds evaporate back to empty come summer.

And init.txt says TEMPERATURE:YES

[Malicus]

You could try causing a cave-in over them, but that's assuming that a cave-in won't smash through something important right below the camel pond.

[Jim Groovester]

Try [FIXED_TEMP:40000] instead of [HOMEOTHERM:40000]. I think that combined with [STANDARD_FLESH] makes them explode.

Maybe.

[koruth]

You sure that would kill them all in one collapse?  With the level of engineering it'd take to build a platform over their heads (which is already kind've underway anyway, for the pumping tower) and the fact I'd be exposed to goblin archers, I don't want my dwarves to have to enact this more than once.

I want a FINAL solution... for these camels.

Try [FIXED_TEMP:40000] instead of [HOMEOTHERM:40000]. I think that combined with [STANDARD_FLESH] makes them explode.

Maybe.

Just tried it, doesn't seem to be working either.  Oddly enough, I can't get the splatter-tower with my breeding population of cats to explode either...  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.  I'm modifying the creature_large_tropical.txt file in the raw folder.  Is that right?

[Rose]

[IGNITE_POINT:0]

it works, but is cruelly slow.

at least it worked on my dwarves.

[Jim Groovester]

You're editing the right kind of camel, right? There are two types.

[koruth]

[IGNITE_POINT:0]

it works, but is cruelly slow.

at least it worked on my dwarves.

Thank you sir, they are smoking beautifully and should be dying off any minute now!  I suspect the acrid smell will be flooding the poor dwarves for weeks!

... barbeque, anyone?

You're editing the right kind of camel, right? There are two types.

Yeah, I was editing [CREATURE:CAMEL_1_HUMP] and these are 1-humped camels...  I have no idea why modding homeotherm or putting in fixed_temp isn't working, with neither the camels nor the cats...

I *am* using version .40d13, which I think is still somewhat unstable, so that might be it...

[koruth]

Apologies for the double post, but I believe this warrants it.

I have just witness a camel give birth to a flaming camel foal

Only in dorf fort...

(some time later)

The camels are all dead, the smoke has all cleared, and my frame rate is back to 100.  I now have 16 pages of orange-red flashing one-humped camels on the 'deceased' section of my fort's entity list, and a pit full of their still-smouldering remains.  Thank you all for your kind help in this emergency quick-mod!