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[Stumpz]

So I just started this fortress and everything is going fine except for my failure at trading with the caravan. So they leave and I notice this purple guy following one of my miners everywhere. I checked to see who he was, but have already forgotten. Anyways. I get the final message about the trade agreement, and as soon as I exit that screen a ton, 20+, bats pop onto my screen and start fluttering madly everywhere. Is this a bug? I just don't understand where they could have come from? Any help would be appreciated.

[Ieb]

Random batsplosion.
It happens when there's still a bunch of 'em in the map without cats or cave spiders hunting and thinning their numbers down. I recall it happens when they all gather around some spot, invisible as normal, and then someone disturbs 'em and they all start fluttering about.

It's just a feature. A feature of bats.
Could be worse.

Could be bees.

[Stumpz]

Yeah, they eventually disappeared. They didn't seem to bother my busy dwarves. So I endured their existence. lol Thanks for the quick response. : D

[Gergination]

Random batsplosion.
It happens when there's still a bunch of 'em in the map without cats or cave spiders hunting and thinning their numbers down. I recall it happens when they all gather around some spot, invisible as normal, and then someone disturbs 'em and they all start fluttering about.

It's just a feature. A feature of bats.
Could be worse.

Could be bees.

Or Skeletal Giant Eagles, they don't need invisibility to be terrifying.

[Ieb]

Unless you give them the ambusher tag. Which would make some sense, given the way how A) eagles hunt and B) how little dwarves care for the sky. They're like pigs, they can see upwards in the distance somewhat, but can't raise their necks enough to see what's right above them.

Anyway.

The only dwarves who would care about the bats would be those who either like them, or dislike them. Everyone else acts indifferent. We need some rabies here.

[smjjames]

So I just started this fortress and everything is going fine except for my failure at trading with the caravan. So they leave and I notice this purple guy following one of my miners everywhere. I checked to see who he was, but have already forgotten. Anyways. I get the final message about the trade agreement, and as soon as I exit that screen a ton, 20+, bats pop onto my screen and start fluttering madly everywhere. Is this a bug? I just don't understand where they could have come from? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm sure you know how RL bats swarm at night and in caves? It's the same thing here.

If you have a fortress where bats are so common that even your cats would have trouble wiping them out, your dwarves that hate bats are going to have a pretty hard time.

[Neruz]

I think batsplosions might be programmed; i've seen them happen too often around cave-like areas for it to be random.

Also, give Giant Eagles the [VERMIN_HUNTER] tag and the [AMBUSHER] tag. This will cause them to be invisible and randomly choose to adopt a dwarf; at which point they will attempt to get near the dwarf, and will then immediately eat him. Effectively it turns them into invisible hunter-killers.

[Ironhand]

I love vermin swarms.

I've seen bats do it the most often, but also rats (just once, in my Depot! It was really quite distressing) and fireflies.

[Chromie]

http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1162-bats

Took a video once of a batsplosion. One nearly tipped off a tantrum spiral when I had a few dwarves that hated bats ... among their other troubles.

[smjjames]

Ironhand, you forgot flies, they can erupt in numbers if there is alot of refuse in one area. Strangely, they also spawn from magma.

[Ironhand]

I haven't seen a huge swarm of flies.

I mean, I've seen swarms of flies as solitary vermin, but not masses of separate entities like with bats.

[smjjames]

I mean swarms of swarms.

I think cave spiders sometimes swarm when there is a large space and large numbers of them.

[Chromie]

Also, give Giant Eagles the [VERMIN_HUNTER] tag and the [AMBUSHER] tag. This will cause them to be invisible and randomly choose to adopt a dwarf; at which point they will attempt to get near the dwarf, and will then immediately eat him. Effectively it turns them into invisible hunter-killers.

This is terrifying.

[kurisukun]

There are Vermin called "A swarm of bats" and "A Swarm of flies"

If something should happen to disturb this vermin and break the group, you end up with "bats" and/or "flies"

You just end up with, instead of 1 vermin of swarm, 18kabillion individual vermin.

[Sizik]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoddamnedBats