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[smjjames]

I'm just wondering as far as GCS silk farming goes. I have checked topics about GCS silk farming techniques and in general a room about 10-15 squares in size is a good one to go with. So, I'm just asking as far as what people have observed, but I would think 20 squares is a good max room size.

[Doomshifter]

Key statements:

- A GCS will fire webs through fortifications
- A GCS will succesfully path through a door that is open, but NOT pet passable, even though it cannot get through
- A GCS needs to be able to path to a target to shoot webs at it
- A GCS will shoot webs at targets within a 4 tile radius
- A Raised bridge will act like a normal wall, blocking sight

you should figure it out

[martinuzz]

Actually, the web itself shoots further than that. Only thing is, the spider won't start shooting it until it has a target within a 4 tile radius.
The webs itself seem to shoot to max 8-9 tiles from the spider.

EDIT: I'll add a picture to this thread later on when I get to play some
EDIT2: voila

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mind: The chained animals (mountain goats in this case) will only trigger the spider when they are on the right (literal) side of the chain. It seems the furthest the spider can shoot, is 10 tiles.

[smjjames]

Key statements:

- A GCS will fire webs through fortifications
- A GCS will succesfully path through a door that is open, but NOT pet passable, even though it cannot get through
- A GCS needs to be able to path to a target to shoot webs at it
- A GCS will shoot webs at targets within a 4 tile radius
- A Raised bridge will act like a normal wall, blocking sight

you should figure it out

I said how far will the WEB go, not how far will the spider shoot.

As for the target needing to be on the right. I've seen a few screenshots where the spider has shot to the left. It might not have been chained in those cases. I'll have to experiment with the direction thing.

Anyways, I have a tamed GCS, so I could just dump it. I may go and use a chain and attach that to a lever to make it easier to get it where I want it.

Thanks for the info Martinuzz.

[martinuzz]

Ah. I did not mean that the chained animal needs to be on the right of the chain always.
Only in this particular setup.
For, when it is at the chain, or to the left of it, it is more than 4 spaces away from the spider, and the spider won't start shooting.
Luckily, it seems chained animals are not scared by the GCS, and will wander happily in it's sight range.

Also, I don't tame the spider. It is harder to chain up a hostile creature as bait. I just put the spider in a cage, build it in place, hook to lever and release. Sometimes the mechanism gets in a door opening, resulting in the immediate recapture of the GCS.
To prevent that, make the enclosure the GCS is in 1x3, and build the cage in the middle.
Do forbid the mechanism and the cage after release however, or FUN will happen.

In this setup, a 2x8 raised bridge would have been better than the 2x4 I built.
My weaver is scared away from the tiles that are diagonally next to the fortifications. A 2x8 bridge would close of sight completely.

EDIT: This is a setup I have prepared to make a webbed corridor for sieges to come in through:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Further to the south is a catapult. The spider will be inserted behind the fortifications to the left.
It will shoot webs at one of my soldiers, who I will maneuver from north to south, over the 3 bridges on the right. I can make the spider go up and down it's hallway by toying with the pet-passable settings on the doors.

When the hallway is webbed, I retract the bridges the bait-soldier walked over, leaving only webbed path.
I then recapture the GCS, and put build it's cage back in the hallway. When there are no archers with a siege, I can release it to spray more webs as the siegers struggle through the corridor.

Traps can also be webbed over this way, to be able to trigger on [trAPIMMUNE] creatures.
Downside is, they will trigger on your dwarves too...

[smjjames]

I was actually planning on using goblin and/or goblin POW POWS (in short, my enemies) that I have captured and dump them down there as a form of torture or something.

This is the first time I've captured a GCS, so, yea...

As for bieng on the right, I thought you could have meant from the spiders point of view or what direction it's facing.

I also ended up getting two of my dwarves trapped in the cages I had origionally set up to capture the spider in the first place.

As indicated above, it's my first GCS silk farm anyway and it will take some experimentation.

[piesquared]

Here's my latest silk farm, based on how far the previous one shot, more or less. Since this screenshot I switched the bait animals to dogs, pushed the restraints 1 further away (after a donkey got squished because it was standing on a bridge when it went up, stupid thing refusing to go as far as possible from the spider...). I also widened the chamber by one because I assumed the spider would overshoot by a fixed amount. I feel it's all about the right size, next time I might go one larger in each dimension just for the buffer.

Also, this setup allows me to gather silk on one side with silk is laid down on the other, now, with independently controlled bridges. A simple improvement I somehow overlooked on the first several attempts...



Edit: the problem with using hostiles as the target is that you may have issues collecting the silk, cancel spam because they saw the enemy.

Also, the problem with using a soldier as bait for lining a corridor with silk is that you have to be *very* careful. The door to the spider is dwarf-passable, remember. If the soldier decides to attack, he'll open the door: letting the spider out and/or killing it.

[smjjames]

Yea, that's one of the screenshots that I saw while searching for info on silk farms, I forget which thread.

I suppose I could adapt the design somehow since I have tamed mine (I'm pretty sure theres only one on this embark zone for the fortress.) and will have to use either wild animals (probably hoary marmots or mountain goats) and deal with the fact that I'll get cancellation spam from them.

I'll admit that not taming it actually makes it easier, but gotta use what I have.

Edit @ piesquared's edit: I realize that there will be the issue of cancel spam, which will happen as often with a hoary marmot as with a goblin eliete hammerman. Quietust uses this method though with a goblin.

[ikkonoishi]

The best setup I've seen was basically.

Code: [Select]

       Cage Trap
               V
            ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
            ▓▓  ^▓▓
            ▓╬▓▓▓╬▓  <-Doors set to pet denied/dwarf accessible.
Target->    #T#B#S▓  <-Spider
            ▓╬▓B▓▓▓  <-Door set to inaccessible.
               ^
               Raising bridge.   


The # are fortifications. So basically what happens is the Spider shoots at the target, and the web also shoots past the target into a room on the left. Then you raise the bridge and gather the web or just hope your Dwarves are to busy to notice the spider when they gather.

If you want to trap the spider again just make the door dwarf accessible, and it will run right into the cage trap.