Topic: I thought GCS were a rare rescource (Read 2321 times)

martinuzz · « **on:** October 21, 2009, 02:00:18 am »

In some previous threads about GCS farms and such I read, that people are very careful with their GCS, because they don't want to lose them. I assumed, therefore, that like other chasm creatures, GCS would not respawn on the map.

I had 3 GCS on my map. Caught all 3 of them. Due to some unfortunate accident, I lost 1 GCS to a soldier who should not have been where he was.
<dammit>, I thought. I needed that 3d GCS for some trap setup.

Great was my joy to discover that
GCS DO RESPAWN.
So. I'm back to 3 captured GCS.
And posting this for those people that also think that GCS don't respawn.

(note: I used Dwarf Companion, not to unhide the beasts, but to count how many were on my map at the beginning of the game)

EDIT: (only slightly related) All 4 GCS I captured were live GCS. I'm playing on 3 terrifying biomes, so I expected some undead GCS.. Alas, none. Almost everything else that enters my map is undead. Maybe once every 2 years a couple of live mountain goats enter my map.

MoonCabbage · « **Reply #1 on:** October 21, 2009, 03:10:29 am »

GCS are just like any other creature and will on occasion come from the edge of the map.

though a little rare it does happen on the right biomes.

martinuzz · « **Reply #2 on:** October 21, 2009, 03:30:38 am »

It didn't spawn on the edge of the map.. It spawned on an isolated patch of floor at the chasm, that wasn't connected to the rest of the map yet. It came from hiding when my dwarves were working on the other side of the chasm. I built cage traps and a bridge to catch it.

Danarca · « **Reply #3 on:** October 21, 2009, 06:12:14 am »

...
Well then you could've had 4 GCS all along?

Myroc · « **Reply #4 on:** October 21, 2009, 07:12:55 am »

Quote from: Danarca on October 21, 2009, 06:12:14 am

...
Well then you could've had 4 GCS all along?

Quote from: martinuzz on October 21, 2009, 02:00:18 am

(note: I used Dwarf Companion, not to unhide the beasts, but to count how many were on my map at the beginning of the game)

Quietust · « **Reply #5 on:** October 21, 2009, 08:18:58 am »

I've never had any of my bottomless pit critters respawn in the 40 years of my current fortress - I had one GCS, and once it died of old age, that was it.

There had to have been some sort of anomaly with your embark region. You didn't count the GCSes in a separate embark, did you?

Shakma · « **Reply #6 on:** October 21, 2009, 08:47:23 am »

I've never seen any chasm creatures respawn although I don't embark on chasms that much. Floor tile at the edge of the map is the only thing I can think of if you are 100% sure. I know I've seen some weird stuff with chasms going off map edges. Like cave spider silk all over the surface where the chasm goes off the edge far below.

Maybe the GCS walked off the map and back on. That could be possible I guess.

Re-embarking will definitley let you have more.

martinuzz · « **Reply #7 on:** October 21, 2009, 04:51:26 pm »

Quote from: Quietust on October 21, 2009, 08:18:58 am

I've never had any of my bottomless pit critters respawn in the 40 years of my current fortress - I had one GCS, and once it died of old age, that was it.

There had to have been some sort of anomaly with your embark region. You didn't count the GCSes in a separate embark, did you?

No, I'm quite sure. This is the first time I have GCS on my map.
I first caught 1 (named) GCS, that actually was the only one that had access to the edge of the map. Once I caught the first, I used Dwarf Companion to see if there were any more on the map. At that time, DC showed 3 GCS.. The one I caught already, plus two more that were still hidden.

The other two were caught by careful exploration of the small plateaus of floor that are attached to the chasm. Both of these (unnamed) GCS were caught at plateaus like that, with no access whatsoever to the rest of the map until I dug into it and caught the spiders.

Then, one of my unnamed GCS died, and some time later I was surprised to see the new GCS revealing itself by shooting a web across the chasm. From an unconnected plateau.

On a side note.. I am not too worried about my GCS dying of old age. I have modded them to live 210 years. No other modding to them besides that.

Kanddak · « **Reply #8 on:** October 21, 2009, 07:08:27 pm »

You're making a pretty exceptional claim here. I, too, have never seen new chasm creatures appear.
Do you have before-and-after seasonal autosaves?
I'd also love to see your seed and get my own hands on this site.

martinuzz · « **Reply #9 on:** October 22, 2009, 03:25:26 am »

The seed and site are in the worldgen cookbook thread, posted it 1 - 2 months ago.
I don't have a save from before anymore, alas.

LumenPlacidum · « **Reply #10 on:** October 22, 2009, 12:43:31 pm »

In order for anything to respawn, it needs a map edge. Was this new GCS on a little ledge of the chasm that happened to be on the edge of the map? If so, then the subterranean biome has that spawn point, I guess. If that's not the case, then I'm honestly more inclined to think you miscounted before, since I'm pretty sure Toady said that it's not possible for creatures to come up out of chasms any more and since everything has to come from somewhere.

Derakon · « **Reply #11 on:** October 22, 2009, 01:20:28 pm »

You're making two unusual claims here. The first is that you got a new GCS that wasn't on the map when you started. The second is that a GCS shot webs when it had no path to its target. The first claim goes against conventional wisdom but I don't think it's been tested all that rigorously. The second gets tested regularly, basically every time someone learns how to make a GCS silk harvesting system.

martinuzz · « **Reply #12 on:** October 22, 2009, 05:50:42 pm »

This is where it spawned (at the plateau south of the chasm). It is very close to the map edge (can't scroll any further to the left), but not directly connected to it. I built the bridge only after I discovered the GCS, to capture it. The GCS sprung from ambush when I was mining out the tiles that are now the 2 bridges' northern ends.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was just as surprised, when the GCS sprung from ambush without any path to dwarves. I'm not entirely sure about it shooting webs, though. It could be that the webs my dwarves got stuck in were part of the hidden web that appeared at the same time as the spider.

I have not yet seen a GCS walk over it's web. If it can do that, than it had access to the rest of the map (it's web bridging the chasm), but I believe they can't walk on their webs.

If it really is impossible for a GCS to spawn there, well, I dunno.. I can't imagine having miscounted, for I purposedly used DC to count the number of spiders.
But then again, I am human, so there is always the possibility of error.

darkflagrance · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2009, 05:22:32 am »

Could the latest GCS have been born as a hatchling from one of the other three GCS after you checked the map?

Edit: Whoops, was my impression that they did breed in vanilla because I had seen a post about an attack of a horde of GCS and hatchlings.

Kanddak · « **Reply #14 on:** October 23, 2009, 05:46:13 am »

Quote from: darkflagrance on October 23, 2009, 05:22:32 am

Could the latest GCS have been born as a hatchling from one of the other three GCS after you checked the map?

GCS can't breed in vanilla. But if they've been modded to breed, that's a possibility.

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Author Topic: I thought GCS were a rare rescource (Read 2321 times)

martinuzz

I thought GCS were a rare rescource

MoonCabbage

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

martinuzz

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Danarca

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Myroc

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Quietust

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Shakma

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

martinuzz

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Kanddak

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

martinuzz

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

LumenPlacidum

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Derakon

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

martinuzz

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

darkflagrance

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource

Kanddak

Re: I thought GCS were a rare rescource