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[Argonnek]

Is it possible to contain cave spiders in a certain area, while still having that area be accessible by my dwarves?

[Derakon]

You can't contain vermin in walls, because they teleport. Be thankful they do; if they ran pathfinding like normal creatures, then your CPU would melt.

Cave spiders stay near the features they spawn with, which are, if I recall correctly, chasms, pits, underground rivers, and underground pools. So you can "contain" them by simply not building any rooms near those features except the ones you want them to be in. Then the only valid spaces for them will be in those rooms, causing them to spend more time there.

For example, I once set up a fort that only had one room near the underground river. It quickly filled completely with cave spider webs. It happened to be my queen's tomb...but oh well.

This will of course work less well with chasms and pits, because they sometimes have tiles that the spiders can spawn on that won't be accessible to your dwarves.

[Argonnek]

Dang, that's too bad, I just bought a shipment off the elves (modded), and was hoping to have an area exclusively for webs.

[silhouette]

Well you can replace them with giant cave spiders...

[Pandarsenic]

Well you can replace them with giant cave spiders...

Cave Spider/Goblin Thief Web Manufacture system?

[Stargrasper]

Well you can replace them with giant cave spiders...

Cave Spider/Goblin Thief Web Manufacture system?

Two fairly large problems with that...
     1) The propensity of vermin to teleport, ruining any hope of creating a controlled system.
     2) The propensity of cats and dwarves to eat vermin.  I don't know if they'll still eat tamed vermin, but it's a problem to think about.

These are, of course, solved if you can manage to capture and tame a giant cave spider.

[100killer9]

You don't need to tame the spider. You could drop a spider on a pedestal and have it shoot web across a chasm, possibly at a dwarf.

[Pandarsenic]

Giant Cave Spiders aren't vermin.

If you think they are, or that a dorf is capable of attempting to eat one successfully, you either have a beastly army or have never fought one.

the basic idea would be to make a place where the spider can spray webs but can't pursue its prey (recommendation - lava-surrounded island). Then you need a system so it can't scare your collector-dorfs.

[Stargrasper]

Giant Cave Spiders aren't vermin.

If you think they are, or that a dorf is capable of attempting to eat one successfully, you either have a beastly army or have never fought one.

the basic idea would be to make a place where the spider can spray webs but can't pursue its prey (recommendation - lava-surrounded island). Then you need a system so it can't scare your collector-dorfs.

*sigh*
Please pay attention.  This thread is NOT about GCS, it's about ordinary cave spiders.  Ordinary cave spiders are vermin, GCS are not.  My point was, here's a couple problems.  They aren't problems if you happen to have GCS.

Doing this with ordinary cave spiders REALLY complicates things because they're vermin.  You need creatures to control the situation.

You don't need to tame the spider. You could drop a spider on a pedestal and have it shoot web across a chasm, possibly at a dwarf.

I thought that as of 40d, nothing would shoot over a gap of any kind?

[100killer9]

Oh really? Then what about fortifications?

[Stargrasper]

Oh really? Then what about fortifications?

Works fine, provided you have a GCS to not teleport out of the holding area.  I usually refer people to this one:
http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=37702.msg614347#msg614347

But again, this thread speaks of ordinary cave spiders...and they'll just teleport out of your holding area...and due to a bug, occasionally just disappear entirely, never to be seen again.

[Pandarsenic]

Stargrasper, we're suggesting a better solution. One that involves more Fun. If you don't like it, go back to letting kittens breed or whatever it is you do while you hate having Fun. Jerkface. Butt. Jerkfacebutt. Face. Jerk.

...

Face.

[DorfDorfingdorf]

I'm glad I found a GCS thread. Got some questions about them myself

I'm on that map someone posted a few months or so ago, "The Vanilla Dream", has every feature within a like.. 3x4 (?) area.

Anyway, within the chasm I can find giant cave spider silk on a handful of different z levels. I've so far dug to those levels, harvested and wove the GCS silk into thread and cloth, and then smoothed over those levels and placed cage traps at those levels' exits.

Does having GCS silk mean there MUST be a GCS? Does it mean the GCS must be on that level? Can GCS change their z level at will until they are visible? Could it be dead and I wouldn't know, since it's invisible? Could it very well, RIGHT NOW, be stalking my invaluable dungeon master, even as he sleeps? I already have a tame giant olm and will soon be the proud owner of a tame cave crodocile, but dammit, I want a tame GCS.

[Quietust]

Pits and chasms start with a bunch of pre-spawned webs if cave spiders are present - if a giant cave spider is present, the webs will be GCS silk, but there's no way to know where the GCS itself is without searching each level. Generally, it's best to introduce tame animals onto each level rather than trying to use disposable recruits, as the GCS won't become an enemy of your civilization (i.e. named, and thus untameable) if all it kills is a few unnamed animals.