Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kugu]

So my latest fortress was doing fine, not much for military, small team of wrestlers with nothing for armor. Nice fortress location with a river running across the entrance, lucky for me I noticed that dwarves seem to have no problem running over them now. ( When did this happen, I was hoping it would act as a 'wall'!) After walling myself off and keeping some of the river within the wall  and bridging across I hooked the bridge up to be retractable hoping it would buy me time when the orcs came... Soon after the bridge was complete the orcs came and I fumbled about ordering everyone indoors and once everyone was across I ordered for the lever to be pulled ( yes I made it so dwarves could go outside before I made the order to pull the lever. ) and no one went to it at all... The orcs stormed across the bridge and went into a slaughter fest... Then I noticed one of my last three dwarves runs up and hits the lever, sealing the orcs inside...

Is there better ways at defending my fort? I never seem to be able to get an ample defense up before the orcs come, but I find myself too bored without them.
Do catapults damage walls? or soar over them?
And last question for now.. If a suspended building has a floor hatch connecting it to the main structure and the floor hatch opens, does the suspended structure collapse?

[Foxbyte]

Brooks aren't shallow enough to impede movement, but due to no 'half Zs' in game it is represented by a walkable tile on top of a full tile of water. Rivers are impassable, but I think you might have had a brook instead. You can channel out the brook if you'd like, and then it will become as a natural moat.

[Kugu]

Brooks aren't shallow enough to impede movement, but due to no 'half Zs' in game it is represented by a walkable tile on top of a full tile of water. Rivers are impassable, but I think you might have had a brook instead. You can channel out the brook if you'd like, and then it will become as a natural moat.

Makes since, I obviously wasn't paying attention to brook/river the hundreds of times I scrolled about it. Kinda of nifty having ground you can build and drink on however....

[Dorf3000]

Is there better ways at defending my fort? I never seem to be able to get an ample defense up before the orcs come, but I find myself too bored without them.

I haven't played with them personally but I hear the best (only?) defence is to permanently seal yourself inside, shoot them with marksdwarves and hope they don't kill the caravans too often in the first few years, because you won't be able to trade or even go outside the walls until you have an extremely competent and armored military.

Do catapults damage walls? or soar over them?

I think they will shoot through fortifications, but they won't go up or down z-levels - they don't act like proper catapults, more like ballistas with rocks instead of arrows.

And last question for now.. If a suspended building has a floor hatch connecting it to the main structure and the floor hatch opens, does the suspended structure collapse?

I'm not even sure you could build such a structure attached to a hatch.  If it's suspended somewhere else it won't fall, if you're trying to build it without other support it will probably fall immediately.

[Kugu]

They count as a floor tile don't they? I mean you can walk on them if they arent open. So I was wondering if they dissapear when triggered or.. open up and manage to keep the surrounding tiles connected?

[Starver]

They count as a floor tile don't they? I mean you can walk on them if they arent open. So I was wondering if they dissapear when triggered or.. open up and manage to keep the surrounding tiles connected?

Bridges count as walkable, when not retracted/raised, but you can't build items (solely supported) off of them.  (That confused the hell out of me, the first time I tried it.  All those cave-ins occuring, until I noticed that the bridge-side walls needed re-assigning  And while I'm not perfectly sure, I think that trying to implement a grid of nine hatches (e.g. over a 3x3 channelled area, or equivalent) fails when trying to place the centre-centre hatch.

In which case, it wouldn't work.  You could use hatch/bridge/whatever as a walkwable attatchment (should you need one) between a rock-stable structure and one which is connected to the ground only via a lever-controllable support.

[Kugu]

They count as a floor tile don't they? I mean you can walk on them if they arent open. So I was wondering if they dissapear when triggered or.. open up and manage to keep the surrounding tiles connected?

Bridges count as walkable, when not retracted/raised, but you can't build items (solely supported) off of them.  (That confused the hell out of me, the first time I tried it.  All those cave-ins occuring, until I noticed that the bridge-side walls needed re-assigning  And while I'm not perfectly sure, I think that trying to implement a grid of nine hatches (e.g. over a 3x3 channelled area, or equivalent) fails when trying to place the centre-centre hatch.

In which case, it wouldn't work.  You could use hatch/bridge/whatever as a walkwable attatchment (should you need one) between a rock-stable structure and one which is connected to the ground only via a lever-controllable support.

Its not really that I want to collapse my fortress its that I was going to make a fortress that went off a cliff over the ocean,  but I wanted some way to defend the narrow passage that would connect me to the cliff. I was hoping Floor hatches would be my savior... I suppose I could make a second lower Z level Support, but I would need to find a high cliff over the ocean...

[slink]

They count as a floor tile don't they? I mean you can walk on them if they arent open. So I was wondering if they dissapear when triggered or.. open up and manage to keep the surrounding tiles connected?

Bridges count as walkable, when not retracted/raised, but you can't build items (solely supported) off of them.  (That confused the hell out of me, the first time I tried it.  All those cave-ins occuring, until I noticed that the bridge-side walls needed re-assigning  And while I'm not perfectly sure, I think that trying to implement a grid of nine hatches (e.g. over a 3x3 channelled area, or equivalent) fails when trying to place the centre-centre hatch.

In which case, it wouldn't work.  You could use hatch/bridge/whatever as a walkwable attatchment (should you need one) between a rock-stable structure and one which is connected to the ground only via a lever-controllable support.

Its not really that I want to collapse my fortress its that I was going to make a fortress that went off a cliff over the ocean,  but I wanted some way to defend the narrow passage that would connect me to the cliff. I was hoping Floor hatches would be my savior... I suppose I could make a second lower Z level Support, but I would need to find a high cliff over the ocean...

Make a wall along either side of the narrow passage alongside the floor-hatched area, and one tile beyond on each end.  The walls will maintain the connection when the hatches are open and invaders won't be able to walk through them.

[Starver]

Make a wall along either side of the narrow passage alongside the floor-hatched area, and one tile beyond on each end.  The walls will maintain the connection when the hatches are open and invaders won't be able to walk through them.

Darnit, exactly what I was going to say.  Except that it need only be on one side.  And with the caveat that you need to make sure you don't, through over-exuberance and walling the entire sides of the bridge, create an alternative pathway via the tops of the walls.

(If you're just doing it:

Code: [Select]

###
++c++
 ###
..thus, then no problem.  But you might also want to try

Code: [Select]

### ### ###                                                          c+++c+++c+++c
++c+++c+++c++  ...which above, with some extra hatches, looks like... 
 ### ### ###                                                          c+++c+++c+++c
That might look pretty, and give you opportunities to herd and shepherd enemies around.  Those that aren't on hatches when they're opened, at least.
Loads of variations on a theme.

[Kugu]

Haha, thanks, I'll give it a try, as it is now though I think I should get some shut eye.. Work in two and half hours and I havent slept... I look forward to more orc defense Ideas!

[atomfullerene]

Oh, and on the subject of levers, you want to stick them somewhere like your dining room, where lots of dwarves are hanging around with not much to do, nearby.  I had some issues at first when I stuck important levers near the thing they operated and not near where potential lever-pullers are.    You can even make a little control room with all your levers.  The only tricky part then is remembering what goes with what...but you can use notes, furniture next to them to remind you, or make them out of different materials (and therefore different color).  I usually just arrange them so their relative positions are the same as the things they operate.  And finally, it takes a while for a lever pull to raise a bridge, so you ususally want to pull them right away, so the invaders don't dash across while you wait.

[h3lblad3]

Stand at the walls and taunt them.

If they persist, taunt them a second time.

-nodnod-
Let them know that they are sons of silly persons!

[Safe-Keeper]

The use of notes is highly encouraged when placing levers. Hit shift+n, move the cursor over the lever, and hit p to stick a note there, then n to give it a name. shift+n from now on lets you view the notes placed around the map.

Oh, and the + and - keys cycle between different colours and symbols.

[Sensei]

Pressure plates. They make your life easier.