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[malroth]

Just a thread for creating and discussing new ideas for basic traps.

Temprature sensor:
Reqs; 1 mechanism 1 bar each of 2 different metals
size; 1x1 does not block access
Reusable, self resets after each trigger.
Triggers; anything passing within 2 squares with a temprature high or low enough to damage a dwarf.triggers on freindly and trap avoid targets in additon to hostile ones.
Function:  Connect to other devices, as a remote sensor.
Chance to jam: If ambient temprature is higher or lower than trip points
or multiple triggers happen in rapid sucession


Water trap:
Reqs; 1 barrel  1 or more mechanisms.
Size; 1x1 with selectable facing does not block access
Reuseable after reloading
Triggers; hostile contact and or connected levers and pressureplates.
Function;  when constructed a low priority job is generated to fill the water trap from avalible water sources. When activated the water trap releases the water in the designated direction filing the selected space to 1/7 depth for every full bucket that was used to fill it.   
Chance to jam; if triggered with less than 1 bucketfull of water

Fire Trap:
Reqs; 1 mechanism, 1 unit of coal,  1 non fire safe building materal
size; 1x1 does not block access
Nonreusable deconstructs upon triggering
Triggers;  Hostile contact and or connected mechanisms.
Function;  catches itself and adjacent tiles on fire when activated.
Chance to jam; low chance anytime its triggered, will randomly unjam itself eventually

Dwarven music box:
Reqs; 1 mechanism,  1-10 instruments
Size : 1x1 does not restrict access
Reusable, resets self after each trigger
Triggers; hostile contact and or remote trigger
Function;  Each instrument plays a plesant melody that has a low chance of putting each sentient creature within 3 tiles to sleep,  higher quality instruments have a slightly greater probability. dwarves that are put to sleep in this manner gain a moderate happy thought. There is a moderate chance to jam for each instrument indepedant of the sucess or failure to put things to sleep.

Alarm trap:
Reqs 1 mechanism 1-10 instruments
Size;1x1 does not block access
Reusable after reloading
Triggers, Hostile contact
Function;  Makes a loud annoying sound that awakens all sleepers and generates a top priority job for all dwarves within 20 spaces per instrument used, to go to the location of the alarm.

[Detoxicated]

I like these ideas, especially the music box.

[Halmie]

Temp. trap - OK I guess.

Water trap - DIY

Firetrap - < Magma

Music Box - Really don't agree with this one. Dwarf Fortress isn't a cartoon. Nobody is going to go to sleep like that. And if you want something to stun invaders, you can use paralyzing poison on weapons in the future I think.

Alarm Trap - OK I guess, but not really in the nature of dwarves. Maybe it would cause a bad thought?

[Grendus]

Just a thread for creating and discussing new ideas for basic traps.

Temprature sensor:
Reqs; 1 mechanism 1 bar each of 2 different metals
size; 1x1 does not block access
Reusable, self resets after each trigger.
Triggers; anything passing within 2 squares with a temprature high or low enough to damage a dwarf.triggers on freindly and trap avoid targets in additon to hostile ones.
Function:  Connect to other devices, as a remote sensor.
Chance to jam: If ambient temprature is higher or lower than trip points
or multiple triggers happen in rapid sucession

I'm against this one being self-resetting. For 1400's technology, they would be using low melting or burning point materials as a trigger, anything hot enough to hurt a dwarf would incinerate or melt a key piece and trigger the mechanism. There's no real way to determine low temperature with 1400's technology either, at least to my knowledge.

Water trap:
Reqs; 1 barrel  1 or more mechanisms.
Size; 1x1 with selectable facing does not block access
Reuseable after reloading
Triggers; hostile contact and or connected levers and pressureplates.
Function;  when constructed a low priority job is generated to fill the water trap from avalible water sources. When activated the water trap releases the water in the designated direction filing the selected space to 1/7 depth for every full bucket that was used to fill it.   
Chance to jam; if triggered with less than 1 bucketfull of water

Don't see this as being very useful, but sure.

Fire Trap:
Reqs; 1 mechanism, 1 unit of coal,  1 non fire safe building materal
size; 1x1 does not block access
Nonreusable deconstructs upon triggering
Triggers;  Hostile contact and or connected mechanisms.
Function;  catches itself and adjacent tiles on fire when activated.
Chance to jam; low chance anytime its triggered, will randomly unjam itself eventually

No. Especially with how fire is right now, being able to cause fire on demand is very powerful.

Dwarven music box:
Reqs; 1 mechanism,  1-10 instruments
Size : 1x1 does not restrict access
Reusable, resets self after each trigger
Triggers; hostile contact and or remote trigger
Function;  Each instrument plays a plesant melody that has a low chance of putting each sentient creature within 3 tiles to sleep,  higher quality instruments have a slightly greater probability. dwarves that are put to sleep in this manner gain a moderate happy thought. There is a moderate chance to jam for each instrument indepedant of the sucess or failure to put things to sleep.

Will have to wait for the magic arc, I'm against this as a physical trap.

Alarm trap:
Reqs 1 mechanism 1-10 instruments
Size;1x1 does not block access
Reusable after reloading
Triggers, Hostile contact
Function;  Makes a loud annoying sound that awakens all sleepers and generates a top priority job for all dwarves within 20 spaces per instrument used, to go to the location of the alarm.

I'd rather be able to order a dwarf to wake them up, maybe via a zone. Tell Urist McBugler to sound revelry, more useful and less work.

[Funk]

pit cover
acts as pressure plate for triggered by creatures only.
when triggered it deconstruct back to its component parts.
can be made from wood.

yes it the old put branchs over pit trap.

[alfie275]

Seeing as dwarves have advanced metal crafting technology, they might have realised that different metals expand/contract at different rates, it is then easy to construc a device that bends one way when hot and another when cold. You could even have two outputs: A high temp and a low temp output.

[bmaczero]

Alarm trap:
Reqs 1 mechanism 1-10 instruments
Size;1x1 does not block access
Reusable after reloading
Triggers, Hostile contact
Function;  Makes a loud annoying sound that awakens all sleepers and generates a top priority job for all dwarves within 20 spaces per instrument used, to go to the location of the alarm.

What would you use this for?

Orcs enter the fort, trigger an alarm.  All dwarves rush in and get slaughtered.  Facepalm.

The water trap is an interesting idea but of limited use I would imagine.

Pit trap gets two thumbs up here (at least let us build pressure plates over floor hatches).

[Nikov]

I'd like to see efforts into new trap development be more along the lines of giving us tools and toys to play with, not prefabricated, fully functional devices. For example, boulder traps that simply release a boulder which rolls down the tunnel squashing things; arrow traps that actually shoot an arrow in a direction with a chance to strike a target, or flaming oil traps that dump oil down a hole in the floor to splash around under fluid physics. The fire element would come from a burning torch you've mounted on the wall down there, or flaming dwarf-bolts from the crossbow loops.

More 'Dungeon Keeper' type stuff, you know?

[Morrigi]

I'd like to see efforts into new trap development be more along the lines of giving us tools and toys to play with, not prefabricated, fully functional devices. For example, boulder traps that simply release a boulder which rolls down the tunnel squashing things; arrow traps that actually shoot an arrow in a direction with a chance to strike a target, or flaming oil traps that dump oil down a hole in the floor to splash around under fluid physics. The fire element would come from a burning torch you've mounted on the wall down there, or flaming dwarf-bolts from the crossbow loops.

More 'Dungeon Keeper' type stuff, you know?

This. Almost exactly what i was thinking while i was reading the thread.

[Thanshin]

pit cover
acts as pressure plate for triggered by creatures only.
when triggered it deconstruct back to its component parts.
can be made from wood.

yes it the old put branchs over pit trap.

I like it, but it's extremely powerful. Dropping enemies down a shaft is good enough to make the bridge+pressure plate worth it even while being so hard to time correctly and so dangerous for your own dwarves.

Creating the same effect with such an easy contraption would be too much.

[Felblood]

pit cover
acts as pressure plate for triggered by creatures only.
when triggered it deconstruct back to its component parts.
can be made from wood.

yes it the old put branchs over pit trap.

I like it, but it's extremely powerful. Dropping enemies down a shaft is good enough to make the bridge+pressure plate worth it even while being so hard to time correctly and so dangerous for your own dwarves.

Creating the same effect with such an easy contraption would be too much.

Being able to build one of the simplest traps in history simply is going to far? Elaborate, please.

I think the added micro, from the deconstruction, would make this more something that people do in the first couple of seasons, before the mechanics industry is a priority. Once you have higher quality mechanics and mechanisms, you can build something more elaborate.

If it makes you feel better about the Rube Goldburg method you currently use, we can say that simple pit covers destroy the wood used to make them. It's realistic enough to be justifiable.

Additionally, you could make flows and whatnot also break the pit cover. If it's properly flimsy, it isn't going to stand up to a flood any better than a kobold's footstep.

Though, being able to build a proper, single-tile trapdoor would be good, as well. No one is even going to pretend that traps are balanced right now, so we should focus on coming up with things that are fun and fitting, and then worry about balancing them. Trapdoors are a huge staple of the genre, and they're schadenfreude-tastic.

You could build it out of a hatch cover and two mechanisms(one for a pressure plate, and one for a door opener), over any sort of gap in the floor. When you step on it you have a short time, based on the quality of the mechanisms, before the hatch opens, and anyone on top risks falling fall. Fast foes will be basically immune to all but the best trapdoors, unless they happen to step on it after it's been triggered, but before it falls.

[Funk]

in RL the pit need to be deep(7+ feet) to stop them geting out.
but if you add spikes then 2 feet works

[Morrigi]

in RL the pit need to be deep(7+ feet) to stop them geting out.
but if you add spikes then 2 feet works

Or even 1 foot, as long as the spikes are arranged to hurt their... foot.