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Author Topic: harvesting Giant cave spider silk  (Read 1377 times)

uber pye

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harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« on: April 06, 2010, 01:58:06 pm »

When fighting a giant cave spider i saw that it shoots huge cone of it's silk just ripe for the picking
so i am looking for all your best and crazyist ways to farm such nice silk  :)
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ISGC

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #1 on: April 06, 2010, 02:06:09 pm »

have a spider on a ledge across from another ledge with a draw bridge halfway across a gap in between.  release goblins into the other side of the ledge and have the spider fire away.  when I think I have enough, raise the draw bridge and let the goblins run into my cage traps, collect silk, re-release goblins, lower bridge, repeat.
haven't tried this, so I don't know if it works
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LordSlowpoke

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #2 on: April 06, 2010, 02:38:40 pm »

have a spider on a ledge across from another ledge with a draw bridge halfway across a gap in between.  release goblins into the other side of the ledge and have the spider fire away.  when I think I have enough, raise the draw bridge and let the goblins run into my cage traps, collect silk, re-release goblins, lower bridge, repeat.
haven't tried this, so I don't know if it works
This design is truly ancient. The adamantine generator reworked for GCS (just replace the marksdorfs with GCS) should be perfect.
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Kagus

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #3 on: April 06, 2010, 02:57:24 pm »

Right, except that giant cave spiders won't shoot webbing unless they can path to the target.

Basically, the only thing that really works is sending in a sacrificial "lamb" (goblin), and then finding some way of coaxing the spider out of the silk room so that harvesters can come in without getting slaughtered.

uber pye

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #4 on: April 06, 2010, 03:37:30 pm »

have a spider on a ledge across from another ledge with a draw bridge halfway across a gap in between.  release goblins into the other side of the ledge and have the spider fire away.  when I think I have enough, raise the draw bridge and let the goblins run into my cage traps, collect silk, re-release goblins, lower bridge, repeat.
haven't tried this, so I don't know if it works
thanks for the help and I'll try that drawbridge plan (or somthing like that)
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piesquared

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2010, 05:53:14 pm »

Haven't actually managed to try this with the most recent version yet, but in 40d it went something like this:

Code: [Select]
--d---------d--
-      -      -
-    b---b    -
-    b+S+b    -
-  r b+ +b r  -
-    b-d-b    -
-    b-c-b    -
-    b   b    -
---------------
'-' is a wall
'b' is a bridge
'+' is a fortification
'c' is a cage trap
'r' is a restraint
'S' is the spider
'd' is a door.

You set up the spider in a cage with a lever somewhere outside the room to release it. You put a dog or some other suitable pet on each restraint. You set the door right next to the spider to "allowed", but *not* pet-passable. With the bridges down the spider can see the animals, path to the animals, but it can't *actually* go through the door. It should then shoot webs.

When enough has been dropped on a given side, you put up the bridge on that side. The spider can no longer see or path to one of the pets, and any dwarves wanting to enter can do so without getting scared by the spider. When you've collected all the webs, you lower the bridge on that side and raise it on the other, where by now there will be lots of silk to be collected. The cage trap shouldn't be necessary, but is there in case you accidentally let the door open.

There are improvements that can be made (and you'll probably want the collection chambers larger then in the diagram) but this is the basic idea. One improvement that you *can't* to my knowledge make is to make the spider's chamber only one square - the parts from the opened cage trap will jam open the door.

Oh, and don't tame the spider or it won't shoot at pets, which makes the whole thing more difficult.
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Rakonas

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Re: harvesting Giant cave spider silk
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2010, 07:43:26 pm »

The best silk harvesting method is to tame a GCS and keep it in a non-pet passable pit. Drop deer into pit, collect meat bones and silk.
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