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[RadGH]

I am using DF 40d.

I'm really interested in making a prison where I will catch and release all the enemies who attack my fortress. So far I've caught around 12 elves/goblins and have put their cages into my prison cells, with a level that will raise the barred gate in the middle:



I have disarmed them according to the wiki... see the shirt icons:


Before I open the cages, I need to ask a few questions.

1: There are goblins, I know that kobold/goblin thieves can "pick" locks (or at least bypass them), are normal goblin ambushers able to do this as well?
2: And for that matter, will anything be able to pick barred gates hooked up to a lever?
3: How could I go about retrieving the cages after I open them? I assume I will need to rig the cages to a lever to release the enemies without letting them escape.
4: Is it possible to incapacitate a creature?

For clarification, I intend to open the cages but close the cell doors.

[derekiv]

1: no
2: no
3:no, yes
4: Yes, may I suggest wooden training swords.

[Dorf3000]

1: no
2: no
3:no, yes
4: Yes, may I suggest wooden training swords.

In 40d you'd have to buy wooden swords from the elves, and they can still kill (it's just much less damage compared to iron)

There's no real way to retrieve the cages unless you make holes in the prison ceilings and pit the prisoners in from above. Presumably this wouldn't fit with your design.  I think if you're going to the trouble of making grates and levers and so on, then you won't mind leaving the cages behind.

[Maxxeh]

I've never done this sort of thing before.. But it looks interesting
do you just link all the cages and all the gates to a single lever? then link a single lever next to each door to open them individually too?

[LordSlowpoke]

1: no
2: no
3:no, yes
4: Yes, may I suggest wooden training swords.

In 40d you'd have to buy wooden swords from the elves, and they can still kill (it's just much less damage compared to iron)

There's no real way to retrieve the cages unless you make holes in the prison ceilings and pit the prisoners in from above. Presumably this wouldn't fit with your design.  I think if you're going to the trouble of making grates and levers and so on, then you won't mind leaving the cages behind.

In 40d, you could use the "make wooden weapon" order at the carpenter's workshop.

[Lytha]

In 40d, you could use the "make wooden weapon" order at the carpenter's workshop.

No.

http://magmawiki.com/index.php/40d:Known_bugs_and_issues

Building a Wooden Weapon... Rack

There is a minor problem with the carpenter's workshop. Inexperienced players might be confused because in the build menu it says "Construct wooden Weapon", but they will get a weapon rack out of the deal. This isn't a bug, merely a shortcoming of the interface. You cannot actually build wooden weapons at the carpenter's workshop; the full name, "Construct wooden Weapon rack", is cut off in the default view, and can be seen if Tab is used to expand the menu. Expanding the menu will reveal that the option does not specify constructing a wooden weapon, but rather a wooden weapon rack.

[Lummox JR]

Bear in mind this technique will only work for non-buildingdestroyers. If you don't want to lose the cages, pitting the prisoners from above is the best option.

In my fort I have an arena that can handle both regular attackers and buildingdestroyers. The arena is a 5x5 area surrounded by double-thick walls. The reason for the double-thick walls is just so there can be an up stair on one side. On the upper level there is a matching down stair, and on that side the walls are also double-thick; everywhere else the outer walls are single-thickness, so there is a U-shaped walkway around the pit. After I set that up, I created a 5x5 retractable bridge to cover the pit, and hooked it up to a lever. When the bridge is in place, there is stair access to the lower level of the arena; otherwise not.

Cages can be installed in the pit and hooked up to a lever for tougher beasts, so they can be released once the bridge is retracted and then marksdwarves can have a field day. Likewise cages are good for turncoat dwarves, who can't be pitted. For all other situations what I do is dump in a bunch of bears that don't have names yet (I have a healthy stock of black bears), and then I toss in unarmed goblins one by one.

[RadGH]

I didn't realize that I didn't respond to this thread, but I took some advice and made my prison. I used the lever-rigged cages which was very time consuming and locked all of my prisoners away. But all of my dwarves became scared and fleed from the creatures. This was just too frustrating, it took too long to make and wasted many resources

http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=44394.msg1168652#msg1168652

I did not try the wooden sword trick, I will try that some time though. But I did not have access to elven traders, because the Elves were the ones attacking. I think I had sold them some wooden items without realizing it or something. They summoned unicorns or something too, strangely, it was like they ride them too. But I caught some of each. Heres what my prison looked like, which unfortunately no dwarves could expand on:

[Akjosch]

Unfortunately, Dwarves can't realise somebody is harmless behind bars (unless they are in a cage). As nice as your prison is, it won't work in this game version.

On a side note, how did you manage to get the invaders stripped? The old [ d ]-[ b ]-[ d ] method on the cages followed by undesignating the cage itself method didn't seem to work for me. Though in retrospect, it might be because my cages where all in an outside stockpile when I tried, and Dwarves now seem to consider stuff to be dumped as "refuse" and don't do it for outside items unless they have refuse gathering outside allowed ...

[Dorf3000]

Though in retrospect, it might be because my cages where all in an outside stockpile when I tried, and Dwarves now seem to consider stuff to be dumped as "refuse" and don't do it for outside items unless they have refuse gathering outside allowed ...

That's exactly why.  You can make a custom animal stockpile that only accepts goblin cages if you want to have them put near to your prison/arena/pit-o-doom.