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[FreakyCheeseMan]

Indeed, we can't all be omnicidal maniacs that want their legendary pump operator to really earn the name Urist McKrakatoa by destroying all life on the surface in an orgy of ash and pyroclastic flow. 

It'd get boring, after all.

Undwarvenly. It's easy, after a point, to be a benevolent overseer and make sure everyone is fed, boozed, and has a dry place to sleep. It's more fun in the end to have a fort crash and burn because of some terrible idea you had.

Like digging an >60 z-level well shaft. Somehow, the elven traders wound up broken and splattered on the bottom. In the next ten minutes, over forty dwarves died flinging themselves down the well to claim illegitimate goods. In the end, it was more entertaining than simply forbidding the items and continuing on without them.

He's right- it's one of the reasons I keep pushing for nastier syndromes, they're one of the few things I feel could threaten the fortresses I build. I'm always too benevolent at first, and when  it comes time to run it into the ground, what are my options? My military can handle the demons (in 40d), there are three levels of safeties on all my magma, and there are so many masterwork statues in high-traffic areas, I can't get anyone but the nobles to be so much as upset.

I like destroying fortresses, but the only ways I can find to do it are too crass- individually kill off every civilian, try to flood the place with magma, stuff that's really *me* killing them, rather than watching them kill themselves.

[monk12]

There is no stockpile for them to path to, so there's no spam. They just kill something and leave it.

They're quite fast too and can usually outrun most underground creatures. This is good in that you don't want them to all die at the first forgotten beast, and while they're being chased around the underworld they're still mapping it for you.

Hm. This raises the interesting concept of breeding racing cats to explore the underground for you.

[smjjames]

Due to a lack of felines, I used a donkey at first, but you know how stubborn they are (pathing delay and not moving very fast), then used some dogs, which worked very well. I actually used one dog to explore alot of the caverns until it got mauled by a cave ogre.

[Asra]

Indeed, we can't all be omnicidal maniacs that want their legendary pump operator to really earn the name Urist McKrakatoa by destroying all life on the surface in an orgy of ash and pyroclastic flow. 

It'd get boring, after all.

Undwarvenly. It's easy, after a point, to be a benevolent overseer and make sure everyone is fed, boozed, and has a dry place to sleep. It's more fun in the end to have a fort crash and burn because of some terrible idea you had.

Like digging an >60 z-level well shaft. Somehow, the elven traders wound up broken and splattered on the bottom. In the next ten minutes, over forty dwarves died flinging themselves down the well to claim illegitimate goods. In the end, it was more entertaining than simply forbidding the items and continuing on without them.

He's right- it's one of the reasons I keep pushing for nastier syndromes, they're one of the few things I feel could threaten the fortresses I build. I'm always too benevolent at first, and when  it comes time to run it into the ground, what are my options? My military can handle the demons (in 40d), there are three levels of safeties on all my magma, and there are so many masterwork statues in high-traffic areas, I can't get anyone but the nobles to be so much as upset.

I like destroying fortresses, but the only ways I can find to do it are too crass- individually kill off every civilian, try to flood the place with magma, stuff that's really *me* killing them, rather than watching them kill themselves.

If you have that many then it's time to practice Dwarf eugenics. Get a horrific misshapen race of BEARDLESS dwarfs bred.

[Hyndis]

Just drop all of your cats and kittens down there.

They will never attach to any dwarves while they're down there, and they should breed fast enough to keep the population up until everything is explored. When you're ready to claim the cavern with your miners and masons be sure to have the next cavern ready. When you reconnect to that first cavern all of the cats will go running to your meeting zone. Order them to be tossed into the pit leading to the next cavern, and put them back to work.

[beorn080]

Ya know, cats aren't required. Simply dump em down, and make meeting zones that your dwarves can't reach, but the animals in the cave can. Quick directed exploring, and no worries about cat adoption.

[psychologicalshock]

I just started playing the new version and checked this thread before I played. Well  I dug around a bit and then finally got to the cave at which point I decided to test out feline exploration. I did so without even looking first how far the drop was, it turned out to be 15 stories, the kitty was chucked in, flew down 15 stories and smashed into pieces at the bottom its tail flying up 7 stories and then disappearing from view. Am I a bad person for doing this?

[Coidzure Dreams]

If you have that many then it's time to practice Dwarf eugenics. Get a horrific misshapen race of BEARDLESS dwarfs bred.

This is wrong on so many levels I can't even count them.

[Khym Chanur]

Huh, I figured that cats could be used to flush out the GCS, but I didn't realize that they could do exploration too.

[BigD145]

I really want some elf explorers now. I have this one cavern with several vertical shafts that span a minimum of 40 z-levels. I'm sure they can jot down some notes on wood pulp paper for me to recover at the bottom.... bloody hell. Damn inefficient elf explorers.