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[Akura]

A not-guaranteed-death drop into a pit. Now in this pit are menacing spikes linked to a water clock. I think my friend Vince can tell you what happens next for the survivors.

[loose nut]

I've not been very creative so far, and have always just had 'em executed by firing squad, since my marksdwarves usually could use the practice on live targets.

[Fenwah]

I recently went to the trouble of capturing two forgotten beasts (i was bored). the first is a giant crocodile that i occasionally feed prisoners to. It is under my main gate and theres a drawbridge above to drop any invaders down (although its hard to time and i lose precious goblinite so i keep it mostly for prisoners).

The second is a skinless sauropod with poisonous gas, so i constructed a big elaborate trap to cave in the floor underneath it and trap it in constructed walls. then i built a big complex system to drop goblins into a cell connected to the forgotten beasts new home via a fortification without dwarves having to see the beast and freak out. The idea was to stick goblins in there and have the forgotten beast deal with them in a humane, painless and civilised fashion, similar to the gas chambers used for the death penalty in the US. That or have their flesh rot off. Either way.

So I dumped a goblin down there, and.... the beast couldnt path to it, so it did nothing. Then i got the idea to dump a goat in with the beast. Cue another big system to prevent dwarves from seeing the beast and soiling themselves instead of dropping the goat. So i dropped a goat in and it got torn apart instantly, and no poison. Damn. I tried another goat. Nothing. Finally i dropped half a dozen goats in there, and finally i coaxed some gas out the beast, and successfully bathed the goblin in it.

Too bad it appears to be totally harmless. God damn it.

[rat_pack40]

*snip*
Too bad it appears to be totally harmless. God damn it.

Give it a few years. All of your dwarfs will be melting with the best of them.

More on topic, I tend to use a humane and sanitary cage.
Under a drawbridge.

I'm just lucky if I remember to strip them of all of their precious goblinite.

[dragonshardz]

I just came up with a trap/execution method I plan to use in my next fortress: The Perpetual Wave-Motion Dwarven Atom Smasher (PW-MDAS). It's simple: A 1-tile wide, n-tiles long drawbridge that is triggered by a pressure plate. When it smashes down, it triggers another pressure plate, which triggers a second bridge next to it, and so on, down a hallway until the chain is deemed long enough, in which case the pressure plate the last bridge activates the first bridge again, creating a perpetual-motion wave of DAS.

W : wall
= : channel
# : bridge (raised)
* : pressure plate

WWW
####
====
****
WWW

First bridge activates first pressure plate, which lowers the second bridge, which activates the second plate. The second plate activates the third bridge, which lowers, activating the third plate. This plate lowers the fourth bridge, which hits the fourth plate, which activates the first bridge again.

Caveats:
- Bridges need to auto-retract.
--Perhaps by adding another channel line, then another line of pressure plates, which are linked to the bridge directly across the walkway? See Diagram 2.
- Pressure plates need to be DAS-proof.

DIAGRAM 2:
W
##
==
13
==
24
W

First bridge is lowered, activating plates 1 and 2. Plate 1 causes the second bridge to lower, while Plate 2 causes the first bridge to retract. Bridge 2 has the same kind of setup.

Pros:
- True perpetual motion.
- One activation, no resets.

Cons:
- Plates may not be DAS-proof.
- Dangerous to build linkages.

[Urist Imiknorris]

You can't build pressure plates under bridges. Better design a repeater!

[dragonshardz]

You can't build pressure plates under bridges. Better design a repeater!

So they're destroyed by DAS? Damnit. Back to the drawing board...

[gtmattz]

what is your favorite mode of execution

I use goblins as practice for my military, and have a setup to drop animals 15+ z levels into a refuse stockpile with a butcher shop next to it.

For military practice I have a room set up with a little alcove that I can build 6 cages in.  Before building the cages I designate them to be dumped so that the goblins are unarmed (don't want any unplanned unfortunate accidents now), then I build them all and link them to a lever that is outside the room.  After everything is linked I set a squad of dwarves to go into the room, lock the door behind them, then pull the lever.

For the animal dropping I have an area that i can set up 25 cages in, separated from my fort by a 1x20 walkway with retracting bridges on the walkway and the 15+ drop on either side, all the bridges are linked to one lever.  At the end of the walkway closest to my fort I have a few cage traps to catch anything that makes it across the bridges.  When I have a bunch of animals that I dont want to train I build all their cages in this area, link them to a lever, then forbid them all (this prevents dwarves from lemming rushing across the blinky bridge path and suffering the same fate as the animals.)  When I am ready I set one dwarf pulling the lever linked to the bridge repeatedly, and have another come and pull the lever to open the cages.  What happens next always gets me giggling.  The animals will start heading out of the fort, across the 1 wide floor which is covered with retracting bridges blinking on and off.  Since there is a constant path they keep trying to get out, but the retracting bridges turning on and off causes the animals to be tossed in a random direction, usually they end up over empty space and fall to their deaths in a conveniently placed refuse stockpile.  I like to wait till I have a lot of animals to do this to, because it is fun to watch them go flying everywhere as the bridges pop into existence under their feet.

[CaveLobsterShell]

You can't build pressure plates under bridges. Better design a repeater!

So they're destroyed by DAS? Damnit. Back to the drawing board...

Nope, it's simply that one can't build multiple buildings in the same tile.

[dragonshardz]

Well, I knew that...I was going to raise the bridges before building the pressure plates, by using basic levers. They should also act as failsafes while I'm building this, so my stumpies don't get squishified by mistake.

[deoxy]

Well, I knew that...I was going to raise the bridges before building the pressure plates, by using basic levers. They should also act as failsafes while I'm building this, so my stumpies don't get squishified by mistake.

No, you simply CAN'T build anything else on a tile that contains another building.  A tile that has a bridge built on it counts as having the bridge there whether the bridge is up or down.  Try it some time.

For the animal dropping I have an area that i can set up 25 cages in, separated from my fort by a 1x20 walkway with retracting bridges on the walkway and the 15+ drop on either side, all the bridges are linked to one lever.  At the end of the walkway closest to my fort I have a few cage traps to catch anything that makes it across the bridges.  When I have a bunch of animals that I dont want to train I build all their cages in this area, link them to a lever, then forbid them all (this prevents dwarves from lemming rushing across the blinky bridge path and suffering the same fate as the animals.)  When I am ready I set one dwarf pulling the lever linked to the bridge repeatedly, and have another come and pull the lever to open the cages.  What happens next always gets me giggling.  The animals will start heading out of the fort, across the 1 wide floor which is covered with retracting bridges blinking on and off.  Since there is a constant path they keep trying to get out, but the retracting bridges turning on and off causes the animals to be tossed in a random direction, usually they end up over empty space and fall to their deaths in a conveniently placed refuse stockpile.  I like to wait till I have a lot of animals to do this to, because it is fun to watch them go flying everywhere as the bridges pop into existence under their feet.

I do something like this... on crack, meth, and steroids.

I build a dropping tower of some kind (current fortress has a 25 z-level tower to the top of the world), then build a bridge sitting over the area I want to drop them it.  Then, I put a meeting area on the end of the bridge and disable all other meeting areas.

After all the animals are there (make sure there are no dwarves you want to keep up there, and cage/chain your breeding animals), I either pull the lever or destroy the bridge (depending on if I want them to fly all over or just all fall straight down).

Last time I did this, over 400 animals all died at almost exactly the same time, creating over 2500 body parts.

I giggled on and off all day over that.  I think it's the ridiculous "body part shrapnel" that causes the giggling, especially in a game where so many other things are modelled so realistically.

[Cheshire Cat]

wow. you people are amazing. i mean.... really... the inventiveness is crazy.

biggest setup i had was a large tower over a massive shaft that ran through my entire fortress. used to drop animals and goblins off of it, right through the dining room, craft areas, stores and living quarters. major advantage was that i got consistently awesome engravings of horses screaming and goblins falling or dying. disadvantage was the shrapnel would get into every single bit of my fort, and aparently cause some dwarves bad thoughts when a goblin heads or a horse torso interrupted their meals or sleep. deoxy is right about the stupidly unrealistic bouncy pulverization when a creature lands after a long fall, but i wouldnt have it changed for anything.

as a strategy for getting rid of pets and prisoners in 40d, i once pitted all 200+ animals i had, then threw in fully armed goblins and megabeasts. pets would pwn. even against entire goblin sieges and titans and hydras. i let the hfs into the pit and the animals killed all them as well. they seemed to reproduce faster then they were dying, like putting them all in the pit together allowed them to reach some kind of horrible critical mass. this was 40d combat mechanics though, so hordes of kittens and puppies and horse foals may not be able to hurt iron clad war goblins anymore.

[Kagus]

Some interesting ideas in here.  I particularly like Fenwah's method of chaining someone up and having them beaten to a pulp by a training weapon, something only the new version really allows for.  Broken bones, covered in bruises, minor internal bleeding...  All that, and they're still alive.  It's good stuff.  Although personally, I'd try to find some way of getting the dwarf to lay off for a while and let the critter rest for a while before going back in and beating it again.

One style of dwarven execution that I quite liked was something I saw in a fort movie a long time ago.  I can't remember the fort, or who was getting executed, or who had uploaded the video or any of that, I just remember the method.

It was a single-tile room, with a door and a lever.  A noble was inside, pulling the lever.  Behind him was the door, and on either side there were fortifications cut into the sides of the room.  Outside one of the slots, aimed directly at the noble, was a ballista.

The bolt woud travel through the slot, into the room, out the other side, and then get recovered in an ammo trap.  The noble was utterly annihilated.

[deoxy]

Some interesting ideas in here.  I particularly like Fenwah's method of chaining someone up and having them beaten to a pulp by a training weapon, something only the new version really allows for.

Creating training weapons in 40d is easy - make a weapon called "training sword" (or whichever), copy it from the sword entry (or whichever), drop the damage value to about 1/10 of normal, and change the damage type to impact.

I also suggest you not give that weapon to ANY civilization (especially your own), since then, you can get "artifact" training weapons (LAME), and you have to wade through a bunch of them in the trade screen, etc.  Instead, make a reaction that creates it (I made mine require wood and cloth) - this gives the additional bonus of letting you choose the material it's made of (I chose wood).

There you go, a no-quality wooden weapon that does exceedingly little damage.  Actually controlling when dwarves use training weapons and switching out weapons is quite a bit of a pain, though...  :-(

[Cotes]

For dwarves? Suicide squads.

You'd be amazed how much time 30 unequipped dwarves charging at a titan can buy you. Of course the walls will be really messy afterwards... And you likely need a new 120 tile graveyard once the battle is over.