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[James.Denholm]

Some great ideas in this thread; can't wait to try them out. 

Pressure plates go ON/OFF as as creatures pass over them, but you can't make them stay on. (right?)  But to do that you could have a pressure plate linked to a hatch in a remote 1x1 room with a dog in it. One z level down you have another pressure plate in a 1x1 room, so the dog falls and triggers it and keeps it on.  It would be good for sealing a front door once invaders are so far inside, etc.  Or you could have it dump a dog from a holding cell down into your repeater-hallway for extra automation.  Then the invaders would turn it on and the player would high-speed turn it off whenever he wanted.

Funny how your first idea is to use an animal. Liquids would work too.

[Fenwah]

Pressure plates go ON/OFF as as creatures pass over them, but you can't make them stay on. (right?)

The second switch design in the OP allows the signal to stay on indefinately (at least until the animal dies of old age...) and operates in the same way as a lever. The switches are basically two animal traps made using the one way hatch technique, allowing the animal to walk onto a tile with a pressure plate then traping it there. there is then a door which can be unforbidden or made pet passable to instantly allow the animal to escape. The point of this is that the animal can be made to run from one trap to the other. The approach in the first design is to have the triggering plate between the two traps, so that each trip from one to the other sends a 'pulsed' signal (since that is most useful for its original purpose). It works just as well to simply have the plate in one of the traps send the trigger. This way, the signal will be on indefinately until you send the animal back to the off plate

[CaveIn]

With these, a goblin-powered n-step repeater is easily achieved:
    <
    h
    ^
   hXh
<h^XXX^h<
   hXh
    ^
    h
    <
with 'h' being hatches. Each pressure plate is connected to the ones in the same color. A goblin is inserted somehow (not sure how yet, tried to keep this design as general as possible), and the goblin is kept running in a clockwise fashion. This does not have any way of limiting the speed of the oscillation ala the 100 step per move in a fluid oscillator, but that should be possible to add. This design doesn't work if a) goblins stop pathing after a while or b) goblins need food/water...

[TolyK]

to last poster: that could work...

to OP and the grinder idea: I have added this to my (actually succession game) fort with a fairly large zone around it that is channeled out (that I can flood with water) as an alternate entrance, and it seems to work fine enough. I also added an "escape tunnel" to the surface for dwarfs with surface jobs (2 pressure plates connected to a hatch, like this:

Code: [Select]

#####
#hXX
#>###
###
but I got 1 case of "Urist McThirsty cancels drink: interrupted by goblin axeman" (who my millitary easily put out) and I just forbid the doors going to there. But still... (note: no sieges yet, only shitloads of ambushes... plus lots of caged snatchers...)

Would replacing the hatches with bridges work?

btw I've got a goblin that is spiked through almost all his body parts and another with water-filled lungs in the drowning pit below 

[Heliman]

This is a great idea, Finally I can implement a method for my legendary swordsdwarf to actually fight a whole siege without the gobboes running away halfway through.

[HermitDwarf]

Praise the engineers!

[Axecleaver]

While there is definitely something to be said for a goblin grinder system whereby the enemy is forced to tear itself apart, I just want to build a system of Upright Spear/Spike traps (and perhaps some Weapon Traps) that are powered by a mechanical repeater system.

Looking on the wiki, I see a lot of info on repeaters:

DF2010:Repeater
General n-step Cyclic Repeater
User:MrFake/TwoStepAlternatingRepeater
User:Hussell/ClockRepeater
User:Hash/SelfPoweredHaltableRepeater

But it's seems so complicated... All I need to know is the maximum effective trigger speed on a Upright Spear/Spike trap (and perhaps a Weapon Trap) and which repeater system is both comparatively easy to build and which can reliable deliver max effective trigger speed (for the trap) for best efficiency.

Another words, which (non-grinder) trap / repeater system would you recommend?

[Jyppa]

The basic floodgate-bridge repeater (first link) should do fine if you don't require perfect timing, or toggling more often than once per 300 steps. MrFake's repeater is faster and works at perfect intervals of 100 steps, and can also be used as a counter with minimal modification. You can use that to accomplish some really neat timed responses, like your magma waterfall splitting up to reveal the fortress entrance on the first day of Slate every three years (to the hour!), or creating a kill room that automatically fills up with water/magma, drains and flushes out goblinite to a collection site at regular intervals without any input.

As for spike traps, I think they are basically instant (Very easy to check), but the pressure plates have a reset time of 100 steps, so you will want to use the 300-step repeater or three steps of the cyclic version to make your spikes move up and down nicely (for three steps with one activation, they will spend 2/3 of the cycle upright and 1/3 of the cycle retracted). If you want them to retract only ever-so-briefly before activating again rather than even cycling between the states, you can build a two-step (MrFake) repeater with an extra pumping step that doesn't delay, adding a few steps of "down time" as the water is pumped back to the first, activating step. If you want, say, a "rippling" effect of spikes activating up/down a hallway, you can connect them to different steps of a multi-step repeater, or if you want it faster, to a longer cycle of undelayed pumps with a plate at each step, followed by a single delayed position allowing the system to reset, creating a sudden, periodic wave of spikes through a hallway.

Edit: Also, way to necro.

[DuckBoy2]

Long as its necro'd anyway, guess I should put this in. 

I've been using this for a while as my Giant Cave Spider silk farm.  You just have to take down one of the walls and replace it with channels (gcs won't fire through fortifications ever), chain up an animal on the far side of the channels, and put a bridge you can raise to block sight for weavers to come by.  Far more satisfying than anything using pet forbidden doors imo. 

[feaver]

Was just wondering.. In case of building destroyers, is it possible to avoid them destroying your hatches by placing 2 hatches side by side? This way, if it destroys 1 hatch, there is an "open space" tile blocking him from the other? This should push him through the next pressure plate/hatch hallway yes? If that does work, it wouldn't be a fix for flying building destroyers or trap avoiders, but you could always carve fortifications out and have marks dwarves and/or ballista or whatever else you conjure up =P

If this information is probably covered elsewhere, sorry but I'm far too lazy to look, and I figured it was a good question regarding this topic. Plus I'm new to DF =P

[kyle902]

My main entrance is usually a long corridor filled with war animals and serrated disk traps.

[ponom]

I had an idea for a high speed switch which would activate a magma defence system using a direct command from the player without involving dwarves, as I'm sure most of us have suffered at the hands of lazy dwarves who are late to reach a lever at the crucial moment. While playing around with this idea, I found a simple combination which allows floors that only permit one way travel to specified creatures too be built. I couldn't see anything about it on the wiki, so I've made this thread.

The one way floor is just a hatch over a channelled out tile linked to a pressure plate:

Code: [Select]

# #    # = wall
#H#    H = Hatch over channelled tile
#^#    ^ = Pressure plate
# #
A creature moving top to bottom will pass, but a creature moving from bottom to top will trigger the plate, lifting the hatch which breaks the path. This is different to the one way ramps exploit in that the creatures don't know its one way until they get there, and will try to path through it. This allows you to capture and manipulate creatures in some interesting ways.

I tried this set with minor modification - open space instead of channel. But unfortunately, pressure plate activate hatch immediately, and creature stops right before open space.
Is it somehow possible to set up time lag for traps? Or am I doing it wrong?

UPDATE:

what if I use floor grate instead of a hatch? Will it work out?
Like this?

#FG#    FG = Floor grate (sorry, donno its correct ASCII) over open space
#^#    ^ = Pressure plate
# #

Second whatif

Is it possible to make a turnover coridor like this?

#FG#    FG = Floor grate over open space
#FG#
#FG#
#FG#
#FG#
#FG#
#FG#
#^#    ^ = Pressure plate
#FG#
# #


Having all floor grates linked to single pressure plate?
Idea is simple, as soon as first creature of many passes turnover coridor and activates pressure plate - all other will fall down?
Put one more floor grate after pressure plate linked as well - not to forget the first creature.

[Reelyanoob]

Just thought of something.  You'll want to have some kind of backup at the exit since I'm pretty sure the hatches and pressure plates could be destroyed by Building Destroyers, leaving it a straight path into your fort.

This never happens! If they break the hatches, they trap themselves because they cannot path over the channel. I had a forgotten beast lock itself out like this. It hit the plate, opening the hatch, got mad and smashed the hatch because it was "in the way".

edit: I wonder if there's some way to allow dwarves to get through without anyone else allowed.  I can't think of one though.

Citizens trigger is separate to Creatures trigger, so friendly units, including traders, can pass these things fine, but wild animals and invaders cannot. So you can do this already, as long as you are happy with the games definiition of "dwarves" and "anyone else"

...

I used HP (hatch next to pressure plate) to lure/herd hostile creatures, and HPH to immobilize them on a single spot. It's how my drowning trap works. The Plate is also linked to a river water hatch straight above their head, and goblins invariably (and i mean 100% of the time for about 50 'test' goblins) get washed into the channels. There's a bit of backup insurance in case anything doesn't get washed away: the entrance to the tube is a down ramp from above, and on the exit side, the plate raises a drawbridge, so it'll drown or isolate anything which stays on the plate. So far, no problems, but there's cage traps past the bridge just in case.

This (HP combo) is also useful for designing GCS silk farms.

The drowning tube worked great for me, with a bank of parallel tubes so there's always a path, and they reset while the goblin below is still drowning, so they don't lock up as long as the goblin grinder. There's also a floor grate just past the bridge to speed drainage.

Only problem is lots of goblins give up and run away when a number of them are killed. I'm dusting off an older design to solve this issue, which is a room with many HP exits which keep goblins in the room, and seems pathable to inside the base, but further in is a HP that keeps citizens out of this area. The idea is to herd entire sieges to path at max. rate into this area, always thinking they can path further in and are winning. When it's too late for them to run away, the area will be isolated and a number of execution methods can be manually triggered, including firing squad.

At the "main" entrance for my base I'd have more HP switches to keep gobbos out as a failsafe, and a drawbridge. Raising the drawbridge would make the only path inside be the trap room.

Whenever using these to keep out nasties, make sure the channelled tile under the hatches do not open into your fortress or you could have some problems.

I always worry that one of my citizens will be chased by a goblin and end up falling into the drown trap water or a hole in the ground. It hasn't happened yet, but it's possible. I do have a "drain" lever for the drowning chambers though, so could rescue any drowning dwarves this way.

Everyone so far seems focused on the enemy grinding systems, but I think that the high-speed trigger part of this has a lot of potential.
...

Code: [Select]

D     D
 H   H
  ^ ^ 
   D   
  ^   
 H     
D     


Can this design be made a bit more compact i.e :-

Code: [Select]

DH^D^HD
   ^   
 DH     
Horizontal paths are technically shorter. Going by the path-finding threads, I'd assume there's less time needed to move horizontally.

Better still :-

Code: [Select]

D
H H
^ ^
 D
^ ^   
H H
D D     
This design would have two different trigger events on the bottom two plate/hatches. Forbid the top (shared) door and open both bottom doors for the creature to cycle the two actions constantly. There could also be other actions linked to the top two hatches for 'idle mode'. If the shared door was separated again, then you could basically have 4 different repeaters, and guarantee at least any two of them can be active at once.

[Flying Dice]

Idea for a ticking time bomb doomsday device: Use the second design from the OP, but have the middle plate hooked up to a device that prevents, say, the catastrophic collapse of the entire fort. Assuming the dog will keep pathing to it's owner forever, it would perpetually protect the fort... Until it dies of old age.

[Sphalerite]

what if I use floor grate instead of a hatch? Will it work out?

Floor grates work just like hatches, they have zero delay on retracting.  There's no easy way to set a delay on a trigger.  You can use some kind of water logic system, but it's tricky to get a consistent delay out of that.