Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[noodle0117]

Does anyone know any designs which are capable of keeping goblins out, but still able to let dwarves/caravans in?
Is such a design even possible without a ridiculously large number of traps?

Also another question...
Can traps/pressure plates activate even when the goblin/kobold is stealthed?

[monk12]

Kobolds have trapavoid, and thus do not trigger traps. Goblins do not, and thus trigger traps. Random cage traps around high traffic areas on the map are a good early warning system for ambushes. I do not know firsthand, but I believe that the same principle applies to pressure plates as well.

[nil]

Does anyone know any designs which are capable of keeping goblins out, but still able to let dwarves/caravans in?
Is such a design even possible without a ridiculously large number of traps?

As far as I know, there's nothing foolproof beyond trap fields.  Marksdwarves are also good, if you can get them to work.  A floodable airlock isn't too tough to set up and works great, although that requires decent timing with the levers.

Also another question...
Can traps/pressure plates activate even when the goblin/kobold is stealthed?

Goblins are not trap-avoid, not even the thieves, and will trigger all traps including pressure plates.  Kobolds are, and won't trigger anything (but will get hit by spikes).

[SkyRender]

A good technique to consider is a bottleneck entrance to your fort: build a long exterior hallway littered with traps, and just around a corner, set up a battalion of war dogs on chains (ie. at least one full line of 'em so you have to run into a war dog to go any further).  The traps will destroy any incoming Goblin threat, while the war dogs will alert you to any Kobold threat.  Back in 40d, that kept my old fort Gearholes utterly untouchable from any threat.  Though I did build up a ludicrously huge stock of caged Goblins after a while.

[Urist Imiknorris]

It is technically possible to use a one-way path to force goblins to go through in one direction (specifically, to leave) while allowing dwarves to go both ways. Sort of a one-and-a-half-way path.

[breadbocks]

Does anyone know any designs which are capable of keeping goblins out, but still able to let dwarves/caravans in?
Is such a design even possible without a ridiculously large number of traps?

Also another question...
Can traps/pressure plates activate even when the goblin/kobold is stealthed?

To answer your question, Yes. Goblins trigger traps. Kobolds don't. Take advantage of the AI, and have a very direct entrance 5 of so tiles long and 2 tiles wide, and line it with "Upright Spike Traps" linked to a repeater. IIRC, it works. I may be mistaken on that, so don't quote me.

[thijser]

Or you can make something that's certain to kill anything going in make this the shortest way into your fort and give it restricted traffic settings. Your dwarfs shouldn't use it anymore and your oppenement should use it.

[monkeyfetus]

Take care not to put too many traps down. Ambushes and sieges are one of the many paths to FUN. If they're no longer a threat the game can get boring. Obviously a few cage traps are nice for prisoners, but ambushes and sieges are where you can get some really cool stories, and have a lot of fun.

In my old fort I had a curtain wall enclosing most of the map, with some side entrance drawbridges that rarely lowered, as well as a main gate in the front. At the main gate I had a three z-level tower, with fortifications carved into the upper two levels for my marksdwarves to fire from. I had three weapon traps with crappy goblin weapons just inside the gate to thin the enemies out (the entrance is three tiles wide so each goblin would get hit by one), and a few cage traps along the outer wall to get prisoners for whatever I might need them. It was fun, thinned out the enemies to make them more manageable, but still allowed for some fun sieges. Also FUN sieges like when I crushed my champion wrestler and her child, at which point her husband, a champion swords dwarf, went berserk and killed the entier siege, then most of the rest of my military.

[The Yellow Peril]

A good technique to consider is a bottleneck entrance to your fort: build a long exterior hallway littered with traps, and just around a corner, set up a battalion of war dogs on chains (ie. at least one full line of 'em so you have to run into a war dog to go any further).  The traps will destroy any incoming Goblin threat, while the war dogs will alert you to any Kobold threat.  Back in 40d, that kept my old fort Gearholes utterly untouchable from any threat.  Though I did build up a ludicrously huge stock of caged Goblins after a while.

This ^^

My fort must have to least 100 caged goblins right now, and much of my workforce is geared towards executing them to make room for more new ones. Thanks to the fact that a door can be opened and closed without the need for a dwarf, but somehow a door attached to a cage can't, I have to fit the things individually with levels, which makes for ever.

[Fenwah]

My fort must have to least 100 caged goblins right now, and much of my workforce is geared towards executing them to make room for more new ones. Thanks to the fact that a door can be opened and closed without the need for a dwarf, but somehow a door attached to a cage can't, I have to fit the things individually with levels, which makes for ever.

To have you tried just cramming all the goblins in the one cage to mass execute them? Also to save attaching to levers you could build the cages in a room somewhere, take the goblins weapons and armour, and station some military dwarves there. Then just unassign the goblins from the cage, and a dwarf will release it to be chopped up. For bonus points give your military training weapons. I think with the combat rebalance they will be able to kill it.... eventually.....

[Quift]

Also, a rather quick way is to build a one tile stockpile that only accept goblin cages (and not empty cages). ensure that you have a separate stockpile for empty cages.
Next to the stockpile you put either a pit or a build cage.

every time a new goblin comes onto the stockpile you assign him to be thrown into the pit. A dwarf will come and release him, and then carry away the cage making room for a new one.

Still a bit tedioius, but most parts of the process is automated. beware that especially thieves have a tendancy to escape. so having a cage trap to recatch them is essential.

[JAFANZ]

Assuming Kobolds use the same pathing as Goblins, the wiki page on Trap Design has a section on Fire Traps that might be able to do for kobolds.

What I'm thinking is, in the Caravan entrance tunnel, deal to the goblins with traps which allow you to retrieve the goblins, or at least their Goblinite, then narrow divert the Caravan to a longer route to the destination, whilst leaving a narrower, more direct route open for Kobolds (& anything else that can get past the earlier traps), & fill this with a "Fire trap". As long as you can keep your dwarves out of the fire tunnel (except when you need to renew the burny bits) you shoulld presumably gap anything that gets past your traps with minimal risk to the Caravan or Fortress.

[Shrugging Khan]

Make a winding, 3-tile-wide entrance ramp across maybe three or four z-levels. Place at least two drawbridges with two-tile-long channels (no ramps!) and a large-as-possible airlock-like in between them. The Airlock ought to be long, and it's no problem if it goes spiralling across several z-levels. It shouldn't be wider than 3 tiles, though. Place chained war animals at the walls, relatively close to the interior end of the tunnel. Place a number of traps within the airlock, cage traps at the outer end, stonefall or weapon traps at the interior one. For both traps and war animals: the more, the merrier.

For additional safety, place the trade depot right at the interior end of the tunnel, so anything that gets past the war animals (and the traps, if you place any) has to fight through the merchants first. Make sure the whole tunnel is wagon-accessible, and properly smoothed and perhaps engraved to impress the traders.

I'm pretty happy with this design. Traders and their wagons go through, dwarves can go out, goblins and kobolds and wild animals are either catched or killed straight away...


All that's missing (but you're free to include it) is an auto-closing mechanism for the airlock via pressure plates, so anything that survives the traps causes the fortress to seal itself. And a flushing system to clean the airlock once anything is isolated inside.

[noodle0117]

well I've already have the flushing system implemented.
Gonna start adding a state of the art goblin security grid now.

[breadbocks]

How do you make a 3-wide airlock? I know you can't use doors....