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[Medicine Man]

Alright for my main fortress defence I have a large narrow hallway like this

0=drawbridge
.=floor space
#=wall
9 = balista
# #
#9#
# #
# ##
#...############################################################################################
000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.
##############################################################################################
Now I want to put traps on every floor space so that not even flying mounts will get through,the question is;what traps should I use?

Are any traps automatic after pulling the lever?Because if they are I am most likely to go for them
Do any traps knock things backwards?because magma HURTS invaders.
What is the most overpowered non ranged trap?

[Vertibird]

all traps except for the upright spikes are automatic. Upright spikes impale anything on their spot after pulling the lever/pressure plate.
Traps do not knock anyone anywhere, but a creature can dodge a trap, resulting in moving to a nearby square, which can be open space. I believe the most overpowered trap is a weapon trap with 10 units of  *large serrated adamantine disc*

[Medicine Man]

alright,I have a few more questions,when you say automatic do you mean always active or automatic after activated by lever?
Are spiked ball traps ranged?
Are serrated disk traps and axe traps ranged?

[Lytha]

They don't need a lever. A foe steps onto the trapped floor tile, and the trap is set off: a stone falls onto his head, he's being put into a cage, or the weapons that you put into the weapon trap's slots are assaulting him.

Weapon traps only attack stuff on the same tile as the trap is located on. They are not ranged.


All traps work unless they need a new empty cage, a new stone, or unless the weapon mechanism got jammed with goblin blood. In these cases, they will be attended by any idle dwarf, or perhaps just by the mechanics. Not sure about that.

[Vertibird]

all those traps are automatical. After they have been constructed, they will attack any hostile or wild creatures, that step on the trapped square. They do not need to be activated in any way.
Stonefall traps require to be loaded with one non-economic rock. Weapon traps with ranged weapons must be loaded with ammo. Weapon traps with melee weapons do not need to be loaded, but dead bodies can jam them, and dorf with cleaning labor will try and clean them.
Spiked balls and serrated discs are loaded into weapon traps.
There are no BASIC ranged traps. You cannot construct a trap, that will shoot passing people. But you can use raising bridges as improvised catapults, that throw enemies around, or smash invading force with lowering them. Or you can build tower with pressurized water to blow enemies away from your entrance, or anything you can design to kill stuff. Read magmawiki for some ideas.

[Medicine Man]

Will the auto traps activate on my dwarfs at all?Or block my dwarfs?

[greycat]

Normal, sane, conscious dwarves will not trigger traps.  Neither will merchants who come to visit you.

Insane or unconscious dwaves (who collapse on the trap) will trigger them, I believe.

[slothen]

urist mc-one arm passed out from blood loss while crawling back to my fort.  He ended up caged in my animal stockpile.


as for your defense design, I think the most effective method for the ballista is to place it at the end of the long hallway, not looking down the short one.  Basically put a small room with fortifications at the end that doesn't connect to the hallway so your engineers will have a long firing line but be safe from the invaders.

also, damn thats a lot of drawbridges.

[magicwalker]

Retractable bridges leaving a single floor tile to stand on in a straight line with a ballista aimed down it.

Yes please.

[Medicine Man]

I can't put the balista down the hallway because I would mine straight into a volcano if I was to do that.

[Mini]

You could shorten the hallway a bit, or just move it along a few tiles away from the volcano.

You could even use a group of marksdwarves instead of a ballista there, and they would probably be more effective due to the short range.

Now for traps:
I don't think that flying creatures activate traps, so you have to hope that they decide to walk down the corridor instead of flying. I think they are still hit by upright spike traps, but those will hit merchants and your dwarves. Creatures with the [TRAP_AVOID] tag will also not activate traps.

Of course, if you build something like a magma flooding trap then nothing can avoid that...

[cyks]

Yeah, flying creatures will literally fly through your hallway untouched.  Due to your design, that single ballista will have bairly a single shot compared to aiming it down long hallway and having arrows stocked nearby.

For ground enemies, putting your drawbridges on repeat would be overkill.

[Kravick]

They don't need a lever. A foe steps onto the trapped floor tile, and the trap is set off: a stone falls onto his head, he's being put into a cage, or the weapons that you put into the weapon trap's slots are assaulting him.

Weapon traps only attack stuff on the same tile as the trap is located on. They are not ranged.


All traps work unless they need a new empty cage, a new stone, or unless the weapon mechanism got jammed with goblin blood. In these cases, they will be attended by any idle dwarf, or perhaps just by the mechanics. Not sure about that.

Or to be reloaded with arrows/bolts when they run out in the case of bows/crossbows being built into the trap.

[Sphalerite]

Flying creatures will activate traps if they're forced to fly through the tile where the trap is.  Traps don't distinguish between flying and non-flying creatures, they trigger when any non-trapavoid, non-friendly creature enters the square.  Oddly enough, flying creatures will even activate pressure plates if they fly through the tile the pressure plate is in.

[Alastar]

Weapon traps sometimes get jammed; to my knowledge this only happens when they kill things outright. As such, the most powerful trap may not be the one you want, even though seeing serrated disks scatter limbs around is such a pleasant sight.

*

For long hallways, I like a long retracting bridge with a containment area beneath. Which can be an arena, drowning chamber, magma chamber, obsidian factory, smoke chamber, spike chamber, freezing chamber or preferably all of the above (well, I haven't used the freezing variation yet). There'll also be an exit to a room full of cage traps, in case something is too fun to kill immediately.
I want one of these things IRL!