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[Blurk]

it wouldnt be possible to put the creature in a cave and then setting it free with a lever?

[Dorfus]

Can fully armored and rock-hard military dwarves shrug off a 1-z fall reliably? If so, you could use a flow-based system. Build a bridge on every Z, linked to a different pressure plate triggered by water. Link a series of floodgates in a 1xN corridor to the same pressure plates (also in the corridor). Station dwarves on top bridge.

Release the water - it triggers pressure plate one, opens bridge one and opens floodgate one (letting the water flow towards pressure plate two). In theory, by the time the water flows from pressure plate one, to pressure plate two, the Dwarves will be ready for the next Z drop. Then let the chain continue until a pressure plate right at the end, as the dwarves hit ground zero, triggers pumps and resets the system.

Could it work?

[Sphalerite]

isnt there lag time for the bridges?

Yes, retracting bridges have a 100 cycle delay before they retract.  This design can be made to work with floor hatches, which open instantly, but then it becomes vulnerable to building destroyers. 

I suspect the main danger with this design would be the dropped soldiers dodging or getting knocked off the platform while fighting, falling to their doom and leaving the goblin alive and trapped on the pressure plate.

Doesn't the goblin die on the first dwarven impact, meaning that there is only a dwarf in the way of the next dwarven impact? Or are all the falling objects calculated simultaneously?

Strangely, when a creature falls a great height and lands on another creature, neither of them suffers any harm.  Both are merely stunned.

[jellsprout]

I remember from the submarine thread that landing in water should save the dwarves.

[612DwarfAvenue]

Water doesn't save them.

Anyhow, i might have a way of keeping the Dwarves safe when they land:

c = chained cat
+ = floor
# = raised bridge

Bottom level

Code: [Select]

+###+###+###+###
+#c#+#c#+#c#+#c#
+###+###+###+###
++++++++++++++++
+###+###+###+###
+#c#+#c#+#c#+#c#
+###+###+###+###
Drop the Dwarves onto the cats, let the Dwarves recover from the stun from the fall, then lower the bridges to let them out. The tricky part will be keeping the cats on the chain so they don't get crushed when you raise the bridges, might have to look at that broken legs thing...

[Girlinhat]

If you have stationary animals then the point is moot, but since animals tend to move, creativity is required, hence the denouncement of "this won't work because your animals move".  If you're going with that idea though, put a door on a lever instead of bridges, so you can simply open the door and walk out.

[Marthnn]

It reminds me of the way Sphalerite managed to separate newborn seaserpents from their mommy, using a dog on a leash.

If you can put an agressive creature, like a goblin, on a chain behind a window, he'd scare kittens into trying to run off. Since said kitten is also chained, in a 1-wide corridor, he won't move anymore... No need to reset the whole setting every time a new drop is needed.

[JacenHanLovesLegos]

Why not just make a chained cat surrounded on all sides by a wall but one. In that side is a petimpassable door. Even if the cat gets in the doorway, it'll eventually move back on the chain's tile.

[Girlinhat]

That's EXACTLY what I said a few pages back.  While the show of ingenuity with animals chained to bridges and legless animals is inspiring, there's such a thing as "too complicated".

[Vattic]

Dwarves should survive a single tile drop and maybe even more. A design like this might do the trick:

║           ║
+☻ ☻☻  ☻ ☻ ☻║
║╞═════════╡║
║           ║
║╞═════════╡║
║           ║
║╞═════════╡║
║           ║
║╞═════════╡║
║           ║
║╞═════════╡║
 g ggg g gg
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

The idea is that when the green bridges are retracted the white ones aren't and when the green ones aren't the white ones are. The dwarves would drop down a level each time eventually reaching the ground bellow.

I'd suggest you use a NStepCyclicRepeater. Connect the bridges so that each bridge is connected to the pressure plate opposite that of the previous bridge. Due to bridges having a delay you'll want to experiment with how many steps for your repeater.

[UristMcDwarf]

I just had an idea!

Isolate the animal on a 1 tile island directly above the drop zone, and when the dwarfs drop, put out a bridge from the island so they can get into the action!

[Girlinhat]

This has been suggested, in greater detail in fact.

As for getting an animal onto a 1 tile island, that may be done best with a pit.  Make a small, 1 Z tall bump in the ground, with a gang-plank going to the island, that lets you pit the creature down onto the drop zone.  If done right, this means that the falling soldiers will pass through a sort of hoop before hitting the ground.

[UristMcDwarf]

Oh.

So i'm not a genious?
 

[Girlinhat]

Eh, you thought it up all on your own apparently, so take that how you will, but someone did post it first.

[darkflagrance]

Since you only need one kitten for an infinite amount of dwarves, you can load all your dwarves onto the single space above a kitten chained up in a one-tile room behind a pet-impassable lever-operated door, then drop them. Beyond the kitten would be a small, isolated room where you can arrange your dwarves in preparation for assault while you recalibrate the living landing pad (make sure it moves back behind the door and then close it).