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[Knomez]

So I'm really curious about what the community has come up with when it comes to creative trap design.

For example I built a trap in my most recent fortress designed to capture Forgotten Beasties. 
Simply have a room blocked off from your fortress main with a raised bridge that is connected by a simple up/down staircase to all cavern levels. The staircase should also have a bridge you can seal off. 
From the main your you have a long hallway with a drawbridge at the opening and bait chained at the far end.  When a Beastie comes close off your fort as normal and it will squirm and fidget its way to kill the bait animal, when it enter's the hall 'pull the lever' to lock it in.  To reset dig another hall and place another unfortunate pet inside and continue.

Now what do you have? As I have demonstrated it doesn't have to be incredibly elegant, merely effective.

[Starver]

I've never used this in anger, but the following is a side-view of a protective zone I once built:

Code: [Select]

#################
 #################
<-   _   I   _ >##
 #### ####### #X##
 ##> _   I   _ <##
 ##X# ####### ####
 ##< _   I   _ >##
 #### ####### #X##
 ##> _   I   _ <##
 ##X# ####### ####
 ##< _   I   _ >##
 #### ####### #X##
 ##> _   I   _ <##
 ##X# ####### ####
 ##< _   I   _    <-
 #### ####### ####
 ####         ####
 #################
# = native rock
I = support, linked to pressure pads (not shown) and/or levers (wherever you want them...)
_ = bridges
>,X,< = stairway components
<- = indicators of ingress/egress, assuming it's to protect against enemies coming in from below.

And there's an option to make the open area below the support-suspended stack deeper and filled with the liquid of your choice.  It could be used to kill (plenty of opportunity for "hammer and anvil" action) or incapacitate (from collateral cave-in effects).  Depends on the creatures, and possibly how such things happen these days.  As for re-setting, I think it would only partially work the same if rebuilt with constructed walls, but could still be an emergency airlock capable of even catching out flying enemies.

Alternatively, there's something very similar, that I've seen described, based upon a Support-supported stairwell stack in the middle of a shaft with only bridges connecting the various levels to the various shaft exits (Z+1 from the Support level has the lowest bridge to the lowest up-stairs).  One emergency switch attached to the Support does... something.

[Starver]

To add to what I just wrote, I think building destroyers are still supposed to not be able to destroy 'covering' barriers from below, so changing the step constructions to ramps (if necessary) and capping the each final upward exits with emergency hatch/bridge coverings as well as actually surrounding the isolated suspended areas with bridge (to thwart fliers) instead of just making convenient on and off catwalks could result in BDs of various kinds only being able to remove the support that holds the ground they're standing on/hovering over, and so either plummeting them or giving them a good dose of cave-in dust even without one's own input to the situation, should they be so tempted to meddle...

[Yiab]

Never had to use one of these except to test that it works, but I have one at every entrance to every fort I've built in the last couple years.
Main level:

Code: [Select]

#################
###++++++++++B+++
###++++++++++B+++  --> outside the fort
###++++++++++B+++
#WD+++###########
###++++++++++B+++
###++++++++++B+++  --> inside the fort
###++++++++++B+++
#################
+=floor
#=wall
D=door
B=bridges, set to raise to the west
W=water, sourced from above so as to flow in quickly when the door opens

Z+4:

Code: [Select]

################
###BBBBBBBBBBX++ <-- magma in
###BBBBBBBBBB###
###BBBBBBBBBB#
#W#BBB########
###BBBBBBBBBB#
###BBBBBBBBBB#
###BBBBBBBBBB#
##############
B=bridges set to retract
X=floodgate

Make sure the Z-levels in between are walled off, empty and channeled.

The door and all the bridges are hooked up to the same lever, the floodgate is hooked up to a different lever. Let the Z+4 area fill with magma, then shut the floodgate, setting the trap as ready. When you pull the trap lever, water begins flooding the main level immediately, then after 100 steps the bridges on Z+4 retract and drop the magma onto the main level like a tetris piece and carbonite the whole hallway. The bridges on the main level are mainly there to prevent magma overspill in case the water doesn't quite spread far enough in the wait time. The trap is very easy to reset - just turn the lever off, refill the top level with magma, and dig out the obsidian on the main level.

[thegoatgod_pan]

I definitely had an F.B. destroy a hatch from below, so I think that got fixed.

[Starver]

I definitely had an F.B. destroy a hatch from below, so I think that got fixed.

Fair enough, it shouldn't really be too easy to thwart the nasties.  I mainly use raised (lever) drawbridges in raised (Z+n) entrance-ways, which I think still confuzzles even flying BDs.  Whether or not they should do.  But there's always the defence of distance.  And, after, all, it's the trap that this thread's all about, so until everyone gets good predictive routing and route-creation methods (dwarves included, and enemies with innate flight, ladders, grappling hooks, pick-axes, etc) so as to know how to avoid the Labyrinth Of Lazy-Mazey Traps solution, there's always the chance to open and close alternate routes to send enemies backwards and forwards in frustration, until just the right point until WHAM, a mountain (or just a decent amount of the planet's crust) falls on them, all subtle-like.

*nodnod*