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[Fniff]

A fun project I came up with when I drew a mock up of what a Cube roguelike would look like in ACIIDraw.

For the uniformed, Cube is a Canadian movie. Watch it or just look at the wikipedia page here.

Build a giant cube. Can be underground or above, just make sure it takes up a lot of space, both sideways and upwards. Inside the cube, put multiple cube shaped rooms (All the same architecturally. They all have to be smooth.), and have all of them be connected by a door or hatch in four different directions horizontally and two vertically. Put traps (Fatal traps, no cages. Home made traps, such as dumping magma on the victim, can be used to spice it up.) in 50% of all the rooms, and make sure that in the trapped rooms every square is trapped. Put exactly one exit to the whole cube. Put any number of unlucky kobolds, goblins, elves and/or humans in cages, just make sure that they aren't your dwarfs, because that kinda defeats the purpose.  Put these cages in the cube in random places. Open the cages. Watch as they either die horribly in the traps or kill each other. Edit: Set it up so that every route is the same number of steps to the edge. Thanks Tallefred.

Bonus: Make sure the cubes are consistent, such as making sure each cube as it's own color.
Bonus: Nickname the captives after prisons.
Massive Bonus: Let the one who actually manages to leave live.
Super Massive Bonus: Abandon the fort, get a bunch of companions and enter the Cube.
Easy Mode: Get rid of trap avoid on all sentient creatures.

If you find a more efficient way of dumping them in the Cube, just tell me.

I am just posting this here to see if it actually works, and if it does, then I will put it on the Dwarf wiki page.

[Vattic]

You could use pressure plates to open and close different exits to corral the prisoners a little and mix things up.

[Fniff]

Hey, I wonder if they will all meet together, or remain isolated?

[Girlinhat]

For good effect, include an off-area for mechanism housing.  Use a repeating pressure plate (so you don't have to rebuild it every time)and connect these plates to off-site floodgates.  When these floodgates open, it allows water down onto a 7/7 water plate, activating it and triggering an in-cube reaction.  While this sounds confusing, what it means is that it allows someone in the cube to walk over a plate, and a door or trap elsewhere in the cube will be permanently activated.  I can explain this in further detail if needed.  More floodgates and in-cube plates would be needed to un-trigger these permanent switches (such as re-closing a door that had previously been opened).

This would involve large-scale construction and, most likely, a cheating workshop that can produce stone for free.  However, if there's enough incentive, I could be convinced to dabble at this...

[Fniff]

I would LOVE to see that! Please, do it.

[Girlinhat]

Are we talking about an Adventure-friendly cube?  Should I avoid explicitly lethal traps like weapon traps and stonefalls, in favor of more creative traps like lava falls and relocating doors?

[Fniff]

Are we talking about an Adventure-friendly cube?  Should I avoid explicitly lethal traps like weapon traps and stonefalls, in favor of more creative traps like lava falls and relocating doors?

You should make it possible to complete as an adventurer, but not easy. Lethal traps should be used more often then creative ones.

[Tallefred]

I had a similar idea for a 3D maze, but it would only be useful as ornamentation. The pathfinding will always take them down the shortest route to the edge of the map, so the result would be predictable for you after the first time.

Unless you set it up so that every route was the same number of steps to the map's edge...

[Fniff]

Well, excuse me while I edit the original post. Thanks for the tip.

[Girlinhat]

Lethal traps are rather cheap in adventure mode, since you can't avoid them.  So, a batch of serrated steel disks would shred anyone adventurer who entered.  That's why I'm in favor of the creative, or else underpowered traps like 10x training spears.

Also, what about colors?  I'm gonna cheat this, to make infinite free reactions and give my dorfs level 20 mining by default, with no caverns or magma, so that I can chisel out a massive gaping hole, and then reconstruct it from there.  As long as I'm cheating for free stone, do I want to use color-codings like "microcline" or should I go for more generic stone simply named "blue" so that anyone looking will see "A smooth blue wall"?  Likely to include special weapon materials, like a very light, flimsy metal for spear traps that won't immediately kill someone, or very soft stone for the stonefall traps (though I want to avoid using any trap that cannot be reset mechanically).

For that matter, what persists in adventure mode?  Can I use a magma pump stack and have it still operate in adventure mode?  Can an adventurer use levers?  Is there any way to place weapons or armor at specific locations for the adventurer to find, or are they strewn randomly at fortress abandon?

[vadia]

bonus figure out traps via shoes.

[Girlinhat]

I ignore your shoes, and cut up your leg in response!

[Fniff]

They are strewn randomly at abandon, the other questions I cannot answer.

The traps in the cube movies did just kill people instantly, but I can see your point about how this is kinda cheap. So, creative traps are allowed in excess, but no underpowered traps. This is a lethal obstacle course, not a training room. The blue or micro line wall problem... Well, either way is fine.

Listen guys, I am going to sleep. See you later.

P.S can traps be activated by thrown objects?

[vadia]

I ignore your shoes, and cut up your leg in response!

No, I'm sorry, you have to gas me instead.

[Girlinhat]

I've not messed with adventure mode much, but I assume no.

I think I'm going to go with plain old Blue and Red types, which should add to the alien appearance of the cube.  Wandering through a slate and granite countryside and come across... something Blue.

Can an adventurer dismantle a building?  I could mod in some "display stands" that house objects, and allow the adventurer to dismantle them to get at the items within.