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[EveryZig]

Two questions:

Can enemies dodge diagonally?

Do hammers in traps knockback often enough to make them worthwhile v.s. spiked disks/balls?

[Di]

1. Yes.

2. Haven't seen a knockback from a hammer since 40d. Anyways, weapons in dodge-trap aren't really important. You could use even elven wooden swords if you make a neat landing place.

[EveryZig]

I have seen a hammer knockback from a dwarf in the object testing arena (grandmaster dwarf with silver hammer), but I have not tried hammers in traps yet.

[Uristocrat]

I mostly use spiked green glass balls in mine.  I'm not sure if I'm getting knockback or not, because it's long & twisty enough that it doesn't matter.  And the pit below?  It has a staircase leading back up to the middle of the path.

They can keep going around as much as they want.

I even have a multi-layer one of these that I'm putting in the new entrance, where each fall will set them back one level.  With the magma glass furnace, it'll probably have a total of several hundred of those green glass balls.  Oh, and a few "real" traps here and there, including the odd cage traps in case someone is just too tough.

[Brandstone]

While we're on this subject, is there a preference for dodging direction? Are the 3 tiles behind, left of, right of, or in front of the enemy given priority?

[EveryZig]

While we're on this subject, is there a preference for dodging direction? Are the 3 tiles behind, left of, right of, or in front of the enemy given priority?

After a bit of !!Science!!:
With dwarfs dueling on 1x1 columns, there appears to be no bias in which direction the dwarfs dodge (when fighting melee and on the same space as their opponent)

[Hyndis]

While we're on this subject, is there a preference for dodging direction? Are the 3 tiles behind, left of, right of, or in front of the enemy given priority?

They seem to prefer to dodge backwards, away from the enemy. You can see this in a 1v1 fight with a dwarf and a cavern creature. The better fighter will push the other one backwards over time due to the lesser fighter continually dodging backwards to avoid attacks.

[JimboOmega]

While we're on this subject, is there a preference for dodging direction? Are the 3 tiles behind, left of, right of, or in front of the enemy given priority?

They seem to prefer to dodge backwards, away from the enemy. You can see this in a 1v1 fight with a dwarf and a cavern creature. The better fighter will push the other one backwards over time due to the lesser fighter continually dodging backwards to avoid attacks.

But the better fighter tends to dodge more often (and get hit less), I thought?  I've seen some goblins do crazy hopscotch around my traps, and those tend to be the elite "leader" goblins.

[NecroRebel]

But the better fighter tends to dodge more often (and get hit less), I thought?  I've seen some goblins do crazy hopscotch around my traps, and those tend to be the elite "leader" goblins.

Better fighters attack more often, so when 2 creatures are fighting, the better fighter will attack more and the lesser fighter will defend/dodge more. When there's just one thing doing all the attacking, though, which is the case when you've got goblins on a trap field, everything dodges. Better fighters, in that case the elites, will get more successful dodge attempts, making them do that crazy warp dance thing.

[Uristocrat]

I've seen them dodge two tiles before, going across the chasm and hitting the other side.  But I have so many traps, it doesn't really matter.

That said, although I do keep more deadly traps downstairs, I'm starting to think that I would do better to make shorter paths, a looser spiral (so that dodging two tiles sideways would *not* cause them to land on the rest) and a much, much longer fall (4z minimum).

I have, however, had some luck in putting pillars at the corners of the path.  Because they can't seem to dodge into those, it seems to make it a little more likely that they'll dodge into the pit instead of dodging to another part of the path.

[Quietust]

Multiple dodges probably only happen when the creature actually gets attacked multiple times - if you have multiple weapons in the trap (or are using spiked balls or large, serrated discs), each individual attack can cause the target to dodge. This actually happens quite often in my danger rooms - when the 10 wooden training spears emerge from each tile in front of each archery target, my marksdwarves frequently leap all the way across the entire room (once they've become legendary dodgers, anyways).

[Lagslayer]

1. I do believe that dwarves can dodge diagonally. They can also move multiple squares in a single frame if they dodge multiple attacks at the same time (like from a weapon trap). Any dodge that would hit a wall does not move the dwarf.

2. War hammers are blunt by default and have a contact area of 10, with a size of 400. Spiked balls have an edge attack with very poor penetration (which will most likely default to blunt against armored targets), a contact area of 10, and a size of 1000. Additionally, spiked balls attack 3 times each. Spiked balls are pretty much completely superior to any other blunt weapon in a weapon trap.

[EveryZig]

2. War hammers are blunt by default and have a contact area of 10, with a size of 400. Spiked balls have an edge attack with very poor penetration (which will most likely default to blunt against armored targets), a contact area of 10, and a size of 1000. Additionally, spiked balls attack 3 times each. Spiked balls are pretty much completely superior to any other blunt weapon in a weapon trap.

Can spiked balls knock back? (Can hammers in weapon traps, for that matter?)

[Urist Da Vinci]

Knockback seems to be affected by the relative sizes or weights of attackers and defenders, or the attacker's weapon. I don't know how this works, but you could drop wild rabbits on weapon traps since they weigh the least of all trappable creatures in the game.

[Girlinhat]

But they're also very likely to die instantly.  A better test might be to place some food inside a small walled area with a weapon trap with hammer(s) and then wait for macaque.  They rush in and get themselves hit.

This also works with a pressure plate and a few upright spears, to auto-butcher any food thieves.