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[imperium3]

After my recent bronze colossus incident I am left with a one-armed kickboxing bronze colossus stuck in a cage. My original plan was to stick him at the bottom of a spike pit as a little hello for any invaders. But I was just passing by my cage stockpile today and noticed a small present from the perimeter cage traps...

3 Giant Desert Scorpions!

Now I think personally a scorpion pit is so much more dwarfy than just a bronze colossus, but it presents me with a problem. Now the scorpions have found the fort I'm prepared to bet that there will be more on the way, and I'd rather like to add them to the pit as they come. I know the method of building cages and releasing them via lever, but that ain't going to cut it when there are already angry scorpions in the pit.

How do I do this without getting my dwarves stung? Since according to the wiki a scorpion sting = death, I'm not going to trust the cage recycler in the wiki. Is there another way which doesn't involve them having contact with my dwarves?

[Hammerstar]

If you have a dungeon master, you can try taming them, but other than that, I'm not sure.

[Girlinhat]

Tame them.  They're [PET_EXOTIC] but there is no dungeon master, so [PET] them and continue.

Alternatively, you could use the floating cage trick and some creative hatches.  Place a hatch above the pit, as the only entrance.  No stairs.  Directly above this, build a wall.  Directly atop this wall, build a cage trap.  Link to lever, remove the supporting wall, and the cage will float.  Pull the lever on the cage, the cage and mechanism pop out on the nearby floor, while the critter falls 2 levels onto the hatch.  Then, pull the lever on the hatch, so the scorp falls 1 level into the pit.  This would ideally be an "access pit" that has a short hallway into the main pit.  Something like...

Side View:

Code: [Select]

L CW   W
WWWW   W
 WHW   W
 W_____WThe W under the C should be deconstructed to allow floating.  Prisoners fall in on the right, scorpions and other nasty critters are loaded from the left.

EDIT: If the floating cage is too hax for you, you can add a door between the L and C, and deconstruct the wall so that the scorpion, cage, and mechanism fall into the pit, but then you lose cages and stuff, and if you're on a desert those cages are expensive.  You -could- add more stuff in the pit, like an airlock system that lets creatures leave the loading zone but not go back in, but it gets increasingly complicated from there.

[Triaxx2]

No, no. Use a Dwarven Airlock. Two rooms, linked by two floodgates. One room is the monster pit, one room is monster drop pit. This way you can connect your monsters to the pit without endangering your dwarves. Like so:

Code: [Select]

WWDWW
WOOOW
WOCOW
WWFWW
UWOWU
UWOWU
WWFWW
WSSSW
WSSOW
WWWW
W=Wall
D=Door
O=Floor
C=Cage
F=Floodgate
S=Scorpion

One lever for each floodgate, one for the cages. Bring the cage in, connect mechanism. Repeat for every cage you need. Close, lock door, open cages. Open first flood gate. When the scorpion enters, close it and open the other. Those in the pit will probably rush in. Just wait until they're back out and pull the lever. You'll want to restrict a dwarf to a burrow for this bit.

No endangered Dwaves, no scorpion escapes.

[Girlinhat]

You could also make a one-way path by using pressure plates and hatches.  A hatch placed directly beside its linked plate, will open the instant someone touches it.  So, a creature walking over the hatch, will then step on the plate, and find their path out blocked.  But a creature walking over the plate, will suddenly have their path gone.  It makes a one-way entrance.  Add a door or floodgate to prevent your dwarves from seeing the scorpions also.

The one-way path is MUCH easier than waiting for them to move on their own, as wild animals (and dwarves) will always ever move exactly where you don't want.

[imperium3]

Good suggestions so far, though I'd have to use floodgates since this particular area doesn't have z-level space for hatches - I'd run the risk of dropping scorpions right onto my main staircase! I'll sort that out, and also I need to find a use for that bronze colossus, and also a cyclops I captured (I don't think it'd stand up to armed goblins but might as well make use of it!). Perhaps another pit somewhere else... Do building destroyers attack traps such as upright spikes? I should check that before letting a colossus anywhere near my masterwork menacing steel spikes, I'm too short of coke to make more.

Or actually what would be really nice, is a device to unleash the colossus (or scorpions) on a section of hallway (ie one full of goblins), then somehow shepherd them out again so that it can be used by my dwarves... That airlock device will be useful, I'll have a think. Though likely it's best not to use the bronze colossus as any devices such as floodgates instantly become a massive liability for !!FUN!!.

[Girlinhat]

Colossus is a great archery target.  Pelt it with wooden, bone, and stolen copper bolts and it'll never die, AND you get super-legendary archers!

[imperium3]

Won't constructed archery targets do the same job though? Minus the beating up of goblins.

I just realised I need two defence pits, because I need a defensive line down below while I make for the caverns. So our large bronze friend can do that job. He'll be conveniently immune to forgotten beast syndromes too, I should think - just need to devise a method to drop them in...

[Girlinhat]

Sort of.  Archery targets are iffy, and only train one at a time.  Bronze Colossus trains as many as you want, and makes it easier to save bolts by utilizing a drop-off.  This can be good for splitting up stacks of bolts, re-melting them, and getting a new profit of metal.  Plus, it's easy to assign and stop training.  Station them to start, cancel order to stop.