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[Chocolatemilkgod]

Forgive me, it's been a while since I've been here. But let me begin.

I have a fairly well off fortress except for one thing. Iron. I have none. So while I wait to be besieged by tons of goblins and take their iron stuff, I was wondering how effective glass traps are now. I know in the past that they were horribly bugged and were either really really bad or ridiculously good. I know that they were fixed, however; my question is are they still ineffective or is it worth investing time and effort into making these?

Secondly, if they are sort of effective, would it make more sense to make something like a giant serrated disc, spiked ball, or a spike (preferably the last one because then I can make the repetitive spike traps linked to a lever).

Thanks! (And sorry if you get this question a lot).

[Mister Always]

Hey there.

First of all, glass traps are okay, but replace them with iron (or steel if you have flux) as soon as ya can.

Second of all, don't go the spikes-hooked-to-lever route. It's terrible and doesn't work very well. Go for disc traps. Three to a trap. That's 9 attacks per square, and usually gobbos will blunder into the next one over, which quickly turns them into paste.

Third of all, spiked balls only work well with really heavy metals, like silver or lead. Can't imagine it being any good when it comes to glass (!!SCIENCE!! time, anyone?).

[Chocolatemilkgod]

Ok thanks. The spikes work really well when they're set up (at least with steel) as they never get stuck. But I think I'll try conventional weapon traps for a while. Thanks!

[MonkeyHead]

3 discs are good (9 attacks). 10 discs are better (30 attacks).

[Alastar]

I actually like serrated glass disks better than metal ones - sharper but weaker than metal works well for them:

They slice and dice exposed bits very nicely without getting quite as many instant kills, which means they don't get stuck as often. Metal disks work better as failsaves - deadlier, but maintenance-heavy.

Glass spikes and spiked balls will penetrate goblin-level armour quite handily. Spiked balls are actually edged - 3 fine, shallow pricks that aren't very lethal but will reliably soften up invaders - ideal if you want invaders to dodge into something nasty.
I'd prefer metal ones though.

[RAKninja]

i use silver spiked balls, and a mix of copper and glass disks and axe blades.  copper is also fairly decent in trap components.  the components are large enough to offset the "equal materials" thing that causes most normal weapons to deflect off of armor of the same material.

[Lagslayer]

Menacing spikes and enormous corkscrews penetrate armor well and rarely jam. Glass isn't very heavy, so spiked balls aren't a very good choice. Serrated discs work well vs the unarmored bits, and I imagine a giant axeblade does fairly well too, but I don't use those.

My typical fallback, however, are silver/copper spiked balls, considering how common those metals are. They soften up/kill pretty much anything, rarely jam, and allow my military to kill them more easily, giving them joy from slaughter and making them battle hardened.

[Lexx]

Maxed out glass serrated disc traps are great. And easy to make many of. Letting you use metal for more important things.

[RAKninja]

Menacing spikes and enormous corkscrews penetrate armor well and rarely jam. Glass isn't very heavy, so spiked balls aren't a very good choice. Serrated discs work well vs the unarmored bits, and I imagine a giant axeblade does fairly well too, but I don't use those.

My typical fallback, however, are silver/copper spiked balls, considering how common those metals are. They soften up/kill pretty much anything, rarely jam, and allow my military to kill them more easily, giving them joy from slaughter and making them battle hardened.

the axes kind of suck.  most are deflected by clothing it seems, but on an allready injured target, i've seen them lop off limbs.  disks are overall better, they hit more often and have three attacks to the axe's one.

the axes MAY be able to retain more damage against large targets... in some situation where the best a disk can do is cut the fat.  i havent had any of those make it to a trap for me to test.... only trolls and ogres, and disks work fine on them.

i'm just a fan of variety.

in passing, i have two external weapon traps, stocked as i described before.  behind these traps are two windows.  when trolls and ogres show up with the goblins, they make a beeline to the windows, and often-times, the entire group of trolls/ogres is destroyed by my two traps.  they've jammed after about half of the building destroyers have been dealt with, before.  either way, it's a lot better than facing ALL of the them.

oh, and a last thing about my exernal traps.... behind the windows, is the moat of my tower.  sometimes, an enemy passing over the traps will end up dodging into my moat and drowning.

[Sarudak]

Truth is that giant spiked balls don't work well at all as they don't behave like blunt weapons (I have seen silver spiked balls deflected by leather armor many times). If you have silver or copper you should make warhammers and put them in your traps. They will not be as effective as steel serrated disks but they get the job done.

[Neowulf]

Disks work great, a decent hallway of them will tear up pretty much anything sent at you.

My testing has shown screws do a great job of turning 1 goblin into 5+ hauling jobs. Love that splatter.

[Proteus]

...

Second of all, don't go the spikes-hooked-to-lever route. It's terrible and doesn't work very well. ...

Spikes hooked to levers work very well in my fortress designs
All approaches to my fortresses have several 1 (or more) story high platforms connected to bridges.
So, when all bridges are retracted, goblins end up trapped on those platforms.
In this case spikes tend to be an effective means, to turn the goblins on the platforms into dead goblins with lots of holes in them

[Putnam]

Also, spikes work on trapavoid creatures and nobles. So there's a plus.

[Kay12]

I actually have several wooden spike ball traps around my fortress.

They're not designed to kill, but to cause pain.

[Tirion]

Sorry for the necro-post, but I have a question about this: are clear glass serrated disks any better than green glass ones? Well, besides pissing off the elves by virtue of the forests cut down to make ash-->potash-->pearlash for them?