Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[BigFatStupidHead]

Here's a useful little contraption I haven't seen anything quite like on the forums.

At it's most basic, it's nothing more than a Deadman Deaddwarf dead-dog switch. First, dig a 'U' shaped tunnel by digging two parallel channels of arbitrary length, with the channel on the interior of your fort one square longer for a maintenance hatch. Build hatches on all the interior channel squares. A pressure plate goes at the bottom of the 'U'; set it to citizens trigger, and rig the weight maximum to that of a dog. Connect all the hatches on the interior side except for one to this pressure plate. Pasture an operator (dog) on the plate, and once the operator is in place, forbid the maintenance hatch.

In peace time, it allows friendlies to wander in and out to their hearts content. When hostiles show up, the dog will either run off the pressure plate or die and thus close the hatches. When the problem has been dealt with, unforbid the maintenance hatch and replace the operator.

Here's schematics mostly for my own amusement.
x

Code: [Select]

xxH
VxH
VxH
VxHx-1

Code: [Select]

xxA
A^A
A.A
A.Awhere V is down ramp, H is floor hatch over down ramp, A is up ramp, ^ is a pressure plate, . is floor, and x is wall

[Girlinhat]

Side View:

Code: [Select]

_ | _
 \_/The flood dips down under a wall, but part of the dip is covered in hatches.  As long as the dog is on the pressure plate, then the hatches are open and passage is free.  If the dog is killed or leaves, then the hatches close and passage is blocked.  Works best if the hatches are placed on the inner side, so that building destroyers cannot reach up and destroy them, and if part of the wall is made of windows, so that the dog may stay on the safe side and run when it sees danger, and NOT get killed.

I like it, it's rather compact and automated, and should be extremely safe.  Having a few nest boxes inside will ensure a supply of fowl to occupy the plate, assuming you can get birds that are big enough (they tend to be under the weight limit of plates).

[BigFatStupidHead]

I originally tried to build it with cats. I think we all know how that ended.

[Vehudur]

Urist McCatLover releases his pet from the cruel safety device for the fortress...  (dumbass dwarf)

[Girlinhat]

Cat cancels Keep Gate: BUTTERFLYYYYY!

[BigFatStupidHead]

On further reflection, Girlinhat, I'm not sure it's better to have the dog on the safe side. If we place the plate on the safe side of the wall, wouldn't it inevitably occur that some well-meaning dwarf drags the dog back onto it, letting invaders in? With the plate at the bottom of the dip and the maintenance hatch properly forbidden, we lose the dog but the hatch stays safely sealed.


On further, further reflection, the interior plate has something really going for it. Suppose we have two such gates built far apart, perhaps opposite sides of the fortress. Invaders approach gate one, the dog runs and the gate closes. Job cancellation spam occurs as dwarves drag the dog to the plate and run when they spot the enemies on the other side of the glass wall. Invaders, meanwhile, path to gate two, and leave view of gate one. Gate one gets reset. Invaders approach gate two. Repeat ad nauseum.

I like it.

[Girlinhat]

Bonus points if the path from the first to the second gate is lined with traps, insta-grinder!

Though this poses the problem that dwarves will path through the "safe" gate and right into the goblins.  Assuming you don't have a military burrow, of course, which you should.

And no, a dwarf trying to haul the animal back to pasture will be spooked by the greenskins and abandon the dog, OR the dog will immediately re-run as soon as the goblins come near.  This can help ensure the gobbos never get too far away, and stay in range of your archers or your upright spikes.

[Keldor]

I don't think this would actually work - pressure plates only activate when a creature moves onto that square - they don't remain active even if the creature stays put.  Such was the doom of my goblin exercise clinic (captive goblins walk over the pressure plate as they try to escape, which makes the bridge retract, dropping them back into the clinic... multiple Z levels down...) that once the goblins were badly enough injured, they would get on the pressure plate, the bridge would retract then come back up again before the horribly maimed goblin managed to get off the pressure plate and onto the bridge.  Then, they'd just walk across and escape, since the pressure plate had already activated once for when they stepped on it the first time.

So, pressure plates don't continuously signal when something is standing on them, they only signal when something walks onto them from another tile.

[BigFatStupidHead]

You're wrong, this works exactly as I've said.  I have the original version employed on several of my forts protecting the delicious squishy filling from the hungry outside world. I haven't tested the glass wall version but I have no reason to expect it will do any different than advertised.

I don't know how your exercise clinic does what it does, but it must be doing it differently than I do this.

[Sphalerite]

So, pressure plates don't continuously signal when something is standing on them, they only signal when something walks onto them from another tile.

Partially correct.  When a triggering creature steps on a pressure plate, that pressure plate sends an 'on' signal to anything it's connected to.  When the creature steps off the pressure plate, it waits a hundred steps then sends an 'off' signal to anything it's connected to.  If you have a pressure plate connected to a bridge or hatch, the bridge or hatch will retract when the creature is on the pressure plate and then stay retracted till the creature moves off.  I have had machines set up such that a creature standing on a pressure plate constantly kept a hatch permanently opened in the past.  I'd have to see your exercise machine setup to say why it didn't work for you.

[Nil Eyeglazed]

Could have been a couple of issues with his exercise clinic.

1) Any space between bridge and plate would cause what Keldor described-- and building it without any space would take a 20 tile long bridge.

2) With the refractory period of bridges, signals don't always transmit, because the bridge isn't always capable of acting on the signal.  If one goblin sends an open to the bridge, takes a step and drops, and then another goblin comes along between 100 and 200 ticks later-- his open signal is going to be ignored, because the bridge can't accept new input for 100 ticks following its close.

[Xen0n]

On further reflection, Girlinhat, I'm not sure it's better to have the dog on the safe side. If we place the plate on the safe side of the wall, wouldn't it inevitably occur that some well-meaning dwarf drags the dog back onto it, letting invaders in? With the plate at the bottom of the dip and the maintenance hatch properly forbidden, we lose the dog but the hatch stays safely sealed.


On further, further reflection, the interior plate has something really going for it. Suppose we have two such gates built far apart, perhaps opposite sides of the fortress. Invaders approach gate one, the dog runs and the gate closes. Job cancellation spam occurs as dwarves drag the dog to the plate and run when they spot the enemies on the other side of the glass wall. Invaders, meanwhile, path to gate two, and leave view of gate one. Gate one gets reset. Invaders approach gate two. Repeat ad nauseum.

I like it.

If you really wanted to combine the "Sealed until manually reset" feature of the original version with the "100% less dog-murder" of Girlinhat's modification, you could do this:

Make Girlinhat's version with windows and the dog+pressure plate behind it.  Have the dog+plate be in a 1 tile room, with a door connecting it to the rest of the fortress.  Connect the door to the pressure plate.

This way, when the dog runs from the gobbos, the door will close behind it along with the hatches, and the pressure plate room is now sealed.  Just have a lever somewhere to manually open the pressure plate room again later when it's safe again to allow redogging of the system.

[BigFatStupidHead]

Just realized, due to the dog's detection range, the safe-dog version wouldn't detect ambushes. Hidden invaders would be able to descend into the trench, and may actually get into the fort before the dog spots them.

Code: [Select]

G | D
 \_ / Dog:Zzzzzzz
So instead, extend the island and dip by one square, plant the plate directly behind the glass wall, and build some sort of access bridge, and our dog will also spot hidden invaders!

Code: [Select]

G | D _
 \_ _/ Dog: Woof! (Runs away)

There, an animal controlled gate with ambush detection. I was hoping to find a way to integrate Animal-Powered Watchtowers with my gate!

[Urist Da Vinci]

The ultimate system would involve a dog standing behind an artifact glass window, such that the dog can see through the window to the entrance hall, and will flee on sight of hostile, yet it can't be harmed.

It could detect ambushers in the 2 tiles on the other side of the window. It would be placed closer to the tunnel mouth than the hatches.

[Jiokuy]

hmm; Are windows Magma safe?. If so this might work,

A dog in a 1x1 room; surrounded with windows and a door to the rear.
Trench is around 5x4 assuming 2 columns of the window room (not including an entrance path)
Link the door to the draw(B)ridges so that when the (D)og sees the invaders through the (W)indows and runs it locks them in and floods the room with (M)agma(or War-Badgers(Modded with Steel Claws and Regeneration of course))

= = = = = = = =
B F F F B M M M
WWF F = = = =
DW F F B F F F
WWF F = = = =
B F F F B M M M
= = = = = = = =

Ta'Da