Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

Utility:DFHack/scripts

2015-06-03T17:55:53Z

Scorpion451: updating compatibility and latest version info

DFHack is an advanced Dwarf Fortress memory access library and a set of tools and scripts using this library, providing direct object-oriented access to Dwarf Fortress's internals as if it were compiled into the game itself. Releases support versions up through DF 0.40.24 (as of June 3rd, 2015) and some of them have been [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/User:Quietust#DFHack-40d backported] to earlier versions. It runs on Windows, Linux, and MacOS X. As of June 3rd 2015, the latest version is [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=139553 DFHack 0.40.24-r3].

Originally a simple memory hacking tool, DFHack has grown to become a full-fledged unofficial extension of the game itself, adding in functionality where official development has lacked. Due to its open-source and collaborative nature, anyone can add their own contribution to this tool. There are different kinds of contributions:
*Binpatches are raw memory edits that alter the game's behavior, which is usually deduced from disassembling. Their main use is bugfixing or the removal of cumbersome, easily alterable constraints. They can be found in the hack/patches folder.
*Plugins are snippets of C++ code that uses DFHack's library to fix bugs or add functionality. They must be compiled before use and are thus platform and dfhack-version dependent. They can be found in the hack/plugins folder.
*Scripts are files written in a scripting language (usually Lua or Ruby) that when loaded by DFHack fix bugs or add functionality. Contrary to plugins, they are not compiled and can be transferred between any platform. However any change within the DFHack data structures (between versions) may break some of these scripts.

This page's purpose is to provide a comprehensive collection of all the plugins, scripts and binpatches ever written.

*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137011.msg5076999#msg5076999 announce.lua] - Print an announcement to the screen and the gamelog.
*[https://github.com/jjyg/df-ai/ df-ai] - a script that plays alone in fortress mode.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7005776 force] - Allows forcing of events. Some of them are iffy, some don't work at all. It's mostly functional.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/8207480 hackWish] - Use a swanky GUI to create an item with any material and quality.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7021922 instant transmission] - Allows teleportation to units in adventure mode by adventurer. Also gives power level readout.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7005730 itemsyndrome] - Allows items to impart syndromes when equipped.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7005768 moddableGods] - Allows custom gods to be added as hist figures. They do nothing as of now. Might do something funny next version, but nobody knows what exactly.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=134774.0 Probability Syndrome] - Run AutoSyndrome commands which honour reaction probabilities.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7005764 projectileExpansion] - Allows a lot of stuff related to projectiles, such as explosions, syndrome addition and script running-on-creatures.
*[https://gist.github.com/warmist/8450238 rip-heart] - removes units heart for a better storage (usually kills in process)
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7021958 shapechange] - Allows willful polymorph into arbitrary creature with filtering by ID or size.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7839350 skillroll] - Allows for skills to be considered when running Lua scripts. Probability Syndrome is probably better for most purposes.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7035209 take-slave] - Like hire-guard, but with more transformation. Requires a SLAVE caste for currently played race.
*[https://gist.github.com/Putnam3145/7243759 teleport] - Allows simple teleportation of unit to position. Position can be cursor or hardcoded.
*[https://gist.github.com/Devduweb/6409714 trainskill] - Raises the skill level of an unit.
*[https://gist.github.com/Devduweb/6350270 fovcommand] - Executes a dfhack command on targets within the line of sight of an unit.
*[https://gist.github.com/Devduweb/6323075 callsiege] - Causes a random siege, you can set a probability for this to happen.
*[https://gist.github.com/Devduweb/6210329 naturalSkills] - Make sure creatures have their natural skills.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135506.msg4925005#msg4925005 dwarves and points] - Allows to pick any number of embark dwarves and points.
*[https://gist.github.com/IndigoFenix/8543661 construct-creature] - Allows you to construct creatures with reactions that incorporate the reagent materials into the creature's body. Perfect for robots and golems.
*[https://gist.github.com/IndigoFenix/8543557 slam] - A simple script that slams a creature into the ground at a given velocity. Can cause targets to explode at high enough values.
*[https://gist.github.com/IndigoFenix/8543616 exile] - Sends units away into the wild. Options include fort members, pets, wild animals, invaders, merchants, and diplomats.
*[https://gist.github.com/IndigoFenix/8776696 hfspit] - Creates a pit under the target leading straight to the underworld. Instant death to non-fliers. Very small chance of triggering a demon attack.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=135597.0 DFHack spells] - Set of scripts for more complex interaction based spells
*[https://gist.github.com/warmist/8563110 spawn unit] - finally a central place for spawn unit script updates
*[https://gist.github.com/warmist/8594614 heal unit] - heal units script
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137011.msg5077002#msg5077002 rubble_fluids module] - Functions for easy fluid and minecart interaction from Lua code.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=137011.msg5077002#msg5077002 rubble_fluids command] - Test driver and autoSyndrome command for the rubble_fluids module.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136725.0 whosout] - lists any dorfs who are not in any of the burrows passed as arguments.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136975.0 show-cursed] - list assumed name of any cursed dorfs
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136749.0 show-dfhack-version] - outputs dfhack release to the console (put it in your dfhack.init)
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136748.msg5045463#msg5045463 show-speeds] - Shows current speed and encumbrance for each citizen.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=128487.0 Rendermax], a plugin that implements a lighting system at the graphics level.
*[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136155.0 Dwarven Emigration], a plugin that allows unhappy dwarves to emigrate with their families.

Tile attributes

2014-09-22T17:40:44Z

Scorpion451: surprises me that more people don't know about the glass thing- really handy for making greenhouses and preventing cave adaptation.

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Every tile in Dwarf Fortress is described as {{DFtext|Outside|3:1}} or {{DFtext|Inside|6:0}}, {{DFtext|Light|6:1}} or {{DFtext|Dark|0:1}}, and {{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} or {{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}}. These attributes can be observed from the {{k|k}} menu, when the cursor is located over any single tile.

There are 8 different combinations, and only 3 of them occur naturally:
* {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} - Outdoors
* {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}} - Impossible
* {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Dark |0:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} - Impossible
* {{DFtext|Outside |3:1}}{{DFtext|Dark |0:1}}{{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}} - Impossible
* {{DFtext|Inside |6:0}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} - Constructed buildings on the surface, below-ground-level chambers with ice or glass floors (possibly walls also{{verify}}) above them
* {{DFtext|Inside |6:0}}{{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}} - Impossible
* {{DFtext|Inside |6:0}}{{DFtext|Dark |0:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} - Impossible
* {{DFtext|Inside |6:0}}{{DFtext|Dark |0:1}}{{DFtext|Subterranean|0:1}} - Underground tunnels, including most of your fortress

Being in the dark increases [[cave adaptation]], and being outside causes it to decrease (along with stunning/nausea if the sun is out).

The entire [[Location|fortress site]] starts out as {{DFtext|Inside |6:0}}{{DFtext|Dark Subterranean|0:1}}. After that, a ray for {{DFtext|Outside|3:1}} and a ray for {{DFtext|Light |6:1}}{{DFtext|Above Ground|2:1}} falls straight down from the highest [[z-level]] for every (x,y) position on the local map, changing each tile's modifiers until something that blocks that particular "ray" is encountered. Due to this behavior, any of the previous three tile combinations will never be encountered in the same (x,y) position on a lower z-level than a higher numbered combination.

== Outside vs. Inside ==

This attribute is determined by whether there is a roof of some kind over a tile. Weather only affects tiles which are ''Outside''. Almost any kind of geometry will block the ''Outside'' ray including natural and constructed [[wall]]s, [[floor]]s, [[stair]]s, and [[fortification]]s, and open and closed [[bridge]]s, [[grate|floor grates]], [[bars|floor bars]], and [[hatch]]es. A tile which is ''Outside'' will always be ''Light Above Ground'', but an ''Inside'' tile may be either ''Light Above Ground'' or ''Dark Subterranean''.

== Light vs. Dark and Above Ground vs. Subterranean ==

Currently these two attributes are determined in exactly the same way. Once an area is exposed to the outside world, it is ''Above Ground'' and ''Light'' (and thus channeling this tile will make the tile below it also ''Above Ground'' and ''Light''). Even after being covered up again, it will remain this way. This allows growing outdoor crops inside safely.

[[Ice]] and [[Glass]] will allow light to pass through, marking tiles as "light" and "above ground."

{{Category|Map tiles|*}}

Cave adaptation

2014-09-22T17:28:14Z

Scorpion451: nausea bug now fixed...yay?

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'''Cave adaptation''' is caused by dwarves spending too much time underground with insufficient exposure to outdoor sunlight.

Exposure of cave-adapted dwarves to outdoor sunlight can cause two negative [[thought]]s: "irritated by the sun" and "nauseated by the sun". The latter results from more severe cave adaptation and is intended to trigger profuse [[vomit]]ing (for a time it did not due to a bug fixed as of v0.40.13). Cave adaptation causes no problems if the affected dwarves simply remain [[Tile attributes|underground]].

== Prevention ==
Cave adaptation can be prevented by regular exposure to outdoor sunlight, which can be achieved by having an outdoor [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]] or high-traffic areas above ground. Roofing over these outdoor areas will protect your dwarves from [[weather]] while still preventing cave adaptation. In other words, any tiles that have ''ever'' been exposed to sunlight remain sunlit; actual vertical access to the sun is not necessary.

* If a dwarf is in a "Dark" tile, cave adaptation increases by 1 every tick to a maximum of 800,000 (403,200 ticks is one year, so the maximum is just short of 2 years).
* If a dwarf is in an "Outside" tile, cave adaptation decreases by 10 every tick.
* If a dwarf is in an "Outside" tile while the sun is out (i.e. not raining or snowing), the following happens:
** If cave adaptation is at 604,800 or higher (1.5 years), the dwarf will experience Nausea, Dizziness, Pain, and Fatigue. The dwarf will also receive the unhappy thought "was nauseated by the sun recently".
** If cave adaptation is between 403,200 and 604,800 (between 1 and 1.5 years), the dwarf will become Dizzy and experience reduced amounts of Pain and Fatigue. The dwarf will also receive the unhappy thought "was irritated by the sun recently".
** Otherwise, nothing bad happens.

== Treatment ==
Cave adaptation can be treated by exposing dwarves to outdoor tiles. However, due to the negative thoughts brought about by exposure to light in cave-adaptated dwarves, these outdoor areas should be well decorated with [[statue]]s or the like. This should provide enough positive thoughts to negate those caused by cave adaptation. The progress of treating severe cave adaptation can be observed through '''Thoughts and Preferences''', as limited exposure to sunlight will first convert severe cave adaptation into mild cave adaptation; see [[Personality trait#Personality-Trait-Like Characteristics|Personality traits]] for details.

A dwarf who is completely adapted to life underground can be cured in a little over nine weeks of constant exposure to outdoors light.

== Explanation ==
{{D for Dwarf}}
'''A [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85908.msg2321608#msg2321608 scientific explanation] of cave adaptation by Deus Machina.'''

Underground has low levels of light and very little air circulation.

Dwarves develop low-light vision (plump helmets are packed with beta carotene!) and their facial follicles become sensitive to the motions that a breeze produces against their beards, which allows them to tell where tunnels turn.

As they go deeper, their eyes become less relied upon, and they adapt further to rely on their whisker-based folli-cation.

These eventually become so sensitive that, should a dwarf venture outside, the wind is the equivalent of multicolored and varying strobe lights. This is as aggravating to a dwarf's folli-cation as a Pink Floyd show seen while sober is to our sight, up to the point of causing nausea.

While some have proposed beard shaving as a method of treating hyper-folli-cation, these people are believed to be elf spies, and drafted to cavern exploring instead.
{{Category|Dwarves}}

Grass

2014-09-21T17:17:55Z

Scorpion451: /* Fire */

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'''Grass''' is a natural [[map tile]] that is found in any biome that supports vegetation. It can grow on most [[soil]] [[above ground]]. It tends to grow quickly, as can be found by channeling an outdoor area. Its growth can indicate the impending growth of a tree. As dwarves and other [[creatures]] walk over it, they have a chance (determined by the value of the {{token|GRASSTRAMPLE|Creature}} token) of eroding it down to the base soil, on which trees and plants cannot grow. Elves have grasstrample 0. Dwarves have default grasstrample. Dragons have grasstrample 50. A mess of dwarves milling about your entrance will wear away all the grass eventually. A dragon does it with every step.

[[Cave moss|Moss]] and [[Floor fungus|fungi]], tiles similar to grass, appear in [[Subterranean]] biomes; they will grow on underground soil and [[mud|muddy]] floors after any [[cavern]] has been breached. Livestock feed on them like they do normal grass.

== Livestock ==

Livestock require a steady diet of grass in order to avoid starvation. As they eat, the grass is eroded as though it were trampled, gradually depopulating their [[pasture]] if it isn't large enough. As there are at most 4 bunches of grass per tile, grass that is consumed in the process of an animal grazing means that the base layer of soil is revealed until the grass grows back. There is currently no known way of determining how many of the maximum of 4 bunches of grass are present in any one tile.

== Sand and clay ==

Grass growing on a soil [[floor]] of [[sand]] or [[clay]] will prevent the raw material from being [[Activity zone#Sand_Collection|collected]] for the [[glass industry|glass]] or [[ceramic industry|ceramic]] industries. If grass has grown on a collection [[activity zone]] you can easily clear it by designating a dirt [[road]] ({{K|b}} {{K|O}}) on top of it. A floor [[grate]] can be placed over a collection activity zone to prevent grass from growing while still allowing the raw material to be collected.

== Fire ==

Grass can also be destroyed by [[fire]] and [[magma]]. Creatures such as [[fire imp]]s can shoot fireballs when attacking, and said fireballs can set the grass on fire. If grass ignites, the fire will slowly spread to all connected grass, generating smoke as it burns. Fire turns grass into ashes, but not [[Ash|usable ashes]]. Anything that is flammable and stands on burning grass (if you look at it you will see "A fire") has a chance to catch fire each turn. Note that fire breath will also set grass on fire, as well as instantly turning it into ashes. Grassy [[ramp|slope]]s will not catch on fire, thus preventing the fire from spreading across [[z-level]]s solely via grass. Burning trees, however, can allow fire to make the jump between z levels.

== Variation ==

During a [[Dry season]], grass tiles on the screen change into dry grass tiles, but the effect is purely cosmetic. Also purely cosmetic, the [[d_init.txt]] file contains [VARIED_GROUND_TILES:YES]. If you don't like the grass looking like ,.`', try setting this to NO. The ground will turn into periods only.

In [[good]] biomes, you may find grass made up of [[bubble bulb|bubbles]] and [[downy grass|feathers]]. It acts just like regular grass for the [[livestock]] that eat it.

[[File:EvilGrass.png|thumb|The wormy tendrils and staring eyes of Evil Grassland]]
In [[evil]] biomes, you may find grass made up of [[wormy tendril]]s and [[staring eyeball]]s. Like their good counterparts, they feed [[livestock]] normally. Wormy tendrils tend to wiggle constantly and staring eyeballs will blink from time to time.

In evil biomes that are also undead areas, much of the grass is dead, like the trees. Animals will not eat the dead grass. Assign a larger area for pastures so grazers can eat the patchy still-living grass.

Some grasses have flowers that bloom in spring. These are [[baby toes succulent]], [[cloudberry]], [[cottongrass]], [[marsh thistle]], [[meadowsweet]]. [[mountain avens]], [[pebble plant]], and [[rush]].

== Relationship to Real-World Grasses ==

All "grass" types in the game apart from the four special types found in evil and good biomes are actual plants in the real world. The vast majority of them are also true grasses (this includes bamboo) or at least close relatives - rushes, sedges and cattail. The vegetation of some extreme biomes uses non-grass plants: mountain avens, mountain heather and cloudberry in mountains, baby toe succulent and pebble plant in deserts. Other notable exceptions are the marsh thistle, knotgrass and meadowsweet.

{{Plants}}
{{Category|Grass}}

Cavern

2014-09-20T14:51:07Z

Scorpion451: /* Benefits */ Single-level high walls no longer entirely stop climbers and jumpers

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'''Caverns''' are ''huge'' natural underground tunnel systems, inhabited by strange and dangerous creatures. They go up, down, left, right, and about anywhere else. Vanilla worlds provide three cavern layers. Number, size and z-position can be altered in the [[world generation]] parameters.
The caverns will usually have open map edges, allowing all sorts of [[creatures]] to migrate into and from the cavern. By exploring the caverns in adventure mode it is possible to travel large distances below the surface - the caverns effectively connect all sites that access them.

Upon reclaiming a fort, all mud in the caverns is removed.

''In subterranean biomes, Chasm, water, and lava mean land, water (pool), and magma (pipes) respectively.''

==Geography==
The top of the first cavern usually resides about 10-11 z-levels below the surface.
Each cavern layer spans multiple z-levels, and is filled with [[water]] to a certain degree. This can range from a few pools at the bottom level to the whole layer being submerged, forming a gigantic underground sea, including [[fish]] and possibly camps of [[olm man|olm men]] and other [[fun]] aquatic creatures.

The average amount of water cavern layers feature depends on your world generation settings, specifically

[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]

[CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]

Beneath the third layer lies the [[magma sea]].

If you hit caverns too often then you can create a custom world with a higher number for 'Z Levels Above Layer 1' - Levels of stone above the first cavern layer. Making this higher will guarantee at least this many levels to build your fortress, but will have no impact on how many z-levels thick the surface layer is. Also, the top of a cavern may be higher than the rest of a cavern, so in practice there will be more levels than this.

==Other features==
Exploring the underground world, you may find a variety of special geographical features. When your dwarves discover a feature, an announcement window will let you know of it.

'''[[Deep pit]]s:''' Deep pits are... deep pits, that connect one cavern level to the next. They have a fixed shape. The top z-level, where the pit meets the next cavern level, is un-muddied rough rock floor where the normal space of the deep pit and the random rock spires of the cavern collide.

If your map has an unseen [[cave-in]] at the beginning of embark, the caverns may have a deep pit somewhere. This occurs because some stone in the cavern above the deep pit is unsupported and falls down. This may be a bug.

'''[[Magma pool]]s:''' Despite the name, magma pools are not actual pools, but tubes extending up from the [[magma sea]]. Their shape is fixed and their presence random. A magma tube might extend all the way to the top cavern, or merely a few z-levels. Magma pools can be distinguished from the magma sea even if they are only a single Z-level high due to two important features: they will always be walled by obsidian as opposed to the standard stone of the layer and, more importantly, will (very slowly) refill to their top if any magma is drained.

'''[[Passage]]s:'''
Passages are natural tunnels connecting two layers by ramps and short, twisted tunnel sections. The announcement window will let you know you've found a downward passage even if you happen to discover it from the bottom.

==Vegetation==
Caverns will, from the topmost to the deepest, feature the following vegetation:

'''Level one''': a benign (or as nice as caverns get) level has shrubs, [[Tower-cap]]s, and [[Fungiwood]].

'''Level two''': a level filled with, in addition to the above, [[Goblin-cap]]s, [[Spore tree]]s, [[Black-cap]]s, and [[Tunnel tube]]s.

'''Level three''': a level lacking the trees the first level had, while still having those the second introduced, which also has [[Nether-cap]]s and [[Blood thorn]]s.

Any cavern layer without a pool of water will have only muddy dense floor fungus and no plants or trees except for [[Blood thorn]]s.

Removing a layer will cause the layer above to randomly pick from trees that the now removed layer could have handled and that the layer above can handle.

==Dangers==
There are many, many <s>dangerous</s> [[fun]] [[animal]]s in a cavern, including [[giant cave spider]]s, [[giant olm]]s, [[troll]]s and [[cave crocodile]]s, but even the seemingly [[gremlin|harmless ones]] can provide great [[Stupid_dwarf_trick#Self_Destruct_Lever|fun]].

Cavern level one is as good as things get, and the following levels will [[Cave dragon|only]] [[Voracious cave crawler|be]] [[Magma crab|worse]]. If you can't stand level one, you won't be able to stand level two or three.

[[Hungry head|Flying creatures]] can <s>ruin your day</s> [[Fun|provide some fun]] if your main stairwell leads directly into the cavern (the bottom of up-down/down stairs can be passed by flying creatures).

Also, any cavern of sufficient size will be inhabited by [[giant cave spider]]s, which can be both [[Silk|benefit]] and hazard.

One thing you really have to watch out for is having your main stairwell lead into a cavern. It doesn't have to be so walking creatures can get in, but just so there's an open hole. Any hostile creature sitting under your open stairway will spook any dwarves trying to use it, causing a flood of job cancellation messages as they keep trying to reach their destination. When this happens it can lead to all your dwarves starving themselves to death. Only build stairs on the side, preferably with a hatch.

==Benefits==
Caverns provide ever regenerating resources in form of underground [[wood|forests]], animals to hunt, and fish. On breaching a cavern layer, a variety of [[ore]]s and [[gem]]s lining its walls will be revealed. The cavern floors are always [[Farming#Underground Farming|muddied]], providing soil to a variety of underground [[plant]]s. Also, underground caverns and the [[water]] they provide can be used in constructions and traps. In places like [[glacier]]s, caverns will provide the only source of [[water]] and [[farming|farmable]] land. Throwing your prisoners into a damp hellhole filled with ravaging beasts is a nice addition, too. Additionally, creating a world without caverns will result in no subterranean plants, plant products (plump helmets/spawn/wine etc.) or fish available on embark. However this is a moot point, as without mods, dwarven civilizations only use indoor farming, and so will never form. Worldgen will stall without a usable dwarven civilization.

Once an underground cavern has been discovered, shrubs and trees will spontaneously grow on any subterranean [[soil]] or [[mud]]died [[rock]] on every embark site that accesses the cavern. This means that if you find a cavern in one embark site and embark in another site accessing the same cavern, plants will start growing there even before you discover the branch of the cavern that lies under the site. This allows you to construct underground tree farms and avoid sending dwarves to the surface to harvest wood, or just to get wood in environments without above-ground forests.

As walls can be built right up to the map edge below ground, it is possible to prevent land creatures from spawning by turning all the spawn points into walls. A single level of wall is sufficient to halt MOST non-fliers, who will appear on the wall and be unable to get down into the cavern itself. Creatures with the ability to climb or jump, however, tend to eventually figure out a way down, so prepare for these accordingly. Fliers can be stopped only by building walls up to the ceiling, and swimmers can't be prevented from spawning without obsidianising the water tiles on the map edge. The next best thing is to block off access, which can be achieved by dropping a layer of natural stone wall into the water.

NOTE: walls come with floors above them, which means that creatures may still spawn on top of the wall and interrupt jobs, or not spawn where you want them to (if you are trying to wall off most entrances and leave a few designated entrances with cage traps). So fortifications without floors on top of them should be built instead to seal an entrance from ground creatures. Also avoid completely walling off all ground creatures with only 1 floor of walls; the game will spawn flying creatures if ground creatures cannot be spawned.

===Creatures===
[[Cage trap]]s placed in the caverns can capture wild animals to potentially [[animal trainer|tame]]. As with above-ground creatures, subterranean groups of creatures are limited to one group at a time. Many of the more interesting creatures appear in groups of one and have small populations, so you'll have to clear out a lot of bugbats and crundles before being able to grab every giant cave spider or jabberer your site can produce.

These small populations may result in all spawned individuals being of the same sex, making breeding programs impossible even for creatures that have the necessary tags. Adding the [CHILD:1] to a creature is a relatively easy mod, but sex changes require the application of a transformational syndrome and possibly changing the creature from an egg-layer to a live-birther.

==When should I start exploring?==
[[Image:Cavern.png‎|thumb|right|A cavern found underground.]]
One standard approach is to wait until you have a working military. The first cavern usually has few hazardous monsters, apart from the occasional [[giant olm]] or [[giant toad|toad]] and [[giant cave spider]]s, but just one giant bat can destroy an early fort, and [[Forgotten beast|uninvited guests]] will wander in sooner or later. The subsequent caverns will become increasingly [[fun]], so don't dig too deep without making adequate preparation. A decent military should be able to handle the cavern fauna, assuming they're not busy dealing with surface [[invader]]s.

Alternatively, you might want to breach the caverns as early as possible, then wall off the entrance. Doing so has several benefits: it will allow you to plan your fortress layout around the underground features, release the spores necessary for an underground [[tree farm]], prevent a calamitous discovery later when [[forgotten beast|powerful enemies]] lie in wait, and minimize the amount of time invested if the caverns prove unsuitable. You can of course continue to explore a cavern without a military, but you will likely get a bunch of dwarves killed.

Not all parts of a cavern are immediately visible; a good portion of a cavern is revealed once you breach it, but other parts remain hidden until your dwarves explore them. Since you often don't know what you'll find in a cavern, they can be exciting places, but also
<s>very dangerous</s> fun.

==Methods of Exploration==

:''This section covers methods to explore already discovered caverns; if you're having trouble finding the caverns, check [[Exploratory mining]] for tips.''

There are many different methods of exploring, some less [[fun]] than others.

'''Military squads''': You can order your [[squads]] into the cavern with move orders. This way you can have dwarves manually explore the cavern by foot. The caverns are dangerous and unpredictable; well equipped dwarves will live longer. The {{k|s}}quad:{{k|a}}ttack:{{k|l}}ist command will help you find and kill enemy creatures which may be located on many different z-levels inside the cavern.

Note that creatures may wander into the cavern from the edges, so, if you want to start collecting silk, gems, ore and the other valuable loot in a cavern, and you want to do so safely, you should first kill or capture the creatures in the cavern, then wall off the edges to keep new creatures from wandering in. Note that, if you want to keep flying creatures out, your walls will need to cover the edge of the cavern from the floor to the ceiling. If you'd still like to fight or capture wandering creatures, but don't want them killing your workers, you can leave some room for creatures to get in, and build doors or cages as necessary.

'''Lone woodcutter''': Most cavern creatures are not faster than a normal dwarf, so it may be safer to send out a civilian woodcutter to cut 1 tree at where you want to explore. Unlike exploring with an early unarmed military team that will suicide against [[jabberer]]s, a woodcutter will actually run away when confronted by hostile creatures. Cavern creatures also tend to give up the chase after a while, provided you can dodge the few hits they rarely get in if they catch up (not a problem if your explorer has moderate dodging skill).

'''Fortifications''': as dwarves can see through [[fortification]]s, you can carve out a fortification near the edge of the explored area to safely discover more of the cavern. This prevents wildlife and [[megabeast]]s from entering your fort, as an added benefit. This method does not work for exploring the magma layers - or rather, it ''does'' work, but for a very, very brief time during which there is much [[fun]].

'''Digging and walling''': Instead of [[smoothing]] a wall and then carving a fortification, it can be quicker to just dig out the wall and then blocking off the opening with a [[construction|constructed]] wall. The disadvantage over the fortification method is that if any dangerous creatures are lurking unseen near edge of the explored area they might get to your dwarf before the wall can be put up.

'''Digging from above''': The only method that works in the magma layers, this method requires you to dig a hole from above the caverns into the cavern. It is advisable to seal the hole afterwards if you wish to prevent flying or magma creatures from entering your fort.

'''Autonomous Dwarven Cavern Rover''': [[Activity_zone#Pit.2FPond|Pit]] an animal into the cavern through an access tunnel above the cavern floor, walling it up afterward if you wish. The animal will wander the cavern, revealing more of it, and possibly stumble across things you would prefer your dwarves not encounter unaware. Use a female animal when you have a male of the same species somewhere in your fortress to produce a population of self replicating rovers. If the animal is tame, its movement can be somewhat controlled by creating a [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting zone]] in the place you would like it to move to.

'''Suicide mission''': Ideal for exploring the bottom of a deep pit or magma pool. Knock a dwarf or animal into the pit, and they will rapidly plummet. Despite being unconscious, they will report everything they see for as long as they are alive. [[Noble]]s, [[cat]]s and [[vampire]]s make excellent geonauts.

'''Separate tunnels''': Digging exploration tunnels from within your fortress will result in a direct path from the caverns to your fortress- this can result in enormous volumes of fun. Players seeking to avoid fun may instead choose to start their exploration tunnels from elsewhere on the surface, outside the fortress. This guarantees that any threats released through exploration must pass through the same entrance utilized by surface threats, such as goblins or elephants, before they can access the fortress.

This method works in conjunction with the "Digging from above" method. Placing the tunnels as close as possible to the edges of the map will reduce obstruction to the fortress. Magmawiki assumes no liability for any potential damage to lesser surface races resulting from the release of subterranean monsters directly into the surface world.

==Adventurer Mode==
You can enter a cavern with an [[Adventurer_mode|adventurer]] and explore it. The dangers are obvious; Nasty creatures, pitfalls, etc. But you also have to watch out because you can't fast-travel underground. That means no easy healing, so you have to be very careful. Make sure you stock up on food, water and (if you use it) ammunition before you head in, though, as caverns are quite massive and it can be difficult to find your way back. Luckily, there are tribes of animal men underground; unlike in fortress mode, they are your friends. Some of them can even be hired. Camps almost always have food, and usually some other items as well, though probably less useful. Since you can't fast-travel, you have to rely on sleeping to heal, which can be dangerous due to the [[Giant cave spider|nature]] of caverns. If you sleep in a camp, the tribe will try and protect you from [[Forgotten beast|whatever]] [[Troll|shows]] [[Blind cave ogre|up]]. Escaping from the caverns by the same route used as an entrance can be very difficult, though if you manage to reach a cavern area immediately underneath a town you will be able to fast-travel to the surface.

==Caravan and embark item availability==
[[Embark]]ation and dwarven [[caravan]]s will only provide resources available in the first cavern level. Since [[purring maggot]]s don't appear in the first cavern level, unlike in 40d, you can't buy dwarven [[cheese]] or dwarven [[milk]] {{Bug|1449}}. A workaround is to edit the global [[raw file]]s to make purring maggots appear on level one, [[world generation|generate a new world]], then edit the raws of the new world to change the maggots back to normal before embark.

{{World|Biomes}}

Slab

2014-09-14T17:31:45Z

Scorpion451:

{{Migrated_article}}
{{Quality|Superior|20:11, 25 April 2013 (UTC)}}{{av}}

{{furniture|name=Slab
|tile=∩
|stone=y
|metal=n
|glass=n
|rooms=
* [[memorial hall|Memorial Hall]]
}}

'''Slabs''' are buildings which can serve as an alternative to a [[coffin]] in the event that a dwarf's body cannot be retrieved, thus preventing the dwarf from haunting the fortress as a ghost. Slabs must be constructed at a [[mason's workshop]] ({{k|Alt}}+{{k|s}}lab) and require one [[stone]].

Slabs can also be built solely for decoration purposes, to increase a [[fortress]]'s or [[room]]'s [[value]]. They can be considerably more useful for this than [[statue]]s, since poor layout decisions will not trap dwarves.

In order to dedicate a slab to a particular dwarf, a slab must be carved into a [[memorial]] at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] by an [[Engraver]] (using {{k|Alt}}+{{k|s}}:Engrave memorial slab). The engraver will retrieve the slab and engrave it. After it has been engraved, the slab may be built from the {{k|b}}uilding menu under {{k|Alt}}+{{k|s}}. In order to prevent placing slabs which have not yet been engraved, make sure to e{{k|x}}pand the list when selecting which slab should be placed.

You can create a [[memorial hall]] (functionally identical to a [[sculpture garden]]) from a slab's {{k|q}}uery menu. Unlike [[statue]]s, slabs do not block movement.

An engraved slab can be read in fortress mode using {{k|t|Enter|v}} and contains information on the arrival and death of the creature. If it slew any important figures or fortress dwarves, it may be noted on the slab as well.

If you're not sure how a dwarf or creature died, engraving and placing a slab may reveal it. In the case of military action, the killer is listed at the end of the entry. If, for example, a drawbrige atom smasher squashed your dwarf, that will be the engraved folly.

== Adventurer mode ==
{{minorspoiler}}

In [[adventurer mode]], slabs may be used as signs, or be engraved with the secrets of life and death in [[necromancer]] [[tower]]s, guarded by an [[undead]] army. To read them, you need to pick them up with {{k|g}}, enter advanced interaction menu with {{k|Shift}}+{{k|I}}, select the slab, select {{k|a}} to read it and voila! You can raise the dead too. Basic [[reader|reading]] [[skill]]s are required to do this, so make sure to start your adventurer with some reading skill.

A slab is also found in the bottom of sealed [[vault]]s, which contains a different kind of secret.

{{Buildings}}
{{Category|Furniture}}

Glass

2014-09-10T17:44:42Z

Scorpion451: /* Uses */

{{Migrated_article}}
{{quality|unrated}}{{av}}

Glass is produced at the [[glass furnace]] using [[fuel]] with either [[sand]] (green glass), sand and [[pearlash]] (clear glass), or [[rock crystal]] and pearlash (crystal glass). A [[magma glass furnace]] can also be used, in which case no fuel is required. Raw glass (of all three types) can also be acquired from some [[trading|trade]] caravans and be purchased in the [[embark]] screen. Note that raw glass can '''''not''''' be made into glass items (excluding [[strange mood]]s), but can only be [[gem cutting|cut]] into [[gem]]-like items which can be used for [[decoration|decorating]] items. You have to buy or collect [[sand]] to get the raw materials to make glass.

Glass value corresponds to the difficulty of its production, with green glass having the lowest material value (2), clear glass intermediate (5), and crystal glass the highest (10).

== Uses ==
Glass can be used for most things that can be produced at a [[mason's workshop]], (with the exception of slabs, querns and millstones). It can also produce goods normally made at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] by a [[stone crafter]], with the exception of obsidian short swords and generic crafts. In addition, it may be made as raw glass, which can then be cut as a gem at a [[jeweler's workshop]] by a [[gem cutter]], in a similar fashion to cutting generic stones.

Raw glass, especially raw green glass, are excellent practice for aspiring jewelers (and their production provides experience for [[glassmaker]]s). The value of glass is on par with low to mid value gemstones, meaning that a source of sand on your map used in tandem with a [[magma glass furnace]] makes decoration with cut raw green glass an essentially free, and very lucrative, way to increase the value of your goods while training legendary glassmakers and jewelers- particularly when those goods are themselves made of glass.

Glass can also be made as [[block]]s which can be used to build [[workshop]]s and [[construction]]s. You can even make glass trap components. Unique goods made from glass include glass [[window]]s and [[flask|vial]]s, as well as [[Furniture#Furniture_types_with_multiple_names|renamed versions]] of common furniture.

Glass is [[magma]]-safe (with a melting point of {{ct|13600}}) and can be created in unlimited quantity on any map with sand soil tiles.

For more information on the use of glass, see the [[Glass industry]] page.

Raw and cut glass storage options can be found under the Gem [[stockpile]] sub-menu. Glass blocks are stored in Bar/Block stockpiles.

==Physical properties==
Through memory hacking, the material properties of each type of glass have been determined; for reference, they have been reconstructed below as material definitions:

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_GREEN}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CLEAR}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CRYSTAL}}}}

==See also==
*[[Glass industry]]
*[[Glassmaker]]

{{Category|Materials}}

Glass

2014-09-10T17:44:02Z

Scorpion451:

{{Migrated_article}}
{{quality|unrated}}{{av}}

Glass is produced at the [[glass furnace]] using [[fuel]] with either [[sand]] (green glass), sand and [[pearlash]] (clear glass), or [[rock crystal]] and pearlash (crystal glass). A [[magma glass furnace]] can also be used, in which case no fuel is required. Raw glass (of all three types) can also be acquired from some [[trading|trade]] caravans and be purchased in the [[embark]] screen. Note that raw glass can '''''not''''' be made into glass items (excluding [[strange mood]]s), but can only be [[gem cutting|cut]] into [[gem]]-like items which can be used for [[decoration|decorating]] items. You have to buy or collect [[sand]] to get the raw materials to make glass.

Glass value corresponds to the difficulty of its production, with green glass having the lowest material value (2), clear glass intermediate (5), and crystal glass the highest (10).

== Uses ==
Glass can be used for most things that can be produced at a [[mason's workshop]], (with the exception of slabs, querns and millstones). It can also produce goods normally made at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] by a [[stone crafter]], with the exception of obsidian short swords and generic crafts. In addition, it may be made as raw glass, which can then be cut as a gem at a [[jeweler's workshop]] by a [[gem cutter]], in a similar fashion to cutting generic stones.

Raw glass, especially raw green glass, are excellent practice for aspiring jewelers (and their production provides experience for [[glassmaker]]s). The value of glass is on par with low to mid value gemstones, meaning that a source of sand on your map used in tandem with a [[Magma Glass Furnace]] makes decoration with cut raw green glass an essentially free, and very lucrative, way to increase the value of your goods while training legendary glassmakers and jewelers- particularly when those goods are themselves made of glass.

Glass can also be made as [[block]]s which can be used to build [[workshop]]s and [[construction]]s. You can even make glass trap components. Unique goods made from glass include glass [[window]]s and [[flask|vial]]s, as well as [[Furniture#Furniture_types_with_multiple_names|renamed versions]] of common furniture.

Glass is [[magma]]-safe (with a melting point of {{ct|13600}}) and can be created in unlimited quantity on any map with sand soil tiles.

For more information on the use of glass, see the [[Glass industry]] page.

Raw and cut glass storage options can be found under the Gem [[stockpile]] sub-menu. Glass blocks are stored in Bar/Block stockpiles.

==Physical properties==
Through memory hacking, the material properties of each type of glass have been determined; for reference, they have been reconstructed below as material definitions:

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_GREEN}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CLEAR}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CRYSTAL}}}}

==See also==
*[[Glass industry]]
*[[Glassmaker]]

{{Category|Materials}}

Glass

2014-09-10T17:38:13Z

Scorpion451:

{{Migrated_article}}
{{quality|unrated}}{{av}}

Glass is produced at the [[glass furnace]] using [[fuel]] with either [[sand]] (green glass), sand and [[pearlash]] (clear glass), or [[rock crystal]] and pearlash (crystal glass). A [[magma glass furnace]] can also be used, in which case no fuel is required. Raw glass (of all three types) can also be acquired from some [[trading|trade]] caravans and be purchased in the [[embark]] screen. Note that raw glass can '''''not''''' be made into glass items (excluding [[strange mood]]s), but can only be [[gem cutting|cut]] into [[gem]]-like items which can be used for [[decoration|decorating]] items. You have to buy or collect [[sand]] to get the raw materials to make glass.

Glass value corresponds to the difficulty of its production, with green glass having the lowest material value (2), clear glass intermediate (5), and crystal glass the highest (10). This is on par with low to mid value gemstones, meaning that a source of sand on your map used in tandem with a [[Magma Glass Furnace]] makes decoration with cut raw glass an essentially free, and very lucrative, way to increase the value of your goods- particularly when those goods are themselves made of the same glass.

== Uses ==
Glass can be used for most things that can be produced at a [[mason's workshop]], (with the exception of slabs, querns and millstones). It can also produce goods normally made at a [[craftsdwarf's workshop]] by a [[stone crafter]], with the exception of obsidian short swords and generic crafts. In addition, it may be made as raw glass, which can then be cut as a gem at a [[jeweler's workshop]] by a [[gem cutter]], in a similar fashion to cutting generic stones. These, especially ones made of green glass, are excellent practice for aspiring jewelers (and their production provides experience for [[glassmaker]]s). Glass can also be made as [[block]]s which can be used to build [[workshop]]s and [[construction]]s. You can even make glass trap components. Unique goods made from glass include glass [[window]]s and [[flask|vial]]s, as well as [[Furniture#Furniture_types_with_multiple_names|renamed versions]] of common furniture.

Glass is [[magma]]-safe (with a melting point of {{ct|13600}}) and can be created in unlimited quantity on any map with sand soil tiles.

For more information on the use of glass, see the [[Glass industry]] page.

Raw and cut glass storage options can be found under the Gem [[stockpile]] sub-menu. Glass blocks are stored in Bar/Block stockpiles.

==Physical properties==
Through memory hacking, the material properties of each type of glass have been determined; for reference, they have been reconstructed below as material definitions:

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_GREEN}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CLEAR}}}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2012:hardcoded_materials.txt|MATERIAL|GLASS_CRYSTAL}}}}

==See also==
*[[Glass industry]]
*[[Glassmaker]]

{{Category|Materials}}

Main Page/Quote/list

2014-09-07T00:47:41Z

Scorpion451:

<noinclude>
To add a quote to this list, place it on its own line between the <includeonly> and </includeonly> tags.
#{{#rreplace:</noinclude>
I can't put my finger on it. Something about this [[Fire|‼]]Cat tallow roast[[Fire|‼]] tastes funny.
Toady withdraws from society. Toady has begun a [[Strange mood|mysterious]] [[Dwarf Fortress|construction]]!
Let us never forget the last words of Inod the Stoker, [http://archive.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fortress_Paintrag#1056 "Aaah! Gorillas!"]
[[Children|Newborn]] Zuglar Baldnessgranite prefers to consume Gorilla. A sure sign of his unparalleled strength!
[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/video-game-article/duke-nukem-image.php In an unrelated article] - I had no idea elephants could bounce that high!
[[Toady]] looses a roaring laughter, [[Fey|fell]] and terrible! Toady has butchered a spammer!
The critical question is this: do elf bones yield more crossbow bolts than the average number of bolts necessary to kill an elf?
"Dwarf Fortress" ... "Like chess, only with short people that can catch on [[fire]] like [[clothing|rags]] soaked in tar, and lots of [[booze]]." ... "Like chess."
Dwarf Fortress has taught me that all the world's problems would be substantially reduced had our parent civilizations never minted more than four stacks of [[coins]].
[[Booze]] does all the work in forts. Dwarves are just booze exoskeletons.
My unconscious and bleeding [[mayor]] just mandated the construction of some goods.
I can just imagine a wagon throwing a tantrum and tossing all its contents at people.
Döbesh Udosdeb has been ecstatic lately. He was forced to eat a friend to survive. He enjoyed a truly decadent meal.
Iron [[screw pump]] exercise equipment. Pump iron and get superdwarvenly strong!
The violence, aggression, pain, madness, sadness of the ASCII characters never ceases to amaze me...
Wait, you're MAKING animals? —''Torak'' At this moment, yes, I am smelting cows. —''Spiders Everywhere''
"Didn't you read the manual? He he he he... the manual... ..." --[[Toady One]]
(Compared to real-world years) Dwarven years are shorter. --Sowelu Very fitting to dwarves, I must add. --Sean Mirrsen
[[Magma]] is not a [[water]] source. Dwarves can't drink it or supply it to their wounded. --[[User:AlienChickenPie|AlienChickenPie]]
"[B]oats are the enemy of tiles. And tiles are the enemy of boats." --[[Toady One]]
"I went through and fixed a few places where forbidden/on fire weren't being respected for next time. Burning milkable creatures were still a problem for example." --[[Toady One]]
"You have been processed! Go forth, now, and edit!" --[[User:Savok|Savok]]
"What happened in 1048?" "Jreengus occurred."
Making rock instruments isn't nearly as awesome as it sounds --Shandrunn
The cyclops I was quested to kill had a thousand year history of badassery, and all of that without the leg it lost in the Year 3 (a dwarf bit it off... I should probably deal with that). --[[Toady One]]
[FIREIMMUNE] makes them think that [[magma]] is safe but doesn't actually make them fireproof. This can lead to some rather interesting results.
Endok Cerolneth has begun a mysterious construction! Endok Cerolneth, Planter has given birth to a girl.
"Incendia sunt socia vestra, armaque vestra, fortesque Montis Domi." "Magma is your ally, your weapon, the strength of the Mountain-Home." --Eita
"Stopped people from giving quests to kill themselves." --[[Toady One]]
"...And I simply doubt we have a need for 7 fishery workers. On top of that, a second soap maker. The hell IS soap?!" --Zero
"This is a terrible pun. All craftsdwarfship is of the poorest quality." - [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=21449.msg239558#msg239558 Soup_alex]
"The default mental state of a dwarf is madness. Sanity is a temporary condition - a PRIVILEGE you have to EARN!" --[[User:Fedor|Fedor]]
"Why get normal cats? I buy lolcats in the embark screen. Much more fun to engrave about them." --Yanlin
"Dwarf Fortress taught me it was okay to make a suit out of my neighbour's skin, as long as I gave it a name."
"Got rid of world gen crash during succession after death of prolific long-standing position holders with inbred descendants" --[[Toady One]]
"There was a typo in the siegers' campfire code. When the fires went out, so did the game." --[[Toady One]]
"Hey, what does that flashing red and orange text mean? What? Why is there smoke everywhere? Oh god, are those BABIES on fire?" --[[User:StrawberryBunny|StrawberryBunny]]
"It's never 'just a game' when you're losing." --George Carlin (if he played Dwarf Fortress)
Not that building a bridge out of soap makes much sense to begin with anyway.
Note that while you cannot milk larger animals yourself, civilizations can still milk animals "off screen" for your benefit.
Tosid Idenarzes likes tentacle demons for their corrupt intentions. "There! Now we've covered all of the seven deadly sins."
"Litast Idenudesh, baby, is throwing a tantrum! Inod Litastrilem, Mayor, has lost consciousness. Inod Litastrilem, Mayor, has bled to death."
Bug 000780 [adventure mode][crime] - town guard becomes a criminal after getting an adventurer's stolen weapon stuck in his body
"Udib Toblumaid, Axedwarf, cancels sparring in Barracks: too insane." [[User:Ben jamm1n|Ben jamm1n]]
Kosoth Cilobonol, Bone Carver cancels Drink: Unconscious.
Sizir the Snail of Bait is a deity of The Fresh Towers. Sizir most often takes the form of a female dwarf and is associated with jealousy.
Sibrek Tanbim likes Limestone, Tin, Smoky Quartz, the color crimson, bolts, scepters, anvils, and rock blocks for their lack of quality levels.
There are 5 articles in category Lore: [[Armok]], [[Cave Adaptation]], [[Elephant]], [[Philosopher]], and [[Vomit]].
There is nothing to catch in the magma pipe.
Bug 000563 [dwarf mode][justice] - mayor ordered himself beaten for failing to make crystal glass objects
If cow cheese is made from cow's milk, what is dwarven cheese made of?
Bugs are opportunities to cause unprecedented amounts of destruction. --Zorgn
"You know, Urist, you've got a mind like an +Ash Trap+."--[[User:Destor|Destor]]
'''Zander J:''' "Is there a way to stop immigration without setting the population cap?" '''Yanlin:''' "Magma."
An animal trainer just suddenly stopped working and hid himself in a workshop. He's probably going to make a wardog out of rock and goblin skulls.
Bug 000597 [creatures] - flying creatures give birth in midair, leading to tragedy.
'''Urdim Kutamèrith, Pump Operator, has created Rakusttenshed, a Glumprong blowgun!''' Urdim, you are a freaking idiot.
<Forkez> I don't get the game, but I do get that tunnels flooded with water is a bad thing.
"If you give a dwarf a fire, he will be warm for a night. If you set a dwarf on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life."
"Since the Elves said they won't let me cut down any trees, I bought 50 of their logs instead."
Do not make a trading race that breathes fire. I REPEAT, DON'T!! EVER!!
Dwarf Fortress: Because burning elves are funny.
The carp has drowned.
There's one thing a dwarf needs, and that's stones. And alcohol... and magma... but mainly stones.
"I swear to god once I saw a dwarf who was labeled as being Strong, Very Agile, Very Tough... and ''Clean''. But it was probably just a bad dream."
Urist McRandy has been ecstatic lately. He brought somebody to bed lately.
"Dwarven children kidnapped and incorporated into goblin society might sh... shave." --Toady One
Bug 000871 [projectiles] - babies fall to death when born on stairs
Bug 001031 [adventure mode][inventory] - a merchant pack animal caught at an old dwarf site during adv mode was wearing a full set of clothes
"[[Magma]] solves everything. [[Fire]] just ruins the [[booze]]." -sonerohi
You can't yet strangle people with the exposed guts, though I suppose that's now within reach. --[[Toady One]]
Look, there are roving clumps of sentient lava outside, ... This isn't going to get better. --PTTG??
...and the only surviving dwarf is a noble who has mandated the construction of crowns and clear glass items to the empty halls. --PTTG??
Adil Idenlocun is conflicted: "When possible he prefers to consume purring maggot, Dwarven ale and Dwarven syrup. He absolutely detests purring maggots."
"I had to leave just before I tested the dwarf with the boiling gold blood." -- Toady the Great One
Urdim Zatinod has been quite content lately. She has lost an annoying friend to tragedy lately.
I added two levers. One opens the magma. The other sets free all the cats. --Someone in Headshoots
"As Manbaspecut, Human Merchant is stricken by melancholy!" "Muskox has gone stark raving mad!" I think something is wrong with the human caravan...
"Somebody needs to build an active volcano inside a fortress inside an active volcano." --Boksi
It has stats. It can be killed.
Bug 000432 [dwarf mode][items] - Bones pop out of coffins.
Thanks. I wish I had known that about three forts ago.
If I ''remembered'' what the damn lever did, I'd ''pull'' it! <...pulls lever anyway...>
Sarvesh Ralrubal likes olivine, olivine and olivine.
"So let me get this straight. We managed to destroy a dwarven civilization while only managing a single town??"
Kara Mase, the Glory of Amusing: Engraved on the wall is an image of a dwarf and an elf. The dwarf is committing a depraved act on the elf.
Once saw a water skin with red beryl spikes. I still wonder how you would drink from that.
Watching a kobold thief be chased by batman is very satisfying.
Kol Tölunimush has been ecstatic lately. He killed somebody by accident while sparring recently. He took joy in slaughter lately. He has lost a lover to tragedy lately. He has witnessed death. He had a satisfying sparring session recently.
There was kind of a violent explosion of boiling human blood when I was testing a human vs a magma man in the arena... it was a little weird, but I guess that's okay. --[[Toady One]]
Mew? Chop!
"If Dwarf Fortress geology is to be believed, then the Earth's core is made of microcline and demons."
'They're firing arrows at us! Quickly! Raise the babies!!' -Urdim McSquadLeader, mother of 8
It started raining, then all my dwarves outside started bleeding to death. On inspection their upper bodies were missing.
It seems that a fresh recruit given a crossbow and a quiver with ammo in it will opt to run up to the enemy and bash them with the crossbow.
Bug introduced in the latest version: Firemen can have their flames severed. These flames then just lie around the place.
You stab Iron Man in the right leg from behind with your adamantine short sword, breaking away a piece of the gas and shattering the iron! The Beak Dog is caught in a burst of Iron Man gas! Beak Dog vomits into the Iron Man gas.
Urist McDairy, Milker cancels store item in stockpile: handling dangerous creature
Ildomushat, Fish Cleaner, cancels Clean Self: Could not find path.
Losing is [[Fun]]!!! --The Motto of Dwarf Fortress
I hate walking under dwarven archways. You never know how many mechanized crossbows they have hidden underneath those damn things.
"Bibo ergo sum. I drink, therefore I am." -- Dwarven Philosopher
This is a menacing iron spike. This object menaces with spikes of iron.
Kogsak is a deity of The Helpful Diamond. Kogsak most often takes the form of a dwarf and is associated with fortresses.
The Forgotten Beast pushes The Wrestler in the head, bruising the muscle, driving the skull through the brain, and tearing apart the brain! The Wrestler has been struck down!
Goblin Chops at the Diagnostician in the right leg, damaging the muscle! Urist McHouse is Unconscious!
Limul Itebdesis, trader has been Possessed. Limul Itebdesis, trader has created Stodir Isethlolor, a Mortgage-Backed Security!
The heart wound ended up being a guy getting shot in the arm, dropping his crossbow, running over to the opposing line, and jabbing his stack of bolts into somebody's chest.
Giant mole has stolen a preserved prepared giant mole lung! ''"Hey, I want my grandfather back!"''
"You must construct additional barrels!" - [[User:Speed112]]
All I want is a major river next to a volcano with flux, sand and bituminous coal.
Do not taunt magma.
I bury my pets in gold coffins and my nobles in wood coffins. Pets before people, I say.--[[KingAuggie]]
[the cavern] is basically like the surface, except underground
The fortress' randomly generated name was "Greatestfailure".
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"The best way to determine how dangerous a fortress is, is to make only one dwarf with the burial job, and nothing else: the lower his social skills, the more dangerous the fortress is - [[User:Rhenaya|Rhenaya]]"
"Before retiring in the evening, heed my words and give yourself to volcanos" - Ted Usmokatra, law-giver
Upon coming of age, about 8, Urist McYoung Made an artifact, became mayor and promptly mandated the construction of slade goods.
Dwarf Fortress: You've already lost.
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A typical Dwarven nightmare consists of running out of booze or getting a beard lopped off in an accident.
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So apparently she became queen before becoming a twilight freak wife. Fascinating. -- Samuel
The zombies in a necromancer's tower became suspicious after the necromancer failed to age -- Toady One
Got a few barrels of beetle ichor and duck blood, gave some pig cheese in exchange. Made a present of three coffins to the queen.
I'd have to look back to see if it wants the physical or metaphysical id on the corpse. -- Toady One
The Sasquatch corpse has lodged firmly in the wound! The goblin has been struck down!
[22:57:46] <Dik_> How do I wash myself up from blood? [23:06:20] <Dik_> How the fuck do I get out of the river?
No, you're not getting that leg back. In fact, that creature over there is going to pick your leg up and beat you to death with it. You won't respawn.
My refuse pile just woke up and ate my dwarves, who in turn got up themselves and started eating the other dwarves.
{{bugl|2264}} - Adv. Mode travel (near oceans) teleports player underground and turns them into an underground creature
{{bugl|5921}} - Biting dwarves in minecarts infinitely increases combat range
Fort flooded. So that's what an aquifer is. -- Exelixi
Axedwarf looks surprised by the ferocity of Spearmasters onslaught. Spearmaster charges at Axedwarf. Spearmaster stabs axedwarf in the left eye with his +Adamantine spear+, lightly tapping the target.
In 4, the Castle of Fortune of the Tombs of Gold constructed the Hell of Taxing in Entrancedcrafts.
I also got started on jumping. My first jump was off by a factor of 100, so I flew against a cliff and blew apart. I'm still working on it. -- Toady One
Mukca: Seek this place and kill Cenäth Certaindrives the giant. Knowing no mercy, Cenäth stole Fisher berry wine!
We shall build a tower so tall, we will mine the very stars themselves!
Ingish Såkzulbomrek, Miner cancels Report Crime: Dangerous terrain.
You have struck limonite! Oddom Nishdanman, Furnace Operator cancels Smelt Limonite Ore: needs limonite.
{{bugl|4753}} [Creatures]: Rodent men have no skin
{{bugl|0040}} [Dwarf Mode -- Jobs, Items]: "Dwarf cancels Make Cloth Item: Needs 10000 plant cloth"
{{bugl|5531}} [Creatures]: Legless animal men can kick
{{bugl|1588}} [Creatures]: Creature with 1 eye and 2 eyelids
"This is my reward for not letting us all die. I have to deal with the Nobility." -- Captain Ironblood, the mayor of Nist Akath
The king of my dwarves appointed a visiting merchant's yak as the general of the army while I was trading. -- [[Toady One]]
I'd like to think they bonded over their sinister ancestors (or the strange childhood coincidence of having younger siblings gobbled up by different werebuffalo in the same year).
They just walk around without a head until they realize that they should suffocate. -- Urist Da Vinci
Most of yesterday I spent trying to be robbed by bandits, but they kept looking away from me and forgetting I was there. -- [[Toady One]]
Today's success was to have a crying mother spit on me and call me a murderer. -- [[Toady One]]
You monster! Killing too many children at once will make everyone sad. You need to kill them slowly so nobody notices.
Dwarven... "Child Care": It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care.
You: How have things been? Tulon Tunlikot, Mayor: Well, let's see... we've got the army on the march, beasts, bandits and bone-chilling horror.
{{bugl|6722}}: Manager climbs a tree instead of going to office when management jobs are assigned
{{bugl|5971}}: Fat dwarves eating causes lag
{{bugl|6817}}: "Behold, mortal. I am a diving being."
It was inevitable.
Weresquirrel Ceru Uzushimdo has come! A large Squirrel twisted into humanoid form. It is crazed for blood and flesh. Its eyes glow orange. Its sandy taupe hair is very curly. Now you will know why you fear the night.
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Dwarf Fortress: Teaching methods of genocide against merpeople because their bones are worth 6000{{db}}.
No one has gone missing or died. The year is still young.
From release notes 0.40.11: Stopped overuse of plant structure tag causing people to say they preferred to eat trees
<noinclude>|(\n)|$1#}}</noinclude>

Security design

2014-09-05T12:20:03Z

Scorpion451: /* Pathing slowdowns */

{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional}}

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Security design''' focuses on how to turn the physical layout and architecture of a fort into a defensible whole. For a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defence, see the '''[[defense guide]]'''. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see '''[[trap design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military design]]'''.

{{TipBox2|titlebg=#c00|textbg=#ffd|Warning!|Invaders can now [[jump]] and [[climb]] to a degree. Familiarize yourself with these mechanics before implementing these strategies. When in doubt, replacing pits with fortifications is probably a good first step.}}

==Standard key==

'''Key:'''
'''symbol tile'''
- Open space
+ - Constructed floor, or top of wall section from lower level
'''0''' - Isolated wall section
╔╦═╗
╠╬═╣ - Connected wall
║║ ║
╚╩═╝
╬ - Fortifications
X - Up/down [[stairs]]
< - Up stair
> - Down stair
▲ - Up ramp/slope
▼ - Down ramp/slope
. - natural ground
☺ - dwarf

==General suggestions==
General designs include suggestions that can be "plugged in" to a part of any typical fortress, and/or can be modified to suit a number of purposes. At the most basic level, a retracting bridge over a central stairway can isolate the surface from your fortress. On the truly labor-intensive end, you can fully enclose areas of wilderness you wish to utilize in walls or behind moats with the only access being from within your base. Hostile creatures, even 'invisible' ones like ambushers, start at map edges and travel across the map (except for a bug which occasionally causes creatures to spawn in the interior of the map).

===Surface isolation===
A bridge which can isolate your fortress from the surface at the pull of a [[lever]] is a very effective preliminary defense, and still serves as a backup plan when you add larger and more resource-intensive defenses. A raising bridge can be used if you dug your entrance into the side of a hill, or a retracting bridge over your central stairwell if you dug straight down from the surface. Retracting bridges have the advantage of being non-lethal to dwarves and animals (in the event of a lever-pulling mishap) but are a little more complicated to build.

===Meeting area as defense===

Especially in the very early game, you can use a [[Zone#Meeting_Area|meeting zone]] to attract animals and idle dwarves to a given area. This makes a pretty poor defense in general, but it's not a bad way to create an alarm system against minor threats such as [[thief|thieves]] and protect your stockpiles from pesky [[kea]], at least until you have something better (which won't be hard). Remove the zone later, or it attracts idle dwarves and children. Note that until you designate something else, the site of your wagon (even once deconstructed) is a default meeting area.

===Guard Animals===

Both [[thief|thieves]] and [[ambush]]es are invisible until something detects them - a dwarf, a [[caravan]], a wild creature, a [[domestic animal]], anything. Once this happens (even if it was triggered by a wild [[groundhog]] on the far edge of the map), the game will pause with the appropriate [[announcement]], forcing your attention to the situation - which is nice. Therefore, it's a common practice to use animals to act as alarm systems, by [[restraint|restrain]]ing or assigning them to a [[pasture]] in entryways.

There are some considerations to good placement of such animals. If you have a 1- or 2-wide hall, one animal is enough. If you have a 3-wide hallway, a single pastured animal placed in the middle is still sufficient, or you can restrain two animals, one at each side of the hall.

══════════ R = restraint
+++1R1++++ 1 = area of animal 1
+++bbb++++ 2 = area of animal 2
+++2R2++++ b = area of both
══════════

Either arrangement creates a thief-proof barrier against unannounced intrusion, as there is no combination of locations where an invisible enemy can sneak by without bumping into an animal. Caravans can pass over [[restraint]]s and [[pasture]]s and their contained creatures without problem (however, do note that wagons will not appear on the map edge if a creature is blocking their intended location). Guard animals can also see hidden enemies one z-level below them, so long as there is no intervening floor, so if space is tight you can also place them above your entranceway.

Unless you're happy losing these animals on a regular basis, you should try to keep them alive.
:* Put them around a corner or behind a U-bend, so archers cannot fire at them from a distance.
:* Don't have them as your "first line of defense"; put them deeper in the entry, behind some traps.
:* Put them inside, so flying creatures have to come down to their level to attack them.
:* Use [[window]]s to protect your guard animal (note, however, that some intruders may not be detected if they are not forced to move directly adjacent to your animal).
:* Consider using a [[pressure plate]] at the extreme entrance to seal off the hall further down and keep your guard animal(s) safe. Thieves won't trigger them, but the animals can deal with those - ambushes ''will'' trigger them, and you don't want them getting to your guard animals.

Remember that anything short of a [[megabeast]] is not a good match for an armoured opponent.{{verify}} While watching your tame [[grizzly bear]] or [[alligator]] tear a thief apart has an amusement value, watching the goblin maceman send them flying across the map, mangled and dying, has less.

[[Animal trainer|Hunting animals]] have better observation (sight range) than their regular or war counterparts.

===Basic entryway===
One of the more basic designs is a fortified wall surrounded a moat. The moat should be a channel at least three tiles wide to keep anything from jumping across into your fort. Dig one additional tile on each side to prevent creatures from climbing out of the moat. You can flood the moat if you like, however doing so actually reduces its effectiveness. The next step is to build a wall around the inside of the moat (at least one tile from the edge). Add a layer of fortifications on top of the wall to deter climbers and allow your marksdwarves to fire on enemies outside.

<diagram>
sideview

#
____ _▒_
░░░_____░░
</diagram>

===Defending the edge===
You're not allowed to wall within five squares of the edge of the map... but this rule has more loopholes than the US federal income tax code. Until more versatile attackers emerge, it is not clear where effective play ends and exploit begins. ''(Note: we disclaim any responsibility for damage involving [[harpy|harpies]] and skeletal [[giant eagle]]s)''

* To start with, you can channel the '''''second''''' square from the edge. This will block the appearance of trade caravan [[wagon]]s and prevent their movement along that edge of the map. Constructed track tiles (but not ramps) can also be used to block wagon movement.
* If there is only one wagon-accessible path to your Trade Depot, caravans will be forced to appear on that path. Limiting the caravan's options allows for better-prepared defenses along the caravan route.
* You can also build drawbridges all the way up to the edge. A long, skinny, raised bridge is effectively a wall; however, it looks the same whether it's open or closed.
* You can with some work use [[Obsidian]] casting to wall to the map edge

Train up diggers in soft soil and you can surround most of the map with a moat by the time the first migrants arrive. Be very, very wary of cave-ins, especially on highly sloped diagonal terrain - note that a downward ramp does not support adjacent floor tiles, and no tiles are supported diagonally.

Occasionally creatures have a strange habit of appearing well inside the map due to a bug. Additional defenses at these locations may be required. ''[Note: On one 6x7 map [[horse]]s and other animals were also found to appear one embark unit (48 squares) left and up from the lower right corner, inside or atop the walls of a 5x5 doorless enclosure. Defend all leaks...]''

==== Design considerations ====

* The moat should be designed to prevent entry except by falling from both sides. (Otherwise inside and outside forces might be tempted to shake hands from adjacent squares.) Despite an abundance of giant corkscrews, grates, ballista bolts, etc., no one has ever invented the ladder, so this keeps anyone from entering or leaving the rest of the map.
* The moat should be dry, because sooner or later you will be tempted to let someone visit the edge to loot goblins or hunt varmints, and next thing you know your Legendary Weaponsmith who outpaces all your smelters will be whiling away his time carrying a leather thong to a stockpile when he runs into a groundhog and decides to react by jumping into the moat and holding his breath beneath the shallow waters until he drowns. (As always, the notice that he has drowned is the first you'll hear of it)
* The moat doesn't actually ''need'' to be adjacent to the edge of the map except when conserving valuable surface terrain (such as [[tree|trees]] on a map that is mostly rock). It is easier to free trapped miners when they can dig further outward, and placing the moat on the sixth or further square in from the edge allows further modification with floodgates, walls, and doors. Any [[channel]]ing permanently changes the dug-out tile to "Light Above Ground", which restricts these features from tiles near the edge even if floors are later constructed to close the space.
* Because migrants might turn up near wild animals or be followed closely by [[goblin|goblins]], it is nice to wall off the last square in shorter segments. Each one or two segments are served by a separate lever bridge. This can be done by:
** Natural barriers. The map edge is mostly continuous ramp, but occasionally a break appears on an uneven surface, by a river channel, etc.
** Floors. Building a square of floor over a ramp at the map's edge makes the ramp unusable.
** You can build drawbridges up to the edge and raise them. This will completely obstruct passage of almost every creature.
* Migrants, thieves, and sieges turn up all around the map, and can be allowed in by remote controlled bridges. (Doors will not hold back [[building destroyer]]s, and remote [[lever]] control is needed because other gates can be "taken by invaders" and become non-lockable.) Invaders can be allowed in by small groups and fought if desired, or preferably admitted into underground zigzags with a door waiting to be locked at the far end once they get close to it. If most of the invaders can be trapped inside such spaces, the remainder will stand and be wiped out completely without retreating.

===Simple 5x5 Archer's Tower===
{{main|Archery tower}}

Build a [[tower]] specifically to post archers on, possibly away from your main defenses. This lets you open fire before the enemy approaches your gates. A pillbox can be attached to your walls, or separate, so that the only access is from tunnels below. These tunnels can stretch across the map, and only need be 1-tile big if no regular traffic is expected. Construct [[wall]]s up to the second or third floor and then carve fortifications into them, so your dwarves can fire out. For extra usefulness, build a [[barracks]], [[archery target]], [[food]] [[stockpile]], [[well]] and/or [[dining room]] in or near the tower. Add a door or hatch to lock them in.

When placing multiple towers, know that crossbows have a range of 20 tiles, so, depending on whether you want overlapping fire or not (and how intense/accurate), anywhere from maybe 15 to 38 tiles between the edge of the towers is recommended. Crossbows actually have their range ''reduced'' by extra height in DF, so all you need is 1 level up to keep enemy archers from using your fortifications against you, and you're set. (Channeling a defensive moat further out will also work, moving potential enemy archers even further away, but also moving non-missile targets that far as well.)

====Siege engine turrets====
If it's big enough, build a [[siege engine]] inside a pillbox. Since siege engines cannot fire at targets higher or lower than them, the device needs to be on the same [[z-level]] as any targets, but this could be across a large gap to a nearby plateau. Only a single tile of fortifications is needed to fire through the wall. Position the tower to fire where invaders tend to congregate.

You will want to guarantee that enemies do not approach the position and scare the civilian operators - this distance has been reported to be up to 20 tiles or so. Dig a moat, have some intervening valley or build some secondary fortifications to keep enemies at a distance. Unlike walls, fortifications on the same z-level do not block siege engine missiles, at any range. Unfortunately, if an enemy can walk up to them, fortifications will protect enemies from your archery fire (but not siege engine fire.)

''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

===Control Room===
Have one (large?) room (or several stacked on top of each other) for all defense-related levers, and central to idle dwarves - near your [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]]s and [[noble]]s quarters, with one or more halls or stairs leading to it for quick access. Connect a lever to all those doors and hatches as the first lever to be pulled in an emergency, and the respondent will lock themselves in for you, guaranteeing that they will then have nothing else to do but stay there and pull levers. This can, however, backfire when your chosen dwarf decides to go [[on break]], take a nap, or throw a [[tantrum]] in the middle of a crisis.

It may also be an idea to have a second lever to at least one door, for emergency access. And possibly to add a stockpile of booze and food or a well for longer sieges.

===AI abuse===
Taking advantage of the game's Artificial Intelligence and [[path]]finding is a whole article in itself. Try leaving a door un-forbidden during an attack. When the bad guys approach the door, forbid it, and the enemy will wander off. Unlock it again, and they turn around and head back towards the door again. You can get enemies to march back and forth over a set of traps this way, or lure them deep into a complex trap. This could be fully automated via [[pressure plate]]s if you're feeling adventurous. (Even if you're a stickler for realism, you can justify this method as way of letting Urist McRedshirt taunt the invaders into your hall-o-fun.)

===Bait animal===
[[Restraint|Restraining]] or [[Pasture|pasturing]] a sacrificial animal just outside your walls, but within range of your marksdwarves and/or siege engines, can lure an enemy into attacking that while you cut them down. Make sure to place a pattern of some walls (or statues, see below) so enemy archers cannot simply shoot the creature from a safe distance.

=====Fortifications=====
Adding a ring of fortifications to help defend the animal against missile fire will keep melee troops away, but invite archers to come adjacent to the fortifications - and under your walls and crossbows. If you allow any path, the melee troops will try to follow it to the animal - be creative with that fact.

=====Traps=====
Surround the animal with traps to kill or capture approaching goblins.

Build a long, narrow, and twisty passage, accessible from the outside, possibly even unconnected to your fortress. Build as many simple traps as you like. Place a bait animal inside. Enemy attackers walk right in, and get torn apart by the traps. If any manage to make it to the end, and kill the useless animal, they're surrounded by traps, and no closer to your fortress.

If the animal is underground, you can build a tunnel above it, channel down, and mark the channel a [[Activity_zone|pit/pond]]. That way, you can "reload" a new bait animal from the safety of your fortress. Note that this requires using a non-pet-passable door and that falls more than a couple z-levels may injure your bait.

=====Distractions=====
Releasing a [[cage]] full of surplus animals will keep the enemy archers very busy. They may even be out of ammo when your wrestlers show up. This can be useful as an emergency measure since the animals need to be stored somewhere anyway.

Alternatively, you can use remotely-actuated doors tied to a [[repeater]]: open providing a tempting target for enemy archers, then closed to block their arrows and protect the bait. Similarly, a captured [[necromancer]] can continually raise a few undead to give enemy archers easy targets to pincushion.

[[Minecart]]-riding dwarves can easily distract enemy archers--and if they are moving fast enough they'll be very difficult to hit. Getting your own archers to ride in the minecart, however, is quite a chore.

=====Vanishing act=====
Having a linked drawbridge that can open/shut (perhaps on both a lever to open and a nearby pressure plate to close), to lure the enemy in under your guns and then protect the animal when they get too close (for multiple uses.)

=====Vs. building destroyers=====
For [[building destroyer|building destroyers]], spare furniture can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control their movements.

=====Trap chokepoints=====
Enemies can be herded by constructed features. If you have a particular zone covered by catapults and would like enemies to pass through it, strategically placed walls can make enemy pathfinding more favorable. A trap occupying a single tile in the middle of a barren plain is likely to never get triggered. However, if walls are placed in a cross-hair pattern around the trap, animals and invaders are much more likely to pass over it as they wander across the map. This can be a very useful trick when capturing wildlife with cage traps.

<pre>
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
═════^═════
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
</pre>

=====Pathing slowdowns=====
If you're playing on a low-powered machine and you close up all entrances to your fortress during a siege, your game may grind to a halt and/or crash as the siegers continuously fail at pathfinding into your fortress. Bait animals may alleviate this.

=====Goblin loyalty is a beautiful thing.=====
Don't use cage traps as the front line of defense, as currently, a goblin squad will follow its leader indefinitely, and if its leader is caught in a cage the rest of the goblins will just stand there until they find [[Wood cutter|something]] [[fisherdwarf|to]] [[hunter|do]] rather than exploring the lovely, pointy playground you've created.

On the other hand, this can be a fantastic way to train your siege operators, as the entire squad will valiantly stand guard at their leader's cage even in the face of overwhelming barrages of stone and metal, and unlike a bait animal neither the goblins nor your own attacks will kill their caged leader. Leave them alone long enough, and they'll eventually start killing their own deserters!

==Entrance designs==

===Airlock defenses/buffer zone===
Build two walls, each with a drawbridge. Build the trade depot in the buffer zone between them. Keep the outer bridge open, and the inner one closed. When the merchants appear, put crossbows on the walls to guard their approach. Once all the merchants are safely inside, close the outer bridge. Once there's no enemies left in the buffer zone, open the inner bridge so your civilians can start loading up the depot.

The airlock pattern can be useful even without putting the depot there. Let a few siegers in at a time, and crush them. Reset the traps, rest up the soldiers, and repeat.

===Siege Engines===
''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

One way to have [[siege engine]]s (help) defend your fortress is:

'''One ballista vs 3-wide hallway'''
══════════════════════════╦═════
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▄/
══════════════════════════╩═════

Using this design you can (theoretically) cripple an army using a well timed volley. The hallway can be much longer than shown if you wish, as ballistae have extended ranges well over 100 tiles. The channeled area is necessary, as civilians (siege operators are "civilians") will run when enemies get within about 5-10 tiles of them, regardless of the actual path to that threat.

====Ballista battery====
Three (or more!) ballistae can be put into a "battery" if overlapped - one per tile-width of the hallway, with each ballista aiming down their row of tiles.

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬ ╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«▐▄/ (~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/ (~ammo~)
╚═════════

Be sure to use fortifications to prevent dwarves from wandering in front of the ballista to their deaths. If desired (and you have the <s>man</s>dwarfpower to spare), catapults may be put behind those, as they shoot safely ''over'' workers in front of them. Although less effective than ballistae, it's a little more firepower - and that can't be a bad thing.

For added flavour, channel out one or more tiles down the length of the 3-wide hallway and install retractable bridges. When invaders attack, retract the bridges, forcing them into paths that are only 1-tile wide.

Adding additional channels on either side of the hall will allow stray ammo to be recovered at a later time. Make sure to add locked doors, to prevent siege operators from walking down below enemy archers during a battle.

===Flooded entrance===
Using a chamber as your entrance alongside a chamber full of water and some machinery you can flood or drain the entrance at will.

The basic premise requires two levers, two [[screw pump]]s and two [[Gear assembly|gear assemblies]]. The amount of power required and the number of additional components needed to get the power to the screw pumps varies depending on distance/setup. One pump is placed to draw from chamber 1 and dump into chamber 2. The other is set in reverse. A gear assembly is placed next to each pump and connected to the main power system. Each gear is linked to a lever. Now at the flip of a switch you can submerge your entrance with [[water]] or [[magma]] for easy, secure defense against creatures that aren't amphibious or magma-dwelling, depending.

[[Image:Entflood.jpg|200px]]

The picture above shows the design in action. The green pump is currently on while the red has been disconnected through the grey marked axle. The yellow X is just to mark that there is a channel under the axle.

An alternative that uses gravity rather than screw pumps (but works only if you have a volcano or surface river, a subterranean entrance chamber, and easy access to a cavern layer) is to dig a tunnel fitted with a floodgate or similar valve between a volcano or surface river and your entrance chamber. A second tunnel equipped with an appropriate valve mechanism allows the user to drain the chamber into a cavern layer. A grate can also be integrated into your drainage system to prevent the loss of valuable [[goblinite]] or similar remains.

=== The "Reverse Battlement" design ===

Level Z+0 (ground):
...............
F ═══════════════
O .≥.g≥...g......
R ..≤......g.....
T ...g≤..g....... <-- enemies enter here
R ..≥......g.....
E .g.≤.........g.
S ═══════════════
S ...............

Level Z+1 (bridge):

E ║+++║
N +++++║+++║+++++
T ╬☺++║
R ╬☺++║
A ╬☺++║ <-- archers shoot them from up above
N ╬☺++║
C ╬☺++║
E +++++║+++║+++++
║+++║

Note that in this diagram, the fortress interior is to the West, and the enemy forces come from the East. The marksdwarves on the bridge with the [[fortification]]s are one level above the [[goblin]]s (or other attackers), who will pass under the bridge and charge on toward the west. As they move past the bridge they are targeted from behind (which is one level above) by the marksdwarves waiting in ambush. This allows the marksdwarves to face far fewer enemies at any one time, at least to begin with, and any dangerous enemy archers will remain close to the bridge, hopefully under the concentrated fire of your marksdwarves.

If you're feeling especially nasty, make the tunnel really long into the mountain and add a ballista battery (see above).

''(Adding ammo stockpiles, of your best quality bolts, to these stations will speed up reloading for longer sieges/battles. Even adding small, convenient food and alcohol stockpiles is not unheard of. Some designers place access to/from archery ranges very close to these stations, for faster deployment.)''

===Twisty maze===
A maze of turns and blindspots patrolled by quality military can be a very formidable defense. Wide enough for wagons to pass though, but with no clear shots for any ranged weapons. Missile weapons do have a minimum range, so if a target is closer than that range, they will instead just charge to melee - and meet a dwarf with a much better melee skill. Downside to this is that you'd be mixing it up in melee all the time, but so long as you have at least 10 dwarves greeting the goblins as one coherent mass, you should win.

Variations on the twisty maze include:

*A wagon-wide twisty maze, and a not-so-twisty 1-tile wide hall o'traps, with a drawbridge that can force one or the other as the only [[path]] into your fortress.

*Making the side of the maze into fortifications, with a channel separating the fortifications from the actual floor of the maze, and having your archery targets on the other side of the fortifications so your marksdwarves can practice. When the goblins round the corner, they charge through a hail of crossbow bolts, and drop dead.

===Forced Detour===

This particular design works well with plenty of archers, siege engines, and other ranged weaponry. A walled maze gives melee an advantage, but an open maze gives advantage to ranged attackers.
<diagram>
++++++++++++++++++Entrance
╔═╦════════════════0╞═╡0 <-- Bridge 1
║<║ +++║
║☺╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║+╬ + 0╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 2
║+╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╣+++║
║☺╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+>║+++║
║+╬ + ╬+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬║+++║
║+╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+<║+++║
║☺╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++║
║+╬ + +++║
║+╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║☺╬ +++║
║+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╗ +++║
║+☺++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺║ +++║
╚═════════════════╩╗+++║
║╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 3
Fortress
</diagram>
The 3 tile wide lane is for traders, so if your [[trade depot]] is located before this set-up, cut it down to a 1 tile lane to slow down invaders more.

===Bridge Use===

[[Image:defense_3bridges.png|thumb|right]]
An example of bridge construction tactics to deal with vile forces of ''any'' size. (See picture).

*'''Bridge 1''' seals off the entire base
*'''Bridge 2''' forces everyone to take the long, winding, heavily trapped/defended path of death.
*'''Bridge 3''' seals the inside of the fortress

Clever triggering of the bridges allows you to break the hostile forces into smaller chunks to be trapped in the courtyard while being caught in traps and a crossfire of arrows from the fortifications around.

===Pulling it all together===

Using ballistae, marksdwarves, bridges, traps, and guard animals in tandem brings up a few more considerations.

*Be careful about positioning your marksdwarves and ballistae opposite each other as an unlucky ballista bolt might injure a marksdwarf on the other side.
*Ballista are operated by Dwarf civilians. Therefore putting your ballista right next to the path the [[Goblin_christmas|friendly neighbors]] use will cause your BallistaDwarfs to run off right as you want them to fire.
*Adding a stair back at the entrance of a trap hallway allows dwarves to access loot that falls; it also forces anything that dodges off the edge to walk the entire length again.
*Filling the walkway with traps is also highly recommended. Throwing random weapon traps around the map in high-traffic areas isn't a bad idea. Traps are cheap and effective, use them liberally.
*War animals are convenient for catching thieves. They also serve as bait. Don't place them where enemy archers can reach them easily, and keep them well out of range of the inevitable hailstorm of bolts.
*Bridges, and for non-building-destroyers, doors, can be used to control the movement of enemies.

<diagram>
Fortress
║╞═╡║
║D+D║ ╞═╡= Bridge
║D+D║ D = War Dog (chained)
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ║+++║ ^ = Trap c= cage trap
╔╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++╚╦══╗
/▀▌╔═══════════╦╝ +++ ╬ ║ P= Gathering Pit
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║ connected to
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ P║ Base next
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║ z-level down
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + ╞═╡ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║
\▄▌╚═══════════╩╗ +++++ ╬ ║
║ >+++++ ╬ ║
╚════════════════════╗+++++╔╩══╝
║╞═══╡║
Entrance
</diagram>

{{Military}}
{{category|Fortress defense}}
{{category|Design}}

Security design

2014-09-05T12:15:11Z

Scorpion451: /* Pulling it all together */

{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional}}

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Security design''' focuses on how to turn the physical layout and architecture of a fort into a defensible whole. For a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defence, see the '''[[defense guide]]'''. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see '''[[trap design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military design]]'''.

{{TipBox2|titlebg=#c00|textbg=#ffd|Warning!|Invaders can now [[jump]] and [[climb]] to a degree. Familiarize yourself with these mechanics before implementing these strategies. When in doubt, replacing pits with fortifications is probably a good first step.}}

==Standard key==

'''Key:'''
'''symbol tile'''
- Open space
+ - Constructed floor, or top of wall section from lower level
'''0''' - Isolated wall section
╔╦═╗
╠╬═╣ - Connected wall
║║ ║
╚╩═╝
╬ - Fortifications
X - Up/down [[stairs]]
< - Up stair
> - Down stair
▲ - Up ramp/slope
▼ - Down ramp/slope
. - natural ground
☺ - dwarf

==General suggestions==
General designs include suggestions that can be "plugged in" to a part of any typical fortress, and/or can be modified to suit a number of purposes. At the most basic level, a retracting bridge over a central stairway can isolate the surface from your fortress. On the truly labor-intensive end, you can fully enclose areas of wilderness you wish to utilize in walls or behind moats with the only access being from within your base. Hostile creatures, even 'invisible' ones like ambushers, start at map edges and travel across the map (except for a bug which occasionally causes creatures to spawn in the interior of the map).

===Surface isolation===
A bridge which can isolate your fortress from the surface at the pull of a [[lever]] is a very effective preliminary defense, and still serves as a backup plan when you add larger and more resource-intensive defenses. A raising bridge can be used if you dug your entrance into the side of a hill, or a retracting bridge over your central stairwell if you dug straight down from the surface. Retracting bridges have the advantage of being non-lethal to dwarves and animals (in the event of a lever-pulling mishap) but are a little more complicated to build.

===Meeting area as defense===

Especially in the very early game, you can use a [[Zone#Meeting_Area|meeting zone]] to attract animals and idle dwarves to a given area. This makes a pretty poor defense in general, but it's not a bad way to create an alarm system against minor threats such as [[thief|thieves]] and protect your stockpiles from pesky [[kea]], at least until you have something better (which won't be hard). Remove the zone later, or it attracts idle dwarves and children. Note that until you designate something else, the site of your wagon (even once deconstructed) is a default meeting area.

===Guard Animals===

Both [[thief|thieves]] and [[ambush]]es are invisible until something detects them - a dwarf, a [[caravan]], a wild creature, a [[domestic animal]], anything. Once this happens (even if it was triggered by a wild [[groundhog]] on the far edge of the map), the game will pause with the appropriate [[announcement]], forcing your attention to the situation - which is nice. Therefore, it's a common practice to use animals to act as alarm systems, by [[restraint|restrain]]ing or assigning them to a [[pasture]] in entryways.

There are some considerations to good placement of such animals. If you have a 1- or 2-wide hall, one animal is enough. If you have a 3-wide hallway, a single pastured animal placed in the middle is still sufficient, or you can restrain two animals, one at each side of the hall.

══════════ R = restraint
+++1R1++++ 1 = area of animal 1
+++bbb++++ 2 = area of animal 2
+++2R2++++ b = area of both
══════════

Either arrangement creates a thief-proof barrier against unannounced intrusion, as there is no combination of locations where an invisible enemy can sneak by without bumping into an animal. Caravans can pass over [[restraint]]s and [[pasture]]s and their contained creatures without problem (however, do note that wagons will not appear on the map edge if a creature is blocking their intended location). Guard animals can also see hidden enemies one z-level below them, so long as there is no intervening floor, so if space is tight you can also place them above your entranceway.

Unless you're happy losing these animals on a regular basis, you should try to keep them alive.
:* Put them around a corner or behind a U-bend, so archers cannot fire at them from a distance.
:* Don't have them as your "first line of defense"; put them deeper in the entry, behind some traps.
:* Put them inside, so flying creatures have to come down to their level to attack them.
:* Use [[window]]s to protect your guard animal (note, however, that some intruders may not be detected if they are not forced to move directly adjacent to your animal).
:* Consider using a [[pressure plate]] at the extreme entrance to seal off the hall further down and keep your guard animal(s) safe. Thieves won't trigger them, but the animals can deal with those - ambushes ''will'' trigger them, and you don't want them getting to your guard animals.

Remember that anything short of a [[megabeast]] is not a good match for an armoured opponent.{{verify}} While watching your tame [[grizzly bear]] or [[alligator]] tear a thief apart has an amusement value, watching the goblin maceman send them flying across the map, mangled and dying, has less.

[[Animal trainer|Hunting animals]] have better observation (sight range) than their regular or war counterparts.

===Basic entryway===
One of the more basic designs is a fortified wall surrounded a moat. The moat should be a channel at least three tiles wide to keep anything from jumping across into your fort. Dig one additional tile on each side to prevent creatures from climbing out of the moat. You can flood the moat if you like, however doing so actually reduces its effectiveness. The next step is to build a wall around the inside of the moat (at least one tile from the edge). Add a layer of fortifications on top of the wall to deter climbers and allow your marksdwarves to fire on enemies outside.

<diagram>
sideview

#
____ _▒_
░░░_____░░
</diagram>

===Defending the edge===
You're not allowed to wall within five squares of the edge of the map... but this rule has more loopholes than the US federal income tax code. Until more versatile attackers emerge, it is not clear where effective play ends and exploit begins. ''(Note: we disclaim any responsibility for damage involving [[harpy|harpies]] and skeletal [[giant eagle]]s)''

* To start with, you can channel the '''''second''''' square from the edge. This will block the appearance of trade caravan [[wagon]]s and prevent their movement along that edge of the map. Constructed track tiles (but not ramps) can also be used to block wagon movement.
* If there is only one wagon-accessible path to your Trade Depot, caravans will be forced to appear on that path. Limiting the caravan's options allows for better-prepared defenses along the caravan route.
* You can also build drawbridges all the way up to the edge. A long, skinny, raised bridge is effectively a wall; however, it looks the same whether it's open or closed.
* You can with some work use [[Obsidian]] casting to wall to the map edge

Train up diggers in soft soil and you can surround most of the map with a moat by the time the first migrants arrive. Be very, very wary of cave-ins, especially on highly sloped diagonal terrain - note that a downward ramp does not support adjacent floor tiles, and no tiles are supported diagonally.

Occasionally creatures have a strange habit of appearing well inside the map due to a bug. Additional defenses at these locations may be required. ''[Note: On one 6x7 map [[horse]]s and other animals were also found to appear one embark unit (48 squares) left and up from the lower right corner, inside or atop the walls of a 5x5 doorless enclosure. Defend all leaks...]''

==== Design considerations ====

* The moat should be designed to prevent entry except by falling from both sides. (Otherwise inside and outside forces might be tempted to shake hands from adjacent squares.) Despite an abundance of giant corkscrews, grates, ballista bolts, etc., no one has ever invented the ladder, so this keeps anyone from entering or leaving the rest of the map.
* The moat should be dry, because sooner or later you will be tempted to let someone visit the edge to loot goblins or hunt varmints, and next thing you know your Legendary Weaponsmith who outpaces all your smelters will be whiling away his time carrying a leather thong to a stockpile when he runs into a groundhog and decides to react by jumping into the moat and holding his breath beneath the shallow waters until he drowns. (As always, the notice that he has drowned is the first you'll hear of it)
* The moat doesn't actually ''need'' to be adjacent to the edge of the map except when conserving valuable surface terrain (such as [[tree|trees]] on a map that is mostly rock). It is easier to free trapped miners when they can dig further outward, and placing the moat on the sixth or further square in from the edge allows further modification with floodgates, walls, and doors. Any [[channel]]ing permanently changes the dug-out tile to "Light Above Ground", which restricts these features from tiles near the edge even if floors are later constructed to close the space.
* Because migrants might turn up near wild animals or be followed closely by [[goblin|goblins]], it is nice to wall off the last square in shorter segments. Each one or two segments are served by a separate lever bridge. This can be done by:
** Natural barriers. The map edge is mostly continuous ramp, but occasionally a break appears on an uneven surface, by a river channel, etc.
** Floors. Building a square of floor over a ramp at the map's edge makes the ramp unusable.
** You can build drawbridges up to the edge and raise them. This will completely obstruct passage of almost every creature.
* Migrants, thieves, and sieges turn up all around the map, and can be allowed in by remote controlled bridges. (Doors will not hold back [[building destroyer]]s, and remote [[lever]] control is needed because other gates can be "taken by invaders" and become non-lockable.) Invaders can be allowed in by small groups and fought if desired, or preferably admitted into underground zigzags with a door waiting to be locked at the far end once they get close to it. If most of the invaders can be trapped inside such spaces, the remainder will stand and be wiped out completely without retreating.

===Simple 5x5 Archer's Tower===
{{main|Archery tower}}

Build a [[tower]] specifically to post archers on, possibly away from your main defenses. This lets you open fire before the enemy approaches your gates. A pillbox can be attached to your walls, or separate, so that the only access is from tunnels below. These tunnels can stretch across the map, and only need be 1-tile big if no regular traffic is expected. Construct [[wall]]s up to the second or third floor and then carve fortifications into them, so your dwarves can fire out. For extra usefulness, build a [[barracks]], [[archery target]], [[food]] [[stockpile]], [[well]] and/or [[dining room]] in or near the tower. Add a door or hatch to lock them in.

When placing multiple towers, know that crossbows have a range of 20 tiles, so, depending on whether you want overlapping fire or not (and how intense/accurate), anywhere from maybe 15 to 38 tiles between the edge of the towers is recommended. Crossbows actually have their range ''reduced'' by extra height in DF, so all you need is 1 level up to keep enemy archers from using your fortifications against you, and you're set. (Channeling a defensive moat further out will also work, moving potential enemy archers even further away, but also moving non-missile targets that far as well.)

====Siege engine turrets====
If it's big enough, build a [[siege engine]] inside a pillbox. Since siege engines cannot fire at targets higher or lower than them, the device needs to be on the same [[z-level]] as any targets, but this could be across a large gap to a nearby plateau. Only a single tile of fortifications is needed to fire through the wall. Position the tower to fire where invaders tend to congregate.

You will want to guarantee that enemies do not approach the position and scare the civilian operators - this distance has been reported to be up to 20 tiles or so. Dig a moat, have some intervening valley or build some secondary fortifications to keep enemies at a distance. Unlike walls, fortifications on the same z-level do not block siege engine missiles, at any range. Unfortunately, if an enemy can walk up to them, fortifications will protect enemies from your archery fire (but not siege engine fire.)

''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

===Control Room===
Have one (large?) room (or several stacked on top of each other) for all defense-related levers, and central to idle dwarves - near your [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]]s and [[noble]]s quarters, with one or more halls or stairs leading to it for quick access. Connect a lever to all those doors and hatches as the first lever to be pulled in an emergency, and the respondent will lock themselves in for you, guaranteeing that they will then have nothing else to do but stay there and pull levers. This can, however, backfire when your chosen dwarf decides to go [[on break]], take a nap, or throw a [[tantrum]] in the middle of a crisis.

It may also be an idea to have a second lever to at least one door, for emergency access. And possibly to add a stockpile of booze and food or a well for longer sieges.

===AI abuse===
Taking advantage of the game's Artificial Intelligence and [[path]]finding is a whole article in itself. Try leaving a door un-forbidden during an attack. When the bad guys approach the door, forbid it, and the enemy will wander off. Unlock it again, and they turn around and head back towards the door again. You can get enemies to march back and forth over a set of traps this way, or lure them deep into a complex trap. This could be fully automated via [[pressure plate]]s if you're feeling adventurous. (Even if you're a stickler for realism, you can justify this method as way of letting Urist McRedshirt taunt the invaders into your hall-o-fun.)

===Bait animal===
[[Restraint|Restraining]] or [[Pasture|pasturing]] a sacrificial animal just outside your walls, but within range of your marksdwarves and/or siege engines, can lure an enemy into attacking that while you cut them down. Make sure to place a pattern of some walls (or statues, see below) so enemy archers cannot simply shoot the creature from a safe distance.

=====Fortifications=====
Adding a ring of fortifications to help defend the animal against missile fire will keep melee troops away, but invite archers to come adjacent to the fortifications - and under your walls and crossbows. If you allow any path, the melee troops will try to follow it to the animal - be creative with that fact.

=====Traps=====
Surround the animal with traps to kill or capture approaching goblins.

Build a long, narrow, and twisty passage, accessible from the outside, possibly even unconnected to your fortress. Build as many simple traps as you like. Place a bait animal inside. Enemy attackers walk right in, and get torn apart by the traps. If any manage to make it to the end, and kill the useless animal, they're surrounded by traps, and no closer to your fortress.

If the animal is underground, you can build a tunnel above it, channel down, and mark the channel a [[Activity_zone|pit/pond]]. That way, you can "reload" a new bait animal from the safety of your fortress. Note that this requires using a non-pet-passable door and that falls more than a couple z-levels may injure your bait.

=====Distractions=====
Releasing a [[cage]] full of surplus animals will keep the enemy archers very busy. They may even be out of ammo when your wrestlers show up. This can be useful as an emergency measure since the animals need to be stored somewhere anyway.

Alternatively, you can use remotely-actuated doors tied to a [[repeater]]: open providing a tempting target for enemy archers, then closed to block their arrows and protect the bait. Similarly, a captured [[necromancer]] can continually raise a few undead to give enemy archers easy targets to pincushion.

[[Minecart]]-riding dwarves can easily distract enemy archers--and if they are moving fast enough they'll be very difficult to hit. Getting your own archers to ride in the minecart, however, is quite a chore.

=====Vanishing act=====
Having a linked drawbridge that can open/shut (perhaps on both a lever to open and a nearby pressure plate to close), to lure the enemy in under your guns and then protect the animal when they get too close (for multiple uses.)

=====Vs. building destroyers=====
For [[building destroyer|building destroyers]], spare furniture can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control their movements.

=====Trap chokepoints=====
Enemies can be herded by constructed features. If you have a particular zone covered by catapults and would like enemies to pass through it, strategically placed walls can make enemy pathfinding more favorable. A trap occupying a single tile in the middle of a barren plain is likely to never get triggered. However, if walls are placed in a cross-hair pattern around the trap, animals and invaders are much more likely to pass over it as they wander across the map. This can be a very useful trick when capturing wildlife with cage traps.

<pre>
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
═════^═════
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
</pre>

=====Pathing slowdowns=====
If you're playing on a low-powered machine and you close up all entrances to your fortress during a siege, your game may grind to a halt and/or crash as the siegers continuously fail at pathfinding into your fortress. Bait animals may alleviate this.

==Entrance designs==

===Airlock defenses/buffer zone===
Build two walls, each with a drawbridge. Build the trade depot in the buffer zone between them. Keep the outer bridge open, and the inner one closed. When the merchants appear, put crossbows on the walls to guard their approach. Once all the merchants are safely inside, close the outer bridge. Once there's no enemies left in the buffer zone, open the inner bridge so your civilians can start loading up the depot.

The airlock pattern can be useful even without putting the depot there. Let a few siegers in at a time, and crush them. Reset the traps, rest up the soldiers, and repeat.

===Siege Engines===
''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

One way to have [[siege engine]]s (help) defend your fortress is:

'''One ballista vs 3-wide hallway'''
══════════════════════════╦═════
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▄/
══════════════════════════╩═════

Using this design you can (theoretically) cripple an army using a well timed volley. The hallway can be much longer than shown if you wish, as ballistae have extended ranges well over 100 tiles. The channeled area is necessary, as civilians (siege operators are "civilians") will run when enemies get within about 5-10 tiles of them, regardless of the actual path to that threat.

====Ballista battery====
Three (or more!) ballistae can be put into a "battery" if overlapped - one per tile-width of the hallway, with each ballista aiming down their row of tiles.

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬ ╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«▐▄/ (~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/ (~ammo~)
╚═════════

Be sure to use fortifications to prevent dwarves from wandering in front of the ballista to their deaths. If desired (and you have the <s>man</s>dwarfpower to spare), catapults may be put behind those, as they shoot safely ''over'' workers in front of them. Although less effective than ballistae, it's a little more firepower - and that can't be a bad thing.

For added flavour, channel out one or more tiles down the length of the 3-wide hallway and install retractable bridges. When invaders attack, retract the bridges, forcing them into paths that are only 1-tile wide.

Adding additional channels on either side of the hall will allow stray ammo to be recovered at a later time. Make sure to add locked doors, to prevent siege operators from walking down below enemy archers during a battle.

===Flooded entrance===
Using a chamber as your entrance alongside a chamber full of water and some machinery you can flood or drain the entrance at will.

The basic premise requires two levers, two [[screw pump]]s and two [[Gear assembly|gear assemblies]]. The amount of power required and the number of additional components needed to get the power to the screw pumps varies depending on distance/setup. One pump is placed to draw from chamber 1 and dump into chamber 2. The other is set in reverse. A gear assembly is placed next to each pump and connected to the main power system. Each gear is linked to a lever. Now at the flip of a switch you can submerge your entrance with [[water]] or [[magma]] for easy, secure defense against creatures that aren't amphibious or magma-dwelling, depending.

[[Image:Entflood.jpg|200px]]

The picture above shows the design in action. The green pump is currently on while the red has been disconnected through the grey marked axle. The yellow X is just to mark that there is a channel under the axle.

An alternative that uses gravity rather than screw pumps (but works only if you have a volcano or surface river, a subterranean entrance chamber, and easy access to a cavern layer) is to dig a tunnel fitted with a floodgate or similar valve between a volcano or surface river and your entrance chamber. A second tunnel equipped with an appropriate valve mechanism allows the user to drain the chamber into a cavern layer. A grate can also be integrated into your drainage system to prevent the loss of valuable [[goblinite]] or similar remains.

=== The "Reverse Battlement" design ===

Level Z+0 (ground):
...............
F ═══════════════
O .≥.g≥...g......
R ..≤......g.....
T ...g≤..g....... <-- enemies enter here
R ..≥......g.....
E .g.≤.........g.
S ═══════════════
S ...............

Level Z+1 (bridge):

E ║+++║
N +++++║+++║+++++
T ╬☺++║
R ╬☺++║
A ╬☺++║ <-- archers shoot them from up above
N ╬☺++║
C ╬☺++║
E +++++║+++║+++++
║+++║

Note that in this diagram, the fortress interior is to the West, and the enemy forces come from the East. The marksdwarves on the bridge with the [[fortification]]s are one level above the [[goblin]]s (or other attackers), who will pass under the bridge and charge on toward the west. As they move past the bridge they are targeted from behind (which is one level above) by the marksdwarves waiting in ambush. This allows the marksdwarves to face far fewer enemies at any one time, at least to begin with, and any dangerous enemy archers will remain close to the bridge, hopefully under the concentrated fire of your marksdwarves.

If you're feeling especially nasty, make the tunnel really long into the mountain and add a ballista battery (see above).

''(Adding ammo stockpiles, of your best quality bolts, to these stations will speed up reloading for longer sieges/battles. Even adding small, convenient food and alcohol stockpiles is not unheard of. Some designers place access to/from archery ranges very close to these stations, for faster deployment.)''

===Twisty maze===
A maze of turns and blindspots patrolled by quality military can be a very formidable defense. Wide enough for wagons to pass though, but with no clear shots for any ranged weapons. Missile weapons do have a minimum range, so if a target is closer than that range, they will instead just charge to melee - and meet a dwarf with a much better melee skill. Downside to this is that you'd be mixing it up in melee all the time, but so long as you have at least 10 dwarves greeting the goblins as one coherent mass, you should win.

Variations on the twisty maze include:

*A wagon-wide twisty maze, and a not-so-twisty 1-tile wide hall o'traps, with a drawbridge that can force one or the other as the only [[path]] into your fortress.

*Making the side of the maze into fortifications, with a channel separating the fortifications from the actual floor of the maze, and having your archery targets on the other side of the fortifications so your marksdwarves can practice. When the goblins round the corner, they charge through a hail of crossbow bolts, and drop dead.

===Forced Detour===

This particular design works well with plenty of archers, siege engines, and other ranged weaponry. A walled maze gives melee an advantage, but an open maze gives advantage to ranged attackers.
<diagram>
++++++++++++++++++Entrance
╔═╦════════════════0╞═╡0 <-- Bridge 1
║<║ +++║
║☺╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║+╬ + 0╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 2
║+╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╣+++║
║☺╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+>║+++║
║+╬ + ╬+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬║+++║
║+╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+<║+++║
║☺╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++║
║+╬ + +++║
║+╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║☺╬ +++║
║+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╗ +++║
║+☺++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺║ +++║
╚═════════════════╩╗+++║
║╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 3
Fortress
</diagram>
The 3 tile wide lane is for traders, so if your [[trade depot]] is located before this set-up, cut it down to a 1 tile lane to slow down invaders more.

===Bridge Use===

[[Image:defense_3bridges.png|thumb|right]]
An example of bridge construction tactics to deal with vile forces of ''any'' size. (See picture).

*'''Bridge 1''' seals off the entire base
*'''Bridge 2''' forces everyone to take the long, winding, heavily trapped/defended path of death.
*'''Bridge 3''' seals the inside of the fortress

Clever triggering of the bridges allows you to break the hostile forces into smaller chunks to be trapped in the courtyard while being caught in traps and a crossfire of arrows from the fortifications around.

===Pulling it all together===

Using ballistae, marksdwarves, bridges, traps, and guard animals in tandem brings up a few more considerations.

*Be careful about positioning your marksdwarves and ballistae opposite each other as an unlucky ballista bolt might injure a marksdwarf on the other side.
*Ballista are operated by Dwarf civilians. Therefore putting your ballista right next to the path the [[Goblin_christmas|friendly neighbors]] use will cause your BallistaDwarfs to run off right as you want them to fire.
*Adding a stair back at the entrance of a trap hallway allows dwarves to access loot that falls; it also forces anything that dodges off the edge to walk the entire length again.
*Filling the walkway with traps is also highly recommended. Throwing random weapon traps around the map in high-traffic areas isn't a bad idea. Traps are cheap and effective, use them liberally.
*War animals are convenient for catching thieves. They also serve as bait. Don't place them where enemy archers can reach them easily, and keep them well out of range of the inevitable hailstorm of bolts.
*Bridges, and for non-building-destroyers, doors, can be used to control the movement of enemies.

<diagram>
Fortress
║╞═╡║
║D+D║ ╞═╡= Bridge
║D+D║ D = War Dog (chained)
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ║+++║ ^ = Trap c= cage trap
╔╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++╚╦══╗
/▀▌╔═══════════╦╝ +++ ╬ ║ P= Gathering Pit
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║ connected to
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ P║ Base next
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║ z-level down
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + ╞═╡ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║
\▄▌╚═══════════╩╗ +++++ ╬ ║
║ >+++++ ╬ ║
╚════════════════════╗+++++╔╩══╝
║╞═══╡║
Entrance
</diagram>

{{Military}}
{{category|Fortress defense}}
{{category|Design}}

Security design

2014-09-05T12:03:39Z

Scorpion451: /* AI abuse */

{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional}}

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Security design''' focuses on how to turn the physical layout and architecture of a fort into a defensible whole. For a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defence, see the '''[[defense guide]]'''. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see '''[[trap design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military design]]'''.

{{TipBox2|titlebg=#c00|textbg=#ffd|Warning!|Invaders can now [[jump]] and [[climb]] to a degree. Familiarize yourself with these mechanics before implementing these strategies. When in doubt, replacing pits with fortifications is probably a good first step.}}

==Standard key==

'''Key:'''
'''symbol tile'''
- Open space
+ - Constructed floor, or top of wall section from lower level
'''0''' - Isolated wall section
╔╦═╗
╠╬═╣ - Connected wall
║║ ║
╚╩═╝
╬ - Fortifications
X - Up/down [[stairs]]
< - Up stair
> - Down stair
▲ - Up ramp/slope
▼ - Down ramp/slope
. - natural ground
☺ - dwarf

==General suggestions==
General designs include suggestions that can be "plugged in" to a part of any typical fortress, and/or can be modified to suit a number of purposes. At the most basic level, a retracting bridge over a central stairway can isolate the surface from your fortress. On the truly labor-intensive end, you can fully enclose areas of wilderness you wish to utilize in walls or behind moats with the only access being from within your base. Hostile creatures, even 'invisible' ones like ambushers, start at map edges and travel across the map (except for a bug which occasionally causes creatures to spawn in the interior of the map).

===Surface isolation===
A bridge which can isolate your fortress from the surface at the pull of a [[lever]] is a very effective preliminary defense, and still serves as a backup plan when you add larger and more resource-intensive defenses. A raising bridge can be used if you dug your entrance into the side of a hill, or a retracting bridge over your central stairwell if you dug straight down from the surface. Retracting bridges have the advantage of being non-lethal to dwarves and animals (in the event of a lever-pulling mishap) but are a little more complicated to build.

===Meeting area as defense===

Especially in the very early game, you can use a [[Zone#Meeting_Area|meeting zone]] to attract animals and idle dwarves to a given area. This makes a pretty poor defense in general, but it's not a bad way to create an alarm system against minor threats such as [[thief|thieves]] and protect your stockpiles from pesky [[kea]], at least until you have something better (which won't be hard). Remove the zone later, or it attracts idle dwarves and children. Note that until you designate something else, the site of your wagon (even once deconstructed) is a default meeting area.

===Guard Animals===

Both [[thief|thieves]] and [[ambush]]es are invisible until something detects them - a dwarf, a [[caravan]], a wild creature, a [[domestic animal]], anything. Once this happens (even if it was triggered by a wild [[groundhog]] on the far edge of the map), the game will pause with the appropriate [[announcement]], forcing your attention to the situation - which is nice. Therefore, it's a common practice to use animals to act as alarm systems, by [[restraint|restrain]]ing or assigning them to a [[pasture]] in entryways.

There are some considerations to good placement of such animals. If you have a 1- or 2-wide hall, one animal is enough. If you have a 3-wide hallway, a single pastured animal placed in the middle is still sufficient, or you can restrain two animals, one at each side of the hall.

══════════ R = restraint
+++1R1++++ 1 = area of animal 1
+++bbb++++ 2 = area of animal 2
+++2R2++++ b = area of both
══════════

Either arrangement creates a thief-proof barrier against unannounced intrusion, as there is no combination of locations where an invisible enemy can sneak by without bumping into an animal. Caravans can pass over [[restraint]]s and [[pasture]]s and their contained creatures without problem (however, do note that wagons will not appear on the map edge if a creature is blocking their intended location). Guard animals can also see hidden enemies one z-level below them, so long as there is no intervening floor, so if space is tight you can also place them above your entranceway.

Unless you're happy losing these animals on a regular basis, you should try to keep them alive.
:* Put them around a corner or behind a U-bend, so archers cannot fire at them from a distance.
:* Don't have them as your "first line of defense"; put them deeper in the entry, behind some traps.
:* Put them inside, so flying creatures have to come down to their level to attack them.
:* Use [[window]]s to protect your guard animal (note, however, that some intruders may not be detected if they are not forced to move directly adjacent to your animal).
:* Consider using a [[pressure plate]] at the extreme entrance to seal off the hall further down and keep your guard animal(s) safe. Thieves won't trigger them, but the animals can deal with those - ambushes ''will'' trigger them, and you don't want them getting to your guard animals.

Remember that anything short of a [[megabeast]] is not a good match for an armoured opponent.{{verify}} While watching your tame [[grizzly bear]] or [[alligator]] tear a thief apart has an amusement value, watching the goblin maceman send them flying across the map, mangled and dying, has less.

[[Animal trainer|Hunting animals]] have better observation (sight range) than their regular or war counterparts.

===Basic entryway===
One of the more basic designs is a fortified wall surrounded a moat. The moat should be a channel at least three tiles wide to keep anything from jumping across into your fort. Dig one additional tile on each side to prevent creatures from climbing out of the moat. You can flood the moat if you like, however doing so actually reduces its effectiveness. The next step is to build a wall around the inside of the moat (at least one tile from the edge). Add a layer of fortifications on top of the wall to deter climbers and allow your marksdwarves to fire on enemies outside.

<diagram>
sideview

#
____ _▒_
░░░_____░░
</diagram>

===Defending the edge===
You're not allowed to wall within five squares of the edge of the map... but this rule has more loopholes than the US federal income tax code. Until more versatile attackers emerge, it is not clear where effective play ends and exploit begins. ''(Note: we disclaim any responsibility for damage involving [[harpy|harpies]] and skeletal [[giant eagle]]s)''

* To start with, you can channel the '''''second''''' square from the edge. This will block the appearance of trade caravan [[wagon]]s and prevent their movement along that edge of the map. Constructed track tiles (but not ramps) can also be used to block wagon movement.
* If there is only one wagon-accessible path to your Trade Depot, caravans will be forced to appear on that path. Limiting the caravan's options allows for better-prepared defenses along the caravan route.
* You can also build drawbridges all the way up to the edge. A long, skinny, raised bridge is effectively a wall; however, it looks the same whether it's open or closed.
* You can with some work use [[Obsidian]] casting to wall to the map edge

Train up diggers in soft soil and you can surround most of the map with a moat by the time the first migrants arrive. Be very, very wary of cave-ins, especially on highly sloped diagonal terrain - note that a downward ramp does not support adjacent floor tiles, and no tiles are supported diagonally.

Occasionally creatures have a strange habit of appearing well inside the map due to a bug. Additional defenses at these locations may be required. ''[Note: On one 6x7 map [[horse]]s and other animals were also found to appear one embark unit (48 squares) left and up from the lower right corner, inside or atop the walls of a 5x5 doorless enclosure. Defend all leaks...]''

==== Design considerations ====

* The moat should be designed to prevent entry except by falling from both sides. (Otherwise inside and outside forces might be tempted to shake hands from adjacent squares.) Despite an abundance of giant corkscrews, grates, ballista bolts, etc., no one has ever invented the ladder, so this keeps anyone from entering or leaving the rest of the map.
* The moat should be dry, because sooner or later you will be tempted to let someone visit the edge to loot goblins or hunt varmints, and next thing you know your Legendary Weaponsmith who outpaces all your smelters will be whiling away his time carrying a leather thong to a stockpile when he runs into a groundhog and decides to react by jumping into the moat and holding his breath beneath the shallow waters until he drowns. (As always, the notice that he has drowned is the first you'll hear of it)
* The moat doesn't actually ''need'' to be adjacent to the edge of the map except when conserving valuable surface terrain (such as [[tree|trees]] on a map that is mostly rock). It is easier to free trapped miners when they can dig further outward, and placing the moat on the sixth or further square in from the edge allows further modification with floodgates, walls, and doors. Any [[channel]]ing permanently changes the dug-out tile to "Light Above Ground", which restricts these features from tiles near the edge even if floors are later constructed to close the space.
* Because migrants might turn up near wild animals or be followed closely by [[goblin|goblins]], it is nice to wall off the last square in shorter segments. Each one or two segments are served by a separate lever bridge. This can be done by:
** Natural barriers. The map edge is mostly continuous ramp, but occasionally a break appears on an uneven surface, by a river channel, etc.
** Floors. Building a square of floor over a ramp at the map's edge makes the ramp unusable.
** You can build drawbridges up to the edge and raise them. This will completely obstruct passage of almost every creature.
* Migrants, thieves, and sieges turn up all around the map, and can be allowed in by remote controlled bridges. (Doors will not hold back [[building destroyer]]s, and remote [[lever]] control is needed because other gates can be "taken by invaders" and become non-lockable.) Invaders can be allowed in by small groups and fought if desired, or preferably admitted into underground zigzags with a door waiting to be locked at the far end once they get close to it. If most of the invaders can be trapped inside such spaces, the remainder will stand and be wiped out completely without retreating.

===Simple 5x5 Archer's Tower===
{{main|Archery tower}}

Build a [[tower]] specifically to post archers on, possibly away from your main defenses. This lets you open fire before the enemy approaches your gates. A pillbox can be attached to your walls, or separate, so that the only access is from tunnels below. These tunnels can stretch across the map, and only need be 1-tile big if no regular traffic is expected. Construct [[wall]]s up to the second or third floor and then carve fortifications into them, so your dwarves can fire out. For extra usefulness, build a [[barracks]], [[archery target]], [[food]] [[stockpile]], [[well]] and/or [[dining room]] in or near the tower. Add a door or hatch to lock them in.

When placing multiple towers, know that crossbows have a range of 20 tiles, so, depending on whether you want overlapping fire or not (and how intense/accurate), anywhere from maybe 15 to 38 tiles between the edge of the towers is recommended. Crossbows actually have their range ''reduced'' by extra height in DF, so all you need is 1 level up to keep enemy archers from using your fortifications against you, and you're set. (Channeling a defensive moat further out will also work, moving potential enemy archers even further away, but also moving non-missile targets that far as well.)

====Siege engine turrets====
If it's big enough, build a [[siege engine]] inside a pillbox. Since siege engines cannot fire at targets higher or lower than them, the device needs to be on the same [[z-level]] as any targets, but this could be across a large gap to a nearby plateau. Only a single tile of fortifications is needed to fire through the wall. Position the tower to fire where invaders tend to congregate.

You will want to guarantee that enemies do not approach the position and scare the civilian operators - this distance has been reported to be up to 20 tiles or so. Dig a moat, have some intervening valley or build some secondary fortifications to keep enemies at a distance. Unlike walls, fortifications on the same z-level do not block siege engine missiles, at any range. Unfortunately, if an enemy can walk up to them, fortifications will protect enemies from your archery fire (but not siege engine fire.)

''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

===Control Room===
Have one (large?) room (or several stacked on top of each other) for all defense-related levers, and central to idle dwarves - near your [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]]s and [[noble]]s quarters, with one or more halls or stairs leading to it for quick access. Connect a lever to all those doors and hatches as the first lever to be pulled in an emergency, and the respondent will lock themselves in for you, guaranteeing that they will then have nothing else to do but stay there and pull levers. This can, however, backfire when your chosen dwarf decides to go [[on break]], take a nap, or throw a [[tantrum]] in the middle of a crisis.

It may also be an idea to have a second lever to at least one door, for emergency access. And possibly to add a stockpile of booze and food or a well for longer sieges.

===AI abuse===
Taking advantage of the game's Artificial Intelligence and [[path]]finding is a whole article in itself. Try leaving a door un-forbidden during an attack. When the bad guys approach the door, forbid it, and the enemy will wander off. Unlock it again, and they turn around and head back towards the door again. You can get enemies to march back and forth over a set of traps this way, or lure them deep into a complex trap. This could be fully automated via [[pressure plate]]s if you're feeling adventurous. (Even if you're a stickler for realism, you can justify this method as way of letting Urist McRedshirt taunt the invaders into your hall-o-fun.)

===Bait animal===
[[Restraint|Restraining]] or [[Pasture|pasturing]] a sacrificial animal just outside your walls, but within range of your marksdwarves and/or siege engines, can lure an enemy into attacking that while you cut them down. Make sure to place a pattern of some walls (or statues, see below) so enemy archers cannot simply shoot the creature from a safe distance.

=====Fortifications=====
Adding a ring of fortifications to help defend the animal against missile fire will keep melee troops away, but invite archers to come adjacent to the fortifications - and under your walls and crossbows. If you allow any path, the melee troops will try to follow it to the animal - be creative with that fact.

=====Traps=====
Surround the animal with traps to kill or capture approaching goblins.

Build a long, narrow, and twisty passage, accessible from the outside, possibly even unconnected to your fortress. Build as many simple traps as you like. Place a bait animal inside. Enemy attackers walk right in, and get torn apart by the traps. If any manage to make it to the end, and kill the useless animal, they're surrounded by traps, and no closer to your fortress.

If the animal is underground, you can build a tunnel above it, channel down, and mark the channel a [[Activity_zone|pit/pond]]. That way, you can "reload" a new bait animal from the safety of your fortress. Note that this requires using a non-pet-passable door and that falls more than a couple z-levels may injure your bait.

=====Distractions=====
Releasing a [[cage]] full of surplus animals will keep the enemy archers very busy. They may even be out of ammo when your wrestlers show up. This can be useful as an emergency measure since the animals need to be stored somewhere anyway.

Alternatively, you can use remotely-actuated doors tied to a [[repeater]]: open providing a tempting target for enemy archers, then closed to block their arrows and protect the bait. Similarly, a captured [[necromancer]] can continually raise a few undead to give enemy archers easy targets to pincushion.

[[Minecart]]-riding dwarves can easily distract enemy archers--and if they are moving fast enough they'll be very difficult to hit. Getting your own archers to ride in the minecart, however, is quite a chore.

=====Vanishing act=====
Having a linked drawbridge that can open/shut (perhaps on both a lever to open and a nearby pressure plate to close), to lure the enemy in under your guns and then protect the animal when they get too close (for multiple uses.)

=====Vs. building destroyers=====
For [[building destroyer|building destroyers]], spare furniture can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control their movements.

=====Trap chokepoints=====
Enemies can be herded by constructed features. If you have a particular zone covered by catapults and would like enemies to pass through it, strategically placed walls can make enemy pathfinding more favorable. A trap occupying a single tile in the middle of a barren plain is likely to never get triggered. However, if walls are placed in a cross-hair pattern around the trap, animals and invaders are much more likely to pass over it as they wander across the map. This can be a very useful trick when capturing wildlife with cage traps.

<pre>
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
═════^═════
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
</pre>

=====Pathing slowdowns=====
If you're playing on a low-powered machine and you close up all entrances to your fortress during a siege, your game may grind to a halt and/or crash as the siegers continuously fail at pathfinding into your fortress. Bait animals may alleviate this.

==Entrance designs==

===Airlock defenses/buffer zone===
Build two walls, each with a drawbridge. Build the trade depot in the buffer zone between them. Keep the outer bridge open, and the inner one closed. When the merchants appear, put crossbows on the walls to guard their approach. Once all the merchants are safely inside, close the outer bridge. Once there's no enemies left in the buffer zone, open the inner bridge so your civilians can start loading up the depot.

The airlock pattern can be useful even without putting the depot there. Let a few siegers in at a time, and crush them. Reset the traps, rest up the soldiers, and repeat.

===Siege Engines===
''[Note: Due to a number of outstanding bugs, siege engines are generally quite ineffective...]''

One way to have [[siege engine]]s (help) defend your fortress is:

'''One ballista vs 3-wide hallway'''
══════════════════════════╦═════
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ║▐▄/
══════════════════════════╩═════

Using this design you can (theoretically) cripple an army using a well timed volley. The hallway can be much longer than shown if you wish, as ballistae have extended ranges well over 100 tiles. The channeled area is necessary, as civilians (siege operators are "civilians") will run when enemies get within about 5-10 tiles of them, regardless of the actual path to that threat.

====Ballista battery====
Three (or more!) ballistae can be put into a "battery" if overlapped - one per tile-width of the hallway, with each ballista aiming down their row of tiles.

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬ ╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼ ╬◄═«▐▄/ (~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/ (~ammo~)
╚═════════

Be sure to use fortifications to prevent dwarves from wandering in front of the ballista to their deaths. If desired (and you have the <s>man</s>dwarfpower to spare), catapults may be put behind those, as they shoot safely ''over'' workers in front of them. Although less effective than ballistae, it's a little more firepower - and that can't be a bad thing.

For added flavour, channel out one or more tiles down the length of the 3-wide hallway and install retractable bridges. When invaders attack, retract the bridges, forcing them into paths that are only 1-tile wide.

Adding additional channels on either side of the hall will allow stray ammo to be recovered at a later time. Make sure to add locked doors, to prevent siege operators from walking down below enemy archers during a battle.

===Flooded entrance===
Using a chamber as your entrance alongside a chamber full of water and some machinery you can flood or drain the entrance at will.

The basic premise requires two levers, two [[screw pump]]s and two [[Gear assembly|gear assemblies]]. The amount of power required and the number of additional components needed to get the power to the screw pumps varies depending on distance/setup. One pump is placed to draw from chamber 1 and dump into chamber 2. The other is set in reverse. A gear assembly is placed next to each pump and connected to the main power system. Each gear is linked to a lever. Now at the flip of a switch you can submerge your entrance with [[water]] or [[magma]] for easy, secure defense against creatures that aren't amphibious or magma-dwelling, depending.

[[Image:Entflood.jpg|200px]]

The picture above shows the design in action. The green pump is currently on while the red has been disconnected through the grey marked axle. The yellow X is just to mark that there is a channel under the axle.

An alternative that uses gravity rather than screw pumps (but works only if you have a volcano or surface river, a subterranean entrance chamber, and easy access to a cavern layer) is to dig a tunnel fitted with a floodgate or similar valve between a volcano or surface river and your entrance chamber. A second tunnel equipped with an appropriate valve mechanism allows the user to drain the chamber into a cavern layer. A grate can also be integrated into your drainage system to prevent the loss of valuable [[goblinite]] or similar remains.

=== The "Reverse Battlement" design ===

Level Z+0 (ground):
...............
F ═══════════════
O .≥.g≥...g......
R ..≤......g.....
T ...g≤..g....... <-- enemies enter here
R ..≥......g.....
E .g.≤.........g.
S ═══════════════
S ...............

Level Z+1 (bridge):

E ║+++║
N +++++║+++║+++++
T ╬☺++║
R ╬☺++║
A ╬☺++║ <-- archers shoot them from up above
N ╬☺++║
C ╬☺++║
E +++++║+++║+++++
║+++║

Note that in this diagram, the fortress interior is to the West, and the enemy forces come from the East. The marksdwarves on the bridge with the [[fortification]]s are one level above the [[goblin]]s (or other attackers), who will pass under the bridge and charge on toward the west. As they move past the bridge they are targeted from behind (which is one level above) by the marksdwarves waiting in ambush. This allows the marksdwarves to face far fewer enemies at any one time, at least to begin with, and any dangerous enemy archers will remain close to the bridge, hopefully under the concentrated fire of your marksdwarves.

If you're feeling especially nasty, make the tunnel really long into the mountain and add a ballista battery (see above).

''(Adding ammo stockpiles, of your best quality bolts, to these stations will speed up reloading for longer sieges/battles. Even adding small, convenient food and alcohol stockpiles is not unheard of. Some designers place access to/from archery ranges very close to these stations, for faster deployment.)''

===Twisty maze===
A maze of turns and blindspots patrolled by quality military can be a very formidable defense. Wide enough for wagons to pass though, but with no clear shots for any ranged weapons. Missile weapons do have a minimum range, so if a target is closer than that range, they will instead just charge to melee - and meet a dwarf with a much better melee skill. Downside to this is that you'd be mixing it up in melee all the time, but so long as you have at least 10 dwarves greeting the goblins as one coherent mass, you should win.

Variations on the twisty maze include:

*A wagon-wide twisty maze, and a not-so-twisty 1-tile wide hall o'traps, with a drawbridge that can force one or the other as the only [[path]] into your fortress.

*Making the side of the maze into fortifications, with a channel separating the fortifications from the actual floor of the maze, and having your archery targets on the other side of the fortifications so your marksdwarves can practice. When the goblins round the corner, they charge through a hail of crossbow bolts, and drop dead.

===Forced Detour===

This particular design works well with plenty of archers, siege engines, and other ranged weaponry. A walled maze gives melee an advantage, but an open maze gives advantage to ranged attackers.
<diagram>
++++++++++++++++++Entrance
╔═╦════════════════0╞═╡0 <-- Bridge 1
║<║ +++║
║☺╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║+╬ + 0╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 2
║+╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╣+++║
║☺╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+>║+++║
║+╬ + ╬+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬║+++║
║+╬ + ╬☺++☺++☺++☺+<║+++║
║☺╬ + ╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++║
║+╬ + +++║
║+╬ +++++++++++++++++++║
║☺╬ +++║
║+╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╗ +++║
║+☺++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺║ +++║
╚═════════════════╩╗+++║
║╞═╡║ <-- Bridge 3
Fortress
</diagram>
The 3 tile wide lane is for traders, so if your [[trade depot]] is located before this set-up, cut it down to a 1 tile lane to slow down invaders more.

===Bridge Use===

[[Image:defense_3bridges.png|thumb|right]]
An example of bridge construction tactics to deal with vile forces of ''any'' size. (See picture).

*'''Bridge 1''' seals off the entire base
*'''Bridge 2''' forces everyone to take the long, winding, heavily trapped/defended path of death.
*'''Bridge 3''' seals the inside of the fortress

Clever triggering of the bridges allows you to break the hostile forces into smaller chunks to be trapped in the courtyard while being caught in traps and a crossfire of arrows from the fortifications around.

===Pulling it all together===

Using ballistae, marksdwarves, bridges, traps, and guard animals in tandem brings up a few more considerations.

*Be careful about positioning your marksdwarves and ballistae opposite each other as an unlucky ballista bolt might injure a marksdwarf on the other side.
*Ballista are operated by Dwarf civilians. Therefore putting your ballista right next to the path the [[Goblin_christmas|friendly neighbors]] use will cause your BallistaDwarfs to run off right as you want them to fire.
*Adding a stair back at the entrance of a trap hallway allows dwarves to access loot that falls; it also forces anything that dodges off the edge to walk the entire length again.
*Filling the walkway with traps is also highly recommended. Throwing random weapon traps around the map in high-traffic areas isn't a bad idea. Traps are cheap and effective, use them liberally.
*War animals are convenient for catching thieves. They also serve as bait. Don't place them where enemy archers can reach them easily, and keep them well out of range of the inevitable hailstorm of bolts.
*Bridges, and for non-building-destroyers, doors, can be used to control the movement of enemies.
*Don't use cage traps as the front line of defense. Currently, a goblin squad will follow its leader indefinitely, and if its leader is caught in a cage the rest of the goblins will just stand there until they find [[Wood cutter|something]] [[fisherdwarf|to]] [[hunter|do]] rather than exploring the lovely, pointy playground you've created.

<diagram>
Fortress
║╞═╡║
║D+D║ ╞═╡= Bridge
║D+D║ D = War Dog (chained)
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ║+++║ ^ = Trap c= cage trap
╔╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++╚╦══╗
/▀▌╔═══════════╦╝ +++ ╬ ║ P= Gathering Pit
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║ connected to
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ P║ Base next
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║ z-level down
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++ +++ ╬ ║
\▄▌║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
║+++++++++++╬ + +++ ╬ ║
/▀▌║+++++++++++╬ + ╞═╡ ╬ ║
»=►╬+++++++++++╬ ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++ ╬ ║
\▄▌╚═══════════╩╗ +++++ ╬ ║
║ >+++++ ╬ ║
╚════════════════════╗+++++╔╩══╝
║╞═══╡║
Entrance
</diagram>

{{Military}}
{{category|Fortress defense}}
{{category|Design}}

Security design

2014-09-03T14:03:33Z

Scorpion451: /* Design considerations */

{{Migrated_article}}
{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional}}

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Security design''' focuses on how to turn the physical layout and architecture of a fort into a defensible whole. For a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defence, see the '''[[defense guide]]'''. For complex traps that are not a minor/optional part of a larger defensive plan (but might be adapted or plugged into one), see '''[[trap design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military design]]'''.

{{TipBox2|titlebg=#c00|textbg=#ffd|Warning!|Many of the following designs and tactics have yet to be re-evaluated for this version of DF. In particular invaders can now [[jump]] and [[climb]] to a degree. Familiarize yourself with these mechanics before implementing these strategies. When in doubt, replacing pits with fortifications is probably a good first step.}}

==Standard key==

'''Key:'''
'''symbol tile'''
· - Empty space
+ - Constructed floor, or top of wall section from lower level
'''0''' - Isolated wall section
╔╦═╗
╠╬═╣ - Connected wall
║║ ║
╚╩═╝
╬ - Fortifications
X - Up/down [[stairs]]
< - Up stair
> - Down stair
▲ - Up ramp/slope
▼ - Down ramp/slope
. - natural ground
☺ - dwarf

==General suggestions==
General designs include suggestions that can be "plugged in" to a part of any typical fortress, and/or can be modified to suit a number of purposes.

Any fortress defenses need to be able to protect your dwarves while outside, whether that's military or civilians. On the truly labor-intensive end, you can fully enclose areas of wilderness you wish to utilize in walls or behind moats with the only access being from within your base. Hostile creatures, even 'invisible' ones like ambushers, start at map edges and travel across the map - they will only spawn in regions where they can path to a dwarf. By controlling which areas have access to paths to dwarves, you can force all hostile forces to appear in predictable and limited killing zones and battlefields that you control.

===Castle with a moat===
One of the easiest ways to protect your dwarves is to build a castle with a moat. The first step is to start your journey on a river. The first part of the castle that should be built is a canal about five wide with drawbridges to keep anything from getting into your fort. The next step is to build a two-thick wall with ramps so that the dwarves can stand on, shoot from it and keep aquatic threats from simply swimming to the other side of the fort. You can also carve fortifications into the wall to allow your dwarves to more efficiently shoot from the wall.

===Meeting area as defense===

Especially in the very early game, you can use a [[Zone#Meeting_Area|meeting zone]] to attract animals and idle dwarves to a given area. This makes a pretty poor defense in general, but it's not a bad way to create an alarm system against minor threats such as [[thief|thieves]] near your stockpiles, at least until you have something better (which won't be hard). Remove the zone later, or it attracts idle dwarves and children. Note that until you designate something else, the site of your wagon (even once deconstructed) is a default meeting area.

===Guard Animals===

Both [[thief|thieves]] and [[ambush]]es are invisible until something detects them - a dwarf, a [[caravan]], a wild creature, a [[domestic animal]], anything. Once this happens (even if it was triggered by a wild [[groundhog]] on the far edge of the map), the game will pause with the appropriate [[announcement]], forcing your attention to the situation - which is nice. Therefore, it's a common practice to use animals to act as alarm systems, by [[restraint|restrain]]ing or assigning them to a [[pasture]] in entryways.

There are some considerations to good placement of such animals. If you have a 1- or 2-wide hall, one animal is enough. If you have a 3-wide hallway, a single pastured animal placed in the middle is still sufficient, or you can restrain two animals, one at each side of the hall.

══════════ R = restraint
+++1R1++++ 1 = area of animal 1
+++bbb++++ 2 = area of animal 2
+++2R2++++ b = area of both
══════════

Either arrangement creates a thief-proof barrier against unannounced intrusion, as there is no combination of locations where an invisible enemy can sneak by without bumping into an animal. Caravans can pass over [[restraint]]s and [[pasture]]s and their contained creatures without problem (however, do note that wagons will not appear on the map edge if a creature is blocking their intended location). Guard animals can also see hidden enemies one z-level below them, so long as there is no intervening floor, so if space is tight you can also place them above your entranceway.

Unless you're happy losing these animals on a regular basis, you should try to keep them alive.
:* Put them around a corner or behind a U-bend, so archers cannot fire at them from a distance.
:* Don't have them as your "first line of defense"; put them deeper in the entry, behind some traps.
:* Put them inside, so flying creatures have to come down to their level to attack them.
:* Use [[window]]s to protect your guard animal (note, however, that some intruders may not be detected if they are not forced to move directly adjacent to your animal).
:* Consider using a [[pressure plate]] at the extreme entrance to seal off the hall further down and keep your guard animal(s) safe. Thieves won't trigger them, but the animals can deal with those - ambushes ''will'' trigger them, and you don't want them getting to your guard animals.

Remember that anything short of a [[megabeast]] is not a good match for an armoured opponent.{{verify}} While watching your tame [[grizzly bear]] or [[alligator]] tear a thief apart has an amusement value, watching the goblin maceman send them flying across the map, mangled and dying, has less.

[[Animal trainer|Hunting animals]] have better observation (sight range) than their regular or war counterparts.

===Defending the edge===
You're not allowed to wall within five squares of the edge of the map... but this rule has more loopholes than the US federal income tax code. {{verify}} Until more versatile attackers emerge, it is not clear where effective play ends and exploit begins. ''(Note: we disclaim any responsibility for damage involving [[harpy|harpies]] and skeletal [[giant eagle]]s)''

* To start with, you can channel the '''''second''''' square from the edge. This will block the appearance of trade caravan [[wagon]]s and prevent their movement along that edge of the map. If barriers are used to prevent a Trade Depot near the edge of the map from being accessed from any other direction, caravans will be forced to appear in the un-channeled or bridged section of the edge. Your depot can be ready with stockpiles of favored trade goods, offset behind a wall to protect from archers a few squares away.
* You can also build drawbridges all the way up to the edge. A long, skinny, raised bridge is effectively a wall; however, it looks the same whether it's open or closed.
* If you channel to the second square from the edge where the '''''edge square''''' contains a tree then you have an impassible barrier while the tree survives.
* You can with some work use [[Obsidian]] casting to wall to the map edge

Train up diggers in soft soil and you can surround most of the map with a moat by the time the first migrants arrive. Be very, very wary of cave-ins, especially on highly sloped diagonal terrain - note that a downward ramp does not support adjacent floor tiles, and no tiles are supported diagonally.

Diplomats have a strange habit of appearing well inside the moat, but need to be allowed out when finished. ''[Note: On one 6x7 map [[horse]]s and other animals were also found to appear one embark unit (48 squares) left and up from the lower right corner, inside or atop the walls of a 5x5 doorless enclosure. Defend all leaks...]''

==== Design considerations ====

* The moat should be designed to prevent entry except by falling and exit except by climbing, from both sides. (Otherwise inside and outside forces might be tempted to shake hands from adjacent squares, with much annoyance) Despite an abundance of giant corkscrews, grates, ballista bolts, etc., no one has ever invented the ladder, so this keeps anyone from entering or leaving the rest of the map.
* The moat should be dry, because sooner or later you will be tempted to let someone visit the edge to loot goblins or hunt varmints, and next thing you know your Legendary Weaponsmith who outpaces all your smelters will be whiling away his time carrying a leather thong to a stockpile when he runs into a groundhog and decides to react by jumping into the moat and holding his breath beneath the shallow waters until he drowns. (As always, the notice that he has drowned is the first you'll hear of it)
* The moat doesn't actually ''need'' to be adjacent to the edge of the map except when conserving valuable surface terrain (such as [[tree|trees]] on a map that is mostly rock). It is easier to free trapped miners when they can dig further outward, and placing the moat on the sixth or further square in from the edge allows further modification with floodgates, walls, and doors. Any [[channel]]ing permanently changes the dug-out tile to "Light Above Ground", which restricts these features from tiles near the edge even if floors are later constructed to close the space.
* Because migrants might turn up near wild animals or be followed closely by [[goblin|goblins]], it is nice to wall off the last square in shorter segments. Each one or two segments are served by a separate lever bridge. This can be done by:
** Natural barriers. The map edge is mostly continuous ramp, but occasionally a break appears on an uneven surface, by a river channel, etc.
** Trees. If left intact they separate any fertile patches into many small segments.
** Floors. Although you can't directly Remove Stairs/Ramps at the edge, building a single square of floor on an up-ramp at the edge will destroy that up-ramp (and the down-ramp above it) and block movement around the edge. Building a square of floor on a down-ramp and then removing it creates a [[one-way]] path.{{verify}}
** You can build drawbridges *along* the edge and raise them. Combined with a channel right next to the drawbridge, this can completely obstruct passage of anything which can't destroy the bridge.
** You can build up ramps at the edge, but this does not disrupt passage. It does, however, allow the creation of caravan-friendly elevated drawbridge walkways using floors and bridges connected to your five-tiles-in walls.
** If you're very lucky, Fortifications carved into outer edge rock the next layer down. It may be possible to carve fortifications all the way around the edge of a rocky map, allowing entrance only onto designated bridges surrounded by moat and with a steep drop beneath, with some sized appropriately to admit siegers only and one other sized for a trade wagon. In this way combat can be reduced to a simple thumbs up/thumbs down decision at the lever.Probably not.
* Migrants, thieves, and sieges turn up all around the map, and can be allowed in by remote controlled bridges. (Doors will not hold back [[building destroyer|building destroyers]], and remote [[lever]] control is needed because other gates can be "taken by invaders" and become non-lockable) Invaders can be allowed in by small groups and fought if desired, or preferably admitted into underground zigzags with a door waiting to be locked at the far end once they get close to it. If most of the invaders can be trapped inside such spaces, the remainder will stand and be wiped out completely without retreating.

===Simple 5x5 Archer's Tower===
{{main|Archery tower}}

Build a [[archery tower|tower]] specifically to post archers on, possibly away from your main defenses. This lets you open fire before the enemy approaches your gates. A pillbox can be attached to your walls, or separate, so that the only access is from tunnels below. These tunnels can stretch across the map, and only need be 1-tile big if no regular traffic is expected. Construct [[wall]]s up to the second or third floor and then carve fortifications into them, so your dwarves can fire out. For extra usefulness, build a [[barracks]], [[archery target]], [[food]] [[stockpile]], [[well]] and/or [[dining room]] in or near the tower. Add a door or hatch to lock them in.

When placing multiple towers, know that crossbows have a range of 20 tiles, so, depending on whether you want overlapping fire or not (and how intense/accurate), anywhere from maybe 15 to 38 tiles between the edge of the towers is recommended. Crossbows actually have their range ''reduced'' by extra height in DF, so all you need is 1 level up to keep enemy archers from using your fortifications against you, and you're set. (Channeling a defensive moat further out will also work, moving potential enemy archers even further away, but also moving non-missile targets that far as well.)

====Siege engine turrets====
If it's big enough, build a [[siege engine]] inside a pillbox. Since siege engines cannot fire at targets higher or lower than them, the device needs to be on the same [[z-level]] as any targets, but this could be across a large gap to a nearby plateau. Only a single tile of fortifications is needed to fire through the wall. Position the tower to fire where invaders tend to congregate.

You will want to guarantee that enemies do not approach the position and scare the civilian operators - this distance has been reported to be up to 20 tiles or so. Dig a moat, have some intervening valley or build some secondary fortifications to keep enemies at a distance. Unlike walls, fortifications on the same z-level do not block siege engine missiles, at any range. Unfortunately, if an enemy can walk up to them, fortifications will protect enemies from your archery fire (but not siege engine fire.)

===Control Room===
Have one (large?) room (or several stacked on top of each other) for all defense-related levers, and central to idle dwarves - near your [[Activity zone#Meeting Area|meeting area]]s and [[noble]]s quarters, with one or more halls or stairs leading to it for quick access. Connect a lever to all those doors and hatches as the first lever to be pulled in an emergency, and the respondent will lock themselves in for you, guaranteeing that they will then have nothing else to do but stay there and pull levers. This can, however, backfire when your chosen dwarf decides to go [[on break]], take a nap, or throw a [[tantrum]] in the middle of a crisis.

It may also be an idea to have a second lever to at least one door, for emergency access. And possibly to add a stockpile of booze and food or a well for longer sieges.

===AI abuse===
Taking advantage of the game's Artificial Intelligence and [[path]]finding is a whole article in itself. Try leaving a door un-forbidden during an attack. When the bad guys approach the door, forbid it, and the enemy will wander off. Unlock it again, and they turn around and head back towards the door again. You can get enemies to march back and forth over a set of traps this way, or lure them deep into a complex trap. This could be fully automated via [[pressure plate]]s if you're feeling adventurous.

===Bait animal===
[[Restraint|Restraining]] or [[Pasture|pasturing]] a sacrificial animal just outside your walls, but within range of your marksdwarves and/or siege engines, can lure an enemy into attacking that while you cut them down. Make sure to place a pattern of some walls (or statues, see below) so enemy archers cannot simply shoot the creature from a safe distance.

=====Fortifications=====
Adding a ring of fortifications to help defend the animal against missile fire will keep melee troops away, but invite archers to come adjacent to the fortifications - and under your walls and crossbows. If you allow any path, the melee troops will try to follow it to the animal - be creative with that fact.

=====Traps=====
Surround the animal with traps to kill or capture approaching goblins.

Build a long, narrow, and twisty passage, accessible from the outside, possibly even unconnected to your fortress. Build as many simple traps as you like. Place a bait animal inside. Enemy attackers walk right in, and get torn apart by the traps. If any manage to make it to the end, and kill the useless animal, they're surrounded by traps, and no closer to your fortress.

If the animal is underground, you can build a tunnel above it, channel down, and mark the channel a [[Activity_zone|pit/pond]]. That way, you can "reload" a new bait animal from the safety of your fortress. Note that this requires using a non-pet-passable door and that falls more than a couple z-levels may injure your bait.

=====Distractions=====
Releasing a [[cage]] full of surplus animals will keep the enemy archers very busy. They may even be out of ammo when your wrestlers show up. This can be useful as an emergency measure since the animals need to be stored somewhere anyway.

Alternatively, you can use remotely-actuated doors tied to a [[repeater]]: open providing a tempting target for enemy archers, then closed to block their arrows and protect the bait. Similarly, a captured [[necromancer]] can continually raise a few undead to give enemy archers easy targets to pincushion.

=====Vanishing act=====
Having a linked drawbridge that can open/shut (perhaps on both a lever to open and a nearby pressure plate to close), to lure the enemy in under your guns and then protect the animal when they get too close (for multiple uses.)

=====Vs. building destroyers=====
For [[building destroyer|building destroyers]], spare furniture can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control their movements.

=====Trap chokepoints=====
Enemies can be herded by constructed features. If you have a particular zone covered by catapults and would like enemies to pass through it, strategically placed walls can make enemy pathfinding more favorable. A trap occupying a single tile in the middle of a barren plain is likely to never get triggered. However, if walls are placed in a cross-hair pattern around the trap, animals and invaders are much more likely to pass over it as they wander across the map. This can be a very useful trick when capturing wildlife with cage traps.

<pre>
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
═════^═════
+++^^║^^+++
+++^^║^^+++
+++++║+++++
+++++║+++++
</pre>

=====Pathing slowdowns=====
If you're playing on a low-powered machine and you close up all entrances to your fortress during a siege, your game may grind to a halt and/or crash as the siegers continuously fail at pathfinding into your fortress. Bait animals may alleviate this.

==Entrance designs==

===Airlock defenses/buffer zone===
Build two walls, each with a drawbridge. Build the trade depot in the buffer zone between them. Keep the outer bridge open, and the inner one closed. When the merchants appear, put crossbows on the walls to guard their approach. Once all the merchants are safely inside, close the outer bridge. Once there's no enemies left in the buffer zone, open the inner bridge so your civilians can start loading up the depot.

The airlock pattern can be useful even without putting the depot there. Let a few siegers in at a time, and crush them. Reset the traps, rest up the soldiers, and repeat.

===Siege Engines===
One effective way to have [[siege engine]]s (help) defend your fortress is:

'''One ballista vs 3-wide hallway'''
══════════════════════════╦═════
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····║▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬◄═«
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····║▐▄/
══════════════════════════╩═════

Using this design you can cripple an army using a well timed volley. The hallway can be much longer than shown if you wish, as ballistae have extended ranges well over 100 tiles. The channeled area is necessary, as civilians (siege operators are "civilians") will run when enemies get within about 5-10 tiles of them, regardless of the actual path to that threat.

====Ballista battery====
Three (or more!) ballistae can be put into a "battery" if overlapped - one per tile-width of the hallway, with each ballista aiming down their row of tiles.

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬ ╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬◄═«▐▄/ (~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/ (~ammo~)
╚═════════

Be sure to use fortifications to prevent dwarves from wandering in front of the ballista to their deaths. If desired (and you have the <s>man</s>dwarfpower to spare), catapults may be put behind those, as they shoot safely ''over'' workers in front of them. Although less effective than ballistae, it's a little more firepower - and that can't be a bad thing.

For added flavour, channel out one or more tiles down the length of the 3-wide hallway and install retractable bridges. When invaders attack, retract the bridges, forcing them into paths that are only 1-tile wide.

Adding additional channels on either side of the hall will allow stray ammo to be recovered at a later time. Make sure to add locked doors, to prevent siege operators from walking down below enemy archers during a battle.

===Flooded entrance===
Using a chamber as your entrance alongside a chamber full of water and some machinery you can flood or drain the entrance at will.

The basic premise requires two levers, two [[screw pump]]s and two [[Gear assembly|gear assemblies]]. The amount of power required and the number of additional components needed to get the power to the screw pumps varies depending on distance/setup. One pump is placed to draw from chamber 1 and dump into chamber 2. The other is set in reverse. A gear assembly is placed next to each pump and connected to the main power system. Each gear is linked to a lever. Now at the flip of a switch you can submerge your entrance with [[water]] or [[magma]] for easy, secure defense against creatures that aren't amphibious or magma-dwelling, depending.

[[Image:Entflood.jpg|200px]]

The picture above shows the design in action. The green pump is currently on while the red has been disconnected through the grey marked axle. The yellow X is just to mark that there is a channel under the axle.

An alternative that uses gravity rather than screw pumps (but works only if you have a volcano or surface river, a subterranean entrance chamber, and easy access to a cavern layer) is to dig a tunnel fitted with a floodgate or similar valve between a volcano or surface river and your entrance chamber. A second tunnel equipped with an appropriate valve mechanism allows the user to drain the chamber into a cavern layer. A grate can also be integrated into your drainage system to prevent the loss of valuable [[goblinite]] or similar remains.

=== The "Reverse Battlement" design ===

Level Z+0 (ground):
...............
F ═══════════════
O .≥.g≥...g......
R ..≤......g.....
T ...g≤..g....... <-- enemies enter here
R ..≥......g.....
E .g.≤.........g.
S ═══════════════
S ...............

Level Z+1 (bridge):

E ·····║+++║·····
N +++++║+++║+++++
T ·····╬☺++║·····
R ·····╬☺++║·····
A ·····╬☺++║····· <-- archers shoot them from up above
N ·····╬☺++║·····
C ·····╬☺++║·····
E +++++║+++║+++++
·····║+++║·····

Note that in this diagram, the fortress interior is to the West, and the enemy forces come from the East. The marksdwarves on the bridge with the [[fortification]]s are one level above the [[goblin]]s (or other attackers), who will pass under the bridge and charge on toward the west. As the first clear from under the bridge, they are targeted from behind (which is one level above), as the marksdwarves wait in ambush. This allows the marksdwarves to face far fewer enemies at any one time, at least to begin with, and any enemy archers must clear the bridge, take their lumps, and then return fire back the other way before the marksdwarves are ever under attack.

If you're feeling especially nasty, make the tunnel really long into the mountain and add a ballista battery (see above).

''(Adding ammo stockpiles, of your best quality bolts, to these stations will speed up reloading for longer sieges/battles. Even adding small, convenient food and alcohol stockpiles is not unheard of. Some designers place access to/from archery ranges very close to these stations, for faster deployment.)''

===Twisty maze===
A maze of turns and blindspots patrolled by quality military can be a very formidable defense. Wide enough for wagons to pass though, but with no clear shots for any ranged weapons. Missile weapons do have a minimum range, so if a target is closer than that range, they will instead just charge to melee - and meet a dwarf with a much better melee skill. Downside to this is that you'd be mixing it up in melee all the time, but so long as you have at least 10 dwarves greeting the goblins as one coherent mass, you should win.

Variations on the twisty maze include:

*A wagon-wide twisty maze, and a not-so-twisty 1-tile wide hall o'traps, with a drawbridge that can force one or the other as the only [[path]] into your fortress.

*Making the side of the maze into fortifications, with a channel separating the fortifications from the actual floor of the maze, and having your archery targets on the other side of the fortifications so your marksdwarves can practice. When the goblins round the corner, they charge through a hail of crossbow bolts, and drop dead.

===Forced Detour===

This particular design works well with plenty of archers, siege engines, and other ranged weaponry. A walled maze gives melee an advantage, but an open maze gives advantage to ranged attackers.
{{diagram|spaces=yes|
++++++++++++++++++ENTRANCE+
══╦════════════════O╞═╡O╦══ <-- Bridge 1
+☺╬·+++++++++++++++++++·╬☺+
++╬·+···············╞═╡·╬++ <-- Bridge 2
++╬·+·+++·+++·+++·+++++·╬++
+☺╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬☺+
++╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬++
++╬·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+·+++·╬++
+☺╬·+++·+++·+++·+++·+++·╬☺+
++╬·················+++·╬++
++╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╗·+++·╬++
++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺++☺╬·+++·╬☺+
++++++++++++++++++╬·+++·╬++
++++++++++++++++++╬·+++·╬++
══════════════╗++☺╬·+++·╬☺+
║+++╬·+++·╬++
║+++╬·+++·╬++
║++☺╬·╞═╡·╬☺+ <-- Bridge 3
}}
The 3 tile wide lane is for traders, so if your [[trade depot]] is located before this set-up, cut it down to a 1 tile lane to slow down invaders more.

Another option is to replace bridge 2 with a [[Wagon#Wagon-only_entrances|wagon-only entrance]]

===Bridge Use===

[[Image:defense_3bridges.png|thumb|right]]
An example of bridge construction tactics to deal with vile forces of ''any'' size. (See picture).

*'''Bridge 1''' seals off the entire base
*'''Bridge 2''' forces everyone to take the long, winding, heavily trapped/defended path of death.
*'''Bridge 3''' seals the inside of the fortress

Clever triggering of the bridges allows you to break the hostile forces into smaller chunks to be trapped in the courtyard while being caught in traps and a crossfire of arrows from the fortifications around.

===Pulling it all together===

Using ballistae, marksdwarves, bridges, traps, and guard animals in tandem brings up a few more considerations.

*Given the tendency of ballistae to pierce through enemies and knock out an entire row, forcing invaders along narrow paths can score multiple hits per shot. This is the most efficient use of these valuable pieces.
*Be careful about positioning your marksdwarves and ballistae opposite each other as an unlucky bolt might pierce a battlement on the other side.
*Ballista are operated by Dwarf civilians. Therefore putting your ballista right next to the path the [[Goblin_christmas|friendly neighbors]] use, will cause your BallistaDwarfs to run off right as you want them to fire.
*Adding a stair back at the entrance of a trap hallway allows dwarves to access loot that falls; it also forces anything that dodges off the edge to walk the entire length again.
*Filling the walkway with traps is also highly recommended. Throwing random weapon traps around the map in high-traffic areas isn't a bad idea. Traps are cheap and effective, use them liberally.
*War animals are convenient for catching thieves. They also serve as bait. Don't place them where enemy archers can reach them easily, and keep them well out of range of the inevitable hailstorm of bolts.
*Bridges, and for non-building-destroyers, doors, can be used to control the movement of enemies.
*Don't use cage traps as the front line of defense. Currently, a goblin squad will follow its leader indefinitely, and if its leader is caught in a cage the rest of the goblins will just stand there until they find [[Wood cutter|something]] [[fisherdwarf|to]] [[hunter|do]] rather than exploring the lovely, pointy playground you've created.

Base
║╞═╡║
║D+D║ ╞═╡= Bridge
║D+D║ D = War Dog (chained)
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ║+++║ ^ = Trap
╔╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬═╝+++╠════
║.......................+++║▐▀\
║.++^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++╬◄═«
║.+.....................+++║▐▄/
║.+.....................+++║▐▀\
║.++^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+++..+++╬◄═«
║....................+..+++║▐▄/
║....................+..+++║▐▀\
║.++^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+++..+++╬◄═«
║.+.....................+++║▐▄/
║.+.....................╞═╡║▐▀\
║.++^+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++╬◄═«
║.....................+++++║▐▄/
║....................>+++++╠════
╚════════════════════╗+++++║
║╞═══╡║
Entrance

Base
║╞═╡║
║D+D║ ╞═╡= Bridge
║D+D║ D = War Dog (chained)
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ║+++║ ^ = Trap c= cage trap
╔╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╬╝+++╚═══╗
/▀▌╔════════════╝.......................+++.+..║ P= Gathering Pit
»=►╬++++++++++++..ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++.+..║ connected to
\▄▌║++++++++++++..+.....................+++.+.P║ Base next
/▀▌║++++++++++++..+.....................+++.+..║ z-level down
»=►╬++++++++++++..ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+++..+++.+..║
\▄▌║++++++++++++.....................+..+++.+..║
/▀▌║++++++++++++.....................+..+++.+..║
»=►╬++++++++++++..ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^+++..+++.+..║
\▄▌║++++++++++++..+.....................+++.+..║
/▀▌║++++++++++++..+.....................╞═╡.+..║
»=►╬++++++++++++..ccc+^+^+^+^+^+^+^++++++++.+..║
\▄▌╚════════════╗.....................+++++.+..║
║....................>+++++.+..║
╚════════════════════╗+++++.╔══╝
║╞═══╡.║
Entrance

{{Military}}
{{category|Fortress defense}}
{{category|Design}}

Trap design

2014-09-03T13:39:37Z

Scorpion451: /* Flusher */

{{Migrated_article}}
{{Quality|Masterwork|21:15, 28 April 2013 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Trap design''' focuses on the theory and design of complex traps, mechanical systems and other automation for defending your fortress, and also on unusual uses of simple mechanic's [[trap]]s. For a general overview of the threats that will challenge your fortress and things to consider when preparing a standard defense, see the '''[[defense guide]]'''. For tips on laying out your architecture to protect your military, see '''[[security design]]'''. For specific advice on how to get your soldiers prepared for any threat, see '''[[military]]'''.''

:''For suggestions on disposing of nobles and other unwanted residents, see [[unfortunate accident]].''
:''For a basic overview of how the different machine parts work and work together, see [[machine component]].''
:''For information on catching [[vermin]]-sized creatures in [[animal trap]]s, see [[trapper]].''

==Introduction==
Simple one-tile [[trap]]s* are just that - they exist only on their own tile, trigger themselves when a target walks onto that one tile, and affect only that one tile. Complex traps and automation rely on linking [[door]]s, [[hatch cover|hatch]]es, [[floodgate]]s, and [[bridge]]s to [[lever]]s or [[pressure plate]]s, along with machinery to provide the [[power]] to run some of the more diabolical designs. When the trigger is activated, it sends a [[lever|signal]] to the linked device. That signal is not always as simple as '''do it now''', but it's specifically either to '''open''' or to '''close'''. By manipulating what does what and when, and what follows from that, impressive results can be achieved.

:''(* specifically, the [[Trap#Stone-fall_Trap|stone-fall trap]], [[Trap#Weapon_Trap|weapon trap]], and [[Trap#Cage_Trap|cage trap]].)''

* To fully understand how these component objects work individually (before combining them into diabolical and complex combinations), see those main articles.

==Basic traps==
These are the simple [[trap]]s that are placed by a mechanic. They require one [[mechanism]] but do not require levers or pressure plates. They can be a quick, easy and brutally effective "first defense" for a fledgling fortress, but they can also be combined into key parts of more complex set ups. For tips on using these basic traps effectively, see the Trap Strategies section.

===Stone fall trap===
:This is the easiest trap to build, so you can easily build them in large numbers. Building lots of them is an easy way to earn experience for your [[mechanic]], and add to the depth of your fort's defenses at the same time. Surrounding intersections and stairways is a good way of handling threats that make it inside the fortress, including [[insanity|berserk]] dwarves.

===Weapon trap===
:The gold standard of lethal traps. This is the only simple trap that works repeatedly without reloading. They do get jammed, however. View the trap with the '''items in room''' {{key|t}} mode, and if there's a corpse inside the trap, it's jammed. None of the weapons on a jammed trap will function. It may be wiser to have several weapon traps with fewer weapons, rather than a smaller number of ten-weapon traps.

:Using [[crossbow]]s or other projectile weapons in weapon traps avoids the problem of jamming, but they must be kept loaded with [[ammo]]. Mechanics will load them with any ammo that is not forbidden. They will load each until each type of weapon has ten rounds of ammo. Hammers seem to jam less than swords or axes, and spears seem to jam the most. Your dwarves will attempt to unjam traps unless otherwise forbidden.

===Cage trap===
:A very powerful type of trap. Maybe even too powerful - currently, even a wooden or glass [[cage]] can hold any creature indefinitely, even [[troll]]s and [[megabeast]]s. A cage trap never fails, although creatures with the [[trapavoid]] tag cannot be captured unless knocked [[unconscious]] or [[Giant cave spider|webbed]] first. Use cage traps as your outermost traps to catch the occasional wandering animal, angry wounded [[elephant]] or [[unicorn]], or even [[zombie]]s. Caged animals and enemies will be safely brought to any animal [[stockpile]]s you have, but may escape later if you are not careful. For more information, see [[captured creatures]].

==Linked traps==
These traps require a trigger such as a [[pressure plate]] or [[lever]]. They will require at least three [[mechanisms]], one for the trigger and two to create the link. The trigger can be located any distance from the trap, typically close for a pressure plate or far away for a lever.

For a system that repeatedly activates automatically and regularly regardless of enemies, see [[Repeater]].

===Menacing spikes===
Menacing [[trap component|spike]]s or upright spears appear on the basic mechanic's {{k|T}}rap menu, but must be activated remotely to pop out of the ground and impale anyone standing on that tile. Vast forests of these can make any area a killing field.

While upright spike defense systems never jam, they also do not discriminate. When activated, they will inflict piercing damage on whatever is standing on the tile, whether it be friend or foe. You can use [[traffic|traffic designations]] to help somewhat. Designate the spike trap tiles as ''restricted'' then make a longer path going around the spikes that's designated as ''high traffic''. [[Domestic animal|Pets]] and [[Trade|merchants/diplomats]] will probably still get skewered, though.

==Trap strategies==
These are some basic tricks that can be used with most any trap design, basic or complex.

===Bait animals===
Enemies will hunt down and kill friendly tame animals wandering outside if they have nothing better to do. Put an expendable animal on a [[restraint]] or in a 1x1 [[Activity zone#Pen/Pasture|pen]] in some random spot outside, build a few [[construction|columns]] around it to reduce the chance of them shooting it, and trap that area to hell and back.

Note that this is a horrible method of getting rid of [[cat]]s, as they will often adopt a dwarf who will then attempt to free the cat. This may lead to the unfortunate situation of Urist McCatlover getting skewered by an ambush party while on his way to free Mr. Baitykins.

===Bait furniture===
[[Building destroyer]]s can be baited by furniture, which they will path to and destroy, if they can. Furniture bait allows you to selectively target building destroyers, to draw them away from other aggressors or to a different trap. This can be useful when, for instance, you'd like to draw a building destroyer like a [[giant cave spider]] into a cage trap, but don't want to bother caging all of the other wildlife around it. It can also be useful for trapping monsters with special attacks that you'd rather not see go off, as the building destroyer won't use any special attacks on furniture as it would an animal. For instance, you could use bait furniture to trap a [[forgotten beast]] with [[syndrome|deadly dust]] without causing it to spew more contagion.

Bait furniture can be especially effective when used with [[Legendary artifact|artifact]] quality furniture. Artifact furniture cannot be destroyed, but building destroyers will still attempt to path to it, at which point they will ineffectually attempt to destroy the furniture. This makes traps baited with artifact furniture easily reusable.

===Trapping efficiently===

====Crosshair trapping====
As the converse of building many traps everywhere, consider instead herding your enemies into a few traps. A cross-hair pattern of walls or impassable channels with an array of traps in the middle gap will increase the usage of each individual trap. This is particularly useful when capturing wildlife. You may also want a few traps near the edges, to catch the creatures that attempt to go around it.

<diagram>
+++++++[#F00]^^^[#FFF]+++++++ legend
++++++++▓++++++++ ▓ stone/wall
++++++++▓++++++++ [#F00]^ trap[#FFF]
++++++++▓++++++++ + floor
++++++++▓++++++++
++++++[#F00]^^[#FFF]▓[#F00]^^[#FFF]++++++
[#F00]^[#FFF]+++++[#F00]^^[#FFF]▓[#F00]^^[#FFF]+++++[#F00]^
[#F00]^[#FFF]▓▓▓▓▓▓▓[#F00]^[#FFF]▓▓▓▓▓▓▓[#F00]^
[#F00]^[#FFF]+++++[#F00]^^[#FFF]▓[#F00]^^[#FFF]+++++[#F00]^[#FFF]
++++++[#F00]^^[#FFF]▓[#F00]^^[#FFF]++++++
++++++++▓++++++++
++++++++▓++++++++
++++++++▓++++++++
++++++++▓++++++++
+++++++[#F00]^[#F00]^[#F00]^[#FFF]+++++++
</diagram>

====Inside corner trapping====
If the path where you will place your traps has bends, expect the enemy to take the most direct path - it's not guaranteed, but they will tend to hug the inside of a corner, and rarely detour to a dead-end.
<diagram>
╔═════════
║[@cc0] [@]║[@c00] [@] [@cc0] [@]
║[@cc0] [@]║[@c00] [@] [@cc0] [@]
║[@cc0] [@]║ [@090] [@cc0] [@] [@c00] [@] Unlikely path
║[@cc0] [@]║ [@090] [@]╔═════ [@cc0] [@] Unpredictable path
║ [@cc0] [@]║ [@090] [@] ║ [@090] [@] "Most likely" path
║ [@090] [@]║[#f0f][@090]g[#@] ║ [#f0f]g[#] Invader
║[@c00] [@] [@090] [@] [@c00] [@]║
║[@c00] [@] [@c00] [@]║
╚═══════╝
</diagram>
Once in a straight hall, anything is possible, but placing your best (or first) traps on the inside path near "inside" corners (and de-emphasizing outside "dead-end" corners) is the best bet. If two invaders are side-by-side, they will wander, and random actions are always possible, but if you had to guess, this is the way to do it.

====Pass trapping====
If there are a lot of hills outside, remove most of the ramps, then trap those last few routes. The only way for creatures to get around will be to go through your traps.

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲ Before
++++++++++++++++++

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
+++++++^▲^++++++++ After
+++++++^^^++++++++

====Ford trapping====
Have a river or any kind of chasm? Construct a floor over it (not a bridge), then build traps over it. Brooks won't work for this, because everything can already walk over the top of a brook. It also won't work as well in winter on a map that freezes.

+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++
+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++
+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~░^^░~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ Nobody ever said that it had to end at the river banks.
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~░^^░~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ Building walls along the side allows you to make it longer
+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++ and to fill it with more traps.
+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++
+++++++++++░^^░+++++++++++

==Trap Designs==
===Bridge and drop traps===

====Drawbridge trap====
Lowering drawbridges on invaders will [[dwarven atom smasher|crush]] them into nothingness. Known as the 'Dwarven Atom Smasher', bridges will destroy most things with some notable exceptions including [[jabberer]]s and [[elephant]]s, who will not only survive unscathed but also destroy the bridge.

Try replacing the side wall of a part of your main entrance with a drawbridge, big enough so it spans the whole hallway. Link the drawbridge to a [[lever|trigger]], and whenever you feel like it activate the trap. This can be done with minimal effort and used to smash invaders, unwanted [[immigration|immigrants]], bothersome [[nobles]], or simply to destroy your garbage.

====[[Pit trap]]====
A long retracting bridge in your entrance tunnel, with the pressure plate right in front of the fortress doors. The expression on the face of the point-goblin who reaches them only to watch his comrades plunge to whatever gruesome fate you have prepared for them will be a mental picture to cherish. Remember when designing this trap that bridges do not open until 100 ticks after they've been triggered.

You may also consider linking these bridges to levers for more control, just in case a goblin thief triggers the pressure plate while a caravan is on the bridge. Or, you might consider linking the bridges to a [[repeater]].

====Cave-in trap====
[[Support]]s can be linked to [[lever|triggers]]. Building a section of floor that is deliberately held up only by a trapped support allows for an intentional [[cave-in]].
* [[Invader]]s dropped into a pit can be wounded or killed.
* Dropping a floor or wall directly onto any creature will ''instantly'' kill it, regardless of its [[size]].
* The cave-in will also knock nearby invaders unconscious. This will stun them, and also make them susceptible to simple traps (even if they possess the TRAPAVOID token).
* Cave-ins will ''not'' reveal invisible invaders, such as [[ambush]]ers unless it kills them outright, in which case their bodies become visible.

The biggest drawback of this sort of trap is the "reload" process, which can be relatively time consuming. Have a drawbridge that can seal off the work area so your mechanics and [[mason]]s can reconstruct the setup in peace.

=====Land mines=====
In any suitable open area which hasn't been dug out underneath, build a support and an adjacent multi-use pressure plate set to trigger on creatures (but not citizens), link them together, then build floor tiles above the support and pressure plate. When an enemy steps on the pressure plate, the game will pause and recenter the view with the announcement "''A section of the cavern has collapsed!''", at which point the enemy will be crushed and its companions will be stunned or knocked unconscious by the cloud of dust (though not necessarily revealed, in the case of an [[ambush]]).

More "traditional" landmines also exist, taking advantage of a bug. This involves setting a bridge to be deconstructed, then having this order be cancelled, all done while the bridge is in the down position. The bridge will then let fluids through, which with pressurized magma makes it a potent weapon.

=====Chasm trap=====
The easiest chasm trap is just a retractable bridge, very high up or over a very deep hole; instead of flinging invaders when raised, it just drops them.

A uselessly complicated collapsing spiral trap can take out ten goblins at a time. When finished, it looks like this:
<diagram>
+++
..........+++
.++++++++#+++
.+╔══════. # = retractable bridge
.+║++++++.
.+║+╔══╗+. + = floor
.+║+║A+║+.
.+║+╚═+║+. . = open space
.+║+++^║+.
.+╚════╝+. ^ = pressure plate
.++++++++.
.......... A = bait animal
</diagram>
The goblins are lured in by a restrained bait animal, and can't shoot it due to the surrounding walls. Just before they reach the bait, they trigger a pressure plate that retracts the bridge and collapses the support holding up the whole spiral. Goblins, bait animal, walls and all plummet into the chasm.

When building, you will need to construct a span of floor underneath to place a support, as bridges do not support constructions (''which is also why you want a bridge as the access, so it will not hold up the trap*)''. You will also need to have a floor tile between your floor and solid ground or wall while constructing, as the bridge alone will not work as a base, but you can remove it once the support is in place.

====Falling debris trap====
[[gravity|Falling objects]] tend to cause ridiculous injury to creatures below, and what better use for [[wear|worn]] socks than mangling intruders. Mix in some loose [[stone]], poor-quality [[furniture]], and any [[goblinite]] lying around, then bury your enemies under a pile of junk.

A retracting [[bridge]] makes a good trigger mechanism (connected to either a [[lever]] or [[pressure plate]]), while garbage dump [[zone]]s above the bridge provide an easy means to load the trap. To reset the trap, use {{k|d}} {{k|b}} {{k|c}} to reclaim the garbage and {{k|d}} {{k|b}} {{k|d}} to have your dwarves haul the junk back to the garbage dumps above. The trap can also be fully automated via [[minecart]].

====Canceled construction deadfall====
Canceling an incomplete construction immediately frees the building material. The simplest way to weaponize this knowledge is to create a one tile wide hallway that is several z-levels high, and carve down stairs into the roof from the level above. Assign your masons to create stairs in the top level of the hallway, but suspend construction on each tile after they begin. When danger threatens below, simply cancel constructions to send building material raining down on enemies below.

A more advanced design uses incomplete 8x1 bridges--each bridge will release three stones when canceled. These stones will normally be deposited on the tile where the architect was standing when the bridge was designed. A (completed) retracting bridge at the top of the hallway can provide a place for your architects to stand while loading the trap, but still allow the rocks to rain down when retracted.

This trap has the distinction of being the only overseer-triggered trap--it doesn't require dwarves to pull levers, enemies to cross pressure plates, or any sort of timing delay. With some practice, it can be used selectively to take out priority targets (elite archers, squad leaders, dangerous creatures, etc.).

===Water traps===
These traps drown, freeze, boil, or wash targets away. Errors in execution can be quite <s>[[flood|harmful]] to your fortress</s> [[fun]], so use with caution.

====Drown and burn====
A flooding room trap combined with an unextinguishable [[fire|burning]] [[lignite]] bin. The water will evaporate on the bin's tile, causing the water from the surrounding tiles to move to it, which then get evaporated as well. The water will also push the invaders onto the fire, causing them to burn to death... in a flooding chamber.

NOTE: Traps involving large quantities of water turning into [[steam]] are as effective at killing your framerate as they are [[goblin|goblins]]. Use with caution, and have the cut-off lever at the ready.

====Drowning hall====
'''Level 0'''

░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ <tt>░</tt> - Wall
->++▼··················▼++-> <tt>-></tt> - Direction of traffic
->++▼··················▼++-> <tt>▼</tt> - Down-Ramps (as visible from one level above = see [[ramp]])
->++▼··················▼++-> <tt>+</tt> - Floor
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ <tt>·</tt> - Open space

'''Level -1'''
░░░░░░XX░░░░░░░░XX░░░░░░ <tt>X </tt> - Inflow
░░▲++▼··▼++++++▼··▼++▲░░
░░▲++▼··▼++++++▼··▼++▲░░ <tt>▲</tt> - Up-Ramps
░░▲++▼··▼++++++▼··▼++▲░░
░░░░░░XX░░░░░░░░XX░░░░░░ <tt>▼</tt> - Down-Ramps

'''Level -2'''
░░░░░░xx░░░░░░░░xx░░░░░░ <tt>x</tt> - Outflow
░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░
░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░
░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░░▲++▲░░░░░
░░░░░░xx░░░░░░░░xx░░░░░░

If enemies are in the middle of Level -1, open the inflow, then the water will first trap, and then drown them. If the pit is full, close the inflow and open the outflow. You can automate this by using [[pressure plate]]s, or if you want to have more fun, replace the water with [[magma]] (which would require pressure plates and floodgates to be [[magma-safe]]).

====Drowning tower====
This is a trap that can be built in discrete units. Each unit requires a lot of labor and protects only a small area, though in a dramatic manner. A wall of these around the map sharing a single massive water reservoir makes a very effective [[siege]] defense, as each tower component can be linked to a [[lever]] and used to wipe out a single invading squad at a time. Note: This may count as a [[stupid dwarf trick#Pressure Washer|stupid dwarf trick]].

While a [[pressure plate]] in the center of this trap can trigger it and drown hidden ambushers, such an arrangement is subject to double-activation and failure. A pressure plate that only triggers once will break and the system will be incapable of self-reloading. A lever or [[pressure plate#Latching Pressure Plates|latch]] is highly recommended.

Using a cross-hair pattern of walls, invaders are herded through the trap. Inside the fortress, Urist McLeverpuller does his job. Floodgates on the ground close, hatches on the ceiling open, and drowning ensues. When all enemies are dead, the lever is pulled again. The hatches close and the floodgates open, allowing a rush of water and bodies to spill out.

Schematics shown are for a stand-alone tower, though the upper level can be linked with many similar towers for a grid-like defensive system.

'''Level 0'''

░░X░░X░X░░X░░ <tt>░</tt> - Wall
░+++++░+++++░ <tt>+</tt> - Floor
X+++++░+++++X <tt>X</tt> - Floodgate
░+++++░+++++░ <tt>H</tt> - Hatch
░+++++░+++++░ <tt>-</tt> - Water reservoir
X+++++░+++++X
░░░░░░+░░░░░░
X+++++░+++++X
░+++++░+++++░
░+++++░+++++░
X+++++░+++++X
░+++++░+++++░
░░X░░X░X░░X░░

'''Level 1'''
░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░-----------░
░-H--H-H--H-░
░-----------░
░-----------░
░-H-------H-░
░-----------░
░-H-------H-░
░-----------░
░-----------░
░-H--H-H--H-░
░-----------░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░

====Ice trap====
Water open to the sky in freezing [[biome]]s will freeze instantly, completely destroying anything caught in it. By digging a channel entrance to your fort and selectively allowing it to flood as invaders pass through, you can commit genocide with appalling efficiency. The only disadvantage to this trap is its size: because water freezes so quickly, each entry channel must have a source of non-freezing water right next to it.

Observe in action [http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-231-degrinchinator here], or a wider version [http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1675-semi-automaticorcsiclemaker here]. For more information, see [[User:Vattic/Orcsicle_maker_Explained|these detailed instructions]].

=====Fully Automatic Ice Trap=====
The hallway is exposed to the elements, and water there freezes instantly. The rest of the trap is underground. When an enemy steps on the pressure plate, the hallway is flooded with water immediately. Some of the water that doesn't freeze also triggers a second pressure plate. The second pressure plate pumps magma into the room directly beneath the main hallway, which melts the ice. The water is pumped out and retracting bridges then return the water and magma to their original positions. This trap was also inspired by the Degrinchinator.

Observe: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-2239-automaticresettingicetrap

For more info, see [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63346.0 this] thread.

====Flusher====
Have a water reservoir to one side of the path the intruders should take, and a deep chasm at the other side. When invaders are on the path, just pull a lever to flush them out- or into the trap-filled corridor leading to the alligator pit.

A compact version of this can be set up with a reservoir tower and a path circling it:

'''Level 0'''

····························· <tt>░</tt> - Wall
->++++++++++++++++++++++++++· <tt>-></tt> - Direction of traffic
->++++++++++++++++++++++++++· <tt>▼</tt> - Down-Ramps (as visible from one level above = see [[ramp]])
->++++++++++++++++++++++++++· <tt>+</tt> - Floor
░XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX░+++· <tt>·</tt> - Open space
░<nowiki>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</nowiki>X+++· <tt>X</tt> - Floodgate OR retracting bridge
░<nowiki>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</nowiki>X+++· <tt>~</tt> - Water
░<nowiki>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</nowiki>X+++·
░<nowiki>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</nowiki>X+++·
░XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX░+++·
<-++++++++++++++++++++++++++·
<-++++++++++++++++++++++++++·
<-++++++++++++++++++++++++++·
·····························

Be sure that the reservoir can hold enough water to flush everything out (3 levels should be enough), that it can be automatically or easily refilled quickly, and be advised that flushing your own dwarves can be much fun. Adjust the height of the chasm depending on how much damage you want to cause to intruders or to [[Unfortunate accident|innocent bystanders]] (7 levels start to do some serious damage).

Once flushed, the victims will try to find a way out (to re-invade the fortress, or to flee). Make sure there are some maintenance-free traps in their way. If you plan to collect [[goblinite]] afterwards, have a way to drain the bottom of the trap dry.

===Magma and fire traps===
These traps incinerate targets, or possibly encase them in [[obsidian]]. Magma does not play favorites - read up (again) on magma, and use with ''extreme'' caution. Fire traps are included in this category because magma is often the best method of starting a fire.

====Magma chamber====
Create an airlock using two bridges, two doors or whatever you like best. Make it a medium sized chamber, perhaps 10x10 or so. Channel out the floors around the rim, and rig up a system to pump magma into the room, or drop it from the roof. Enemies will quickly be destroyed, and with the magma in the channels, you can pump it out for future use or just leave it. The idea here is a re-usable magma trap; you can use this with a pressure plate, too. It also leaves behind any magma-proof items the invaders might have been carrying.

Variation: By placing magma-safe hatches on the ceiling and quickly activating and deactivating the trap, you can limit the use of magma. It doesn't take a lot of magma to set a goblin on fire: only 1/7 deep will do it, and using less magma means it will dry on its own. It does take a while for an enemy to burn to death, but what's better than spending the whole summer watching a room full of smoke and dying goblins?

====Incinerator hall====
Certain minerals such as [[lignite]] and [[graphite]] have an ignition point but no melting point, meaning that once they are set on [[fire]] they will burn for a very long time (about 9-10 months) unless exposed to water or [[weather|rain]]. Any item made out of these materials has this property, which can be used to design horrifying fiery death traps.

Consider a hallway filled with lignite [[floor grate]]s, which can be built directly on the floor and do not impede the passage of enemies. Pouring magma on any one of these grates will set it alight, and the fire will spread to all connected grates. The end result is a lot of constant smoke and a hallway that kills anything that passes through it. Consider [[traffic|restricting access]] to your dwarves or building this in a pit with a retractable bridge over top: the mere fact that a location is on fire will not stop them from walking through it. On the plus side, goblins are just as stupid.

====Flamethrower bunker====

Catch a creature that has a fire breath attack, such as a [[dragon]], [[fire imp]], [[fire man]], or anything else. Tame it if you can, and drop it into a 3x3 square of fortifications surrounded by bridges. Drop the bridge when necessary, and watch the creature lay waste on your opponents. Note that this may cause you to rage if the beast is not hostile to invaders. Beware of enemy archer squads as well.

You may want to build the bridge and mechanisms out of [[dragonfire]]-safe materials if you are using a dragon.

You may do this with [[magma crab]]s (but first you must catch one) for a machinegun bunker, or [[giant cave spider]]s (or anything that has a [[web]] attack) for a paralyzing bunker.

===Weapon traps===
Traditional trap components can be used in sometimes interesting ways.

====Casual impalement====
One method of creating a zone of constant slaughter is to link a pressure plate in your main dining hall or main hallway to a patch of menacing spikes or spears. As your dwarves/pets mill around conversing/mating, they will constantly trigger the spike system without regard to the consequences.

Variation: Drop goblins into a holding pit with various spike traps linked to your pressure plate artfully placed around the chamber. Watch as every dining hall [[party]] begins to be measured in goblin blood.

====Caravan-Safe Traps====
Since traps block caravans, how can one have a depot but not have a trap-free entrance to the fortress? Simple! Caravans need 3-wide corridors, but that corridor does not need to be straight. Invaders will path straight (or as straight as they can). By knowing this, you can make trap layouts that have 3-wide corridors that intersect straight paths.

Like so:

Zig-Zag Alternating U
T+P+T+++ T = Trap ++++P+++++++++++++P++++
+T+P+T++ + = Ground/floor ++T+P+TTTTTTTTTTT+P+T++
++T+P+T+ E = Ramps going down ++T+P+T+++++++++T+P+T++
+++T+P+T to tunnel to depot ++T+P+T+++++++++T+P+T++
++++T+P+ P = Caravan path ++T+P+T+++++++++T+P+T++
++++T+P+ ++T+P+T+++EEE+++T+P+T++
+++T+P+T ++T+P+++++++++++++P+T++
++T+P+T+ ++T+PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP+T++
+T+P+T++ ++T+++++++++++++++++T++
T+P+T+++ ++TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT++
+P+T++++ +++++++++++++++++++++++

Both designs can be repeated for maximum effect or used together (make the entrance on the U wider and put Zig-Zag traps on the corridor to the depot).

====Dodge Me Trap====
Passing over a catwalk of traps, invaders will find themselves dodging into your pit. Since you can seal the pit with bridges, it doesn't complicate access to your fortress while inactive. Beware of dwarves fighting on top of it when active, as they will dodge too. Using weapon traps with a lot of possible hits can make an invader dodge multiple times at once, allowing him to dodge across an open space tile, skipping the pit. This can be dealt with in some variants by the strategic placement of walls and/or by having an incredibly broad pit. Using a low quality mechanism will also force invaders to dodge, as opposed to using a high quality mechanism in the weapon trap, which will cause the weapon trap to actually land hits on the invader.

Simple version:
+............+ ^ weapon trap
+............+ + floor, your fort on one side; the savage wilds on the other
+^^^^^^^^^^^^+ . Pit
+............+
+............+

Compact version:
+#########+ # retractable bridge with pit underneath
+#^^^^^^^^+
+#^#######+ + floor
+#^^^^^^^#+
+#######^#+ ^ traps
+#^^^^^^^#+
══+++═══════

====Goblin Grinder====
{{diagram|spaces=yes|\

═════
[#FF0]¢[#FF0]^[#F00]^[#00F]^[#00F]¢
═════
}}

In this trap described [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=62798.0 here], invaders are constrained to moving back and forth over a weapon trap {{Raw Tile|^|#F00|#000}} by two hatches over channels, {{Raw Tile|¢|#FF0|#000}} and {{Raw Tile|¢|#00F|#000}}, each linked to the pressure plate, {{Raw Tile|^|#FF0|#000}} and {{Raw Tile|^|#00F|#000}}, of the same color. Because the trapped creatures constantly path between the two hatches, a single trap may hit them many, many times.

The ends of the corridor are left open, allowing invaders to rush down the corridor, thinking it is an easy entrance into your fort. When they step on the pressure plate at the end, the hatch raises, exposing the uncrossable channel and blocking the exit. The invader's pathfinding decides to run back the other way, as that is now the only exit. As he reaches the other end, that hatch opens, causing him to run back and forth inside the corridor, unable to escape. As he runs back and forth, the traps grind him into a fine mist with no effort on your part. Creatures will occasionally fall into the pit dug underneath the hatches, but these are easily dealt with such as building a room underneath the channels filled with more traps.

By setting the pressure plates to be untriggerable by citizens, it's easy for them to walk through and collect the remaining goblinite unharmed once the siege ends.

Its two main disadvantages are being susceptible to both trap-avoiding creatures and building destroyers. These can be safeguarded by any of the other many usual ways of defending against this type of creature. It's also possible for a creature to be "stuck" in only the first few tiles of the trap, as they try to escape after taking enough damage, only walking two or three steps into the trap, then immediately turning around and trying to exit, and so only walking past already-triggered traps. Again, you can get rid of these with your military with no problem.

Some usage ideas from the thread:

* Without traps and placing only one pressure plate/hatch combination at the end leading into your fort, it makes a very simple dwarf-only one-way door into your fort. Non dwarves that attempt to enter will be blocked and turn around and take the exit. Alternately a good way of keeping creatures inside an area while allowing dwarf passage.
* With some additional work (details in the thread), it can be built as a repeater system, with a pressure plate inside hooked up to some other device that you want to repeatedly trigger. A pet running back and forth inside attempting to reach its owner or releasing a trapped prisoner and tempting them with freedom in exchange for running back and forth will repeatedly hit the pressure plate inside.
* Similarly, place a pressure plate inside that will link to some other action such as spike traps outside the entrance, impaling invaders waiting for their turn to enter the grinder as their friends run down the corridor.
* Don't fill with traps; instead, carve fortifications into the walls and use the trapped invaders as target practice and training for your archers.
* Don't fill with traps; instead fill with magma at your convenience.
* Fill with very weak weapon traps that will only maim the prisoner. Put an atom smasher near the other end that will be triggered as he tries to crawl towards freedom.

===Building destroyer and trapavoid traps===

====Door number one====
If you're having trouble dealing with building destroyers that don't set off traps, consider the following design, as seen from the side:
{{diagram|spaces=yes|\
════╝╬╬
[#F00]~X[#F0F]^ ▲╔═
══════╝
}}

Put the magma {{Raw Tile|~|#F00|#000}} behind a floodgate {{Raw Tile|X|#FFF|#000}}. In front of the floodgate, place a pressure plate {{Raw Tile|^|#F0F|#000}} set to go off on magma of 0 to 0. Link the pressure plate to a retracting bridge {{Raw Tile|╬|#FFF|#000}}{{Raw Tile|╬|#FFF|#000}} that covers the exit ramp {{Raw Tile|▲|#FFF|#000}} to the area. Although you can't get the creature to set off traps, when it breaks the door, magma will spill over the pressure plate, locking the creature in the hallway that is rapidly filling with magma. You could combine this with a simple levered hatch for drainage, but there's only one way to be certain: obsidianify it from orbit.

Note that the trap as pictured is too short-- in order to catch a creature, your bridge has to close before the creature can escape from the tunnel.

====Artifact awe trap====
{{diagram|spaces=yes|\
═════
+¢╬ ╬
═════
}}

This simple containment trap is designed to trap any number of building destroyers, even trapavoid building destroyers, on a single tile, after which you can do whatever you'd like with them-- bolt 'em, ice 'em, drop 'em, spike 'em, it's all good. Building destroyers are drawn by a piece of [[legendary artifact|artifact-quality]] furniture, in this case, a hatch cover {{Raw Tile|¢|#FFF|#000}}. A door {{Raw Tile|+|#FFF|#000}} prevents them from seeing further into your fort and being distracted from the enchanting beauty of your furniture. When you've captured as many creatures as you'd like on that tile, simple raise both bridges {{Raw Tile|╬|#FFF|#000}}-- first, the far one, then, the one near the artifact-- and you may even remove the artifact, to create a new trap elsewhere.

===Other traps===
Anything that can be weaponized can be turned into a trap. And anything can be weaponized.

====Bioweapon trap====
Some of the underground's nastier creatures are capable of breathing [[syndrome]]-bearing deadly dust. While such dust can easily spread and lead to the downfall of a fort, more masochistic players may seek ways to weaponize it. Syndrome-bearing blood may be used similarly, but placement of the trap is a great deal more difficult.

At its simplest, a bioweapon trap is a single tile of syndrome-bearing extract. It can be placed by moving an item covered in dust to the desired location via stockpiling or dumping, and then pouring a [[bucket]] of water over the item, transferring the dust from the item to the tile it sits on. A simple way to get your dwarves to pour a bucket of water over the item is via designation of a [[activity zone#Pit/Pond|pond]] zone. Alternatively, one can take advantage of the natural tendency of [[User:Uristocrat/Dwarven__Bathtub|dwarven bathtub]]s and simply drag contaminated items through a trench full of shallow water to create a contamination trench.

Any affected creature is likely to carry the contamination with it past the location of the bioweapon. This can be useful, if you've discovered a particularly interesting extract that you no longer have a way to generate, but it can also be dangerous to the well-being of your fortress. A pile of extract sitting in 2/7 water will not block pathing, and will simultaneously infect and wash creatures passing through it. Placement of extract in a damp trench can be difficult, as the water will tend to carry the extract on to the walls, but with persistence, it can be done. Extract/water combos like this are best placed underground to prevent freezing or evaporation. You may have difficulty preventing your dwarves from [[cleaning]] tiles affected by the extract.

The deadliness of a bioweapon depends entirely on the extract used to create it, and can range from debilitating nausea (perfect to incapacitate invaders while your military mops them up, yet unlikely to lead to serious damage to your own fort), to death by bleeding within 600 ticks (a half day). Given the proper extract, you could even create a beneficial bioweapon trap that prevents those affected from suffering pain. Footwear appears to protect, leaving any bioweapon trap much more deadly to your own dwarves than to any invader.

Bioweapon traps have the potential to be very powerful but should be considered extremely [[fun]], as extracts are capable of multiplication and don't distinguish between friend or foe. A single bioweapon trap could easily kill all of your dwarves in a season. Bioweapons never require cleaning or resetting, but won't work on many foes.

Alternative biotraps are possible. Using a 'deadly dust' creature rather than its extract is possible, but such interactions have rather short range (2 tiles at least) and may ignore invaders passing by a bit further away. By forcing invaders to walk right next to fortification that separates the beast and invader you can ensure a syndromey greeting to your unwanted guests, but the creature will be vulnerable to enemy archers. Should you discover a creature with noxious secretions that boil at a low temperature, such a creature can be used even while caged: its secretions will affect anything nearby, but the creature that bears the syndrome remains invulnerable to attack. Good luck getting the cage where you want it!

=== Animal/Gladiator Traps ===
War animals can be a messy way of dispatching your invaders. Since most war animals aren't grazers, you can put a pasture in a room and assign a bunch of war animals without any need for maintenance. Keep in mind size, a war dog is not going to do nearly as well against a troll as a lion would. However, 5 dogs should be able to overcome it. If you don't want your animals to die, simply use cage traps to catch invaders, disarm them, then drop them into the animal arena unarmed with a pit above the room. Although, this isn't a guarantee, unarmed goblins are incredibly weak. This trap has a lot more randomness involved than others, so it's more of a novelty than an effective and practical trap. Exotic animals can be much more brutal, so bonus points for catching tigers, bears,(or buying them from elves) or dragons. If you do manage to catch a dragon and tame it, you'll probably want to clear out any other animals, unless they don't mind dragon fire.

If one of your dwarves has been plagued by [[Vampire|Vampirism]], all the better. Build him/her a nice pit outfitted as barracks, throw in good weapons and armor, and watch as they train themselves nonstop up to Legendary skill in most combat abilities.

When you want to make them practice, just throw a caged prisoner in, order them to open it, and watch as they tear them to shreds.

=== Minecarts ===
A [[minecart]], while you think about it, is just a large hunk of metal traveling at a very fast speed in a straight line. Its nature can be used for your advantage.
==== Minecart grinder ====
All you need is a straight, narrow corridor, some tracks, and a way to make a minecart gain momentum (rolling down 3 z-levels worth of ramps should be more than enough).

Using the hauling designation, assign a minecart to the top of the ramp, without giving it any departure conditions. As soon as the enemies are approaching the other side of the corridor, change the departure condition to "push" and "always". Once a dwarf comes by and pushes it, the minecart will jolt down the hallway flattening everything on its path, and may even put a dent in an attacking [[Megabeast]].
By dumping minecarts on either rollers or downward ramps, multiple carts can be used on the same track without any hauling routes, allowing for multishot weapons, increasing the efficiency of the trap.
Rollers or impulse ramps can be used to make a cart return system, allowing for fully automatic systems.

==== Shotgun ====
Minecarts have the interesting properties of spilling their contents when they hit a solid object like another minecart at high speed. This can be used by filling minecarts with either heavy objects like stones, sharp objects like surplus weapons or simply a lot of them, then sending them down some ramps onto a target. On impact, the contents will continue their way at high speed, dealing damage to anything in the way. You know you want to fill a minecart with !!lignite blocks!! now. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109460.msg3341586#msg3341586 Here] is an example.

==== Water/Magma gun ====
Minecarts submerged in [[Water]] fill themselves with liquid, which then counts as a quite heavy object. Using the shotgun effect, this allows for a weapon without need to manually load minecarts, resulting in higher rate of fire and fewer dwarves running on potentially lethal tracks. First proposed [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=114654.0 here], with an updated version [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=119831.0 here].

Using [[Magma]] makes the design potentially more lethal and certainly more dwarven, and adds the <s>usual dangers</s> [[fun]] of working with this fluid.

==== Minecart thumper ====
When falling minecarts land on a floor, they injure creatures in the tile below.{{bug|6068}} Add some rollers and a very short track loop to maximize the damage potential. Since the minecart remains physically separated from its targets, it shouldn't jam or jump off track.

{{Category|Traps}}
{{category|Fortress defense}}
{{category|Design}}

Playstyle challenge

2014-08-29T12:03:56Z

Scorpion451: /* THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA! */ Couple things this one missed

{{Migrated_article}}
{{av}}
{{Quality|Exceptional|[[User:Reilwin|Reilwin]] 03:58, 3 April 2012 (UTC)}}
==Pre-Embark Build Ideas==
Before you embark, you can optimize or sabotage your fortress from the very start, depending on how you distribute your points. After a few years, a well-developing fortress may or may not stabilize (depending on your idea of [[fun]]), leaving you to other challenges.

=== Diplomacy ===
* Six dwarves with only social [[skill]]s
* One skilled dwarf

Six courtiers of the king's court made some ill-advised remarks within earshot of the king, and as a result have been ordered to go found an outpost. They've hired you to make sure they survive. The six nobles only have social skills and refuse to do any work that is beneath them.

Expansion: The game is over when you die.

=== Minimalist/Survivalist build===

* 1 anvil
* 1 copper ore

Nothing else. From that alone, forge your pick and axe. Real dwarves won't need to peek...

{{Spoil small|
* Deconstruct the initial wagon for the 3 wood it provides.
* Build a wood furnace with the copper nugget
* Make 1 ash and 2 charcoal from the wood.
* Deconstruct the wood furnace.
* Build a smelter with 1 ash ''(a fire-safe "bar")''.
* Smelt the nugget into 4 copper bars using 1 charcoal.
* Build a metalsmith's forge with 1 anvil and 1 copper bar.
* Forge a battle axe using 1 copper bar and 1 charcoal.
* Chop some trees.
* Construct a wood furnace with a copper bar.
* Make more charcoal.
* Forge a pick.
... and proceed as normal.|Step-by-step}}

===Peasantry===
* Spend 0 Points on embark

This challenge is moderately difficult to impossible, depending on the wildlife and outdoor food and water sources. Note that the three logs from the wagon are just enough to build a trade depot.

The wooden axes of recent versions make this challenge a lot less gruelling. All you end up with is a fort that decided not to dig until the first caravan. Of course, you could just choose not to use wooden axes (on the honor system, naturally) or to embark in a place too dwarfy for aboveground trees. Deserts and glaciers are excessively dwarfy, though - with no plants and no water, there's no way to survive till caravans arrive (none of the starting dwarves can drink blood). You don't need a trade depot if ''something'' happens to a caravan that carries a pick.

=== Stranded Scout Squad ===
* Military skills
* Weapons, ammunition, armor, war dogs
* Picks are not weapons

Your civilian 'friends' promised a caravan in the fall as they left, laughing. Hopefully, you can survive until then with your forward scouts.

==Races==
Pretend to be another race! You can mod the game or just pretend that Elves have hair. It doesn't matter what you look like, just what you build, with what materials, and what's for lunch after we build it.

===Elves - The Ultimate Hippy Challenge===
Peace, man.
* Don't gather plants except those you plant yourself.
* Don't gather wood nor trade for it with humans or dwarves.
* Trade for plants and wood only with the elves; they understand your environmental code.
* Don't burn any [[fuel|coal]]. Do you know what that does to the environment, man?
**Magma-smelting is an option, but steel can't be had.
* Don't cause any creature's death, except in self-defense.
**No military, induced submerging, or lethal implementation of corkscrews.
* Only use cage traps, and either tame the creatures you catch, or release them back into the wild.
* [[Elf|Hippies]] prefer sunlight and wooded areas, with minimal use of rock (digging and building).

Bonus: Declare war on human and dwarven caravans that try to trade you wooden items.

For an extra challenge try this in an area with a cave.

Alternatively, mod the game and actually play as elves. Swapping the species tags is the easy way. Moving the civ_controllable tag is the hard way. Enjoy not being able to make anything, unless you add training axes as well.

===Hobbitton===
Forget about deep-delving adventures and armoursmithing. You're playing hobbits.

* You're not in a dwarf fortress. You're in a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
** Hobbit-holes are all on one level - store-rooms, wine-cellars, bedrooms and all.
** One family per hobbit-hole, though that may include the help. No underground connections between holes, either.
** Walls are to be lined with blocks of good polished wood, or clay bricks. Floors can be surfaced in stone or wood.
** Don't forget your glass skylights and brick chimneys over the kitchen! While you're at it, how about a greenhouse for those exotic plants?

* Your primary industries are farming and distilling. Trade primarily in these. Purchase all metals and avoid industrial mining.

* Hobbits are uninterested in machines more complicated than the odd water-mill - no traps of any sort, though a drawbridge, dogs and militia as a concession to safety may be acceptable. And, of course, a mill.

* Elves are your friends - always give them your preference as a trading partner. Go to the effort of storing your trade goods in barrels and large pots, so you can sell them your finest liquors for their valuable woodcrafts.

===Humans - Living Large and Standing Tall===
Pretend you're a filthy above-ground dwelling [[Human|human]].
* Build a town wall.
** Only hovels and farms outside the town walls.
* House your dwarves in small town homes
** 5-10 dwarves per house (they had pretty big families back in the day)
** Upstairs bedrooms, small dining room, maybe a single level basement.
* House your workshops according to profession, not convenience.
* Build warehouses for stockpiles, and set guards outside them.
* Create a keep, with its own wall, barracks, treasury, etc.
** House your nobles within the keep.
* Create a market square.
* Create a main street from the town wall to the market square and/or keep. Well-paved blocks, statues and decorative shubbery are a must.
* No underground connections between different areas.
* For obtaining stone, metal, etc. a mine may be built, but must have separate entrance from other buildings. It can be outside the fortress, but must not connect to the interior, or vice versa.
** If you create a side hill mine, only carve large (at least 2 tiles) tunnels, and create shaft to the surface to allow air circulation.
** Or better than that, create an open pit mine / quarry, with ramps to access lower floors.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Build a large, multiple-z-level fountain complete with decorations.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Human Inn, containing your only booze stockpile and should be party-oriented.
* BONUS: Miniproject: Farm simulation, complete with crops and free-range livestock, etc.
* BOUNS: Miniproject: Have a series of canals for transport.
* BONUS: Easy Play: Embark on top of a Human Town.
* BONUS: Don't use any dwarven physics,ex.atom smashers, perpetual motion devices.
* BONUS: Advanced Play: Modify the raws and actually use humans to make the fort.
* MEGABONUS: Build your entire fortress as [[mega construction|one huge arcology]].
* MEGADWARFBONUS: Build your City in a giant, artificial cave. (or the caverns, if you can't manage that)

==="Humans"===
Make your dwarves pretend to be an ordinary, albeit short human village, to disguise the secret diggings below. Prepare to launch an invasion on the unsuspecting Big Folk.

* Embark as close to the human towns as possible.
* Construct a "manor house" to house your mayor and broker, with a stone-walled ground level containing office, dining room and kitchens, wood-block walls and windows above for the mayor's bedroom, and a large cellar with a discreetly concealed entrance to the Secret Fortress.
* Construct a walled village including a token number of shacks, barns and workshops, a mill and a blacksmiths' for that authentic touch.
* Surround the village with large fields, growing typical human crops.
* While all this is going on, excavate an extensive fortress underground, with a focus on a well-trained militia. If the map permits, build a secret training area for your army, perhaps hidden in the top of a large hill.
* Trade only raw crops to the human and elven caravans, in exchange for the minor needs of a human village.
* Lure the goblins underground before meeting them in battle - best to hide the evidence, you understand.

===Luddite===
Shun technology and contraptions. Who can really trust them, with all those [[Gremlin|gremlins]] running around? This may be challenging, as it forbids easy isolation/defense from attacks, all traps and wells. Irrigation is reduced to solid elbow grease and maybe a bucket or two. This challenge may be even harder combined with another challenge.
* No mechanics or [[mechanism]]s
* No [[machine]]s

** BONUS: Hey, wait, aren't crossbows machinelike?

===Earthworms===
Live constantly tunneling. Churn up the soil as you go and visit the surface only rarely to collect the stuff you need..
* Create one long tunnel. Dig forward at one end whilst sealing off (collapsing, building walls across) the other end.
* Workshops should be built directly behind the row of miners. When they reach the point where they would be destroyed, take them apart and rebuild back by the miners again.
* To make it easier, you can come up to the surface now and then.
* Try to keep the tunnel as short as possible.
* Like this: ||||||||==========> (| is walled off end section, = is tunnel and > is the miners.
* BONUS: Leave those pesky nobles walled in as you tunnel away from them!
* BONUS: Leave stockpiles of armour and weapons for any future diggers to find!
* MEGABONUS: Surprise a goblin siege by tunneling up underneath them!
* MEGABONUS: Leave a group of dwarves behind in a cavern farming. Carry no food, and return to the cavern to restock the dwarves.

=== Kill demons ===
Try to kill as many demons as possible. Use siege-engines and fortifications. Remember, that collapsing caves (use supports) kills everything.

===Eskimo===
Live like the Eskimo! Only try if you are an expert
* Embark somewhere with tundra or glacial biome.
* Lot of fishermen, hunters and only a few diggers.
* Every dwarf is at least novice mason
* Build everything out of ice.
* Only spears and crossbows allowed in the military
* BONUS: Axes? what axes?
* BONUS: Only BONE crossbows, bolts and spears. Metal is for losers.
* BONUS: Embark near an ocean and create a floating ice fortress.

===Amazon dwarves===
*Kill or lock in somewhere all male dwarves, kids are allowed until they grow up.
*BONUS: military use only bows and spears.
*DOESTHISMAKEITOFFENSIVE Bonus: Do the same but with women instead

Alternative: Instead of killing the males, use them as slaves and make them work for the females dwarves. Put all the females in the military, no male nobles allowed.

===Dwemer City-State===
In loving memory of the famous [[Losing|extincted]] race from Tamriel.
*Optional: History should be Very Short. You are the true builders of the world!
*Every dwarf should have skill in Mechanic, Smith, Engraver or Mason.
*Hide under earth as soon as possible. "The Upland" is a dangerous place full of dumb races. Go outside only due to extreme necessity.
**Bonus: Embark in dangerous region, so your "big-cruel-outside" lifestyle would make sense.
*Smooth and engrave everywhere you dig.
*Bonus: Awesome un[[support]]ed bridges between high underground towers.
*Everything you produce should be made of rock and metal, and maybe leather and cloth. Wood is only allowed for making coal. True dwemers sleep on nicely engraved cave floor.
**Optional: Use only copper, bronze and gold.
*No stone fall traps allowed. They're archaic.
*Everything that can be automated should be automated. Your dwarves deserve some comfort.
*Slowly redress all your dwarves in robes, cloaks etc.
*Optional: Catch some [[iron man]]s or [[bronze colossus]]es and unleash them on everything that is not dwarven caravan. Or on actually everything - that's easier.
**Modding bonus: Add craftable allied automatons.
*Every migrant who is not mechanic, stoneworker, craftsman, smith, administrator/trader or medic should be marked as "Falmer". Falmers must live separately from your dwarves, you need no care of them, the only food they deserve is plump helmets, the only drink is water. Shortly, they are your slaves now. Falmers must do all the "dirty" work, like mining, operating, farming, hauling or anythyng you don't want your real dwarves to do. Falmers' children are Falmers too, indeed.
**Bonus: Make them live in caverns.
***Bonus: Blind them all (sadly they'll get useless).
****Bonus: Torture them in specially designed rooms. Torture elves there too.
*RPGbonus: Make your fortress a single-directed "corridor" dungeon with traps and caged bronze collosuses (with pressure plates connected to cages), so the future adventurers could enjoy it. The last room should be filled up with treasures.
**SuperRPGbonus: Secret passage to your treasure room right near the main enterance. It's only avaible to open it from inside.
*Optional: Put an end to your fortress by trying to use demons as energy source.

===The Oregon Trail===
Settle like those who traveled the (in)famous Oregon Trail.
*Optional: Wait to stop world gen until the year 1840.
*Embark in an area that has mostly grassland biome.
*Bring 10 food and 15 booze per dwarf.
*All dwarves must embark as peasants.
*Bring a few rabbits along for skins.
*Bring a few chickens along for eggs, meat and skins.
*Bring 10 copper bars and three random rocks, but only one axe and pick.
*If points allow, bring some leather along.
*If points allow, bring some cloth along.
*Hint: You may want to find an area with clay.

Post-Embark:
*Set one miner, one woodhacker, one main farmer, one weaver/clothier, one potter/glazer, one metalsmith and one glassmaker/gem cutter if you have or found sand.
*All dwarves must plant their own crops, process their own plants, spin their own cloth and cook their own meals.
*Chop down enough of one tree to make one 4x5 inner-tile log cabin.
*Repeat the above step for the rest of the 6 dwarves you came with.
*Hint: Use a rock you brought with to make a kiln. Set a clay collection zone and set Collect Clay on repeat. Use the clay to make houses, instead.
*Dig your dwarves a 5x5 root cellar and place food stockpiles in them.
*Place a 10x10 farm plot by each dwarf's cabin.
*Dig a side hill mine for stone and ore, and make it go down 5 to 6 levels.
*BONUS: Make a huge 40x40 quarry and decrease size by 2 tiles for each level going down.
*Settler BONUS: Place 1x10 farm plots that all grow the same crop 1 tile from each other, channel between them, tap into a surface river, and voila. Western-style irrigation.
*See how long you can survive like this.
*Modding BONUS: Mod the raws and actually embark as humans.
*Naming BONUS: Name the fort 'Tombstone'.
*Modding BONUS: Mod the raws to make sentinents butcherable, cause a food shortage and attempt to recreate the Donner Party.
*Modding BONUS: Add dysentery.
*Mega Modding BONUS: Add guns and bullets of some sort.
As you can see, this challenge is similar to the City-States challenge below. Try 'em both and see which one you like better!

===Aliens vs Predator===
Rise a civilization just to hunt [[demon]]s.
*Nothing to specify about preparation and early game.
*Your goal is to build a fortress that can produce 3 adamantine armor sets and some adamantine weapons of your choice.
*When everything is ready, find the most military skilled dwarves, give them adamantine equipment and training on your choice. They are The Hunters now.
**HINT: [[Danger room]] can be useful.
*Dig to the Hell, if you haven't done it yet. Let the hunt is begin!
**Bonus: Fortress should have many small coridors, so demons can [[Fun|troop round]] the hunters.
***DoubleBonus: When the hunt starts, open the main enterance to your fortress. Also make some kind of fortress-destruction mechanism connected to a lever. The last alive Hunter should pull it, so demons wouldn't reach the surface.
****Or would they?..
*Optional: If the Hunter(s) survive for a period (season, year etc.), close the Hell with [[bridge]] and give the Hunters some kind of award. Also they're now supposed to be True Men.

==Utter Dwarfiness==
Need new ways to behave or new techniques to dip your toes into? Give any or all of your starting 7 some quirks to live up to. Want to try making your Boss a hell-bent, paranoid despot? Or establish a routine mass murder of small animals to provide your fort with raw meat by a vaguely intimidating, estranged butcher?

===Bandit Camp===
* Three or more Marksdwarves (perhaps with [[Ambusher|ambushing]])
* Embark site featuring places to hide

Attack and loot every enemy sentient creature you can find, such as goblins & kobolds. Develop sneaky and even horrific methods of trapping and 'processing' friendly sentients (merchants, diplomats, and even migrants). Take no prisoners and leave no evidence of foul play.

===City-States===
* All dwarves embark as peasants
* 7 or multiple of 7 of everything you bring (especially picks and axes)
* BONUS: Make one state for only nobles and force the other states to sustain it

At the start your dwarves split everything equally and move to 7 different locales that are not interconnected. They have to mine their own rooms, plant their own crops, use their own craft piles. This will probably require a bit of cross-fertilization until you get [[door]]s and can lock everyone in, but after that it is every dwarf for him/herself!

Burrows are very useful for this.
===Dwarftopia===
*Embark only with dwarves that have max skills, with no more than one miner; but bring extra copper picks.
*Separate the fortress into 2 parts: a vibrant city above, and a depressed slum below.
**BONUS: Reverse the order; elite dwarves get to live underground, while the poor have to scratch a living off the surface.
*Throw all low-skill immigrants into the pits, where they will spend the rest of their lives (unless called up for the draft).
*'''DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES''' let said immigrants socialize whatsoever with the Elite; so nobody (who matters) will be upset when they die.
**BONUS: Make it impossible for anybody to escape by using trapdoors to drop them in and bridge-a-paults for sending goods out (preferably with a carp-based sterilization system).
***MEGADWARFBONUS: Set it all up so that none of the 'elite' have to do any work; all their needs are met by the laborers. Watch what happens and laugh as the laborers die out and high society breaks down.
****MEGAUBERLITERARYBONUS: build the community from "The Giver", all dwarves keep all jobs they come with, 3-time troublemakers get "released" (spoiler alert) use magma instead of lethal injection, and remember, no death or pain! (mod the game for ultra control over marriage and jobs!)

===Equaland===
* No embark requirements
* Construct a successful fortress
* All dwarves are given equal attention regarding quarters, dining, armament and burial
* One dwarf elected to be "The Leader" commands a lever system capable of killing a single dwarf of your choice in their room, however you wish
* Allow the Leader (your id) free reign on his power, enforcing impossible and unannounced criteria on your other dwarves with death being the only punishment
* BONUS: Construct a large sickle-hammer at the fortress enterance to show the regime.

===Hermit===
* Spend points ONLY on ONE [[Pick]]

A well known and popular challenge. Kill off 6 starting dwarves and any [[immigrant|immigrants]] as they arrive, and try to make a living for the last dwarf. Turn away merchants. If they don't leave, kill them.

'''Variants'''
To moderate difficulty, feel free to allow these exceptions:
* Keep one male and one female dwarf as the Dwarven Adam and Eve.
* Keep your starting seven, but no immigrants.
* Selectively admit dwarves based on name, profession, etc.
* Embark with an anvil as well.
* Become a lone fisherman. The old man and the sea.

===Hunting Party===
* One Marksman+Ambusher
* One Cook+Farmer
* One Brewer+Farmer
* Four exclusively social dwarves
* Embark with no anvil, many hunting dogs, into a challenging biome (terrifying areas may have no supply of wood)

===Immigration and customs enforcement===
* One miner/mason/architect
* One woodcutter/carpenter/architect
* Five military dwarves
* Embark into a canyon or on a road
* Don't embark with an anvil

Spend the first year building fortifications to interdict traffic. Immigrants can build a town around you, but your original seven dwarves remain dedicated to their mission (purely military in purpose).

*BONUS: Make the two areas self-sufficient of each other, no resource-sharing.
*BONUS: Make the main construction capable of dispatching any interlopers into the main building through drowning.

==="Let Slip the Dogs of War"===
* No military Dwarves are permitted, including Fortress Guard.
* No weapons or armor may be forged, and any obtained from looting must be melted down.
* War dogs must be your only form of attack and defense.
** Bonus : No traps or defense mechanisms of any kind may be utilized, only dogs.
* D'ont forget to cry "Havoc!".

===28 Drinks Later===

*Embark in an evil biome. Set up a wall around your camp. Never leave the perimeters. All migrants are survivors from the Zombie plagued cities, decide carefully whether to let them into your walls.
*Bonus: If you have "reason" to believe the migrants are [[noble|infected]], sacrifice them to [[Armok]]. Remember, he loves Magma!
*Bonus: Only Marksdwarves for defense, You shouldn't get near the zombies, they tend to bite. If they are wounded, they must be quarantined, and shall therefore die.
*AdvancedPlay: Embark in an evil biome near a necromancer, so you will occasionally be besieged by hordes of zombies.
**Bonus: Send one heroic guy to save the migrants from the zombies, like in 28 days later.
***Bonus: Keep a diary from one of the character's perspectives, to be read when the world is repopulated.

===Master Of One===
Pre-Embark:
* All starting dwarves must have only one skill

Post-Embark:
* No changes are allowed on any dwarf's labor screen, except to ''disable'' hauling labors (enabling hauling is forbidden)
* All immigrants must stay with the profession(s) they arrive with
* All peasants must be activated into the military

'''Variant:'''
*Only allow one dwarf for each skill to remain in your fort (1 mason, 1 miner, 1 farmer, etc.). Slaughter or draft all other dwarves.

===Urist of All Trades, Master Of None===
Opposite of "Master Of One" above. 
Pre-Embark:
* You may distribute points to as many skills as you want on each dwarf, but no more than 1 point on any skill (no dwarves above Novice).
 
Post-Embark:
* Enable all labors on all dwarves, at all times.
* Since only one of Mining, Woodcutting, or Hunting can be enabled at once, try to have an equal number of dwarves in each job. At least once every year, change them around, try to assign them to whichever they have the lowest skill in. Of course, you can leave out Woodcutters if there are no trees (but enable some if you reach a cavern with underground trees), and leave out Hunters if there are no huntable critters.
* Make/buy enough Picks, Axes, and Crossbows so any dwarf who wants to try Mining, Woodcutting, or Hunting can at any time.
* Shuffle around your Administrators yearly, or whenever you notice them getting too skilled in their jobs. You can check the personalities of your replacements to make sure they're at least capable of learning appropriate social skills for the job.
* Draft any (or better yet, every) dwarf into the military. Use the default uniforms. You can only add Individual Choice Melee/Weapon/Ranged, do not assign specific weapons. Keep a variety of weapons in your stockpiles (including any exotic weapons from other races) so your soldiers have plenty to choose from. Periodically switch out your Militia Commander/Captains and squad leaders, so everyone gets a chance to lead. Unless there is a siege, only 1 squad can be active/training at any time.
* Always have some areas designated for Digging/Channeling, tree Cutting, Smoothing/Detailing, and Plant gathering, so dwarves can practice Mining, Woodcutting, Stone Detailing, or Herbalism whenever they want.
* No workshop restrictions via profiles or burrows. Let anyone work anywhere they want, regardless of skill level.
* Try to build at least 2 of every type of workshop, so if a moody dwarf claims one, other dwarves can still have a chance to try that kind of work.
* BONUS: If any dwarf manages to become Legendary, disable the labor(s) associated with that skill. If one reaches Legendary in a weapon or other combat skill, discharge them from the military. You may re-enable the labor(s) (or re-enlist) ONLY if the skill rusts all the way back down to Novice.
* SUPERBONUS: Set that skill threshold lower, (e.g. Master, Expert) depending on your own masochism.

===Monarch with a grudge===
* Forbid any and all use of stone and metal
* No exposed tile may be labeled "Underground"
* Artifacts containing stone and metal are to be destroyed '''utterly''' (magma or the [[Dwarven atom smasher|DAS]])

"Nay, no ponderous stone doors or shining silver arcades, not while I live!"
The new king has decided rocks and metals can no longer be used in construction. He'll be overthrown shortly, but in the meantime construct your fortress without them.

'''Variants'''
* Embark with no construction materials, into an area devoid of trees.
* Construct a fortress made entirely out of glass. Try not using magma or limit yourself only to clear and crystal glass.
* Build with soap bars. Show those elven traders just how much you despise their philosophies by building with stuff derived from dead trees ''and'' dead animals. Cats are an excellent source of tallow.
* Choose one type of rock, one type of metal, one type of gem, one type of wood, and optionally one type of glass. All constructions can only use those types in their construction. An easy way to enforce this with stone is to mark all but your choice "Economical".
* Bonus points: Stone is forbidden along with digging

===Noblesse requiro===
* Construct a fortress only to please nobles (who, for the sake of this challenge, are all criminally psychotic)
* Criminals who deserve justice should be incarcerated, tortured, and executed for ''any'' offense. Use your imagination for every step of the process. Remember, there is no right to a fair and speedy trial in Armok's eyes.
* All Nobles must be treated to the highest quality living conditions
* All others must be treated to the bare minimum needed to physically keep them alive
* Elected nobles are to be treated as regular dwarves, but mandates hold equal sway regarding justice

===Urist McHoHoHo===
* Embark in a glacier biome
* Take at least 3 craftsdwarves to serve as Santa's Elves.
* Export as many toys as possible. These are your only permitted trade good.
* Bonus: Use this Christmas-themed tileset: [[User:Sphr/gfx set#Christmas_Special_2007]]
* Bonus: Cycle nobles frequently, use their mandates as people's wish lists.
* Mega Bonus: Use [[Olivine]], [[Serpentine]], [[Bauxite]], [[Kaolinite]], [[Cinnabar]], [[Petrified wood]], [[Realgar]], (red and green) to build your fortress.
* Dwarven Spirit Bonus: Edit the raws to embark with [[elves]]. Utilize elf labor to craft your toys.
* Mega Dwarf Bonus: Embark with a group of elves, choose the fattest elf to be Santa. Clothe him in reindeer wool clothing, dyed red, with accents of un-dyed wool. Feed him ☼Longland Flour Cookies☼ and reindeer milk. Build a brick fireplace and burn coal for a warm cozy fire. Train Santa to be a legendary pump operator to make him flash red.

===Sitting on trees===
* Construct a wooden "tree" or several, spanning many (a dozen or so) z-levels
* Establish a successful fortress not inside, but around, these constructed trees

===The Mad Butcher===
* One dedicated Butcher+Tanner
* Minimal supplies and skills, so you can bring...
* As many puppies and kittens you can afford
* All food-gathering skills (except your Butcher+Tanner and Brewing) are forbidden

Caging your animals will increase performance to prepare a suitable butchery. Construct a wide, deep shaft to be zoned as an animal pit. At the bottom, outfit an isolation chamber complete with food and alcohol stockpiles, a bed, a butchery and a tanner's workshop. An active well will prevent mishaps. You should include during the construction either an airlock chamber (to enable the butcher to pass on food) or a second pit where the butcher dumps his created food. After construction, seal your butcher+tanner inside and live only off of his work.

===The Night's watch===
Make a replica of The Wall from the novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire"
* Embark on area with north half of terrifying glacier area and south half of some non-evil taiga.
* IMPORTANT: build a HUGE ice wall to cut the north half away
* BONUS: assign each dwarf to one group: rangers, stewards, builders where rangers go regularly ranging to the other side of The Wall, builders build it (duh) and stewards do everything else
* MEGA BONUS: All of your dwarves have to have basic 1-year battle training after which are they assigned to some group and start to be somewhat useful

===The World is Flat===
* No pre-embark requirements
* You'll probably want a region with lots of hills/mountains.
* You may only work/build/live on the original Z level where your wagon was
* No moats allowed, as this requires a channel, which goes below your z-level

===Hunter and Gatherer===
Pre-Embark (World-Gen)
* Try creating a world in year 1 (optional)
Post-Embark
* Everything allowed except Farming and Cattle Breeding.
Bonus
* BONUS: Embark in a desert, so only hunting and (aquifer) fishing.
** Extra Points: Don't fish in the aquifer. How could the turtles get there anyway?
** Create a huge pyramid and sacrifice living beings or valuables to Armok for rain by dropping it in the hollow inaccessible pyramid from the top.
*** Extended version: Fill the pyramid with magma!
** Create lines like the Nazca to honour Armok, so he will send some rain (maybe).
* BONUS: No Mechanics and only limited (i.e. only copper) or no metalworking.
* BONUS: Live underground in the caverns. Create there little huts out of rock and shrooms

===Cave Men===
Pre-Embark
An Overworld accessible cave

Post-Embark
Go into the cave with all your dwarves, and try to survive the harsh environments of the new cave systems.
You can't use items from ground zero, all wood must be harvested in the caves, along with food.

*Bonus: no trading, who wants to enter that creepy cave anyways?
*MEGA BONUS: No dogs and no warrior dwarves.

===Fort wars!===

*The initial 7 create 2 forts on opposite sides of a map.

*After the initial 7, 1/2 of all immigrants get assigned to a burrow that encompasses one of the forts. New children get assigned to their parents' fort. Each fort is self-sustaining and produces their own goods. Then it turns into a competition to see which fort can produce the most wealth.
* Nobles are given free reign and will be quartered in the winning fort.
* Make a giant wall separating the forts above ground. On one side of the wall is an artificial lake made of water and on the other, one made of magma. Call forts Reliable.Excavation.Demolition and Builders.League.United.
** Bonus points if you make residents of both sides wear only team colors.

===Deep dwarves===
Following the embark, lock yourself up under the ground.
Don't let any of your dwarves go outside. Let invaders into your underground maze of doom!

*BONUS: Dig deeper and deeper, abandoning the upper levels and rebuilding your fortress as you get more deep.
*MEGA BONUS: create a caste of deep dwarves (nobles?), who will only live on the bottommost levels.

===Earth Mover===
*Do what you need to get a huge guild of miners
*Dig every square in the map.
**Hint: you might want to turn cave-in on
**Another hint: Do you really want to put your castle up there, when your dwarves are digging down there?

===Minimalist===
The opposite of Earth Mover
*Only dig a stone you need
*There should be no unused stones on the map
*BONUS: No spare items or furniture also
*MEGA-BONUS: No wars, as war leaves corpses and other useless crap

===Oh, The Humanity!===
*Live like humans do.
*Make about half of your buildings out of wood- structures that serve no defensive purpose, such as workshops, meeting halls, dining halls, the homes of the serfs and peasants etc. should be wooden. You can also divide a large building up as sensible- you might make the main structure of a castle or wall out of stone for strength, then make the interior detailing, shacks, and other "addon" buildings out of wood. The important thing to keep in mind is that for humans, drafty, damp stone buildings are sometimes a functional necessity, not something they prefer.
*Build an aboveground outer wall of wood to start- you can replace it with stone once you reach fifty individuals.
*Underground areas are ONLY for mining shafts, root cellars, plumbing/mechanics, and perhaps a secret passage for your nobles to take in emergencies. No workshops, living spaces, or large-scale storage allowed.
*Most of your mining for ore and minerals should be done quarry-style, as humans are not well-suited to long-term underground life. A quarry should be a big, wide-open pit, shaped like an inverted pyramid, with a ramp leading out, so you don't feel boxed in and claustrophobic. Don't worry about the ecological impact of your surface strip mining.
*An exception to the mining rule is excavation for purposes of putting up outdoor buildings- so you can carve away a cliff wall to make room for a building, but you can't actually build *into* the wall like a dwarf would, so channel that natural dirt/stone roof out!
*All farming must be done with surface plants. No underground plants.
*Humans need several pubs so they can go bar hopping in their free time- they get bored with just one. Make sure you have a separate pub for every 15 individuals.
*Unlike dwarves, few humans have enough beard to hide their naughty bits when they run around naked. Make sure your humans have enough clothing to wear at all times.
*Finally, you need an aboveground castle. Early on, a small building will suffice but by the time royalty arrives, you'll need to have at least begun constructing a castle worthy of their station.

*BONUS: Humans enjoy bathing. If there is no pond inside your walls, build a channel to carry fresh water to an artificial pond so your people have a place to cleanse themselves. Build a 1-level waterfall in it so they can shower, and stock soap nearby.
*BONUS: Every family has its own house. Each house has a "sink" (well), garage (shack) filled with owned tools, a driveway leading to the main thoroughfare, etc. Multiple-floor apartment buildings for the poor/immigrant dwarves. Once they become useful, they become "wealthy" and are moved to better housing. If they get married, they are moved to better housing for a year - if they're not "wealthy" by then, their house is foreclosed. If they arrive married/with kids, they get cheap housing anyway.
*BONUS: Humans, as opposed to the elves reverence for nature and the dwarves utter disregard for it, actually believe it is their duty to pollute and destroy nature.
**Designate large refuse stockpiles and garbage dumps in the wilderness, and fill them.
**Chop down enough trees to piss off the elves every once in a while.
**Fill the map with paved roads. Pavement rules!

*MEGABONUS: The ultimate in human engineering. Build a 5-level above-ground mega-mall displaying all your salable wares. Build various stores for your goods, back room storage, a wishing pool for the main atrium, a food court with several "restaurants" specializing in specific foods and meals, a hair salon, a bank, and a security office staffed with rent-a-cops. Come up with more if you feel like it.
**UBER-ULTRA-BONUS: Give all the mall's stores security doors that can be controlled from the security office, for instant lockdown in case of a shoplifter. Can't have too much security!

=== [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61614.0 Orbital Defense Network] ===

Build a 40z-level high magma rain-dropper. Build reservoirs connected to a volcano with retractable bridges at the bottom to drop magma on invaders! In a 50 tile wide hexagonal system, a 4x4x4 is all that is needed per reservoir.

=== Dwarven Prison ===
Faced with rising criminal rates the king has decided to go for a zero-tolerance policy. He sent out seven dwarves to build and manage a prison to hold the worst of the worst criminals of dwarvenkind.

* Only your initial 7 dwarves may do any work
* All immigrants are treated as inmates sentenced to lifelong prison sentences. Yes, even the children. Don't ask, you are just doing your job and who are you to criticize the glorious dwarven justice system?
* Every inmate is locked up in solitary confinement within his/her own <strike>bedroom</strike> cell with only a bed and a forbidden metal door. Metal bars instead of walls are optional.
* Inmates have to be kept alive in their cells, but don't pamper them: Make them live on a diet of water and raw plump helmets. Feed them by dumping the plump helmets through holes in the cell ceilings or using an airlock system. Water can be provided through a water hole in the floor leading to a sewer system.
* Should an inmate [[tantrum|start to rebel]] the <strike>[[sheriff]]</strike> chief warden should restore discipline with an iron hand.
* It won't take long until a few inmates start to [[strange mood|go insane]] from sensory deprivation. Too bad for them.
*BONUS: build a lever for mad dwarves to commit suicide by cave-in
*SUPERBONUS: Have on of your dwarves escape the prison through a tunnel hidden by an engraving
*SUPERMEGABONUS: Make the escaped dwarf a legendary Bookkeeper and Stonecrafter.

=== Cavernous Dwarves ===
A version of ‘Deep Dwarves’ and ‘Cave Men’, this challenge takes advantage of the large, underground caverns you find when you dig deep enough.

*Dig out a few rooms near the surface to hold all your starting goods and move them all underground as quickly as possible. (Don’t forget to disassemble your wagon.)
*Designate a meeting area underground so that none of your dwarves will be on the surface and then remove the stairs/ramps leading up.
*Start digging. Dig until you find the underground caverns (around lvl 10 - 15 depending on your map).
*Treating the caverns as ‘outside’, build your rooms and halls with windows looking into the caverns/underground lakes.
*Try as much as possible to not disturb the natural formations of the caverns. Building around a pillar is fine, carving out a pillar and building inside of it is fine, but avoid removing pillars. Use the cavern floor as your main hallway.
*Starting with at least one combat-ready dwarf is advisable (you may want more than one) as there are creatures lurking around every corner.
*'''BONUS POINTS''': Construct a castle in a large cavern to house your nobles and make sure that all their rooms/offices overlook the working peasants.
*'''Extra Room Challenge''': If you are looking to expand the caverns, you may drain lakes into magma seas. (WARNING: This is a frame-rate killer!!! If you try this, make sure to disable the auto-pause/re-centering for collapsing cavern messages, and expect it to take a long time to complete.) Once you have one or more lake drained, you will likely have doubled the size of available caverns to build in.
*Optional: you can have 1 year above surface

=== Roman Empire ===
This challenge tries to emulate Europe during the Roman Era.

*All new male non-noble dwarves must be conscripted into the military for a period of no less than a year. Your initial seven are exempt, as they may be thought of as having fulfilled their military duty earlier in life.
*Steel, Aluminum, and Pig Iron are banned.
*All full-time military dwarves must have a matching set of iron platemail ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_segmentata lorica segmentata]) and iron short swords.
**All conscripted dwarves must have a full set of leather armor (material doesn't matter) and wooden crossbow.
***BONUS: All conscripted dwarves must have bows and arrows instead of crossbows and bolts. Trade with the filthy [[elf|Gauls]] for them.
*BONUS '''Peloponnesian War''': All full-time military units may only wear bronze armor and use spears.
*BONUS '''Aztec Empire''': All military may only use jaguar leather armor, obsidian short swords, bows, and copper war hammers.
*BONUS '''Dwarven Aztecs''': Dwarves can only wear cat leather products (Yes, even armor) and the military can only use weapons up to steel metal.
**MEGA BONUS '''Pre-Historical''': All metal production is banned.

=== Incompetent Advisors ===
After wrongly advising the king about which stones were safe from magma's fiery heat, he sent you off with a party of six others, most of which never made it out of dwarf high.

*Using the wiki and asking questions on the forums are forbidden! The king only laughs when your inquiries arrive. You only know what you knew from the start, anything else has to be tested with experiments
**BONUS only embark with peasants and only accept immigrants with adequate or lower skills.
***MEGABONUS when the king comes (to apologize) decide he isn't sincere and dump him into the magma with his advisors (anyone who comes with him)

===Steve Jackson's Dwarfanoia===
*Make colored layers for the dwarves to live in Black (infrared), red, yellow orange green blue EVERYTHING in each layer must be that color a purple computer is at the "best" layer
** If you see a dwarf leave his color to go to a nicer one kill them.
*** Bonus: make it impossible to function without crossing the color boundary once in a while. (bedroom must cross a blue hallway or something)
**** hey wait, didn't the blue dwarves make the purple computer? and its room?
** decide with random goals or by random when dwarves may go to the next color
** Bonus: everybody in the black level should be miserable -- the red should be merely unhappy, the yellow and orange mildly happy, and green and blue ecstatic.
* computer is in charge of random death traps
* encourage grudges between dwarves
** put dwarves with grudges in the same military unit
*Sheriff is the most deadly dwarf (and everybody other than soldiers go in civvies)
*Bonus make a weapons testing area which may kill the dwarves or give them awesome weapons via untested modding.
** Extra bonus -- the weapons are all either effective or deadly.
*Mega bonus -- have the computer give a sign to check happiness. Press "v" if the first dwarf it finds is unhappy or had an unhappy thought kill them.

Notes: I think you have to mod [mostly from scratch) for orange, so instead you may make cheap stone layer, flux stone etc., or just skip orange.

===Paladins===
* decide which dwarves are paladins and which are support -- paladins refuse to work and support may not fight
* embark to an evil (preferably terrifying) locale
* nothing evil may live
** how to define evil: standard -- use the wiki -- if it says that it lives specifically in an evil climate, it is.
** bonus - include trees
** bonus - all non-good
** bonus - all non-dwarf
** bonus - all non-controlled dwarf
** ultra-bonus - all non-related to the 7 first dwarves
* no profit may be made from anything evil -- that includes trees and plants.
* if all paladins die, end your game -- the other dwarves have no purpose there and will leave/ commit suicide
* how long will you survive?

===Survivor Dwarves===
Dwarves try to survive, stranded on an uninhabited island.

* Find an island in your generated world (or keep making worlds until at least one island appears).
* Try to ensure that there are no neighbors on the island (except other dwarves, of course).
** Bonus: try to find an island that only has hostile neighbors (i.e. [[goblin|goblins]], [[Kobold|kobolds]], [[Evil#Evil|evil]]).
* Take only the bare essentials along with you (see [[Challenges#Minimalist.2FSurvivalist_build|Minimalist/Survivalist]] build above).
** Bonus: only peasants managed to survive the incident which landed your dwarves on the island (see [[Challenges#Peasantry|Peasantry]] above).
* NO TRADING! Ignore the dwarven traders that come (or kill them).
* [[immigrant|Immigrants]] are now other survivors; limit the number of survivors your island can have (either by changing the population cap or just killing off new immigrants).
** Bonus: play 'Survivor' with your dwarves and have them vote a dwarf 'off the island' once a month (or some other frequency).
*** Bonusx2: tribal colony sacrifices any dwarf that is 'voted off'.
** Bonus: new survivors (immigrants) are a rival survivor band (or tribal dwarves) that are trying to steal your supplies/kill you. Kill them or sacrifice them to Armok!

* Bonus: try to build large outdoor fires to signal rescue craft.
* Bonus: if a new mayor is elected, sacrifice the old mayor for 'failure to ensure the rescue of the survivors.' (Obviously you will need a large enough population to be able to have mayors).

===Venice===
Build a perfect replica of Venice.

*Building next to a river-side, carve out canals and make a picture-perfect replica or Venice, down its basilicas and plazas.
*Make sure to have an expansive glass industry.

* Bonus: make models of other famous historical-era cities.

===Dwarf Hoarder Challenge===
(edit and improve this please)

Step 1: Embark with 7 proficient miners and 7 picks.

Step 2: Once you reach the outpost location, strip the outside world of all valuable minerals.
(valuable = metal ores, gems and anything else that you can make a decent profit from)

*BONUS : Ravage the land! Take everything! Cut down every tree, gather all the plants! Leave NOTHING outside!

Step 3: Mine deep underground and make a very large room to store all of your wealth in.

Step 4: Kill and loot the bodies of all migrants and caravans that come to your fortress and take it down into the stockpile

*BONUS: Put all nobles that arrive in cage traps in your stockpile.

Step 5: Do what you did in step two, but underground!

Step 6: Install over complicated, dwarfy defenses to your underground stockpile.

Step 7: Continue until the King or Queen arrives.

Step 8: Cage them and store them in the stockpile.

*BONUS: Cast them in obsidian and have the obsidian mined and carved into masterwork statues.

**MEGABONUS: Make them statues of the nobles you have captured thus far. (Including the king or queen.)

Step 9: Continue until your fortress crumbles in a spectacular and hilarious way.

Step 10: Brave your defenses in adventure mode and gain access to your great fortune!
*BONUS: Make sure one of the founding dwarfs survives, after possibly killing every other founder, so you must fight the berserk HoardLord to get the fortune!

*BONUS: Make a system so the nobles stay alive.
**MEGABONUS: Make a system so the nobles can be set free.
***MEGADWARVENBONUS: Make that system be part of the defenses so when you get to the stockpile the nobles are released and tear you apart.

NOTE: Modding may be required so the nobles stay there and so that you may release them.

===You Can't Teach an Old Dwarf New Tricks===
* Never enable new labors.
* You may disable labors, but never re-enable them. Disabled labors on your Broker/Expedition Leader to stop distractions from them meeting the Caravan/Trade Liaison? Now, diplomacy is all they're good for.
* Only dwarves who already have combat skills when they immigrate/embark may join the militia. Assign whatever armor you want, but only assign them weapons they are already skilled with, NOT "Individual Choice". They're skilled in some foreign weapon, like blowgun? Better try your darndest to get them a blowgun if you want them to be useful!
* "I have tenure" - The Nobles/Administrators you appoint keep their positions for life, even if somebody with better skills/personality shows up. You can only appoint new dwarves when the position opens up due to the previous Noble's death/madness. [[Unfortunate_accident|Intentionally forcing the position open]] is against the rules of this challenge.

EASYMODE variations:
* Enable whatever labors you want on your starting seven, regardless of the skills you've given them, to make sure all your initial bases are covered. You can only do this right at the start of the game though, as soon as you unpause you're stuck with your choices.
* When immigrants show up with multiple skills, often only the labors associated with the highest-ranked skills will be enabled. Go ahead and enable all the labors in which the dwarf has at least Novice skill. However, you can only do this right when the immigrant first arrives (while there is a flashing X over the character).
* Unskilled Peasant immigrants and dwarven children who grow up may be assigned ONE labor. You can only do this right when they show/grow up, so check the population on your status screen to see what jobs your fortress is lacking, and choose carefully. If you play without this variation, your Peasants are destined to be nothing more than haulers/cleaners (and harvesters if you have "all dwarves harvest" enabled in the .ini), or deadbeat welfare bums if you disabled their labors for some reason.
** SUPEREASYMODE variation of the above: new Peasants may be assigned 1 labor Category, ex. press shift+enter on the Stoneworking category to enable Masonry and Stone Detailing.

===Wood-free challenge===
Simple: your dwarves cannot harvest or use [[wood]], or any wooden items. Non-artifact [[bed]]s are out, which will significantly reduce the happiness of your dwarves. Without charcoal, your furnaces will need to depend upon coal or magma--don't forget to bring a bar of coke to jumpstart your industry if you're using coal. You'll need to brew your alcohol on site using stone pots (to avoid buying wooden barrels on embark). Without [[windmill]]s and [[waterwheel]]s (and [[axle]]s), powered machinery is not possible. A fair number of [[strange mood]]s will prove impossible to complete without wood; you'll need to be ready to deal with the consequences. [[Noble]]s will be particularly problematic since their demands for a bedroom will have to be ignored.

===Evil Fortress===
Create an evil fort that everyone will wonder what it's all about
*make everything underground, nothing can be built in plain view of the surface
*only export can be weapons
*half the populus must be trained in the military
*dwarves start of with picks, weapons, food and one type of seed
*dwarves must be trained in a weapon skill on embark
*create deathchambers and have a strict prison policy
*make sure to sacrifice dwarves to the god armok

==Arbitrary Law==
Rule your fortress with a Soapen Fist! Or see how far you get until a (voluntary) significant flaw sends you into an inevitable sadness spiral. Whatever it is, be sure to stick by it or you'll be meeting the Hammerer.

===Work with what you have===
* Build for one year as you normally would. Be as efficient as you like.
* At the end of the year, no more mining, constructing, or anything else.
* Wood may be gathered
* Walls may be constructed, but can only be used in already-existing constructions, like dividing a room into multiple separate rooms
* No new aboveground/belowground space-creation. You may only use the space you mined out in the first year
This challenge forces you to utilize space you haven't before. A large 5x hallway may be converted into a 1x with bedrooms on either side. Whatever you have to do to fit your current population. Be sure to build without any thought into the future of the fortress when you can no longer build. Instead, make it as hard as possible.
Variations:
* you may build aboveground to a maximum of two stories above ground. Make big slums/refugee camps/bazaars. Anything that involves mass-small-one-story-buildings
* you may increase/decrease the time before you can no longer dig or build new space
* (decreased difficulty) you may plan ahead

===DSPCA===
* [[Animals]] are forbidden from the fortress
* Animals following immigrants cannot enter the fortress
* Lethal traps forbidden, caged non-sentients must be immediately released
* Butchery is forbidden, but leatherworking is allowed

Rather than forbidding immigrant pets from entering, you can choose to deal with the owner of that pet instead for a more sadistic challenge.

===Commune===
* After embarking, enable all labors on all dwarves (including immigrants).
* Beds can only be designated as barracks or a dormitory, and no dwarf can be assigned to a bed (even nobles).
* Coins are forbidden.
* Be aware that nobles are to be considered part of the "bourgeoisie" and [[Unfortunate accident|dealt with]] immediately.
* Establish a communal military plan and force everybody to be a part of the military at some time or another. Share all weapons and armor, anybody that tries to make an artifact weapon, either share the weapon, or somehow destroy it, and then execute the individual who made it.
* Force everybody to take turns and act as the executive dwarf for the month/season/year. If that person makes decisions that go against the good of the commune, execute them.

===Couples only===
* As soon as a married couple exists in your fortress:
** Kill all single dwarves (or put them in a meeting area for a year to find a lover. Kill the rest)
** Kill all incoming single dwarves
** Try to save children, until they are adult and single

===Dieting Dwarves===
* Exclusively dine on a food type of your choice (meat, fish, plants, alcohol)
* Optionally, forbid alcohol consumption to limit carbohydrate intake
**Note: forbidding alcohol permanently is as good as accepting a slow but continuous fortress death

===Dwarf Liberation Movement===
* Nobles are worthless scum, we give them nothing!
* As soon as possible, cage your expedition leader.
* Never appoint any dwarf into becoming a noble.
* Cage any dwarf that appears on the nobles and administrators screen.
* When your population elects a new mayor, release your old one and cage the new one.
** Bonus : Cage the king and all of his escorts!
** Extra Bonus : Once you have caged all nobles, administrators, the king and his advisor; you must unleash the Dwarf Atom-Smasher upon them.

===Citizenship===
* All dwarves must earn citizenship. To do so they must prove themselves by reaching legendary mining skill. Because REAL dwarves know how to dig. Until then they are forbidden to do any work.
** Bonus : Hauling is forbidden too.
** Extra Bonus : Non-citizens are prohibited from entering into a fortress, and they must remain outside. Above-ground constructed buildings count as part of the fortress.

===Fight for your name===
* Before embarking, randomly generate a fortress name and be sure to know its English translation
* Do the same with your group name
* Creatively designate a serious goal for your fortress, based on these names
* Fanatically reach your goal

===Fort Geneva===
* Lethal traps are forbidden
* Caged sentient creatures are to be considered prisoners of war and treated humanely

Suggested provisions for prisoners: a bed, a personal cell, a commons area, aboveground exercise yard, and the clothes the creature was wearing when captured. For more inspiration, go to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions Geneva Conventions]

===Glacier Challenge===
* Embark on glacier
* No trading allowed
* Plundering death merchants forbidden, basically just ignore them
** BONUS: Bring no wood

Play as an expedition team that landed on a glacier after a horrible accident and is completely cut of from the rest of world. They must find water for food and underground trees for basic needs.
Suggested embark equipment: some wood, lots of food & drink, multiple mining dwarfs to reach the caves fast.

===Government in Exile===
* Only Military and Social skills can be purchased and enabled in your entire fortress

All dwarves are either nobles or in the military. The only useful dwarves you'll have will be your broker, manager, mayor, bookkeeper, and dungeon master. If you can survive until the sheriff arrives, transfer your entire military into the fortress guard. With a little luck, and a lot of exported roasts, you too can rule without proletarian interference.

===Hardcore Altruism===
* Do not allow the death of any Dwarf

Though not viscerally entertaining, an incredible challenge. All strange moods must be given what they crave. All medical attention must be done ASAP. Mining, fishing and hunting must be done with much care. Sadness must be met with excellent social skills and quality furniture.

===Industrial Plant===
* Choose one industry that produces commercial goods
* No other industries permitted, only imported

===Johannesfort===
* Find a starting location with a lot of gabbro, containing Kimberlite
* Mine and cut all the diamonds on the map
* Only gems can be traded.
** BONUS: Your leader [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_denialism#In_South_Africa denies the existence of infections]. Soap is neither manufactured nor traded for. Even if you know a dwarf has an infection, do not quarantine it or treat it any differently.
** BONUS: Use the Burrows tool to establish "gated communities" for select dwarves, such as legendaries and nobles. Keep the fortress guard confined to these gated communities. If a dwarf throws a tantrum outside these designated areas, let him or her rage.

===<s>Preposterous</s> Realistic Dwarves?===
* No magma smelters- magma doesn't have the heat to smelt ores
* No use of perpetual motion machines
* All doors must be locked by the use of levers- no auto-locking doors for you!
* No use of the Dwarven Atom Smasher
* Load only one weapon per weapontrap
* No use of Adamantine

===Sexist Segregation===
* Establish two functioning and stable fortress
* One must be entirely male, the other entirely female
* Married couples are to be processed

===THIS! IS! SPARTAAAA!===
* Change your population cap to 300.
* At least half of your fortress population must be active in the military.
* Crossbows and traps are forbidden.
* Only spears, swords, wrestling, helmets (helms) and shields may be equipped by military and used to fight.
** BONUS: All weapons and armour must be made from bronze.
* Civilian dwarves have all labors enabled.
** If ever activated, cannot use quality weapons or armor.
* Maimed dwarves (perceived to be) incapable of being fully healed must be killed. (This includes incurable spinal injuries in military dwarves!)
* Devise methods of dropping Liaisons down pits during meetings. Yell, "THIS IS SPAARRTAAAAA..." at your monitor.(Preferably the Elven diplomat, when he tries to set your tree limit.)
* Demand goods be turned over from all caravans.
* Recreation is forbidden, as well as any 'improving' action, such as smoothing/engraving, or constructing things out of metals what can be done with rock and wood (besides spears, swords and shields). Parties following combat are acceptable.
* Building city walls is considered weak and cowardly.
* Under no circumstances is a male dwarf ever to wear a shirt. Togas are acceptable during leave.
Note that the above suggestions are modeled on the popular movie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film) 300], an adaption of the graphic novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(comics) 300], both of which are historically inaccurate. For a more "realistic dwarven Sparta", try reading the Wikipedia article on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta#Society Spartan society].

===Xenophobia===
Difficulty increases with each bullet point:
* Kill all non dwarves...
* ...and dwarf traders (or are they race traitors?)
* ...and all immigrants (or are they spies?)
* Make sure you kill all animals and especially find those collosi, dragons etc.,
Extra-gore version - make sure to make elves, goblins, humans etc., butcherable and wear only sentient hide clothing.
* BONUS: You realize this is how most experienced players run their forts anyway.

===Mesoamerican dwarves===
* All food must be grown above ground, on small plots, surrounded by canals (chinampas)
** BONUS: Flood the farms annually.
* All buildings must be above ground.
* Capture as many of your enemies as possible.
* Build a massive step pyramid at the center of your fortress. Appoint one dwarf high priest and have him kill the prisoners at the top.
** BONUS: Build it upside-down.
*** MEGABONUS: Build the entire city on top of the upside-down pyramid, with another pyramid-temple in the middle.
* Surround your fortress with an artificial lake.
** BONUS: Build it in the middle of a natural lake.
* Use only copper or bronze metal for weapons. Gold may be also be smelted.
* BONUS: The filthy steel-wearing [[human|conquistadors]] have come to plunder your city! sacrifice them to the blood god!
* Soldiers can only use obsidian short swords. Axes are only for wood cutting.
* No armor except leather and only let champions use it. All others must fight unarmored.
** BONUS: Divide your soldiers into "Jaguar[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_warrior]" and "Eagle[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_warrior]" warrior societies and outfit them with leather armor made from their respective animals.
* BONUS: Demand that all non-dwarf caravans surrender their goods as tribute.

===French Revolution===
*Keep your nobles happy and your proles subjugated until you have a king issue a particularly stupid mandate.
*Build some manner of guillotine.
*Kill the king, everyone he is acquainted with, and everyone within the same room.
*Kill other important nobles as soon as your guillotine frees up.
*Unimportant Nobles are to be executed upon first mandate, or exiled at a random point in time.
*Any dwarf that has any relation to any noble must be executed.
* Kill any other dwarf if he has any whiff of aristocracy about him. Use your discretion.

===Specialized economy===
* The goal is to reach maximum efficiency. To do this, you must assign all your workshop dwarves to an individual burrow.
* Each dwarf must have his own dining room, bedroom just next to his workshop.
* You have to assign a stockpile for food and booze next to each of your workshop dwarves so they can feed. Specialized haulers will have to bring them their foods.
* You have to assign a raw material stockpile next to your workshop so your dwarf can work. Specialized haulers will have to bring them these raw materials.
* No workshop dwarf should leave their respective burrow. Ever.
* Good luck keeping all these stockpiles supplied all the time without getting lost!

===Becoming the abomination you sought to kill===

The seven founders are trying to hide a terrible secret that can doom all dwarfkind, so each took on an arbitrary law that must be followed until the related dwarf is dead. Their ultimate goal is to kill everyone in the forteress but none of them actually KNOWS the other are pursuing the same goal undetected!

Here is a typical set of laws:

-No hunting

-No trading

-Only one batch of alcohol is to be produced per year (that's 1 drink per dwarf, tops).

-Constant war with all elves

-No military training

-No magical materials (nothing above steel)

-Forteress should be over a magma-based doomsday trap, with 20 levers able to trigger it at any time (aka the "glorious death defeating the dragon by any means necessary" plan). Did I mention the alcohol restrictions turns dwarf insane?

You shall attempt to make as many of the original dwarves as possible die from old age rather than any other cause. So pray for strategic deaths early(no cheating)! This way even your UNCONCIOUS is untrustworthy...

Overall, any of the seven laws shouldn't be TOO deadly, but certain death should be a result of following them all permanently.

Success is achieved by one criteria only: at the death of the forteress you must have learned your unconscious planned Dwarf deaths you didn't plan consciously... that's the only way to "win".

=== Dwarves need magma===
*Every workshop needs to be a "magma"workshop -- Magma carpentry, for example.
*Magma workshops must have one tile touching a magma tile (preferably 3 and for bonus be nearly surrounded by magma tiles)
*Every trap must be magma powered -- including cage traps
*Dining rooms and bedrooms need magma lights to keep dwarves happy.
*Extra Bonus - forbid all non-magma safe materials
** Super Bonus - include clothes
** Utterly Dwarfy bonus - Mod the game so that the dwarves can all wear obsidian clothes.

=== Insane Asylum within a Labor Camp ===

Build up a large area that contains small rooms with nothing in them. Have the area heavily guarded. When any dwarves are idle for too long or do something you don't like,place them in one room. Outside each room place racks of high quality weapons and armor. When the imprisoned dwarves go insane and there are enough to badly damage your fortress, Let them all loose. Watch the [[Fun]].

Bonus: Rig up traps so when othere dwarves rush into combat, the area becomes filled with deadly creatures and traps.

===The Hive===
*All dwarves have all labors on.
**Dwarf Therapist helps with this.
**Hunting and fishing are optional.
*The endgoal is to make a fully functioning "bee hive" like fortress, All rooms inside the hive must be the same size.
*The hive must be suspended in the sky like below (scale is your choice)
**BONUS: Suspend it over a volcano.
***MEGABONUS: Have a lever to drop the whole thing down into the volcano.
= is a Up/down stairway
O is the hive parts

======
OOOO =
OOOOOO =
OOOOOO =
OOOO =
=

===Urist's Legion===
*Women are allowed no jobs, and must be held as breeding stock.
*Most of the men are military, and the rest are workers.
*All military armor must be leather. All weapons must be iron swords and spears.
*Only appoint named dwarves to noble position.
*The expedition leader must be kept safe, and will do nothing.
*He must also have a royal bedroom, dining room, and tomb.
*BONUS: Build an artificial lake. Make a replica of Hoover Dam. Build walls to make sure the goblins only appear west of the dam. Guard it against the GolbiNCR!
MEGABONUS: Build a camp with walls out of aluminum bars. make the entire thing a barracks.

===Alcoholic Dwarves Anonymous===
*Make your fort a rehab center for dwarves trying to stay sober.
*Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. Water only.
*Any booze brought by migrants must be confiscated and destroyed.
*BONUS: Keep the booze and have the expedition leader/mayor secretly be an alcoholic. Make a stockpile that holds only booze behind a secret door in his quarters. Ensure he is the only one that can access it.
**MEGABONUS: Have him removed from his position and/or imprisoned if a dwarf sees him access this stash.

===The Bunker===
*No Embark Requirement
*Set up a fort as you usually would, build, mine, construct and so forth.
*Dig out a self-sufficient bunker, containing farming facilities, A massive area for water storage (at least 20x20x5) with a purifying mechanism (pumps can purify stagnant water), Plenty of wood (at least 100), Seeds for whatever crops you will plant (at least 75), a large storage of food (at least 300), have fully operational medical facilities, worker facilities, as well as recreational facilities
*When you get a siege, gather up a fourth of your dwarves, regardless of who they are, and put them in the bunker. Seal up the bunker permanently, no one gets in or out. That also includes the water supply. That's right, once you run out of water, you are screwed.
*You may dig out mines for the bunker, but if you open a cavern then you must immediately wall it off, with the miner trapped outside, sentenced to death.
*All crimes are punished with death once inside the bunker.
*What the leader says is law.
**BONUS: Dedicate your bunker to a specific goal, such as producing enough booze for 100 years, or some arbitrary and pointless lay
***MEGABONUS: Cause an accident that will kill off a majority of the bunker, except for a handful of dwarves (such as cracking open the water tank to flood the residential areas of the bunker)
*Variant: Send a quarter of your dwarves into the bunker while it's being constructed with only the farm functional as well as a small amount of food, seed, water, and wood.

===Überdwarves===

Basically, each and every dwarf in your fortress must aim to be the pinnacle of dwarvenkind. Both a great talker and possible leader of men, an exceptional craftsdwarf in multiple disciplines, and a deadly warrior whose body is a terrific weapon. See Friedrich Nietzsche's work for more info.

* All dwarves are to be conscripted into the military. Dwarves must kill personally the animals they wear the skin/bone of.
**BONUS : no weapons better than iron, unless you are faced with an enemy made from a better metal
***MEGABONUS : no weapons other than base quality
**BONUS : all dwarves must be at least at least Proficient in military skills
***MEGABONUS : all dwarves must be Legendary in MS
****ULTRABONUS : all dwarves must have slain a whole siege all by themselves
*****SADISTICDWARFBONUS : Assault [[HFS]] with your bunch of überdwarves. Win. No traps allowed.
* All dwarves have to have and train at least one truly dwarven skill, like leatherworking, metalworking (any), stoneworking, bone carving, or brewing.
**BONUS : one of these to legendary.
* All dwarves have to train mining. Not allowed for fighting, excepted for creatures that cannot be harmed by weaponless combat. (iron FB's, steel titans, demons, etc.)
* All dwarves must have very high willpower.
** BONUS : All dwarves must have MAXIMUM willpower
* Dwarves may eat only animal based products. You need lots of protein for these überdwarves. Plant-based drinks are alright.
**BONUS : All dwarves must have generally superior physical attributes
***MEGABONUS : No attributes in the red
****ULTRABONUS : All attributes at maximum. We're talking about überdwarves after all.
*No dedicated haulers. No large amount of idlers.
**BONUS : Keep a minimum amount of idlers, excluding breaks
*No hospital. If the dwarf doesn't heals by himself and becomes useless, kill him.
**BONUS : No tombs, dump the corpses in lava
***MEGABONUS : No drinking water, of for that matter anything else than alcohol. Water is not dwarven.
****ULTRABONUS : Infect your whole fort with a werebeast curse. (A sufficiently dwarven animal is required, like badgers). No more need for hospital.
* All dwarves must have at least Adept in most social skills.
** BONUS : Legendary in most social skills.
*As soon as your babies turn into children, put them into a hellish training regimen that will train him and make him into a true dwarf. Death is of course, synonym of weakness.
**BONUS : Make them fight wild creatures into an arena.
***MEGABONUS : 40 children VS 1 megabeast. WHO WILL SURVIVE ?
****ULTRABONUS : Get all the children at Legendary Fighter skill by the time of their adulthood. If they aren't, kill them.
*****SADISTICDWARFBONUS : Each young dwarf must pass a test of adulthood : killing enough creatures in fair combat and earning a title. If they don't, kill them.
*All dwarves must be hardened of spirit. You must give all of your dwarves "doesn't care about anything anymore" trait.
**BONUS : Trait must be earned by killing, NOT seeing death.
*Each dwarf must kill at least one beast and one sentient enemy.
**BONUS : Each dwarf must have earned a title by slaying enemies, which MUST be suitably appropriate and badass.
***MEGABONUS : Each dwarf must have killed at least 10 sentient enemies. Each dwarf must also have some Butcher skill, for added terror.
****ULTRABONUS : Each dwarf must have killed at least 100 sentient enemies
*Each dwarf must have a pet that will help him in combat.
**BONUS : each dwarf must have a fearsome predator as pet
***MEGABONUS : each dwarf must have a semimegabeast as pet
****ULTRABONUS : each dwarf must have a megabeast as pet
*No vampires allowed, vampires gain things far too easily.
**BONUS : Mod difficult creatures that blood gives stat bonuses to your dwarves.
*Fortress must end in a loyalty cascade and a fight to the death, to see which dwarf/which faction are the REAL überdwarves. Then abandon fort and follow your überdwarves in legends mode.

===<s>Dwarf</s> Vampire Fortress===
Do you ever get tired of having to endure the annoying, slow, and difficult process of finding that murderous [[vampire]] that is wandering around in your fortress? We have the solution!
Think: If everybody is a vampire, then you'll never need to check for any. You can use this principle to turn every single dwarf in your fortress into a vampire, meaning that you will never have to worry about finding vampires again! On top of this, your new vamps will never need to eat, drink or sleep, and will never die of old age!
Here's how:
#Build an upright spear trap, fill the tile with water, and have an existing vampire walk over it (or otherwise dropping the vampire in the trap).
#Pull the lever <s>over 9000 times</s> a few times to make the vampire bleed <s>to death</s> in the water.
#Forbid the booze supply or otherwise make it unusable.
#Make all of your non-vampiric dwarves drink from the bloodied water, and boom! You have a fortress full of vampires!

*BONUS : Should your fortress fall, go to your fortress in Adventure Mode and drink from the bloodied water.
**MEGABONUS : Do the above and follow one of the vampires to another settlement.

(We are not responsible for any damages caused to your fortress due to the disadvantages of this challenge. Disadvantages include, but are not limited to, severe unhappiness of your dwarves due to being unable to get happy [[thoughts]] from quality food and drink, getting ''un''happy thoughts from alcohol withdrawal they can't satisfy, and/or the death of dwarves because <s>lazy slackers</s> dwarves nearly always choose to sleep before drinking and thus getting fed on by your newly cursed lieges. The same fate can befall new migrants, beware.)

==Construction challenges==
Try building some <s>ridiculously</s> humongous, <s>over</s>complicated construction, using whatever <s>in</s>appropriate building method your fevered imagination can come up with! Need some ideas? Take a look at the [[Megaprojects|Megaprojects page]]!

Discipline

2014-08-27T02:11:01Z

Scorpion451:

{{Quality|Fine|16:00, 25 August 2014 (UTC)}}
{{Skill
| color = 3:0
| skill = Discipline
| profession = Military
| job name = None
| tasks = None
| attributes = Unknown
}}
{{av}}

'''Discipline''' is a [[skill]] highly relevant to [[military]] dwarves, and somewhat less important for civilian dwarves. A dwarf with high discipline is less likely to retreat in battle, or to cancel a job when witnessing death. This makes it very useful when many dwarves die in a fight; without discipline even a dwarf with legendary weapon skills will panic and run before he is even able to do anything to the enemies trying to kill you. Its also helpful for keeping your medic from panicking when you're having a bit too much [[fun]] and they loose a patient with others waiting to be tended to.

Active military [[training]] raises the discipline skill (rather quickly, in fact), so giving your dwarves a few months of basic military training is helpful before throwing them onto the battlefield.

Being exposed to things such as dead bodies, and cancelling jobs due to being "horrified" also contributes to the raising of the discipline skill

{{Skills}}

Well guide

2014-08-23T15:23:22Z

Scorpion451: /* Flooding */

{{quality|Fine}}{{av}}
''This guide assumes you've read the main article on '''[[well]]s''' and are familiar with the basic information found in that article, of what a well does and what is required to build one.''

A well can be vital to any fortress, but deciding that you need one and building one are two different things. Draining water from the surface can flood your fortress if you aren't careful, and building a well only to see the water source dry up or freeze is beyond frustrating. This guide will walk you through a number of different situations, and explain solutions that have been found for these problems.

== Why Build a Well? ==

Honestly, not every fortress NEEDS a well. But they all need some form of safe ''water source'' to bring water to patients and prisoners. If they do not have this and you find yourself in a siege with six injured dwarves, you're in for a little bit of [[Fun]]... But a hole full of water can be just as good for that as a well.

=== Why You Might Not ===

* Wells are yet another opportunity to flood your fort (not like trenches aren't, though). Playing with water is generally dangerous if you don't know what are you doing.
* For the purposes unrelated to drinking and bathing, a well is just a hole in the floor. Fighting dwarves and animals can easily dodge into it, as they would into any other hole.
* They take a lot of time and effort to construct, especially when compared to alternatives.
* Because of the way wells are, a single hole in a flat ceiling, it makes it more difficult for creatures to get out, should they find themselves in your water source.
* Technically, tiles adjacent to a trench full of water can be designated as a water source just as easily as a well, and dwarves will sanely path around such a trench, as well as bathe in it more easily.
* If you do make a shallow pool (mixture of 3/7 and 4/7 water) as a water source, and have a meeting hall designated therein, unoccupied dwarves will hang out in the water, gaining swimming skill.

=== Why You Might ===

* While a trench full of water can be used as a water source, a well can draw water from a source that is 30+ levels below. Also, a trench water source can only be one level deep, dwarves will not draw water from any level deeper than that. A well will.
* Wells can be made to have extraordinarily high value, due to the various skills and materials, each with their own quality levels, which go into its construction. Thus, as the center piece for a meeting room, even if they have no water, wells can be very handy in making dwarves very happy.
* As far as the well itself goes, they take up very little space in your actual fortress. With a water-filled channel, the reservoir is equivalent to the floor space occupied.
* This is a glitch, but wells are the easiest method for making salt water drinkable. Wells will ignore salinity and allow dwarves to drink salt water directly from its source without a glitch. So long as it isn't murky.
* Drinking from a well is much faster than drinking from a trench. Also less annoying to dwarves.
* You can build a well over a trench, combining best parts of both.

== Choosing a Location ==

Once you've decided it's time to construct a well, you need to consider where the well needs to be. It helps if you've been planning for this while building the rest of your fortress, and have made room for it.

You want a well central to your dwarves, so they'll all get good thoughts from seeing it, and near any [[hospital]] beds you have, but you want it off the main traffic routes. You can have more than one well, which solves that problem, but raises the one of engineering water to feed them all. If it's indoors (or behind walls), then there's little threat from [[carp]], [[goblin]]s, or [[animal]]s, and it can provide a safe source of drinking water during a [[siege]].

Depending on your start location, you may already have a pre-existing water source, such as a flooded cavern, which you can just build a well over. Or, as is usually the case, you may need to transport water from some other location to where you want your well to be. This is where things get complicated.

== Water sources ==

A well needs a water source of at least 3/7 depth, at least 1 [[z-level]] somewhere directly below its opening, with no obstructions between itself and said water. Pre-existing water is safe because it's the most predictable - what you see is what you've got, no surprises. You can instead use dwarven engineering to bring water from a distant source to beneath your well, with a safety factor based on your experience and the complexity of the project. (See [[flood]].)

The important part about the well is to make sure that you don't create a situation where the water will [[flood]] your fortress, due to [[pressure]] from a source at a higher level. If the water is stable before you build the well above it, it will be safe (unless your dwarves change things), but if you are introducing a flow, make sure you understand how ''dwarven'' pressure works and will not fall victim to its surprises. (See [[pressure]].)

=== Pre-existing sources ===

A [[brook]], [[river]], [[murky pool]], or [[cavern]] lakes can provide water under a well. If the water source is only one z-level deep and contains a pile of mud, the water produced will be [[Water#Water_laced_with_mud|muddy]]. 'A dusting of mud', however, is not an issue - your well and its water are <s>fine</s> wonderful.

The surface of a brook tile will have to be channeled out, but it otherwise works just fine.

Murky pools are not optimal: they can dry up in warm seasons, and water directly from murky pools is [[Water#Stagnant_water|stagnant]], which is just as bad as being muddy. Murky pools can refill from [[rain]], but on hot maps, this may never happen.

=== [[Aquifer|Aquifers]] ===

If you have an aquifer, just channel a 1x1 square in any open stretch of floor above it and build the well. It will automatically fill and never flood. You'll have other construction projects to worry about.

Water coming into contact with a floor or slope may create "a dusting of mud". However, both 'A dusting of mud' and a 'Muddy Upward Slope' are not an issue - your well and its water are <s>fine</s> wonderful.

=== [[Ocean|Oceans]] ===

Oceans and aquifers near oceans carry [[Water#Salt_water|salty]] water. This is normally unusable for treating wounds or drinking. However, salty water obtained from a well is used just like normal. This is a bug. {{bug|1260}}

=== [[Reservoir|Reservoirs]] ===

If you need to move water to your well, you need to dig/build a reservoir. A reservoir is basically a big hole intended for the storage of large quantities of water.

When digging a reservoir, you need to consider your needs and the space you have available. Do you really need a 20x20x20 reservoir, holding 56,000 tiles of water, requiring 560,000 uses of the well to fully dry up? Frequently, in well-managed fortresses, wells are really only used for the care of sick or imprisoned dwarves and animals. As a result, it doesn't really need to be anything special, unless it's a meeting hall, in which case dwarves will drink from it at random.

Another consideration is safety. Specifically, dwarves fighting near wells can fall into them, whether as a result of sparring or due to overcrowding of animals. You may wish to place some sort of escape route from the well, should anyone do so. At the least, this just needs to be a staircase going up the side of the well to the surface. The shorter the distance they need to go, the better off they are. Keep in mind, of course, that if any wildlife is able to access your reservoir, and if any of them are able to leave the water, they may wander into your fortress through the escape route. If they're particularly malicious, they may even path their way in to attack your dwarves.

If you are filling the reservoir by aqueduct, consider the fill point. If you are using only gravity to fill the well, but the water needs to flow up to do so, you may experience problems when it comes time to refill your well. Specifically, water floods upwards into empty space very easily, but for some reason doesn't like to flood through still water. Thus, it may be more appropriate to have the reservoir fill from its top, though keep in mind that this is a very fast fill method and can flood a bit if you aren't watching and have a small reservoir. (As a side note on that, it is possible to fill a well by pouring water directly through the well opening itself)

Finally, you may find some circumstance where you'd wish to make changes to the well. For example, building a statue in its reservoir, or recovering a lost loved one who fell in and cracked his skull open. In these instances, you may wish to construct a manual drain. All it requires is a hatch or floodgate at the bottom of the well, connected to a lever, covering a tunnel leading to an appropriate dump site... Like your subterranean farming operation. Or your obsidian factory. Or a room full of captured <s>nobles</s> goblins. If you already have a drain for the aqueduct, you can easily connect the two.

== Filling the Well ==

If you've had to construct a well separate from a pre-existing water source, you need to move that water to the well itself. There's two main ways to go about this.

=== Bucket Filling a Well ===

If you designate your well as a pit/pond and have empty buckets, dwarves will fill the well manually. Keep in mind that this is slow, time-consuming and occupies dwarves who could be doing something else. Of course, for particularly small wells, it may be of no concern. If the walking distance is quite far, (Like STUPIDLY far- your fortress would need to be a truly tangled maze for this to happen) the water may evaporate faster than dwarves can fill the well. If you don't have enough buckets, this will happen even to the tiniest of wells, though.

=== Piping water to your reservoir ===

If the water is not where you want to build the well, you can dig a tunnel or channel and/or otherwise create an [[aqueduct]] to bring it to where you want it. You should consider adding a door or floodgate somewhere near the water source so that you can dry out your tunnels for future projects, repair, or recovery of lost items.

Channels are open to the sky, and if not done properly, (taking advantage of some weird quirks in game functionality) they are subject to evaporation and freezing. As a result, they aren't normally an optimal method of moving water. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from digging a moat, then filling your well from that. Keep in mind, however, that open water frequently becomes a random hazard, as dwarves can be quite careless at times. If you do have open water set up somewhere, make sure your dwarves have some way out of it. You never know when a random goblin will kick your elite stonecrafter into your moat.

Digging tunnels, then, is generally a better way of moving water from place to place. You need to be careful about how you dig such aqueducts. Water can move through diagonal openings, so be sure to avoid flooding nearby rooms from accidental corner intersections. Make sure that any unnecessary access points to your aqueduct are properly sealed before letting the water flow.

The generally accepted method for digging an aqueduct has five steps.

# Dig out the reservoir where you want to store the water.
# From the reservoir, dig a tunnel up to your water source, but leave one space of earth to prevent water from flooding in and killing your dwarf.
# Build a door or floodgate in the aqueduct, either at the end of the tunnel or at the entrance to the reservoir. Or both if you're fancy. (Doors are better, because the dwarf can walk through it if he builds it from the wrong side)
# Connect the door/floodgate to a lever, and make sure any dwarves stuck in the tunnel are safely evicted.
# Channel out the final tile from above, pull the lever. Let the water fill the reservoir, then pull the lever again, sealing the water source.

Keep in mind, when you command the lever to be pulled to end filling, it may take some time for an available dwarf to actually do it. Even then, there is some lag time between the lever pull and the action it causes. Finally, if your plug is at some point in the aqueduct, but not at the entrance of the reservoir, any water in the aqueduct above the water level in the reservoir will continue to pour in.

If you want to empty the aqueduct, use a similar method to build a drain to some reasonable dumping location, like a cavern. Make sure you can control it with levers, however, or it will constantly drain instead of filling your well.

== Safety ==

A well is not an obstructing object. That is to say, it doesn't stop things from passing through its space. This is why wells can function through other wells, why water will flood out of them, and why a (very) few monsters may be able to climb out through them if you're tremendously unlucky.

=== Flooding ===

More fortresses have fallen at the hands of a flooding well than they have to megabeasts, sieges or demons. If you are going to be shifting water around in any form <s>other than buckets</s> including buckets and Urist McDrownseasily, be prepared for the worst.

There are several solutions to the flooding problem.

* Overflow Drainage. At the top of a reservoir, dig a tunnel to drain water out the side, and have it dump out into some appropriate sump, like a cavern full of armok-knows-what.
* Emergency Auto-plug. You can make pressure plates sense water. If you set up a pressure plate beside your well, and connect it to a hatch or door blocking your reservoir, it will automatically seal the reservoir off from its flow source, should the thing flood.
* No Exits. The safest and easiest way to do it, is to dig out the reservoir, ''but not the opening for the well itself''. This way, you can fill the reservoir completely, and because there's nowhere for it to flood out to, it simply WON'T! Then you can seal off the reservoir at your leisure and dig the opening without concern! (Though not without caution. Make sure you turned the taps off first.)
* Cut the Pressure. Filling a reservoir from above is a good way to cause a flood. You can neutralize the excess [[pressure]] by including a diagonal passage in the aqueduct at or below the level of the well.

=== Monsters ===

You don't need to worry too much about monsters crawling out of your well to gobble down your hairy friends these days, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. It all depends on what beasts may be lurking around- and how you build your well.

First off, if you're bucket-filling a well, you need to make sure that their initial water source is safe. Make sure it isn't full of crocodiles or carp. (Or other dangerous fishy things)

If you are draining water through an aqueduct, and you know there may be dangerous animals (Or even just unwanted regular animals) living in it, there is a way to stop them from wandering in. You can place [[Grate|wall grates]] or [[Bars|upright bars]] in the aqueduct to act as filters. (Note that submerged [[fortification]]s do '''not''' block creature movement.) These allow water to pass through, but animals cannot. Quickly [[flow]]ing water, however, may push animals through wall grates and vertical bars, and both are vulnerable to level 2 [[building destroyer]]s. For the ultimate in aqueduct filtering, install a floor grate (or floor bars) such that the water flows ''upwards'' through the grate into your reservoir using [[pressure]]. If you plan to use filters in conjunction with [[floodgate]]s, remember to connect your floodgate to its trigger ''before'' placing the filters.

Even if monsters do get into your well, they're rarely a genuine threat, and at worst can give your dwarves an unhappy thought by scaring them. However, if your reservoir is filled right to the brim, carp and other fish CAN attack your dwarves, just as they would from a river. Also, any amphibious creatures may be able to use an escape passage to make their way into your fortress and make a mess. (Keep in mind, zombified fish are amphibious) And, of course, anyone who falls into a well full of predators is pretty much doomed.

To prevent amphibians from getting out of your well, should they somehow get there, simply put a lockable hatch over the escape route.

Finally, if you are drawing directly from a cavern lake, and have simply opened a hole in its ceiling for the well, any flying creatures in the cavern may be able to use the well as an access point to your fortress. You could potentially construct a wall surrounding the pathway of the bucket. This would prevent flying creatures from entering, unless they are also capable of swimming. Do not forget the perils of dwarves falling into a well, however, falling into a cavern lake full of cave crocodiles will cause lots of [[fun]].

== Above Ground ==

The previous sections focused mostly on subterranean wells and gravity-filling reservoirs. Now we need to consider the special circumstances of wells built at ground level, above ground level, and simply outdoors.

The main problem is that anything above what was ground level at embark is considered "above ground" and has different behavior, even if enclosed to be indoors. In particular, it will freeze and evaporate according to the temperature. This includes everything on level 0 and -1, unless there is something about them preventing the temperature from removing them, like rivers flowing faster than the water can evaporate out of them.

Enclosing the water, so that it is "indoors" will decrease the rate of evaporation, but there isn't much you can do to prevent water from freezing above ground. (There is a way, but if you're new, you may not enjoy [[#Fighting the Ice|the prospects of actually constructing it]].)

=== Outdoor Wells ===

There are plenty of good reasons to build a well outdoors. First and foremost, to be decorative or thematic. The wells don't necessarily need to be functional if this is your intent. But another use would be as a functional source for an outdoor meeting hall... Or in other words, a vomitorium. Because dwarves will clean themselves in a well, having one in such a vomitorium would just make things more efficient!

Of course, as with any outdoor meeting place, you need to be certain that it is a safe place, where goblins and giant eagles are unlikely to descend upon your sickly party-goers.

=== On The Level ===

Now, about ground level, or specifically, the place where "above ground" and "below ground" meet. Z-levels 0 and -1 on flat maps. If you are on a very cold or very hot map, any water open to the sky on these levels will freeze or evaporate very quickly. As said before, you can minimize this by simply roofing in the water and making it "indoors".

Also keep in mind the floor type. Murky pools, even when roofed over, will behave as though they are open to the sky. This is because murky pools, rivers, oceans, etc. all have a special floor tile which modifies the behavior of any water above it. Simply putting floor tiles on the basin of a murky pool can minimize evaporation, but it will eliminate rain refill.

If you dig a channel down to z-2, the water in it will not evaporate very quickly at all, as it's "under ground".

=== In the Sky ===

And now for the final type of well, and this one is very uncommon, you may wish to build a well high above ground. A well tower may indeed be a cool, though completely non-functional idea. Be aware what the environmental conditions are before you do this, of course, as the only real way of dealing with ice involves pumping magma up the tower as well.

In all honesty, a sky well would be built and function pretty much the same as a subterranean well. The only difference is that it is very difficult to get the water up there. You need to build a pumpstack, lifting the water, level by level, pump by pump, up to your reservoir. And you need to lift the water to the top of your reservoir, as pumps will not pump upward naturally.

== Style and Design ==

This section discusses purely aesthetic and functional decisions people have made in the past with their wells, as well as advanced designs.

=== Fighting the Ice ===

So you have a frozen well, and you want to know how to keep it liquid do ya? You're going to need to build a heated reservoir.

First, have magma on your map. If you don't, dig deeper and be prepared for [[Fun]].

Next, you need some [[magma-safe]] materials. You'll need this to build floodgates and pumps.

Now, you need to pipe and pump the magma with the magma-safe pumping equipment. Be sure to use mechanical power for these, as dwarves are too likely to kill themselves.

The magma needs to be piped under your reservoir. That is to say, there needs to be just one floor tile between the two, just enough to keep them from touching and turning into an accidental obsidian factory.

The magma needs to be piped around under your water, it needs to keep on moving or the water will freeze again. That means it needs an infinite, cyclical flow.

And even if you get all of this built and working, it will only melt one level. Which means the reservoir can only be 1 level deep.

That's a lot of work to have an above-ground well in a frozen environment. Probably easier to melt a pool and drain it.

=== Ultimate Party Machine ===

It is possible to pour water through the mouth of a well from above. This frequently causes water to spray out in a mist, which pleases dwarves. If you power it, you could have a pump stack draw water from beneath the well and pour it back in from above, turning your fancy meeting hall into a FANCIER meeting hall! Throw in some platinum statues while you're at it.

=== Well Stacking ===

Have you ever needed to have more than one well on multiple z-levels and disliked the work of setting up multiple reservoirs? Well fret no more!

Because a well can function through the opening of another well, it's possible to stack well openings through z-levels! So long as they're all in a perfectly straight line above each other, and there's at least 3/7 tiles of water somewhere directly below them, they will all be perfectly functional!

Of course, if you go too far, this may become something of a safety concern, as dwarves would plummet mile after mile, through dozens of well openings before finally hitting the bottom.

=== Multitasking Wells ===

Because wells aren't actually USED all that often, and are usually more valuable as decorations, there isn't really any reason to keep its reservoir completely full all the time. So, what can you do with a giant bucket of water in the middle of your fortress? Well, luckily, there are a few other reasons you could have for piping water around.

First, you need to "irrigate" stone floors before you can actually farm on them. Instead of making a separate, elaborate irrigation system for just one use, (mud doesn't dry naturally, though it could be smoothed/floored over and disappears when reclaiming a fortress) why not just drain it out of your well?

You could also use your well as a water reservoir for an obsidian factory. Fill a chamber with a single layer of magma, then pour your well's contents over it!

You could use your well to dispose of unwanted life forms, such as siegers, elves, goblins, nobles and other miscellaneous things that wandered into your cage traps. (This only works on non-amphibious creatures)

=== The Dwarven Toilet ===

I built this in an experiment. At the top of the reservoir is a platform with a pressure plate on it. When the pressure plate senses 5/7 water, it triggers, closing the fill pipe, and opening the drain. So, when you pull the lever to fill the thing, it fills up to the top, then drains. Just like a giant toilet. I have not found any functional use for this. In all honesty, it was a simple accident I made, connecting the pressure plate to the drain as well as the plug. But, hey, what the heck, I made a giant toilet. There ya' go. Perhaps you could use this to get rid of the crud that accumulates in a well as dwarves clean themselves in it?

This can be VERY useful when you have a larger reservoir that fills your well. This way every pull of the lever delivers a set amount of water into your well. Thus eliminating1 the risk of flooding due to the well becoming pressurized. 
1Beware dwarves that throw tantrums, they randomly pull levers.

{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Design}}

[[ru:Well_guide]]

Fishing industry

2014-08-23T14:52:46Z

Scorpion451: /* Fish cleaning */ Yep, takes a while but fish will rot if you leave them long enough apparently. Had it happen to me today while starting an oceanfront fort.

{{Migrated_article}}
{{quality|unrated}}{{av}}

'''The fishing industry''' is one of five [[food]]-producing [[industry|industries]] (along with [[farming]], the [[meat industry]], the [[poultry industry]], and the [[beekeeping industry]]). In addition to sustaining your hungry dwarves, the fishing industry produces non-edible raw materials that can be used by your workshops, like [[shell]]s and [[extract]]s. Fishing is an excellent way to initially feed your dwarves, requiring very little setup or maintenance, available as long as you have access to some form of fish-bearing water and a cheesemaker or two looking for something to do between breaks.

==Fishing==
[[Fisherdwarf|Fishing]] is the primary activity associated with the fishing industry, as it is the main way to acquire fish. Fishing is unique in that unlike [[hunting]] or [[trapping]], dwarves need no special equipment to catch fish; they just pull the hapless critters right out of the water with their bare hands. The [[fish]] that they catch are usually [[vermin]] fish (or really aquatic animals in general, not just fish), which makes keeping track of stocks much more difficult. Each fish caught will each yield one meal, once prepared. Note that the presence of vermin fish on-screen does not signify there are fish there for fishing.

If you simply tell your fisherdwarves to go fish, they will do so in the nearest source of water. Most water sources more than a few tiles in size have some stock of fish, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you want your dwarves fishing there. While stocks of fish in bodies of water that do not [[flow]] are now renewable, unlike in the past{{bug|2780}}, a fisherdwarf can still have lots of [[fun]] at his secret fishing hole next to the goblin's favorite arrival area. Zoning is highly recommended, but keep in mind an agile Urist McFisherdwarf assigned to an out of the way fishing spot with a nearby lockable escape tunnel can make an excellent sentry.

== Fishing Zone==
Fishing [[zone]]s are preferred areas to fish and changing [[standing orders]] to zone-only fishing with {{k|o}}-{{k|z}}, and then setting fishing to zone-only will force all fishing to be done in the zone. To set up fishing zones, designate a zone({{k|i}}) as usual, on shore tile adjacent to water. You can only set the zone to be used for {{K|f}}ishing if there is some fish-bearing water inside, or if it is not yet known if there are any fish there. If there are no fish in a particular region, you will get the [[announcement]] "There is nothing to catch in the [region] swamps", and designating a zone next to water in that region will show "0" for fishing.

==Fish cleaning==
Freshly caught '''raw fish''' cannot be eaten; they must first be cleaned at a [[fishery]]. The presence of raw fish automatically triggers "Prepare a raw fish" to be queued up at the nearest fishery. So long as you have enough [[fish cleaning|fish cleaners]] and [[fishery|fisheries]] to keep up with your fisherdwarves, fish cleaning should be an automated process. Raw fish is a classification in the [[stocks]] menu for fish that have yet to be cleaned, useful for seeing how backlogged the [[fishing industry]] is, or isn't.

Once a dwarf catches a fish, he will carry it off to the nearest stockpile and return to fishing; even if the dwarf has fish cleaning enabled, he will almost never perform the task on his catch, as fishing is regarded as higher-priority, even if fish in your stockpile are in danger of rotting. A rule of thumb is to have twice as many fish cleaners as fishers, as fishers generally catch fish faster than cleaners can process them. To this effect, mature fortresses often have dedicated cooks/brewers/fish cleaners tasked to their food preparation areas. It is especially important to have [[barrel]]s and/or [[large pot]]s in stock if you have a fishing industry, as openly stored fish rot very quickly.

Once a fish is cleaned, it is known as a "prepared" fish, and can be immediately eaten. Fish, both raw and prepared, can also be cooked into food at a [[kitchen]].

==Shells==
Animals with shells, like [[pond turtle]]s, will also leave behind their [[shell]]s, useful for the purposes of [[bone carving]] and appeasing [[strange mood|moody]] dwarves. Since cooking unprepared shelled creatures loses your shell, you probably want to disable this behavior for animals that have them ([[turtle]]s, [[mussel]]s, and [[oyster]]s) until after the fish cleaner is done with them. In addition to being used to create low value crafts and some passingly useful/sellable shell armor, ''every'' item type can be [[decoration|decorated]] with shells. Given that any halfway decent fishing industry in a location with [[mussel]]s or [[oyster]]s will keep a craftdwarf or five swimming in shells, this can be VERY lucrative. Setting up a few craftsdwarf workshops next to a dedicated shell stockpile near your kitchens with constant repeating orders of "decorate with shell" and assigning bone carving to all dwarves with spare time lets them quickly train bone carving to legendary levels, while delighting your dwarves as every statue, door, and sock they encounter is bedazzeled with shell images of shell items decorated with shells and guaranteeing that merchants will pay top dollar for your <s>useless junk covered in recycled kitchen trash</s> masterful craftmanship.

[[Pearl]]s are a as-of-yet unimplemented [[mussel]] and [[oyster]] product. Although you can tell your dwarves to decorate with pearl at a craftsdwarf's workshop, nothing will actually happen, as there are no pearls in the game; this is actually one of the longest-running and most obvious missing features, having persisted since 23a.

==Trading==
You can buy processed fish at embark and from traders, in which case the key word is processed; they will always already be prepared, and will never require preparation or have a shell. Buying fish from [[caravan]]s is often a good idea if you do not have a strong fishing industry, as it adds to the dwarven diet variety, which is always a good thing.

==Fish dissection==
Fisheries can also queue up a "capture a live fish" task; to fulfill this task a fisherdwarf will grab an [[animal trap]] and set it in the river, retrieving it when it catches something. Note that if no animal trap is available, the task will occupy the fishery forever, preventing its other functions from taking place. [[Captured live fish]] can serve as an attraction in an [[Cage|aquarium]], or be made into [[extract]]s with the "dissect a live fish" task at the fishery, using the [[fish dissection]] skill. In particular, dissected [[moghopper]]s yield five units of [[mog juice]], each worth 50☼, making it quite lucrative for something that would otherwise have served little more than a single meal.

==Fish hunting==
Larger, non-vermin fish cannot be caught with bare hands for obvious reasons. Large fish like [[carp]] and [[shark]]s are individual [[creature]]s, and appear as such on the [[Menu|unit list]], and must be [[butcher]]ed, producing dozens or, in the case of [[sperm whale|whales]], hundreds of meat products. Note that fish hunting is mostly an oceanic activity - rivers will only ever have occasional carp runs and the like.

Advanced fortresses located near the [[ocean]], a [[lake]], or large and well-occupied sections of [[river]] may make use of a fishing-adapted [[drowning chamber]]: a large room lined with all sorts of traps into which water is allowed to filter through via [[Screw pump|water pump]] pressure. No creature knows of the evils of the chambers as do the [[Merperson|merpeople]], whose numbers were, in the past, constantly reduced by dwarves seeking their extremely valuable innards.

Large fish can be caught in or killed by [[trap]]s located along the river bottom. The issue is setting the traps and retrieving their bodies for butchering, both tasks that require a dry riverbed; this means that you must dam or redirect river flow, build the traps, funnel it back through, and then have a way to quickly get rid of the water (probably with [[screw pump]]s) so your dwarves can drag them back to the butcher's shop. Such river control, as well as the construction of genocidal chambers, is a fairly complex engineering project.

==Industry management==
For the most part, the fishing industry is self-sustaining. Have some fishers, have some fisheries, and have some fish cleaners, and everything should run smoothly. However, a big part of fishing inefficiency is hauling the fish from the river to the table; solving this requires bringing the river closer to home, necessary for [[well]]s as well and potentially doubling or even tripling your production as dwarves can toss fish right into the nearest food stockpile.

The largest challenge in the fishing industry is ensuring the safety of your fisherdwarves. When working outdoors, they are susceptible to [[ambush]]ers. The process of building an artificial river is out of the scope of this article, but creating an internal fishery is easy once you have the [[pressure]] worked out: simply [[channel]] down to your river, just like with a well, and build some [[floor grate]]s, as dwarves have no trouble fishing through them. Doing so removes the danger of being far from home in case of a potential siege or ambush and keeps your fisherdwarves happily inside at all times.

==Industry Flowchart==

{| style="border-spacing: 0;"

|-
{{Skill Block|skill=[[Fishing]]
|color=7:0|
| |E|| |
|E| |C|#ccc|L|#ccc|
| |A|#ccc| |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#ccc|C|#ccc|E||
| |A|#ccc| |
}}
{{Empty Block}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-

{{Item Block|title=Raw Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Item Block|title=Live Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Empty Block}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-
{{Workshop Block|workshop=Fishery|skill=[[Fish cleaning|Fish Cleaning]]
|color=6:0|
| |L|#AEE| |
|E| |C|#AEE|E| |
| |L|#AEE| |
}}
{{Workshop Block|workshop=Fishery|skill=[[Fish dissection|Fish Dissection]]
|color=6:0|
| |L|#EEE| |
|E| |C|#EEE|L|#EEE|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#EEE|T|#EEE|A|#EEE|Extracts for trading
| |E|| |
}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-
{{Arrow Block|
| |L|#AEE| |
|E| |C|#AEE|L|#AEE|
| |A|#AEE| |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#AEE|C|#AEE|A|#AEE|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Item Block|title=Shell
|background=#000|
|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|
|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#fff|C|#fff|E| |
| |A|#fff| |
}}
|-
{{Item Block|title=Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#fff|C|#fff|A|#fff|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Industry Block|industry=Industry{{!}}Food industry
|background=#fff|
}}
{{Industry Block|industry=Industry{{!}}Craft industry
|background=#fff|
}}
|}

==Bugs==
*If you designate a fishing zone in an [[cavern|underground pool]], fishers will never give up fishing there even when there aren't any fish to catch. {{Bug|1854}}
{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Industry}}
{{Industry}}

Fishing industry

2014-08-22T16:29:59Z

Scorpion451: Updating now that fish restock in ponds, and adding info on the happy-thought-and-wealth mill that is "Decorate with shell"

{{Migrated_article}}
{{quality|unrated}}{{av}}

'''The fishing industry''' is one of five [[food]]-producing [[industry|industries]] (along with [[farming]], the [[meat industry]], the [[poultry industry]], and the [[beekeeping industry]]). In addition to sustaining your hungry dwarves, the fishing industry produces non-edible raw materials that can be used by your workshops, like [[shell]]s and [[extract]]s. Fishing is an excellent way to initially feed your dwarves, requiring very little setup or maintenance, available as long as you have access to some form of fish-bearing water and a cheesemaker or two looking for something to do between breaks.

==Fishing==
[[Fisherdwarf|Fishing]] is the primary activity associated with the fishing industry, as it is the main way to acquire fish. Fishing is unique in that unlike [[hunting]] or [[trapping]], dwarves need no special equipment to catch fish; they just pull the hapless critters right out of the water with their bare hands. The [[fish]] that they catch are usually [[vermin]] fish (or really aquatic animals in general, not just fish), which makes keeping track of stocks much more difficult. Each fish caught will each yield one meal, once prepared. Note that the presence of vermin fish on-screen does not signify there are fish there for fishing.

If you simply tell your fisherdwarves to go fish, they will do so in the nearest source of water. Most water sources more than a few tiles in size have some stock of fish, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you want your dwarves fishing there. While stocks of fish in bodies of water that do not [[flow]] are now renewable, unlike in the past{{bug|2780}}, a fisherdwarf can still have lots of [[fun]] at his secret fishing hole next to the goblin's favorite arrival area. Zoning is highly recommended, but keep in mind an agile Urist McFisherdwarf assigned to an out of the way fishing spot with a nearby lockable escape tunnel can make an excellent sentry.

== Fishing Zone==
Fishing [[zone]]s are preferred areas to fish and changing [[standing orders]] to zone-only fishing with {{k|o}}-{{k|z}}, and then setting fishing to zone-only will force all fishing to be done in the zone. To set up fishing zones, designate a zone({{k|i}}) as usual, on shore tile adjacent to water. You can only set the zone to be used for {{K|f}}ishing if there is some fish-bearing water inside, or if it is not yet known if there are any fish there. If there are no fish in a particular region, you will get the [[announcement]] "There is nothing to catch in the [region] swamps", and designating a zone next to water in that region will show "0" for fishing.

==Fish cleaning==
Freshly caught '''raw fish''' cannot be eaten; they must first be cleaned at a [[fishery]]. The presence of raw fish automatically triggers "Prepare a raw fish" to be queued up at the nearest fishery. So long as you have enough [[fish cleaning|fish cleaners]] and [[fishery|fisheries]] to keep up with your fisherdwarves, fish cleaning should be an automated process. Raw fish is a classification in the [[stocks]] menu for fish that have yet to be cleaned, useful for seeing how backlogged the [[fishing industry]] is, or isn't.

Once a dwarf catches a fish, he will carry it off to the nearest stockpile and return to fishing; even if the dwarf has fish cleaning enabled, he will almost never perform the task on his catch, as fishing is regarded as higher-priority, even if fish in your stockpile are in danger of rotting.{{verify}}  A rule of thumb is to have twice as many fish cleaners as fishers, as fishers generally catch fish faster than cleaners can process them. To this effect, mature fortresses often have dedicated cooks/brewers/fish cleaners tasked to their food preparation areas. It is especially important to have [[barrel]]s and/or [[large pot]]s in stock if you have a fishing industry, as openly stored fish rot very quickly.

Once a fish is cleaned, it is known as a "prepared" fish, and can be immediately eaten. Fish, both raw and prepared, can also be cooked into food at a [[kitchen]].

==Shells==
Animals with shells, like [[pond turtle]]s, will also leave behind their [[shell]]s, useful for the purposes of [[bone carving]] and appeasing [[strange mood|moody]] dwarves. Since cooking unprepared shelled creatures loses your shell, you probably want to disable this behavior for animals that have them ([[turtle]]s, [[mussel]]s, and [[oyster]]s) until after the fish cleaner is done with them. In addition to being used to create low value crafts and some passingly useful/sellable shell armor, ''every'' item type can be [[decoration|decorated]] with shells. Given that any halfway decent fishing industry in a location with [[mussel]]s or [[oyster]]s will keep a craftdwarf or five swimming in shells, this can be VERY lucrative. Setting up a few craftsdwarf workshops next to a dedicated shell stockpile near your kitchens with constant repeating orders of "decorate with shell" and assigning bone carving to all dwarves with spare time lets them quickly train bone carving to legendary levels, while delighting your dwarves as every statue, door, and sock they encounter is bedazzeled with shell images of shell items decorated with shells and guaranteeing that merchants will pay top dollar for your <s>useless junk covered in recycled kitchen trash</s> masterful craftmanship.

[[Pearl]]s are a as-of-yet unimplemented [[mussel]] and [[oyster]] product. Although you can tell your dwarves to decorate with pearl at a craftsdwarf's workshop, nothing will actually happen, as there are no pearls in the game; this is actually one of the longest-running and most obvious missing features, having persisted since 23a.

==Trading==
You can buy processed fish at embark and from traders, in which case the key word is processed; they will always already be prepared, and will never require preparation or have a shell. Buying fish from [[caravan]]s is often a good idea if you do not have a strong fishing industry, as it adds to the dwarven diet variety, which is always a good thing.

==Fish dissection==
Fisheries can also queue up a "capture a live fish" task; to fulfill this task a fisherdwarf will grab an [[animal trap]] and set it in the river, retrieving it when it catches something. Note that if no animal trap is available, the task will occupy the fishery forever, preventing its other functions from taking place. [[Captured live fish]] can serve as an attraction in an [[Cage|aquarium]], or be made into [[extract]]s with the "dissect a live fish" task at the fishery, using the [[fish dissection]] skill. In particular, dissected [[moghopper]]s yield five units of [[mog juice]], each worth 50☼, making it quite lucrative for something that would otherwise have served little more than a single meal.

==Fish hunting==
Larger, non-vermin fish cannot be caught with bare hands for obvious reasons. Large fish like [[carp]] and [[shark]]s are individual [[creature]]s, and appear as such on the [[Menu|unit list]], and must be [[butcher]]ed, producing dozens or, in the case of [[whale]]s, hundreds of meat products. Note that fish hunting is mostly an oceanic activity - rivers will only ever have occasional carp runs and the like.

Advanced fortresses located near the [[ocean]], a [[lake]], or large and well-occupied sections of [[river]] may make use of a fishing-adapted [[drowning chamber]]: a large room lined with all sorts of traps into which water is allowed to filter through via [[Screw pump|water pump]] pressure. No creature knows of the evils of the chambers as do the [[Merperson|merpeople]], whose numbers were, in the past, constantly reduced by dwarves seeking their extremely valuable innards.

Large fish can be caught in or killed by [[trap]]s located along the river bottom. The issue is setting the traps and retrieving their bodies for butchering, both tasks that require a dry riverbed; this means that you must dam or redirect river flow, build the traps, funnel it back through, and then have a way to quickly get rid of the water (probably with [[screw pump]]s) so your dwarves can drag them back to the butcher's shop. Such river control, as well as the construction of genocidal chambers, is a fairly complex engineering project.

==Industry management==
For the most part, the fishing industry is self-sustaining. Have some fishers, have some fisheries, and have some fish cleaners, and everything should run smoothly. However, a big part of fishing inefficiency is hauling the fish from the river to the table; solving this requires bringing the river closer to home, necessary for [[well]]s as well and potentially doubling or even tripling your production as dwarves can toss fish right into the nearest food stockpile.

The largest challenge in the fishing industry is ensuring the safety of your fisherdwarves. When working outdoors, they are susceptible to [[ambush]]ers. The process of building an artificial river is out of the scope of this article, but creating an internal fishery is easy once you have the [[pressure]] worked out: simply [[channel]] down to your river, just like with a well, and build some [[floor grate]]s, as dwarves have no trouble fishing through them. Doing so removes the danger of being far from home in case of a potential siege or ambush and keeps your fisherdwarves happily inside at all times.

==Industry Flowchart==

{| style="border-spacing: 0;"

|-
{{Skill Block|skill=[[Fishing]]
|color=7:0|
| |E|| |
|E| |C|#ccc|L|#ccc|
| |A|#ccc| |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#ccc|C|#ccc|E||
| |A|#ccc| |
}}
{{Empty Block}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-

{{Item Block|title=Raw Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Item Block|title=Live Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Empty Block}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-
{{Workshop Block|workshop=Fishery|skill=[[Fish cleaning|Fish Cleaning]]
|color=6:0|
| |L|#AEE| |
|E| |C|#AEE|E| |
| |L|#AEE| |
}}
{{Workshop Block|workshop=Fishery|skill=[[Fish dissection|Fish Dissection]]
|color=6:0|
| |L|#EEE| |
|E| |C|#EEE|L|#EEE|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#EEE|T|#EEE|A|#EEE|Extracts for trading
| |E|| |
}}
{{Empty Block}}
|-
{{Arrow Block|
| |L|#AEE| |
|E| |C|#AEE|L|#AEE|
| |A|#AEE| |
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#AEE|C|#AEE|A|#AEE|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Item Block|title=Shell
|background=#000|
|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|
|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|²|#FFF|
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#fff|C|#fff|E| |
| |A|#fff| |
}}
|-
{{Item Block|title=Fish
|background=#000|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|α|#FFF|
}}
{{Arrow Block|
| |E| | |
|L|#fff|C|#fff|A|#fff|
| |E| | |
}}
{{Industry Block|industry=Industry{{!}}Food industry
|background=#fff|
}}
{{Industry Block|industry=Industry{{!}}Craft industry
|background=#fff|
}}
|}

==Bugs==
*If you designate a fishing zone in an [[cavern|underground pool]], fishers will never give up fishing there even when there aren't any fish to catch. {{Bug|1854}}
{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Industry}}
{{Industry}}

Main Page/Quote/list

2014-08-13T18:06:36Z

Scorpion451: This happened, I swear.

<noinclude>
To add a quote to this list, place it on its own line between the <includeonly> and </includeonly> tags.
#{{#rreplace:</noinclude>
I can't put my finger on it. Something about this [[Fire|‼]]Cat tallow roast[[Fire|‼]] tastes funny.
Toady withdraws from society. Toady has begun a [[Strange mood|mysterious]] [[Dwarf Fortress|construction]]!
Let us never forget the last words of Inod the Stoker, [http://archive.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Fortress_Paintrag#1056 "Aaah! Gorillas!"]
[[Children|Newborn]] Zuglar Baldnessgranite prefers to consume Gorilla. A sure sign of his unparalleled strength!
[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/video-game-article/duke-nukem-image.php In an unrelated article] - I had no idea elephants could bounce that high!
[[Toady]] looses a roaring laughter, [[Fey|fell]] and terrible! Toady has butchered a spammer!
The critical question is this: do elf bones yield more crossbow bolts than the average number of bolts necessary to kill an elf?
"Dwarf Fortress" ... "Like chess, only with short people that can catch on [[fire]] like [[clothing|rags]] soaked in tar, and lots of [[booze]]." ... "Like chess."
Dwarf Fortress has taught me that all the world's problems would be substantially reduced had our parent civilizations never minted more than four stacks of [[coins]].
[[Booze]] does all the work in forts. Dwarves are just booze exoskeletons.
My unconscious and bleeding [[mayor]] just mandated the construction of some goods.
I can just imagine a wagon throwing a tantrum and tossing all its contents at people.
Döbesh Udosdeb has been ecstatic lately. He was forced to eat a friend to survive. He enjoyed a truly decadent meal.
Iron [[screw pump]] exercise equipment. Pump iron and get superdwarvenly strong!
The violence, aggression, pain, madness, sadness of the ASCII characters never ceases to amaze me...
Wait, you're MAKING animals? —''Torak'' At this moment, yes, I am smelting cows. —''Spiders Everywhere''
"Didn't you read the manual? He he he he... the manual... ..." --[[Toady One]]
(Compared to real-world years) Dwarven years are shorter. --Sowelu Very fitting to dwarves, I must add. --Sean Mirrsen
[[Magma]] is not a [[water]] source. Dwarves can't drink it or supply it to their wounded. --[[User:AlienChickenPie|AlienChickenPie]]
"[B]oats are the enemy of tiles. And tiles are the enemy of boats." --[[Toady One]]
"I went through and fixed a few places where forbidden/on fire weren't being respected for next time. Burning milkable creatures were still a problem for example." --[[Toady One]]
"You have been processed! Go forth, now, and edit!" --[[User:Savok|Savok]]
"What happened in 1048?" "Jreengus occurred."
Making rock instruments isn't nearly as awesome as it sounds --Shandrunn
The cyclops I was quested to kill had a thousand year history of badassery, and all of that without the leg it lost in the Year 3 (a dwarf bit it off... I should probably deal with that). --[[Toady One]]
[FIREIMMUNE] makes them think that [[magma]] is safe but doesn't actually make them fireproof. This can lead to some rather interesting results.
Endok Cerolneth has begun a mysterious construction! Endok Cerolneth, Planter has given birth to a girl.
"Incendia sunt socia vestra, armaque vestra, fortesque Montis Domi." "Magma is your ally, your weapon, the strength of the Mountain-Home." --Eita
"Stopped people from giving quests to kill themselves." --[[Toady One]]
"...And I simply doubt we have a need for 7 fishery workers. On top of that, a second soap maker. The hell IS soap?!" --Zero
"This is a terrible pun. All craftsdwarfship is of the poorest quality." - [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=21449.msg239558#msg239558 Soup_alex]
"The default mental state of a dwarf is madness. Sanity is a temporary condition - a PRIVILEGE you have to EARN!" --[[User:Fedor|Fedor]]
"Why get normal cats? I buy lolcats in the embark screen. Much more fun to engrave about them." --Yanlin
"Dwarf Fortress taught me it was okay to make a suit out of my neighbour's skin, as long as I gave it a name."
"Got rid of world gen crash during succession after death of prolific long-standing position holders with inbred descendants" --[[Toady One]]
"There was a typo in the siegers' campfire code. When the fires went out, so did the game." --[[Toady One]]
"Hey, what does that flashing red and orange text mean? What? Why is there smoke everywhere? Oh god, are those BABIES on fire?" --[[User:StrawberryBunny|StrawberryBunny]]
"It's never 'just a game' when you're losing." --George Carlin (if he played Dwarf Fortress)
Not that building a bridge out of soap makes much sense to begin with anyway.
Note that while you cannot milk larger animals yourself, civilizations can still milk animals "off screen" for your benefit.
Tosid Idenarzes likes tentacle demons for their corrupt intentions. "There! Now we've covered all of the seven deadly sins."
"Litast Idenudesh, baby, is throwing a tantrum! Inod Litastrilem, Mayor, has lost consciousness. Inod Litastrilem, Mayor, has bled to death."
Bug 000780 [adventure mode][crime] - town guard becomes a criminal after getting an adventurer's stolen weapon stuck in his body
"Udib Toblumaid, Axedwarf, cancels sparring in Barracks: too insane." [[User:Ben jamm1n|Ben jamm1n]]
Kosoth Cilobonol, Bone Carver cancels Drink: Unconscious.
Sizir the Snail of Bait is a deity of The Fresh Towers. Sizir most often takes the form of a female dwarf and is associated with jealousy.
Sibrek Tanbim likes Limestone, Tin, Smoky Quartz, the color crimson, bolts, scepters, anvils, and rock blocks for their lack of quality levels.
There are 5 articles in category Lore: [[Armok]], [[Cave Adaptation]], [[Elephant]], [[Philosopher]], and [[Vomit]].
There is nothing to catch in the magma pipe.
Bug 000563 [dwarf mode][justice] - mayor ordered himself beaten for failing to make crystal glass objects
If cow cheese is made from cow's milk, what is dwarven cheese made of?
Bugs are opportunities to cause unprecedented amounts of destruction. --Zorgn
"You know, Urist, you've got a mind like an +Ash Trap+."--[[User:Destor|Destor]]
'''Zander J:''' "Is there a way to stop immigration without setting the population cap?" '''Yanlin:''' "Magma."
An animal trainer just suddenly stopped working and hid himself in a workshop. He's probably going to make a wardog out of rock and goblin skulls.
Bug 000597 [creatures] - flying creatures give birth in midair, leading to tragedy.
'''Urdim Kutamèrith, Pump Operator, has created Rakusttenshed, a Glumprong blowgun!''' Urdim, you are a freaking idiot.
<Forkez> I don't get the game, but I do get that tunnels flooded with water is a bad thing.
"If you give a dwarf a fire, he will be warm for a night. If you set a dwarf on fire, he will be warm for the rest of his life."
"Since the Elves said they won't let me cut down any trees, I bought 50 of their logs instead."
Do not make a trading race that breathes fire. I REPEAT, DON'T!! EVER!!
Dwarf Fortress: Because burning elves are funny.
The carp has drowned.
There's one thing a dwarf needs, and that's stones. And alcohol... and magma... but mainly stones.
"I swear to god once I saw a dwarf who was labeled as being Strong, Very Agile, Very Tough... and ''Clean''. But it was probably just a bad dream."
Urist McRandy has been ecstatic lately. He brought somebody to bed lately.
"Dwarven children kidnapped and incorporated into goblin society might sh... shave." --Toady One
Bug 000871 [projectiles] - babies fall to death when born on stairs
Bug 001031 [adventure mode][inventory] - a merchant pack animal caught at an old dwarf site during adv mode was wearing a full set of clothes
"[[Magma]] solves everything. [[Fire]] just ruins the [[booze]]." -sonerohi
You can't yet strangle people with the exposed guts, though I suppose that's now within reach. --[[Toady One]]
Look, there are roving clumps of sentient lava outside, ... This isn't going to get better. --PTTG??
...and the only surviving dwarf is a noble who has mandated the construction of crowns and clear glass items to the empty halls. --PTTG??
Adil Idenlocun is conflicted: "When possible he prefers to consume purring maggot, Dwarven ale and Dwarven syrup. He absolutely detests purring maggots."
"I had to leave just before I tested the dwarf with the boiling gold blood." -- Toady the Great One
Urdim Zatinod has been quite content lately. She has lost an annoying friend to tragedy lately.
I added two levers. One opens the magma. The other sets free all the cats. --Someone in Headshoots
"As Manbaspecut, Human Merchant is stricken by melancholy!" "Muskox has gone stark raving mad!" I think something is wrong with the human caravan...
"Somebody needs to build an active volcano inside a fortress inside an active volcano." --Boksi
It has stats. It can be killed.
Bug 000432 [dwarf mode][items] - Bones pop out of coffins.
Thanks. I wish I had known that about three forts ago.
If I ''remembered'' what the damn lever did, I'd ''pull'' it! <...pulls lever anyway...>
Sarvesh Ralrubal likes olivine, olivine and olivine.
"So let me get this straight. We managed to destroy a dwarven civilization while only managing a single town??"
Kara Mase, the Glory of Amusing: Engraved on the wall is an image of a dwarf and an elf. The dwarf is committing a depraved act on the elf.
Once saw a water skin with red beryl spikes. I still wonder how you would drink from that.
Watching a kobold thief be chased by batman is very satisfying.
Kol Tölunimush has been ecstatic lately. He killed somebody by accident while sparring recently. He took joy in slaughter lately. He has lost a lover to tragedy lately. He has witnessed death. He had a satisfying sparring session recently.
There was kind of a violent explosion of boiling human blood when I was testing a human vs a magma man in the arena... it was a little weird, but I guess that's okay. --[[Toady One]]
Mew? Chop!
"If Dwarf Fortress geology is to be believed, then the Earth's core is made of microcline and demons."
'They're firing arrows at us! Quickly! Raise the babies!!' -Urdim McSquadLeader, mother of 8
It started raining, then all my dwarves outside started bleeding to death. On inspection their upper bodies were missing.
It seems that a fresh recruit given a crossbow and a quiver with ammo in it will opt to run up to the enemy and bash them with the crossbow.
Bug introduced in the latest version: Firemen can have their flames severed. These flames then just lie around the place.
You stab Iron Man in the right leg from behind with your adamantine short sword, breaking away a piece of the gas and shattering the iron! The Beak Dog is caught in a burst of Iron Man gas! Beak Dog vomits into the Iron Man gas.
Urist McDairy, Milker cancels store item in stockpile: handling dangerous creature
Ildomushat, Fish Cleaner, cancels Clean Self: Could not find path.
Losing is [[Fun]]!!! --The Motto of Dwarf Fortress
I hate walking under dwarven archways. You never know how many mechanized crossbows they have hidden underneath those damn things.
"Bibo ergo sum. I drink, therefore I am." -- Dwarven Philosopher
This is a menacing iron spike. This object menaces with spikes of iron.
Kogsak is a deity of The Helpful Diamond. Kogsak most often takes the form of a dwarf and is associated with fortresses.
The Forgotten Beast pushes The Wrestler in the head, bruising the muscle, driving the skull through the brain, and tearing apart the brain! The Wrestler has been struck down!
Goblin Chops at the Diagnostician in the right leg, damaging the muscle! Urist McHouse is Unconscious!
Limul Itebdesis, trader has been Possessed. Limul Itebdesis, trader has created Stodir Isethlolor, a Mortgage-Backed Security!
The heart wound ended up being a guy getting shot in the arm, dropping his crossbow, running over to the opposing line, and jabbing his stack of bolts into somebody's chest.
Giant mole has stolen a preserved prepared giant mole lung! ''"Hey, I want my grandfather back!"''
"You must construct additional barrels!" - [[User:Speed112]]
All I want is a major river next to a volcano with flux, sand and bituminous coal.
Do not taunt magma.
I bury my pets in gold coffins and my nobles in wood coffins. Pets before people, I say.--[[KingAuggie]]
[the cavern] is basically like the surface, except underground
The fortress' randomly generated name was "Greatestfailure".
"You stab the Human Thresher in the mouth with your large copper dagger, tearing the left cheek!" "The large copper dagger has lodged firmly in the wound!"
"The best way to determine how dangerous a fortress is, is to make only one dwarf with the burial job, and nothing else: the lower his social skills, the more dangerous the fortress is - [[User:Rhenaya|Rhenaya]]"
"Before retiring in the evening, heed my words and give yourself to volcanos" - Ted Usmokatra, law-giver
Upon coming of age, about 8, Urist McYoung Made an artifact, became mayor and promptly mandated the construction of slade goods.
Dwarf Fortress: You've already lost.
A sober fortress makes even a mental hospital seem like a pleasant place to live.
A typical Dwarven nightmare consists of running out of booze or getting a beard lopped off in an accident.
There are two ways of dealing with goblins in a tree. One is by marksdwarves. The other is by flooding the world with magma.
Portal and Dwarf Fortress share a mystical trend. It is !!Science!!.
The were-capybara is only one of the myriad lunatic monsters that terrorize the living. -- Threetoe
The only time I ever saw the stupid thing fly, was to cross the aqueduct, to the beer hall. -- Fredd
(On artifacts) I got a flint door, called The Noiseless Odors. -- Nyxalinth
So apparently she became queen before becoming a twilight freak wife. Fascinating. -- Samuel
The zombies in a necromancer's tower became suspicious after the necromancer failed to age -- Toady One
Got a few barrels of beetle ichor and duck blood, gave some pig cheese in exchange. Made a present of three coffins to the queen.
I'd have to look back to see if it wants the physical or metaphysical id on the corpse. -- Toady One
The Sasquatch corpse has lodged firmly in the wound! The goblin has been struck down!
[22:57:46] <Dik_> How do I wash myself up from blood? [23:06:20] <Dik_> How the fuck do I get out of the river?
No, you're not getting that leg back. In fact, that creature over there is going to pick your leg up and beat you to death with it. You won't respawn.
My refuse pile just woke up and ate my dwarves, who in turn got up themselves and started eating the other dwarves.
{{Bug|2264|link=yes}} - Adv. Mode travel (near oceans) teleports player underground and turns them into an underground creature
{{Bug|5921|link=yes}} - Biting dwarves in minecarts infinitely increases combat range
Fort flooded. So that's what an aquifer is. -- Exelixi
Axedwarf looks surprised by the ferocity of Spearmasters onslaught. Spearmaster charges at Axedwarf. Spearmaster stabs axedwarf in the left eye with his +Adamantine spear+, lightly tapping the target.
In 4, the Castle of Fortune of the Tombs of Gold constructed the Hell of Taxing in Entrancedcrafts.
I also got started on jumping. My first jump was off by a factor of 100, so I flew against a cliff and blew apart. I'm still working on it. -- Toady One
Mukca: Seek this place and kill Cenäth Certaindrives the giant. Knowing no mercy, Cenäth stole Fisher berry wine!
We shall build a tower so tall, we will mine the very stars themselves!
Ingish Såkzulbomrek, Miner cancels Report Crime: Dangerous terrain.
You have struck limonite! Oddom Nishdanman, Furnace Operator cancels Smelt Limonite Ore: needs limonite.
{{Bug|4753|link=1}} [Creatures]: Rodent men have no skin
{{Bug|0040|link=1}} [Dwarf Mode -- Jobs, Items]: "Dwarf cancels Make Cloth Item: Needs 10000 plant cloth"
{{Bug|5531|link=1}} [Creatures]: Legless animal men can kick
{{Bug|1588|link=1}} [Creatures]: Creature with 1 eye and 2 eyelids
"This is my reward for not letting us all die. I have to deal with the Nobility." -- Captain Ironblood, the mayor of Nist Akath
The king of my dwarves appointed a visiting merchant's yak as the general of the army while I was trading. -- [[Toady One]]
I'd like to think they bonded over their sinister ancestors (or the strange childhood coincidence of having younger siblings gobbled up by different werebuffalo in the same year).
They just walk around without a head until they realize that they should suffocate. -- Urist Da Vinci
Most of yesterday I spent trying to be robbed by bandits, but they kept looking away from me and forgetting I was there. -- [[Toady One]]
Today's success was to have a crying mother spit on me and call me a murderer. -- [[Toady One]]
You monster! Killing too many children at once will make everyone sad. You need to kill them slowly so nobody notices.
Dwarven... "Child Care": It's like regular childcare, except with more dogs, and less care.
You: How have things been? Tulon Tunlikot, Mayor: Well, let's see... we've got the army on the march, beasts, bandits and bone-chilling horror.
{{Bug|6722|link=1}}: Manager climbs a tree instead of going to office when management jobs are assigned
{{Bug|5971|link=1}}: Fat dwarves eating causes lag
{{Bug|6817|link=1}}: "Behold, mortal. I am a diving being."
It was inevitable.
Weresquirrel Ceru Uzushimdo has come! A large Squirrel twisted into humanoid form. It is crazed for blood and flesh. Its eyes glow orange. Its sandy taupe hair is very curly. Now you will know why you fear the night.

<noinclude>|(\n)|$1#}}</noinclude>

Trap

2014-08-09T23:47:40Z

Scorpion451: It took me forever to find a straight answer on whether dwarves set off traps or not, so I'm adding a straight "they do not" to the intro.

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:''For information on trapping [[vermin]], see [[animal trap]].''

'''Traps''' are a relatively quick and easy method of defending a fortress. Unlike [[soldier]]s, they're always on duty, and, once set up, need less management. On the other hand, they are immobile and can only lie in wait for foes to walk over them. Traps can be built from the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. Most traps need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (more [[skill]]ed mechanics take less time to build a trap), and at least one other component depending on the type of trap - a stone, a cage, or one or more weapons. They can be built indoors or outdoors on a vacant [[floor]] (natural or constructed). Traps will block the passage of [[caravan]] wagons.

Stone-fall, weapon and cage traps will be triggered by most hostile entities entering their tile, with the possible exception of [[thief|thieves]], flying creatures and other occasional <s>nasty</s> fun surprises. Any [[unconscious]] creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves. Conscious dwarves do not set off self-triggered traps.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload cage, stone, or weapon traps. In combat situations, [[mechanic]]s have a nasty habit of wanting to reload (or clean) traps when they are triggered, regardless of who or what might be near them. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Urist|Urist McSuicide]] from deciding to reload a trap in the middle of a [[siege]]. Just remember to unforbid them when things calm down, so the traps are all ready for next time. Note that forbidding a trap after it has been triggered doesn't help, as the job to refill the trap has already been issued in that case, so a mechanic will carry a stone out to the trap anyway. Alternatively, simply order your dwarves to stay within a safe [[burrow]] until any threats have been dealt with. If a cage trap has captured something while forbidden and been left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!". If put into a stockpile or claimed, captured individuals will be prevented from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.

Traps can be deconstructed by pressing {{k|t}} to view the trap (or {{k|q}}, although the name of the trap will not be displayed until it is flagged for removal), followed by {{k|x}} to remove it. Deconstructing a trap leaves the components used in its creation on the ground around the tile. Traps destroyed by hostile action may return damaged objects.

==Stone-fall Trap==
The simplest trap to construct, a stone-fall trap is essentially a [[stone]] suspended up in the air which is dropped on intruders when the trap is triggered. These are a popular defensive measure early on, as the components needed are readily available as soon as you start mining. A single stone trap will usually '''not''' severely wound or kill most animals and enemies, to the extent that this may be a bug. After being used they need to be reloaded with another stone by any [[dwarf]] with [[mechanic]] [[skill]] enabled, a task which your dwarves will see to automatically. The dwarf will generally not use the stone that just dropped, but a new one (would you want to put your hands on that gory mess?). Being that stonefall traps do ''not'' alert you of ambushes when triggered by hidden invaders, this can frequently lead your mechanics into peril. The weight of the stone used in the trap affects the amount of damage the trap does, but it's quite difficult to get your dwarves to use heavier stones, like galena, when loading the traps.

Stone-fall traps respect [[economic stone]] restrictions and they can't be loaded with [[clay]].

*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]
*Appearance: {{Raw Tile|^|7:1}} = ready, {{Raw Tile|^|7:0}} = no stone loaded

==Weapon Trap==
Weapon traps are similar in nature to stone-fall traps, and are triggered when any hostile creature stands on the trap. They contain between one and ten weapons, and tend to be much more reliable for outright killing or critically injuring invading creatures. Before you write off stone-fall traps as worse versions of weapon traps, note that weapon traps require you to have previously made [[weapon]]s, making them more of an option somewhat later in the game. Any weapon can be used, including human weapons, training weapons, bows, traded weapons and weapons recovered from dead goblins. Think of it as fair retribution when goblins are sliced to pieces by their own axes!

You can also use the corkscrews that are normally used in [[screw pump]]s, or menacing spikes that are normally used in spike traps, or any of three specialist trap only weapons:

[[Metalsmith's forge]]
*menacing <metal> spike
*large, serrated <metal> disc
*spiked <metal> ball
*enormous <metal> corkscrew
*giant <metal> axe blade

[[Carpenter's workshop]]
*menacing <wooden> spike
*spiked <wooden> ball
*enormous <wooden> corkscrew

[[Glass furnace]]
*menacing <glass> spike
*large, serrated <glass> disc
*spiked <glass> ball
*enormous <glass> corkscrew
*giant <glass> axe blade

Don't know which to make? -> '''Detailed [[Trap component]] information'''

These weapons have all the material property advantages and disadvantages that normal weapons have. It should be noted that the trap weapons are larger than normal dwarf weapons, meaning they should be more effective than normal weapons made of equivalent materials. When triggered, this trap will "attack" the creature with all the weapons available to it, normally doing massive damage. This can also be ''very'' messy if the trap is loaded with cutting weapons, often creating an explosion of blood and dismembered body parts. Using blunt weapons reduces the mess somewhat, and you may wish to strategically place a [[User:Uristocrat/Dwarven_Bathtub | Dwarven Bathtub]] nearby.

Weapon traps do not cause slightly suicidal mechanics to reset them after each triggering but instead reset automatically after an unknown period of time. However, there is a 50% chance that the victim will get stuck in the mechanism and cause the trap to jam (use {{k|t}} to check the trap), requiring a dwarf to remove the body. When the trap jams, the mechanic will automatically attempt to clean it, so forbidding the body (or forbidding the trap's mechanism in advance) may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends. Note that weapon traps will only jam if they ''directly'' kill the creature - if they instead inflict a mortal wound and cause the creature to bleed out, they will not jam.

When placing the trap you will be asked for a type of mechanism as normal, then asked to select weapons to use. The quality of your chosen mechanism matters[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=14461.msg131214#msg131214]. At this point you will get a list of all stockpiled weapons in your fortress. {{k|+}}{{k|-}} will select different weapons and pressing "Enter/Return" adds 1 of the selected weapon to the trap; you can e{{k|x}}pand the selection to choose more carefully. Up to 10 weapons can be put in each trap and all weapons in the trap will attack at once when it is triggered (10 large serrated disks normally results in the unfortunate triggering creature leaving with <strike>fewer limbs than</strike> none of the limbs and several more torn apart organs than it came in with). When happy with your weapon selection press {{k|d}} to set the trap.

The triggering creature will defend from the trap's attacks just like from a dwarf's, by jumping away, dodging and blocking. This can be used in your favour if the trapped tile happens to be surrounded by pits.

*Shortcut: {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|w}}
*Components used: [[mechanism]] and whatever [[weapon]]s you want, limit 10.
*Appearance: {{Raw Tile|^|4:1}} = ready, {{Raw Tile|^|4:0}} = jammed or out of ammo

==Cage Trap==
Cage traps are different from the other trap types in that they do not directly kill or injure invaders. Instead, they capture the creature that triggers them in a [[cage]]. Despite the unfortunate lack of violence, this is still very effective as it completely neutralizes the target so that it can be dealt with later. After a creature is captured, it's stored in an animal [[stockpile]] if the current standing order is set ({{K|o}}-{{K|a}}). The trap will then be reset by hauling an empty cage to the trap's location. This is done ''automatically'', as in, during a siege, by any dwarf with the [[Mechanic]]s labor enabled. Cage traps will also alert you to ambushes when triggered by hidden invaders, making them a useful forward defense mechanism.

'''Most''' captured creatures do not require any nourishment and will survive being in a cage indefinitely; in fact, even submersion in water or magma appears to have no effect on caged creatures. It is possible for dwarves to bring [[water]] to cages, but this will only occur if you have someone friendly also locked in the cage - like a dwarf child snatched by a goblin. See below for how to remove things from a cage.

'''Cage traps will not capture every creature in the game''', so you ''will'' need alternative defenses - [[titan]]s and [[forgotten beast]]s (as well as certain other types of creatures) are immune to traps entirely and will waltz right past all of your carefully placed cages unless the cage has a giant cave spider web on it. A webbed cage trap '''will''' capture nearly anything; the only creatures it cannot capture are those immune to both cage traps and webbing, such as a web-spinning forgotten beast or a dwarf from your fortress on a Collect Webs job.

Cage traps are also useful for catching wild animals. This can be done by simply placing traps in areas where wild animals roam (this does '''not''' require a dwarf with the [[trapping]] labor enabled). The captured animals can be tamed (and sometimes trained into war animals!) at the [[kennel|kennels]]. See [[Animal trainer]] for more on training animals.

In the process of taming a wild animal, there is a chance that seeds will be left in the cage. Dwarves ''only'' load empty cages into traps. One way to remove the seeds and make the cage usable again is to {{K|d}}ump them. First loo{{K|k}} at the cage in your Animal [[stockpile]], then highlight the seed and press {{K|Enter}} to look at the seed, then press {{K|d}} to dump the seed.

*Shortcut: {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|c}}
*Components used: [[mechanism]] and a [[cage]].
*Appearance: {{Raw Tile|^|2:1}} = ready, {{Raw Tile|^|2:0}} = no cage

The material a cage is made affects indirectly the speed at which it is assembled into the trap. Heavier cages take longer to assemble. The more skilled a dwarf is in the [[Mechanics]] skill, the less time he takes to assemble the cage.

With exception to the latter, cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get angry if the cage is wooden). A glass terrarium is just as strong as a steel cage.

To release a creature from a cage, build the cage ({{k|b}} {{k|j}}) and use {{k|q}} to unassign it. You can also simply assign the creature to a pasture or pit. To release a hostile creature (or wild animal) safely from a cage, build the cage and link the cage to a [[lever]] that can be remotely triggered. If you have many cages you need to empty out quickly see [[Mass pitting]]. Cages have no current limit to the amount of beasts you can put in them, so you can build one cage and assign all the beasts to that cage. Typical caveats of dealing with wild/hostile animals apply.

As with most traps, if a dwarf goes to sleep or is knocked unconscious over a cage trap, it will be triggered and the dwarf will be trapped. Unlike usual creatures, a caged dwarf can starve or die from dehydration.

==Upright Spear/Spike==

Weapon traps trigger when a hostile creature steps on them. An upright spear/spike trap is different -- it must be triggered externally to cause the spears or spikes to spring up or to recede back down. When the spears/spikes spring up, ''any'' creature on the tile will be subject to possible impalement.

Placing the upright spear/spike trap does not require a mechanism, and it does not require the Mechanic labor. It only requires 1 to 10 [[Weapon|spears]] or [[Trap component|spikes]]. Linking it to a [[lever]] or a [[pressure plate]] will require a mechanism and must be performed by a Mechanic. Without such a link, the trap will not operate.

An often overlooked ability of an upright spike trap is that it also inflicts damage on a creature that falls onto it while it is deployed. And since they are built in the deployed state they can be quickly built to make a pit trap more lethal, without the need for extra mechanisms. However, you will still need some way to cause your victims to fall onto the spike from above in the first place, and the pit must be more than 1 z level deep for the spikes to cause damage. Note, however, that if any enemies survive the fall they may gain [[DF2012:Exploit#Shaft_of_Enlightenment|ridiculous weapon skills]].{{bug|6397}}

*Shortcut: {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
*Components used: 1-10 spears or spikes, plus further [[mechanism]]s for linking to triggers.
*Appearance: {{Raw Tile|{{!}}|0:1}} = extended, {{Raw Tile|.|7:0}} = retracted

==Mechanism Quality==

All of the above traps other than Upright Spear use mechanisms in their construction. The quality of the mechanism used impacts weapon traps beyond their value however, in weapon traps the mechanism quality seems to act similarly to weapon skill in an entity and will play a part in determining whether a strike lands. Code analysis suggests that mechanism quality also impacts the effectiveness of stone fall traps, though it has no effect on cage traps.

==Other Traps==
You can create [[trap design|even more elaborate traps]] with imaginative use of pits, [[pressure plate]]s, [[lever]]s, [[grate]]s, [[support]]s, [[water]], and/or [[magma]], creating sacrificial altars (blood for the Blood God!) and whatever else you can think of. Watching those goblins try to find a way out of your drowning chamber as it begins to fill is really quite satisfying. These are best made in a large, repeatable mass killing way. If you make a trap that kills 10 or so goblins that only works once and you have to rebuild it, wasting time you don't have during a [[siege]], then you're <s>not trying hard enough</s> having too much [[fun]].

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

Elf

2014-08-08T17:44:58Z

Scorpion451:

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Elves are <s>smelly, stuck-up, arrogant [[tree]]-fondling hippies</s> humanoids dedicated to the protection of ''their'' concept of nature (focused on trees).

Elven caravans arrive in late spring. During [[trade]], elves will '''not''' accept [[wood]], wooden items or any goods [[Decoration|decorated]] with wood. This includes ''clear'' and ''crystal'' [[glass]] items and [[soap]], because wood-derived [[lye]] and [[pearlash]] are used in their production, however, ash-[[glaze]]d items are acceptable. Elves bring their own "grown" wooden items. Those were presumably produced without cutting down trees. Elves will accept elf-made wooden items in trade, but not wooden items made by anyone else. Be careful not to offer them your wooden [[bin]]s or [[barrel]]s, or [[quiver]]s containing wooden [[bolt]]s/[[arrow]]s. If the contents of bins are marked for trade individually, and are not wooden themselves, the elves will not care that you used wooden bins to haul the goods to the depot. You may also steal from them or even kill/torture them without fear of repercussion: merchants will not resist if you seize their goods and will not competently fight back if attacked.

Offending elves by attempting to trade wooden items normally causes them to refuse further trade this year and leave early. Repeatedly offending elves by attempting to trade wooden items may cause them to attack your fortress with an [[ambush]].

Elves will generally '''accept''' items made of green glass, stone, metal, bone and other refuse, silk, leather, plant fiber cloth, meat and fish, totems, and even plants. They will accept animals in trade, as long as those are not held in dwarf-made wooden [[Cage|cages]].

They also accept ''raw'' clear glass and ''raw'' crystal glass, even though they are made using [[pearlash]]. Despite the name, petrified wood is a kind of stone and therefore acceptable. (Apparently its okay if the tree died of natural causes a long time ago.)

Elves bring only plant-related and wood-related items, caged animals, various types of clay and sand.

They have no facial hair but rarely they have at least stubble.

Some <s>stupid, useless, treefondling traitors</s> dwarves will like elves for their ''grace''.

=== Trading ===

List of what you can expect in an average elven caravan:
*Wooden bins of [[rope reed]] raw [[cloth]] (depending on how many bins of these you have already). Buy a few for [[mood]]s, but leather is generally less expensive and more dwarven. You may want to buy a few more if you haven't started producing your own cloth.
*Wood logs (quantity depending on how many logs you have already: lower means more). Always useful.
*Various aboveground plants, with sometimes [[whip vine]] and [[sun berry]] or their byproducts.
*Aboveground plant byproducts : [[golden salve]], [[gnomeblight]], [[alcohol]], [[flour]], [[dye]], [[seeds]]. Some, such as [[gnomeblight]] are useless, while some, such as [[sun berry]] or [[whip vine]] seeds, are quite useful and valuable.
*Wooden containers : [[chest]]s, [[cage]]s, [[bucket]]s, and [[barrel]]s. They all are useful.
*Soil types: [[sand]] in bags, various types of [[clay]]. Can be useful if you are lacking of either.
*[[Bag]]s and [[rope]]s made from plant cloth. You already should have those, but a few extra bags never hurt, although plant cloth bags are a bit expensive.
*A few exotic aboveground tame animals in cages. May be [[opossum|a]] [[stoat|disappointingly]] [[fox|useless]] [[hoary marmot|animal]] or [[Giant badger|an]] [[Giant tiger|incredibly]] [[Giant desert scorpion|awesome]] [[Giant eagle|one]].
*Caged tame [[vermin]], which has no real use aside from putting in a [[zoo]].
*Rope reed [[clothing]], mildly useful if you are in lack of clothing and haven't bothered setting up a clothing industry.
*Wooden [[crutch]]es and [[splint]]s, which are pretty handy for [[health care]] if you didn't make any.
*Wooden [[armor]] and [[weapon]]s, which are generally useless unless you are [[trap]]-happy, lack metal, or don't have enough wood to build spears for [[danger room]]s.
*And finally, plenty of useless crap which has no use at all (apart from being traded to the next caravan for actually useful stuff, but even then you can make crafts out of more valuable stuff than wood) and should be dumped into [[magma]] as soon as possible (along with the entire caravan if you desire). They include cloth [[craft]]s, wooden crafts, wooden [[toy]]s, and wooden [[instrument]]s.

==Ethics==

Elven [[ethics]] often differ from those of other races. Their position on moral philosophy will likely put them at odds with [[human]]s, [[goblin]]s, and sometimes [[kobold]]s and animal-people. They are likely to be friendly with [[dwarf|dwarves]], unless provoked, although a dwarven civilisation ''may'' be at war with elves in world-gen.

Elves are the only race which wholeheartedly accepts the devouring of enemy combatants. Looking in legends mode shows that an elven combatant will sometimes devour the other person they were fighting when they win. In spite of this, elves refuse to butcher and consume intelligent beings. Elves find torturing as an example acceptable, but condemn other forms of torture and consider torturing for information misguided. To elves, keeping any trophy of any kind is an unthinkable act. Elves begrudgingly allow for killing animals when done in self-defense, and the killing of other elves by an elf is justified if there is an extremely good reason for doing so. For elves, the killing of plants, ''especially'' trees, is unthinkable. On the other hand, the killing of neutral beings and enemies is acceptable. Elven society seems to be regulated by shame from the community, rather than by threat of punishment. As such, elves never offer serious or capital punishment to criminals; instead, elves found to have committed vandalism, trespassing or theft are reprimanded, while those convicted of treason, lying, breaking oaths, assault or participating in slavery are forced into exile.

Elves [[Personality_trait|value]] nature incredibly highly, and they also place a degree of value on family, eloquence, cunning, artwork, fairness, merriment, competition and romance. Elves do not especially respect commerce and have a dislike for self-control.

==Diplomats==
The elven diplomat will arrive approximately half way through the first month in Spring. If the player agrees to a treecutting quota, it will be visible after selecting the elves in the Civilizations screen and pressing Tab a few times.

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