v0.31:Danger room

v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

"Danger room" is a term used to describe a place your dwarves go to be continually poked by active Template:L. This serves two purposes: first, it trains your dwarves in Template:L, Template:L, Template:L, Template:L and to some extent also Template:L (if they manage to block attacks with them). Second, in case of injury, it helps you keep your Template:Ls' skills from rusting.

Loadout

The first design challenge is to provide the proper level of lethality. An upright spear trap can be armed with 1 to 10 spears or menacing spikes. Be careful what you load these traps with. Use training spears, not actual spears. One to ten spears may be placed in a single tile. If you want a lot of coverage and don't have much wood, one will suffice. The more spears are in a tile, the faster a danger room will work. Ten training spears will do just as much damage as one training spear, with the only difference being that bruised ears and broken thumbs might appear a little faster.

Access control

The second design challenge is access control. If you want your entire fortress to spank face these perils, then put the traps in a major hallway. If only you want your military to be trained, put them in or behind a barracks, a patrol route, or some other place civilians are unlikely to go.

Triggers

The third challenge is providing an appropriate triggering frequency. Some signal must be sent to raise and lower the spikes while the dwarves are on them. This can be accomplished by hooking the traps to a Template:L or Template:L, or by using a Template:L. If a lever is used, then it should be near the room, so you can keep track of what's happening in the room while still knowing where the control lever is.

Results

The idea is that as dwarves stand on the trapped tiles, every time the spikes come out of the ground due to the trap being activated, they gain skills in whatever stops it - armor if their armor deflects it, weapon if they block it with their weapon, shield for shield, and dodging if they jump out of the way.

Caveats

Note that pets will attempt to follow soldiers into the danger room, getting perforated in the process, and leaving corpses; if there is a refuse stockpile or tomb that the pet can go to, a flood of job cancellation messages may result until the spear traps cease their triggering. The same applies if a soldier who is carrying an infant enters the danger room.

To deal with the babies, you can either avoid recruiting females into your military, or you can create male-only squads which you send into the danger room. Once you have dwarves who are very experienced in dodging and shield use, they will be able to train other dwarves much faster than if you simply have beginners training with each other. You can disband your male-only squads when the males are experienced enough, and mix them into all of your squads so that they can help train the rest of the soldiers.

Further exploitation of danger rooms

If you are not averse to cheating-by-modding, change the required skill for a weapon in the weapon raw text. Dwarves will gain that skill while in a danger room at the same prodigious rate. In this way it is possible to train legendary marksdwarves or even teachers using training axes.

It's also possible to train Template:L, by arranging a means of flooding your danger room and locking your military within.