Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

Diplomat

2017-11-16T05:12:37Z

Chaos: /* Human Diplomats */ add notes on vampire diplomats

{{Quality|Exceptional|20:19, 13 May 2013 (UTC)}}
{{av}}{{buggy}}{{Minorspoiler}}

The '''diplomat''' is a [[noble]] position responsible for acts of diplomacy. In the current version it is not possible to assign a dwarf to this position, nor will one ever migrate to your fortress. It is, however, possible for your parent civilization to demote their diplomat, and then send him to migrate to your fortress. It is even possible to see if this happens the year before he does, by following him after he completed his tasks in your fort, and keep following him after he is off-screen - if the name disappears, he will not migrate; if the profession changes, he will migrate.

Diplomats from ''other'' civilizations tend to arrive on the map edge up to a week before or after their civilization's [[caravan]] once your fortress has a [[baron]]. Each diplomat will attempt to attend a meeting with your [[Expedition leader|leader]]: they will typically follow your leader around, waiting for an opportunity to discuss your situation. Your leader will need to perform the "Conduct Meeting" job, sometimes for quite a while, to satisfy the visiting diplomat.

In the event that your leader is replaced, killed, or taken by a [[strange mood]] the diplomat may decide to leave your fortress [[stymied|"unhappy"]].{{bug|576}} Curiously, this will '''not''' occur if your leader is otherwise unable to perform the "conduct meeting" task. You can currently lock a diplomat in a room and he will wait years to attend the meeting your noble is constantly conducting (and all subsequent diplomats appear to wait in line for the first to finish); this behavior is presumably a bug.{{bug|8947}}

An unhappy diplomat will naturally prevent you from creating agreements and ending hostilities, however it is not currently known what other effects this has on relations with that civilization. Whether the diplomat successfully met with your leader or just gave up, a diplomat who has decided to leave but is prevented from reaching the map edge will eventually go [[insane]].

If a diplomat is killed (or permanently detained), a new diplomat will arrive the following year. The death of a diplomat will, however, strain relations with the represented civilization, and might result in a [[siege]].

==Dwarven Diplomats==
Dwarven diplomats are only encountered in Adventurer mode - they do not visit your fortress, nor can you appoint one yourself.

==Elven Diplomats==
{{dftext|Greetings from the woodlands. We have much to discuss.|2:1}}

Once your baron has been appointed, the neighboring [[Elf|elven]] civilization will attempt to make ''first contact'' - at the very beginning of the year, their diplomat will appear ''unannounced'' at the edge of your map and immediately attempt to meet with your new leader. If you have cut down any [[tree]]s, you will be scolded and given a stern warning - {{dftext|You have disrespected the trees in this area, but this is what we have come to expect from your stunted kind. Further abuse cannot be tolerated. Let this be a warning to you.|2:1}} - otherwise you will be congratulated for your kindness to the environment.

During subsequent visits (which will happen within a few weeks of the arrival of their caravan), elven diplomats will ask you to limit your tree-cutting to approximately one hundred trees. If you agree to this concession, the civilization {{k|c}} screen will track the number of [[Wood cutter|Fell Tree]] jobs you complete during the year, shown as (remaining allowed cuts)/(total allowed cuts). Both above-ground and subterranean trees are counted. They will then share with you news of world like an outpost liaison would. The agreement (and the count) remain in effect until the next year's agreement is negotiated. If you stay within this limit, the bond between your civilizations will be strengthened; violating it will strain diplomatic relations and potentially lead to attacks.

The actual number of trees in the quota is controlled by a number of factors, including your noble's [[Room#Quality|office quality]], happiness, and social skills. Maximizing each of these can allow your noble to talk the elves into letting you cut down a few extra trees each year.

If you have managed to start a [[war]] with the elves, whether due to a mishap involving their caravans or from violating a tree cutting quota, the diplomat may offer a peace treaty.

{{D for Dwarf}}

It is a well-known fact among the dwarf nobility that many seemingly rude interruptions and delays such as sleep, drinking, deconstructing of walls, etc., that occur on a regular basis during the conduction of diplomatic meetings with elves, actually serve one simple purpose: to stretch the period of time when the old tree-cutting agreement is no longer in force, but the new agreement is not signed yet. During that time all the fortress woodcutters with the addition of some seasonal workers must clear as many trees as possible.

==Human Diplomats==
{{dftext|Greetings, noble dwarf. There is much to discuss.|7:1}}

Diplomats from [[human]] civilizations tend to just say {{dftext|It's such a pleasant place you've carved out for yourselves...|7:1}} They will then share with you news of world like an outpost liaison would. If you are at war with them, the diplomat may offer a peace treaty.

Note that all [[trap]]s "seen" by the Human diplomat may be ineffective against subsequent human attackers.

Note that sometimes, under certain circumstances, a human diplomat may be a necromancer. When such an event occurs, you will not be notified of the diplomat's arrival, nor will you be able to see them. They will act as a normal, non-diplomat necromancer, sneaking around your fort undiscovered, raising the dead and causing havoc. When they ''are'' discovered, you will get the alert message ''"Invaders! Drive them away!"'', the game will pause and the camera will zoom to them. At this point they become hostile to your civilization, scaring dwarves and setting off traps. Your militia may also try and kill them. It is unknown whether keeping them caged/pitted harms your relationship with a civilization, but killing them certainly does.

A human diplomat may also be a [[vampire]] who enjoys recreationally visiting your fortress and hanging around having fun while draining your citizens of blood. Most normal methods of vampire detection are frustrated by lack of introspection into the diplomat's characteristics. A diplomat can be accurately convicted of the murder of one of your citizens and receive no sentence, possibly enjoying diplomatic immunity (or some element of the justice system may be confused by the situation; or, since the observed case was a law-giver visiting a Mountainhome, the principle involved may have been head of state privilege rather than ordinary diplomatic immunity).

==Bugs==
* Diplomats will wait indefinitely to conduct a meeting, potentially leading to multiple diplomats. {{bug|3027}}

{{Nobles}}

Thought

2014-11-16T23:29:43Z

Chaos: bug fixed in 40.16

{{Quality|Superior|15:02, 4 November 2014 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

'''Thoughts''' are the reported observations and sentiments of [[dwarves]] in [[Dwarf fortress mode|Fortress mode]], visible on the [[thoughts and preferences]] subscreen of their [[profile]]. Over the course of play, a dwarf will experience circumstances that evoke specific [[emotion]]s based on its [[personality]].

A dwarf's recent emotions contribute to its [[stress]] level, displayed on the thoughts and preferences screen in somewhat subjective terms. A dwarf's level of stress will affect the type of [[strange mood]] he can undergo, and the changes in [[Status icon|status]] that triggers bad thoughts about thirst, hunger, and fatigue extoll physical costs on the dwarf and, except (directly) in the case of fatigue, can be lethal. To avoid bad thoughts, make [[keeping your dwarves happy]] a priority.

To view a dwarf's recent thoughts and current stress level, press {{k|k}}, move the cursor to the dwarf, and press {{k|enter}} twice, or {{k|v}}, move to the dwarf, then {{k|z}} and {{k|enter}}. This brings you to the thoughts and preferences screen for that dwarf, which, among other things, describes the dwarf's overall stress level as well as their constituent thoughts.


{{Category|Thoughts}}

Bolt

2014-11-16T23:15:41Z

Chaos: /* Weapon Traps */ de-bullet

{{Quality|Exceptional|00:10, 19 April 2013 (UTC)}}{{av}}{{buggy}}

Bolts are a type of [[ammunition]] used by [[crossbow]]s. They can be made from either [[wood]], [[bone]], or weapons-grade [[metal]]s. As with all non-siege ammo, hunting and military dwarves must be equipped with [[quiver]]s to be able to carry bolts around for shooting.

Wooden and bone bolts are produced in a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]] by a [[Wood crafter|Wood Crafter]] or a [[Bone carver|Bone Carver]], respectively. Each job will produce a stack of 25 wooden bolts from a single log, or a stack of 5 bone bolts taking a single bone from a stack. Metal bolts require [[Weaponsmith|Weapon''smithing'']] (not Metal''crafting'') and a [[Metalsmith's forge]] or [[Magma forge]], creating a stack of 25 bolts from a single metal bar.

When fired, bolts have a chance of shattering on impact or bouncing off onto the ground as free-laying items. However, they are immediately [[forbidden]] after being fired (to prevent <s>suicidal</s> hauling dwarves from running into active battlefields), and have to be [[reclaim]]ed by the player, either directly or from the [[stocks]] screen.

Given that bolts are a projectile weapon, their weight influences their effectiveness (higher weight means higher inertia, making them harder to deflect). Tests show that where even masterwork wooden bolts bounce harmlessly off copper armor, iron bolts pierce without any issue. Bone bolts are significantly better than wood, but metal bolts are still recommended for military use [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=116151.0]. [[Adamantine]] bolts are effective despite their low density - it is offset by their superior sharpness/hardness (see [[Weapon#Material|weapon materials]]), which allows adamantine bolts to tear through all metal armors, with the notable exception of adamantine armor itself. When pitted against itself, the low-density adamantine bolts deflect 99.99% of the time. As comparison, bolts made out of non-adamantine metals fired at armor of equal or superior hardness do not deflect and simply deal converted blunt damage instead of edge damage.

==Masterwork Bolts==
As with other items, high-skill dwarves can make masterwork-[[Item quality|quality]] bolts. While they don't care if the bolts are fired and shatter on impact, they do get [[thought|upset]] if a bolt gets carried off the map - say by a retreating enemy with the bolt stuck in him.

The simplest remedy for this is to simply '''make more bolts''' - a dwarf who has produced hundreds of masterwork bolts will be more annoyed by [[fly|flies]] than the loss of a masterwork. This is because the happiness penalty for the loss of a masterwork is divided by the number of remaining masterwork items made by that dwarf (see [[List of Dwarven Thoughts]] for more information).

==Weapon Traps==
Bone bolts are not advisable for weapon traps as only a stack of 5 will be stored per crossbow, making frequent restocking necessary.

==Bugs==

* Sometimes dwarves refuse to pick up stockpiled ammo, especially if you have been hauling used ammo back to your bins. Try disabling your current ammo stockpile and making a new one temporarily. Failing that: craft new bolts.{{cite reddit|13323y}} One workaround is to dedicate less ammo for each dwarf to increase the chances that there will be enough for everyone ({{k|m}},{{k|f}}, use {{k|-}} to decrease dedicated ammo for each squad - 50 is more than enough). Disabling bins in ammo stockpiles may avoid this problem.{{bug|2706}}

*If squad is assigned multiple ammo types, dwarves with "individual choice ranged" carry wrong ammo{{bug|1374}}.

*Masterwork bolts cause unhappy thoughts when they get carried off the map or melted down{{bug|3169}}. The solution to this is to make more bolts, since the unhappy thought caused by "art defacement" becomes less significant the more masterpieces a dwarf has produced.

* If a squad is set to use two different materials of a certain kind of ammunition one for practicing, and one for combat, (an example of this would be metal bolts for combat and bone/wooden bolts for practicing.) Oftentimes the most expensive kind will be grabbed and stored inside a quiver, the dwarf then being unable to practice with the ammunition will be stuck on "Archery practice" and stand around doing nothing. Workarounds for this include only assigning one type of bolts at a time when in combat or training mode. Only [[military interface|assigning]] bone/wooden bolt and nothing else, or assign metal bolts and nothing else. {{Bug|4530}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2014:item_ammo.txt|ITEM_AMMO|ITEM_AMMO_BOLTS}}}}
{{Weapons}}

Bolt

2014-11-16T23:15:29Z

Chaos: refactor bone bolt + weapon trap issue to own section as there is no evidence it is a bug and crosstalk/natter in the page is unsightly

{{Quality|Exceptional|00:10, 19 April 2013 (UTC)}}{{av}}{{buggy}}

Bolts are a type of [[ammunition]] used by [[crossbow]]s. They can be made from either [[wood]], [[bone]], or weapons-grade [[metal]]s. As with all non-siege ammo, hunting and military dwarves must be equipped with [[quiver]]s to be able to carry bolts around for shooting.

Wooden and bone bolts are produced in a [[Craftsdwarf's workshop]] by a [[Wood crafter|Wood Crafter]] or a [[Bone carver|Bone Carver]], respectively. Each job will produce a stack of 25 wooden bolts from a single log, or a stack of 5 bone bolts taking a single bone from a stack. Metal bolts require [[Weaponsmith|Weapon''smithing'']] (not Metal''crafting'') and a [[Metalsmith's forge]] or [[Magma forge]], creating a stack of 25 bolts from a single metal bar.

When fired, bolts have a chance of shattering on impact or bouncing off onto the ground as free-laying items. However, they are immediately [[forbidden]] after being fired (to prevent <s>suicidal</s> hauling dwarves from running into active battlefields), and have to be [[reclaim]]ed by the player, either directly or from the [[stocks]] screen.

Given that bolts are a projectile weapon, their weight influences their effectiveness (higher weight means higher inertia, making them harder to deflect). Tests show that where even masterwork wooden bolts bounce harmlessly off copper armor, iron bolts pierce without any issue. Bone bolts are significantly better than wood, but metal bolts are still recommended for military use [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=116151.0]. [[Adamantine]] bolts are effective despite their low density - it is offset by their superior sharpness/hardness (see [[Weapon#Material|weapon materials]]), which allows adamantine bolts to tear through all metal armors, with the notable exception of adamantine armor itself. When pitted against itself, the low-density adamantine bolts deflect 99.99% of the time. As comparison, bolts made out of non-adamantine metals fired at armor of equal or superior hardness do not deflect and simply deal converted blunt damage instead of edge damage.

==Masterwork Bolts==
As with other items, high-skill dwarves can make masterwork-[[Item quality|quality]] bolts. While they don't care if the bolts are fired and shatter on impact, they do get [[thought|upset]] if a bolt gets carried off the map - say by a retreating enemy with the bolt stuck in him.

The simplest remedy for this is to simply '''make more bolts''' - a dwarf who has produced hundreds of masterwork bolts will be more annoyed by [[fly|flies]] than the loss of a masterwork. This is because the happiness penalty for the loss of a masterwork is divided by the number of remaining masterwork items made by that dwarf (see [[List of Dwarven Thoughts]] for more information).

==Weapon Traps==
* Bone bolts are not advisable for weapon traps as only a stack of 5 will be stored per crossbow, making frequent restocking necessary.

==Bugs==

* Sometimes dwarves refuse to pick up stockpiled ammo, especially if you have been hauling used ammo back to your bins. Try disabling your current ammo stockpile and making a new one temporarily. Failing that: craft new bolts.{{cite reddit|13323y}} One workaround is to dedicate less ammo for each dwarf to increase the chances that there will be enough for everyone ({{k|m}},{{k|f}}, use {{k|-}} to decrease dedicated ammo for each squad - 50 is more than enough). Disabling bins in ammo stockpiles may avoid this problem.{{bug|2706}}

*If squad is assigned multiple ammo types, dwarves with "individual choice ranged" carry wrong ammo{{bug|1374}}.

*Masterwork bolts cause unhappy thoughts when they get carried off the map or melted down{{bug|3169}}. The solution to this is to make more bolts, since the unhappy thought caused by "art defacement" becomes less significant the more masterpieces a dwarf has produced.

* If a squad is set to use two different materials of a certain kind of ammunition one for practicing, and one for combat, (an example of this would be metal bolts for combat and bone/wooden bolts for practicing.) Oftentimes the most expensive kind will be grabbed and stored inside a quiver, the dwarf then being unable to practice with the ammunition will be stuck on "Archery practice" and stand around doing nothing. Workarounds for this include only assigning one type of bolts at a time when in combat or training mode. Only [[military interface|assigning]] bone/wooden bolt and nothing else, or assign metal bolts and nothing else. {{Bug|4530}}

{{gamedata|{{raw|DF2014:item_ammo.txt|ITEM_AMMO|ITEM_AMMO_BOLTS}}}}
{{Weapons}}

v0.34:Contaminant

2012-05-12T22:01:00Z

Chaos: fix

{{av}}{{Quality|Exceptional}}
Contaminants are a new feature introduced with 0.31.01. There are numerous types of contaminants in Dwarf Fortress, such as '''mud''', '''blood''', '''ichor''', '''extract''', '''(stone) dust''', '''ash''', '''salt''', [[vomit]], '''snow''', and '''pus'''.

==Creating Mud==
Any time a tile is covered in [[water]], [[mud]] will be created on that tile. Mud is usually necessary for doing underground [[Agriculture|farming]].

==Tracking==
[[dwarf|Dwarves]] and other [[creature|creatures]] that walk over contaminants can track them onto other tiles that they pass through. Dustings and spatterings which represent small amounts of a contaminant do not appear to be tracked around. Larger amounts of contaminants will be picked up by a dwarves left foot and can then be transferred to other tiles.

The tracking of contaminants is a configurable option, which defaults to '''NO''' (in Dwarf Fortress mode). The actual options are <tt>WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_DWF</tt> and <tt>WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_ADV</tt> in <tt>data/init/d_init.txt</tt>.

==Flowing==
Water that [[flow|flows]] over contaminants can pick them up and redistribute them as the water moves. Water does not appear to move mud, although mud will be created any time water covers a tile. The mechanics of redistributing contaminants using water is not well understood although there have been some observations of strange behavior when mixing blood and water.
:* adding 7/7 water on top of a pool of blood creates more pools of blood at the edge of the water as it moves and evaporates.
:* an overflowing reservoir that contains some blood creates blood everywhere the water flows.
:* water will create mud on any non-muddy tile, and moving water will frequently redistribute the mud.

==Removing==
Removing contaminants can only be accomplished by dwarves performing a [[cleaning]]. This requires a contaminant to be on a floor tile, and will (as a side effect) also remove contaminants from adjacent walls. A contaminant that is on a wall, with no adjacent contaminated floor, will never be cleaned.

Contaminants can be moved from creatures to floor tiles with [[water]]. The simplest and most effective way is to have the creature walk through a 2/7 or 3/7 water tile. All contaminants will be transferred from the creature to the floor, and it will walk away wet (water coverings in inventory) but otherwise uncontaminated. Another way is to drop water on a creature as it's walking over a floor grate (e.g. a [[waterfall]]). This is much more complex to set up, and has an additional drawback: a dwarf who attempts to clean the contaminated floor grate tile will be interrupted by the sudden influx of water, resulting in job cancellation spam, and an uncleaned grate (unless you temporarily turn off the waterfall).

v0.34:Contaminant

2012-05-12T22:00:44Z

Chaos: +types

{{av}}{{Quality|Exceptional}}
Contaminants are a new feature introduced with 0.31.01. There are numerous types of contaminants in Dwarf Fortress, such as '''mud''', '''blood''', '''ichor''', '''extract''', '''(stone) dust''', '''ash''', ''salt''', [[vomit]], '''snow''', and '''pus'''.

==Creating Mud==
Any time a tile is covered in [[water]], [[mud]] will be created on that tile. Mud is usually necessary for doing underground [[Agriculture|farming]].

==Tracking==
[[dwarf|Dwarves]] and other [[creature|creatures]] that walk over contaminants can track them onto other tiles that they pass through. Dustings and spatterings which represent small amounts of a contaminant do not appear to be tracked around. Larger amounts of contaminants will be picked up by a dwarves left foot and can then be transferred to other tiles.

The tracking of contaminants is a configurable option, which defaults to '''NO''' (in Dwarf Fortress mode). The actual options are <tt>WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_DWF</tt> and <tt>WALKING_SPREADS_SPATTER_ADV</tt> in <tt>data/init/d_init.txt</tt>.

==Flowing==
Water that [[flow|flows]] over contaminants can pick them up and redistribute them as the water moves. Water does not appear to move mud, although mud will be created any time water covers a tile. The mechanics of redistributing contaminants using water is not well understood although there have been some observations of strange behavior when mixing blood and water.
:* adding 7/7 water on top of a pool of blood creates more pools of blood at the edge of the water as it moves and evaporates.
:* an overflowing reservoir that contains some blood creates blood everywhere the water flows.
:* water will create mud on any non-muddy tile, and moving water will frequently redistribute the mud.

==Removing==
Removing contaminants can only be accomplished by dwarves performing a [[cleaning]]. This requires a contaminant to be on a floor tile, and will (as a side effect) also remove contaminants from adjacent walls. A contaminant that is on a wall, with no adjacent contaminated floor, will never be cleaned.

Contaminants can be moved from creatures to floor tiles with [[water]]. The simplest and most effective way is to have the creature walk through a 2/7 or 3/7 water tile. All contaminants will be transferred from the creature to the floor, and it will walk away wet (water coverings in inventory) but otherwise uncontaminated. Another way is to drop water on a creature as it's walking over a floor grate (e.g. a [[waterfall]]). This is much more complex to set up, and has an additional drawback: a dwarf who attempts to clean the contaminated floor grate tile will be interrupted by the sudden influx of water, resulting in job cancellation spam, and an uncleaned grate (unless you temporarily turn off the waterfall).

v0.34 Talk:Skill

2012-05-12T05:21:39Z

Chaos: /* Non-fortress sentients observed changing profession */ new section

A rusty novice qualifies to work in a mason's workshop that is set to only accept dabbling dwarves. Perhaps this information could be mentioned, with testing of course. Also, what does "Permanent skill loss" mean? Will a dwarf suffering from permanent skill loss never be able to work above a certain level, or is there a just a decrease in experience that is recoverable through training? --[[User:Introprospector|Introprospector]] 00:13, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

== Non-fortress sentients observed changing profession ==

In case it's ever of interest to anybody, "NPCs" (by which I mean sentients who aren't part of your fortress) appear to change profession according to the same rules as fortress dwarves -- an unarmed Goblin Recruit entered my map in an ambush group and turned into a Wrestler after engaging some animals in hand-to-hand. [[User:Chaos|Chaos]] 05:21, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

v0.34:Werebeast

2012-05-11T22:13:29Z

Chaos: kills are of base race not were

{{quality|Fine|18:41, 24 March 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Werebeasts''' are a variant of [[night creature]] that are procedurally created during worldgen. [[Deity|Deities]] may curse sentient creatures to transform into an animal form on the night of a full moon. Creatures bitten by werebeasts are cursed to become werebeasts themselves.

The behaviour of vanilla werebeasts in worldgen (i.e. fleeing town upon being cursed and conducting raids from their new lair) appears to be caused by the cursed individual's beast form having the [NIGHT_CREATURE_HUNTER] tag; removal of this tag from a generated werebeast extracted from a world.dat file and jimmied into the standard raws caused those cursed to behave no differently from any other unnaturally-immortal individual.

Even if the werebeast is dispatched while in animal form, werebeast kills are listed as being of the original race.

==Werebeasts in Fortresses==

In some regions, the full moon will herald the attack of werebeasts upon your fortress, or instead the unwilling transformation of your own citizens into their bestial forms. The cursed will attack anyone they can find for the duration of the full moon, spreading their affliction even further.
Werebeasts of the same species will cooperate with each other and not normally fight, but those of different species will treat each other no differently than enemies.

==Werebeasts Abroad==

In adventurer mode, werebeasts are usually found living in small lairs on the edges of civilization. Young adventurers will often be called upon to slay them, with instructions along the line of 'he assumes a bestial form' along with a description of what type of metal they are vulnerable to. However, as long as they are not visited on the night of their transformation, they are just common peasants, and can be dispatched easily. It would behoove these individuals to hide themselves among townsfolk, but what can ya do?

The transformation to a Werebeast seems to only affect physical attributes, mental attributes are not changed. After transforming, the Werebeast has regrown all missing limbs and healed every injury, but all carried items will be dropped as soon as the beast enters a fight, making only the natural abilities of the creature available for combat. These abilities differ from creature to creature (Claws/Hooves/venomous Bite etc.) Your wereadventurer still can pick up his weapon and shield back, but, seeing as werebeasts seem to have minimum body size of about 80000, armor will become too [[Clothing#Size|small]] for you to fit in.

Were

2012-05-11T22:11:47Z

Chaos: Redirected page to Werebeast

#REDIRECT [[Werebeast]]

v0.34:Siege engine

2012-05-08T21:02:59Z

Chaos: /* In Battle */ +timelessness

{{quality|Masterwork}}{{av}}
A '''siege engine''' in Dwarf Fortress is half building/half heavy weapon, and includes both the '''catapult''' and the '''ballista'''. Both are capable of launching hazardous projectiles at a tremendous range ''(more than a screen-width, around 80 to 100 tiles for a catapult and between 130 and 200 tiles for a ballista).'' A [[ballista arrow]] can kill or injure each creature in its path indiscriminate of friend or foe, but a stone launched from a catapult cannot harm dwarves or tamed animals.

Siege engines can be made to face any cardinal direction, but they cannot be moved after placement. They can, however, be deconstructed back into their 3 parts, to be moved elsewhere (individually or together). Both the construction of siege equipment and the engine itself require a dwarf with the "Siege Engineering" [[labor]] designated, which uses the "[[Siege_engineer|Siege Engineer]]" [[skill]].

The player determines when/if each engine is actively firing or not; when active, a single engine is crewed by a single [[siege operator]]. Ballistae require specially made [[ammo]], [[ballista arrow]]s, made from wooden [[log]]s at the siege workshop (and optionally tipped with [[metal]] [[ballista arrowhead]]s that have been made at a [[forge]] by a [[weaponsmith]]). Catapults use simple [[stone]] as ammunition.

==Building Siege Engines==
{{key|b}}-{{key|i}}

In order to build a siege engine, you first need to produce (at least) three catapult or ballista parts in the [[siege workshop]]; catapults are made from any 3 '''catapult parts''', and ballistae are made from any 3 '''ballista parts'''. All parts are made from any type of wood at the siege workshop. Beyond that, "parts" are generic - there are no particular "sub-types" of parts beyond the distinction between those for the two different engine types. The quality of the parts determines the overall rate of fire and accuracy of the engine - the best are made with 3 masterwork parts. This won't make up for an untrained siege operator, but every little bit helps.

Once you have the parts, you may then build the respective siege engine like any other building, selecting the parts that you wish to construct that particular engine with. It is not known whether the skill of the dwarf assembling the siege engine has any effect, but the quality of the parts certainly has: siege engines put together from [[quality|masterwork]] parts have a much higher rate of fire and accuracy.

The assembled siege engine is, effectively, a 3x3 building. It cannot be moved about other than by taking it down and re-assembling it at the new site. Siege engines do not impede movement, though, so you don't have to worry about building them in a corridor.

==Using Siege Engines (simple)==
{{key|o}} will let you change the orientation, whether the siege engine is pointing north / south / east / west. This takes effect immediately, it does not require a dwarf to come and turn the engine.

{{key|f}} toggles the current status between:
*Not In Use: Dwarves with the [[Siege operator]] [[job]] will reload unloaded engines and leave them unattended.
*Prepare to Fire: Siege Operators will load the engine and remain stationed for further commands.
*Fire at Will: Siege Operators will fire and load normally.

Once an engine is given orders to fire (or prepare to), a dwarf with the [[Siege operator|siege operating]] labor designated will respond and report to the engine. The dwarf(s) will (re-)load any siege engine that is not currently loaded; there's no way to prevent this short of disabling the labor on all dwarves or forbidding every piece of ammo (or otherwise blocking a [[path]] to it, perhaps by locking [[door]]s or using a [[burrow]].)

[[Ammo]] is destroyed upon landing, unless it falls a z-level, and then it falls harmlessly. (See [[#Catapults as stone movers|below]].)

########
CCC..._#
CCC..._#
CCC..._#
########

The [[channel]] at the end of this firing range preserves the stone. For catapults there is usually so much spare stone that this is not necessary, but it could be used for fast stone transport, or simply to set up a self-contained training area. A similar effect can sometimes be observed when firing a catapult over bumpy ground outside.

The design can be further improved by using a [[drawbridge]] rather than a wall, this way when the drawbridge is raised it acts like a wall deflecting the stone into the channel below. In the case of an attack on your [[fortress]] the drawbridge can be lowered allowing the catapult to fire.

#####################
CCC..._¦.............
CCC..._¦.............
CCC..._¦.............
#####################

Drawbridge raised deflecting stones into channel.

#####################
CCC...[].............
CCC...[].............
CCC...[].............
#####################

Drawbridge lowered allowing catapult to shoot down the corridor.

==Special considerations==

* Both catapults and ballistae have narrow fields of fire - they will only shoot at creatures basically "in front" of them, and so cannot target anything off at an angle. They can be turned 90 degrees, but that often will not solve the problem. (The field of fire is perhaps only 10-20 degrees wide. Wild shots may go (well) beyond this, but those are not aimed.)
* Both catapults and ballistae aim and fire only along one z-level. While ammo from both may drop down z-levels, they do no damage to creatures there. This also means that no "head room" is necessary - ammo just flies out, never up.
* Catapults have a minimum range - at least 30 tiles.
* Catapults can and will fire over any creatures between them and their target.
* Neither are affected by [[fortification]]s.
* [[Siege operator]]s are "civilians", and as such they will run in fear if enemy units come too close to them. "Too close" varies somewhat, but may be as far as 10 tiles.

===Safety Warning===

'''Ballistae can and will kill anything in their path!''' Ballista arrows appear to hit any units in any square that the head passes through. They are devastatingly dangerous weapons, and should never be used with friendlies anywhere in their cone of fire, including the space the ballista arrowhead occupies when loaded on the engine. Always designate a [[traffic|restricted traffic area]] for a lot of tiles along the firing arc and keep dwarves out of the area or, better, wall off anything in front of them with fortifications to prevent all friendly traffic, or both. The shots appear to travel until they hit a wall or fly off the screen; the maximum range is about 150 tiles for an ordinary ballista. If the bolt passes through a [[tree]], the tree will disappear, presumably reduced to toothpicks.

Surprisingly, catapults are relatively safe. Catapult operators will target enemies (and wild [[animals]]) if there are any in their field of fire. If not, they will loose the shot in a high arc (not requiring additional [[z-level]]s, though) that misses everything until it lands. It is perfectly safe to operate a catapult in the cave: just point it at a nearby wall of solid rock. A nice side effect is that this will, in due time, clear the whole area of stone.

Using catapults to shoot into the open may provide some [[meat]]: as said above, the operators will target animals if there are any. However, [[elephant]]s don't take nicely if you slay some of them. You also have a slight risk of killing your own dwarves or [[caravan]] escorts if they happen to be hunting the selfsame animal (and hence are close to it).

'''"Fire at Will" does ''not'' mean there has to be anything to shoot at!''' The siege engine will simply continue to be loaded and fired, simply launching ammo (stone or arrows) downrange with no (visible) target if given this command. This can be good against unseen [[ambush]]es, or if you wish to move [[stone]] across a map, but not if you are worried about depleting an ammo stockpile.

==Using Siege Engines (advanced)==
===Placement===
Siege engines can almost only shoot at targets right in front of them on the same Z-level. The target may deviate only slightly, as the field of fire is about 20-30 degrees wide. Because of the huge blind spots, it is advisable to [[Security_design#Siege_Engines|prepare the position]] so that the enemy will be channeled through the field of fire.

Siege operators are civilians! They will drop their work and run if the enemy comes too close, which is around 20 tiles. You should therefore place the engines behind a [[moat]] or a wall of [[fortification]]s that will keep the enemy at a safe distance, or shield access to their location in some other fashion.

Siege engines can shoot through [[fortification]]s, just like any other projectile weapon. As fortifications appear to provide some protection against incoming [[bolt]]s and [[arrow]]s, it's usually a good idea to protect the siege engine in that way. The siege engine only needs a one tile wide fortification to shoot out.

===Skill and Quality===

The quality of the siege engine parts affects the engine's accuracy and reload time. It is not known whether the siege engine itself also can be of a certain quality. The quality and material of the ammunition (in case of ballista arrows) affects the damage and possibly accuracy as well.

The only way of obtaining high-quality siege engine parts is to have them made by a trained engineer; the only way to train an engineer is to make parts or ammunition. Assembling and disassembling siege engines does not train the [[siege engineer]] skill. Dwarves will occasionally produce masterpieces long before reaching [[Legendary]] skill level, but be prepared to waste hundreds of logs until you have three masterpiece parts. Bringing an engineer to [[Experience|Proficient]] level (the highest you could buy when starting a new fortress) will take about 120 logs. Becoming Legendary requires the wood of 600 trees.

The operator skill certainly affects reload time. It will take a whole month for an unskilled dwarf to load a catapult; a Legendary operator with nearby ammo will get several shots at a running enemy. Operator skill has little or no effect on accuracy.

Operators are best trained on catapults, as these require nothing but cheap stone for ammo. It is recommended to have a number of dedicated operators that will follow no other line of work, and enough catapults for all of them to play with. As they're often going for a drink or sleep, you may get along with three catapults for four operators, and even two pieces would go a long way. Since the dwarf must hold the heavy stone in his inventory during the entire loading procedure, dwarves that have increased their strength statistic load catapults much more rapidly than others, making them good candidates for operator duty. You should start training early: it can take one year for an operator to become Proficient, and two more years until he finally reaches Legendary level; by then he will have spent 300 rounds.

Loading ballista arrows seems to be much faster than loading catapults, probably due to the much lighter weight of the projectile.

An alternative approach is cross-training any highly-skilled dwarves who aren't doing anything useful at the moment. With a couple levels each in strength and agility, a decent-quality catapult, and an ample supply of ammunition nearby, a dwarf can become a Legendary siege operator within a few seasons at most, giving more flexibility in defense and several more levels for the fortunate dwarf. [[Cross-training|Rotating]] Legendary [[miner]]s out to siege-operation and then to stone-hauling duties sets up an efficient cycle.

===In Battle===

Catapults are generally less effective in battle situations than are ballistae. The launched rocks will often glance off mail armor, making them poorly suited for killing even [[goblin]]s. ''It is still faster to fire stones than carry them, at least.'' Catapults are very inaccurate, but they are less likely to harm friendly creatures, and their ammo is easily replenished, making them ideal for target practice.

Ballista arrows tipped with softer materials (such as wood) can glance off ordinary clothes, making the choice of arrowhead significant. However, the arrows penetrate through any unit they strike, allowing them to hit many multiple targets in a single launch. This makes ballistae many times more efficient than catapults, which fire in an arc that hits only a few tiles per shot and is nearly useless against anything larger than smaller, poorly-armored foes. Ballista arrows fired through too many successive targets will be lost or destroyed; the limit seems to be roughly 5-6 goblin-sized targets hit before the arrow is lost.

A siege engine you want to use for actual defense should be not set to fire at will, as this likely means that it's not loaded and ready at the time you actually need it. You should train your operators on other pieces.

When the time comes, switch off all training engines and set all of the ones you'll be using to prepare to fire so the operators will be on-station; if some of them are currently not loaded, designate them to be disassembled so to prevent your operators from loading the training weapons instead of firing the real ones. Alternatively, use [[Scheduling#Alert_Levels|civilian alert levels]] with burrow restrictions, and just make sure the training catapults are not within any allowed burrow.

Remember, operators are civilians. They do not care that the fortress is at stake: hunger, thirst, sleep and breaks will always come first. It's wise to train more operators than you have engines, and disable all other work for them in times of need. The most effective way to ensure that your operators won't run off is to lock them in with the siege engine during the moment of truth.

===Ballista battery===

If you place ballistae close enough together, you can completely cover a two or three tile wide corridor. Because siege engines are 3x3, they need to be staggered, so each one fires through the edge of the one ahead of it. This can be dangerous for your operators. To minimize risk, place [[fortification]]s to keep dwarves from wandering too far, and have only one entrance to the ballista room. There is still some risk that dwarves might wander into the line of fire, even with no reason to do so.

: '''Three tile-wide corridor''' (battery room 5 tiles wide)

╔═══
══════════════════════════╦══╦══╝▐▀\
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬++╬▐▀\◄═« (~ammo~)
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬▐▀\◄═«▐▄/
Entrance++++++++++++▼·····╬◄═«▐▄/+(~ammo~)
══════════════════════════╣▐▄/+(~ammo~)
╚═════════
:*<tt>+</tt> - floor
:*<tt>═</tt> - wall
:*<tt>▼</tt> - ramp (down)
:*<tt>·</tt> - channel (aka "empty space" on this level)
:*<tt>╬</tt> - fortification

Due to the rare wild shot, the staggering should always be from one side to the other, and not put one ballista far ahead of the one it overlaps, as this may increase friendly-fire accidents.

Ammo storage can be on the same level, or via [[stair]]s or [[ramp]]s on another [[z-level]]. Expand the room as desired for more storage. Also note that ballista arrows are stored in [[Stockpile#Furniture_Storage|furniture stockpiles]], not ammo stockpiles.

An alternate strategy could be to place a [[floodgate]] or retracting [[bridge]] in the center of the 3x3 hallway, and activate it during times of crisis so that the Goblins are forced to fight in two separate 1x1 corridors rather than a single 3x3 corridor. If the corridors are further lined with spike traps and weapon traps, this combined defense can assure your dwarfs that any attempts to assault your base will be very, very bloody.

A drawbridge can be combined with the channeled area to provide a practice area, as discussed above. The channels would be accessible from the battery area via a staircase, keeping the dwarfs below/behind the lines of fire at all times.

==Catapults as stone movers==
When a catapult throws a stone, that stone is destroyed upon landing, unless it falls a z-level, where it lands harmlessly. That means that if you can arrange it so ammo hits a wall (or door, or raised bridge), and there is empty space immediately under that, the stones arrives at that point. If ammo reaches its maximum range, again, it falls harmlessly. Even with a single, no-quality catapult and an untrained crew, this is massively faster than hauling stone by hand. Ammo that hits [[stair]]s is destroyed, even if it can fall a z-level.

==Gatling Catapults==
This involves a catapult, a garbage dump [[activity zone]], and a legendary siege operator. Setup your catapult, as you wish to use, then place a garbage dump zone in the middle of the catapult and dump a sufficient number of stones there. Reclaim the ammo using {{k|d}}-{{k|b}}-{{k|c}} (making sure that you don't have any stone [[stockpile]]s that permit the stone you used) and you're good to go. With a sufficiently strong/agile siege operator (and a lack of distractions), you can easily manage 2-3 stones flying at once per catapult.

----

'''See Also:'''
:*[[Defense design]]
:*[[cross-training#Army corps of engineers|Army corps of engineers]]
{{buildings}}

{{Category|Buildings}}
{{Category|Fortress defense}}

v0.34:Forgotten beast

2012-05-07T20:13:34Z

Chaos: typography

{{quality|Exceptional|0:25, 5 May 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}
{{minorspoiler}}

''In the deep, there are beasts so fell and terrible, that only they know what they are, for none who have met them have lived to tell of it... they are the Forgotten Beasts, born of the chaos from before the world's birth... they have waited, brooding in the dark places of the world... and now... by digging too deep... we have awakened them.''
::--From the Bay12 Games Forums

'''Forgotten Beasts''' are subterranean [[Titan]]s; Forgotten Beasts are, essentially, randomized creatures (or procedurally generated for you fancy big-city developer types) composed from a variety of material types, creature bodies / limbs and other additions. These other additions include everything from venomous stings to flame breath.

If it has a venomous attack of some sort, it is randomly generated as are the resulting [[symptoms]]. The beast's [[Syndrome#Breath_attacks|breath attack]] is also randomly generated, if it has one. Venom attacks come in a variety of forms, from boiling ichor to trailing dust, and the effects can range from mild pain to complete and instantaneous necrosis or paralysis. Some forms of venom can spread from spatters and contact with your dwarves, eventually infecting your entire fort. Decontaminating your soldiers in shallow running water is one way to deal with this problem. Some beasts breathe fire or shoot [[web]] in lieu of any syndrome-bearing attacks. Web-shooters are immune to the effects of any webs they, or any other creature, creates and will shoot web even at targets they lack a proper path to. Forgotten beasts based on spiders are also capable of shooting webs, regardless of other special abilities.

The number of forgotten beasts cannot be controlled directly, but is influenced by the size of the world. They dwell most often in caverns. All are [[building destroyer]]s, and are almost entirely immune to [[trap]]s (they are trapavoid and nostun but non-webspinners can be caged if a web is on the cage trap). [[Bridge]]s are also less useful, as they cannot be raised or lowered as long as the beast is standing on (or under) them, preventing the traditional [[magma]] pit / [[dwarven atom smasher]] designs from working. This is probably one of [[Main:Toady One|Toady One]]'s ways of making the encounters even more [[fun]].

Most forgotten beasts can be butchered. Some are quite massive and may leave you with hundreds of meat and bone units and dozens of prepared organ units. Some are not. All forgotten beasts have a value multiplier of 1.

One may randomly appear when you reclaim a fortress. Also, they may 'ambush' you.

When a forgotten beast appears, the game pauses and you will get a message. 
[[Image:DF2010ForgottenBeast1.png]]

If you need to kill a Forgotten Beast, order your military to move to the location of the beast. Some beasts however are content not to path to your fortress and will stay dormant underground.

* Some Forgotten Beasts whose bodies are made of liquid, gas or fire die or lose limbs on the first hit.
* Other Forgotten Beasts are extremely difficult to kill due to some body compositions, such as being made of very hard materials. When confronted with such near-invulnerable creatures the only option is usually to use your brain and try to lock it away somehow. Walls and raised [[bridge|draw bridges]] stop them. Since they are [[building destroyer]]s you can used installed [[furniture]] to lure them to a particular location. If you can put it in a pit, a clever trapmaker can feed it invaders. If a near-indestructible beast isn't in a position to threaten your dwarves, it can be used to train reluctant marksdwarves.
* One method of defeating nearly combat-invulnerable Forgotten Beasts (those whose bodies are made of rock, for instance) is to cause a [[Cave-in]] on top of them. They'll be killed by dropping either natural or constructed walls or floors on them.
* It is also possible to capture some forgotten beasts in cage traps if they are webbed.

You can prevent Forgotten Beasts from appearing by editing [[d_init.txt]] to change [INVADERS:YES] to [INVADERS:NO], though that will also prevent [[ambush]]es and [[siege]]s from happening.

== Bugs ==

* If a beast has a dust attack, the dust will behave like it was from a [[cave-in]], flinging dwarves away (causing further damage if they hit a wall) and knocking them out. {{Bug|3133}}

{{Category|Megabeasts}}
[[ru:DF2012:Forgotten beast]]

v0.34:Forgotten beast

2012-05-07T20:13:08Z

Chaos: specify

{{quality|Exceptional|0:25, 5 May 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}
{{minorspoiler}}

''In the deep, there are beasts so fell and terrible, that only they know what they are, for none who have met them have lived to tell of it... they are the Forgotten Beasts, born of the chaos from before the world's birth... they have waited, brooding in the dark places of the world... and now... by digging too deep... we have awakened them.''
::--From the Bay12 Games Forums

'''Forgotten Beasts''' are subterranean [[Titan]]s; Forgotten Beasts are, essentially, randomized creatures (or procedurally generated for you fancy big-city developer types) composed from a variety of material types, creature bodies / limbs and other additions. These other additions include everything from venomous stings to flame breath.

If it has a venomous attack of some sort, it is randomly generated as are the resulting [[symptoms]]. The beast's [[Syndrome#Breath_attacks|breath attack]] is also randomly generated, if it has one. Venom attacks come in a variety of forms, from boiling ichor to trailing dust, and the effects can range from mild pain to complete and instantaneous necrosis or paralysis. Some forms of venom can spread from spatters and contact with your dwarves, eventually infecting your entire fort. Decontaminating your soldiers in shallow running water is one way to deal with this problem. Some beasts breathe fire or shoot [[web]] in lieu of any syndrome-bearing attacks. Web-shooters are immune to the effects of any webs they, or any other creature, creates and will shoot web even at targets they lack a proper path to. Forgotten beasts based on spiders are also capable of shooting webs, regardless of other special abilities.

The number of forgotten beasts cannot be controlled directly, but is influenced by the size of the world. They dwell most often in caverns. All are [[building destroyer]]s, and are almost entirely immune to [[trap]]s (They are trapavoid and nostun but non-webspinners can be caged if a web is on the cage trap). [[Bridge]]s are also less useful, as they cannot be raised or lowered as long as the beast is standing on (or under) them, preventing the traditional [[magma]] pit / [[dwarven atom smasher]] designs from working. This is probably one of [[Main:Toady One|Toady One]]'s ways of making the encounters even more [[fun]].

Most forgotten beasts can be butchered. Some are quite massive and may leave you with hundreds of meat and bone units and dozens of prepared organ units. Some are not. All forgotten beasts have a value multiplier of 1.

One may randomly appear when you reclaim a fortress. Also, they may 'ambush' you.

When a forgotten beast appears, the game pauses and you will get a message. 
[[Image:DF2010ForgottenBeast1.png]]

If you need to kill a Forgotten Beast, order your military to move to the location of the beast. Some beasts however are content not to path to your fortress and will stay dormant underground.

* Some Forgotten Beasts whose bodies are made of liquid, gas or fire die or lose limbs on the first hit.
* Other Forgotten Beasts are extremely difficult to kill due to some body compositions, such as being made of very hard materials. When confronted with such near-invulnerable creatures the only option is usually to use your brain and try to lock it away somehow. Walls and raised [[bridge|draw bridges]] stop them. Since they are [[building destroyer]]s you can used installed [[furniture]] to lure them to a particular location. If you can put it in a pit, a clever trapmaker can feed it invaders. If a near-indestructible beast isn't in a position to threaten your dwarves, it can be used to train reluctant marksdwarves.
* One method of defeating nearly combat-invulnerable Forgotten Beasts (those whose bodies are made of rock, for instance) is to cause a [[Cave-in]] on top of them. They'll be killed by dropping either natural or constructed walls or floors on them.
* It is also possible to capture some forgotten beasts in cage traps if they are webbed.

You can prevent Forgotten Beasts from appearing by editing [[d_init.txt]] to change [INVADERS:YES] to [INVADERS:NO], though that will also prevent [[ambush]]es and [[siege]]s from happening.

== Bugs ==

* If a beast has a dust attack, the dust will behave like it was from a [[cave-in]], flinging dwarves away (causing further damage if they hit a wall) and knocking them out. {{Bug|3133}}

{{Category|Megabeasts}}
[[ru:DF2012:Forgotten beast]]

v0.34:Trap

2012-05-07T20:02:57Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ +timelessness

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

Stone-fall, weapon and cage traps will be triggered by most hostile entities entering their tile{{verify}}, with the possible exception of [[thief|thieves]], flying creatures and other occasional nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Trap

2012-05-07T20:02:24Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ another example

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

Stone-fall, weapon and cage traps will be triggered by most hostile entities entering their tile{{verify}}, with the possible exception of [[thief|thieves]], flying creatures and other occasional nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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 in the current version; 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]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Vampire

2012-05-06T05:29:16Z

Chaos: /* Uses for Vampires */ outright lie, vampires break burrow restrictions

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Vampires''' are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similarly to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception, of course, is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, with the corpse bearing the original name entombed in it. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could have been bitten by a vampire. More obvious will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act, they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire.

In addition, his/her [[Personality trait|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day, a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator.

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X".

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day").

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf Therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire.

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However, one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up, they may make exceedingly effective [[manager]]s/[[record keeper]]s. Work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue. However, vampire dwarves are still alcoholics, yet cannot drink anything but blood; the resulting job performance penalty from the "can't even remember the last time he/she had some" level of [[Drink|alcohol withdrawal]] significantly reduces the usefulness of vampires in this sort of role.

A cloistered vampire can also be used as a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and have him pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. Since dwarves get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away, a vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there are [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

Vampires do increase their stats like other dwarves, so that a weak vampire may be easily upgraded into a mighty one by using him as a miner or easily trained into a legendary swimmer. A vampire craftsdwarf may be burrow-limited to his workshop plus a stockpile or a miner restricted to specific mining levels, avoiding any other miners. It will be safe, if all of the miners have separate, assigned bedrooms.

So, in general, when under control, vampires tend to be much more useful and valuable then most of your non-bloodsucking dwarves. Without access to any sleeping places or hospitals, they tend to be totally harmless to other dwarves.

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: The game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. {{version|0.34.07}} The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. To get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature. This could lead to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes, unless you beat your victim senseless first. Once you have fed on an unsuspecting victim, you will have a red icon denoting you are a vampire next to your name.

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively set a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly.

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower alone, because bringing companions will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, causing you to outrun them. This increased agility will also give you better odds against bogeymen and night trolls, since you'll be quicker than both.

Playing as a vampire is a strong advantage, assuming you can manage your bloodthirst. The most convenient method of drinking blood is to wield a blunt weapon such as a mace: as long as you don't strike the head, enemies rarely bleed out or suffocate from blunt damage and it's easy to force them to give into the pain. Interestingly, your allies don't seem to care if you drink blood from enemies, and blood can be drunk in a single turn in combat (occasionally killing the creature, depending on its size and your thirst). Vampire bloodthirst shows up less often than normal thirst, and can usually be sated in a single feeding from a human-sized opponent. Feeding from smaller animals, such as dingos, is possible but multiple feedings may be necessary.

Vampires, as noted before, do not need to eat, nor drink (normal fluids), nor sleep. As an adventurer, this is a huge advantage, as you don't need to stop, or worry about carrying consumables. As long as there's living, pain-feeling enemies, you can feed. Vampires also do not need to breathe and do not tire. They can swim as long as necessary and cannot drown, even to the extent of being able to swim oceans. A sufficiently skilled and armed vampire is essentially immortal for all intents and purposes.

v0.34:Demon

2012-05-06T01:17:34Z

Chaos: /* Traps */ clarify

{{quality|Exceptional|16:17, 19 August 2011 (UTC)}}
{{av}}
{{spoiler}}
==Demons==

Demons inhabit [[Hell]]. At this time it appears that they are randomly generated at worldgen, creating unique fun for every player. Examples of possible demons include giant centipedes made of ash that hunger for blood, eyeless mosquitoes that spit icicles, and emaciated fruitbats with giant clicking mandibles. Demons begin to spawn exactly one frame after you open Hell; the amount spawned can range from 10 to over 100. As long as Hell is unsealed, demons will continue to wander in from the edges of the map indefinitely, due to having populations that are apparently infinite.

All demons share certain traits, however. They are represented by an ampersand (&). They are all able to swim in and breathe water and magma, destroy buildings, speak and learn. Furthermore, they are immune to traps, pain, fear, nausea, stunning, exertion, dizziness, fevers, fire, any sort of poison, and extremes of heat and cold (even if made of materials that would suggest otherwise). They are very large (size 10000000, smaller than a megabeast, but significantly larger than a giant and 167 times the size of a dwarf). They don't require sleep, food, or drink. Many, but not all demons, are capable of flight. Inorganic or zombie demons are especially difficult to kill; literally tearing them apart (severing their lower and upper bodies) will kill them, but this is far beyond the capacities of an ordinary dwarf, and if the creature is a blob (whose lower and upper bodies are inseparable), it will be truly immortal. If you have deactivated compressed saves, the raws for given world's demons (as well as forgotten beasts and titans) can be found in the world.dat of its save folder.

Certain types of demons, those described as "being twisted into humanoid form" and marked with [UNIQUE_DEMON] instead of [DEMON] in world.dat, will occasionally escape the underworld and earn/create statuses in goblin or human civilizations; among humans, they pose as gods, while they take over goblin civilizations through more direct means.
These unique demons can be taken prisoner in world-gen by civs, if taken by a human civ you can ask them to join you and you will have a next to unkillable super soldier on your side.

==Demon Generation==

Although the exact algorithm used to produce demons is unknown, something of the algorithm can be gathered from the string dump and analysis of demons. When generating a demon, the game begins by picking a creature from a predefined list, which is fixed and includes creatures not found in vanilla DF (such as anteater, ankylosaurid) and more general shapes (blob, quadruped, and humanoid). It is granted spheres, with a preference for "negative" spheres like misery, death, and torture. If inorganic, a material will be chosen (such as salt, fire, ice, or vomit). If organic, it will get some sort of randomly-colored covering (such as feathers or hair) and/or have some feature (such as its eyes, nose or skin) removed. It will be granted a few "extra" features, like a tail, a trunk, or a shell, and a flavorful descriptor (such as "it knows and intones the names of all it encounters"). It may get some sort of special attack (such as a poisonous sting, toxic breath, fire breath). It will finally be given a name consisting of an adjective and a noun. The adjective will be based on the creature's color, its material (such as "inferno" or "snow"), what animal it's shaped like, or a descriptor (such as "winged" or "skinless"), and the noun chosen from the following list: demon, devil, fiend, brute, monster, spirit, ghost, banshee, haunt, phantom, specter, or wraith.

==Strategy==

Of all of the challenges facing a player, defeating a demon horde is probably the most difficult.

===Containment===

Containment is the simplest strategy for dealing with demons. A simple constructed wall will block any demon. Because of their building destroyer status, demons cannot be contained via locked doors. However, indestructible artifact-quality portals can stop them, as can some bridges. As building destroyers can only destroy objects on the same z-level a floor grate or forbidden hatch cover on a staircase/channel will also block movement. It may be difficult to lure demons away from artifact furniture, should the area need to be accessed to reset a trap. If using bridges, be aware that any raising bridge that lands on a demon will deconstruct, and that demons can easily have internal temperatures greatly exceeding the melting points of steel or iron, leading to deconstruction as they pass over them. Because of their vast numbers, containment is an important part of any attempt to defeat them-- fighting two groups of 25 demons is much easier than fighting one group of 50.

===Traps===

Because all demons avoid traps, trapping demons can be very difficult-- but not impossible. Demons become vulnerable to traps when they are webbed, so if you can find a way to get web onto your traps, the demons will be affected as any other creature (including your own dwarves!) would be.

Alternatively, advanced triggered traps may be used. Demons do not set off pressure plates, but if you can contain them, retracting upright spikes, casting them into obsidian, or caving a portion of mountain onto them are all effective. Any plan involving these kind of traps must involve both a way to bait the demons to where you want them and a way to keep the demons where you want them. Tame animals appear to work well as bait, but need to be replaced as they're killed. Bridges can be used to contain the demons, but be wary of the risks of deconstruction as described above.

Many traps need to be designed with the potential for extreme temperatures in mind. Obsidian trappers may find water used as the casting process boiling into steam before it contacts magma. Frequently, demons made of fire or steam explode on death, broiling nearby creatures and furniture. This effect can destroy upright spikes, leaving you with a trap chamber full of demons that you have no way to deal with. Demons do not destroy supports directly, but a hot enough demon may cause the destruction of nearby supports, just by virtue of the heat damage.

===Ranged Combat===

Ranged combat sounds appealing, especially in the face of demons that explode with unimaginable heat upon death, but should be considered carefully. Most demons have vastly more powerful ranged attacks than marksdwarves have. Demons made of weak materials can be easily killed or dismembered by bolts but inorganic demons composed of stronger stuff will only suffer chipped bones.

Fortifications are appealing, as they can be dug directly into adamantine without ever exposing your fortress to a path to the demons. Even demons made out of steam cannot pass through a fortification unless it is submerged in 7/7 water or magma. Demons with syndrome attacks may attack through fortifications even without a path, although they appear to do so less frequently than if they have a path.

Still, should you contain a group of demons composed of weaker materials, marksdwarves can be very effective.

===Melee Combat===

Demons can be very frightening melee opponents, as each one alone is nearly the size of a megabeast and extremely fast. That would be bad enough, but there tends to be pages of them rather than individuals. However, demons can still be defeated in melee combat.

Despite their powerful attacks, many demons are made up of very flimsy materials, such as salt, snow, steam, or filth. A strong punch can decapitate creatures like this. Some demons, however, can be made of much harder materials, and it can be very difficult to bring down a demon composed of mineral or armor-quality metal. Blunt weapons can be reasonably effective against weaker material demons by severing limbs and body parts despite blunt status, but are not nearly as effective against demons as they are against earthly foes that suffer from pain and blood loss; without internal organs or blood loss, piercing weapons are relatively ineffective. Good slashing weapons can reliably take down demons of any material type.

The challenge of melee combat is how to deal with an enormous number of strong combatants while protecting against area of effect syndrome attacks and death explosions. Restraining visibility via a labyrinthine battle ground is a good start. The area effects suggest meeting them with successive small waves of melee dwarves, but if the dwarves are too few, they'll be butchered by hundreds of angry demons before making a dent.

===Clean-up===

Unfortunately, once the wave of demons has been dealt with, it's not yet over. Syndrome-bearing dust and blood may litter the battlefield and your survivors, and can be very difficult to isolate and contain. Some dwarves may carry burning items back from their encounters with very hot demons. Survivors should all pass through a shallow pool of water to wash them and their equipment of anything dangerous and to douse any flames. Any path used for the fight is best abandoned and walled up. Demons will continue to enter hell from its map edges, as wildlife do on the surface, but path differently from the initial wave, content to wander through hell even should a simple unobstructed path exist into your fortress.

{{D for Dwarf}}
Little do demons know that though their claws and fire cannot pierce the [[adamantine]] sealing them away, a simple [[copper]] [[pick]] can dig right through it with ease. Armok forbid these unholy creatures ever get their hands on one.

[[ru:DF2012:Demon]]

v0.34:Silk

2012-05-06T01:02:33Z

Chaos: also procedural webspinners

{{av}}
{{Quality|Fine}}
Silk [[cloth]] is made from silk [[thread]]. Silk [[thread]] can be gathered from the [[web]]s of [[brown recluse spider]]s, [[cave spider]]s, [[giant cave spider]]s, and [[phantom spider]]s (as well as any web-spinning [[forgotten beast]]s, [[titan]]s, or [[demon|clowns]]), which is then woven into cloth at a [[loom]]. Webs are automatically collected by any worker who has the [[weaver|weaving]] labor activated and access to a [[loom]], which automatically produces the work task "collect webs" and turns collected [[web]]s directly into silk thread. No [[stockpile]] is necessary for this collection.

Automatic collection of webs can be disabled from the [[Standing orders|orders menu]] ({{key|o}} -> {{key|W}}) - this is useful if the accessible [[web]]s are located in a dangerous area or if you want to temporarily free up your [[weaver]]s for other tasks.

==See Also==
* [[Yarn]]
* [[Plant fiber]]
* [[Textile industry]]

v0.34:Crutch

2012-05-05T16:32:17Z

Chaos: beating people with your crutch

{{quality|Fine|03:06, 18 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Crutches are used by [[dwarf|dwarves]] to move around when injuries have limited their mobility. However, dwarves who have lost the use of their legs due to spinal nerve injuries will not acquire and use crutches; only broken/amputated legs/feet will trigger hospital staff to assign crutches as part of treatment.

In adventure mode crutches can be used to walk when one or both legs are disabled. If an uninjured adventurer carries a crutch in their hand the movement penalty of using a crutch will be applied. Once a crutch has been equipped, it will continue to be used until it is dropped from one's hands - [[thrower|throwing]] the crutch will not properly clear the "[[crutch-walker|crutch-walking]]" status, nor will placing the crutch into a container (or subsequently dropping or throwing the crutch from said container); in order to stop crutch-walking, the crutch must be re-equipped and then dropped.

Crutches are made out of one [[wood]] log at the [[carpenter's workshop]] or one [[metal]] bar at a [[forge]]. Crutches are stored in a Finished Goods stockpile, and will be placed in bins when there is space available.

Dwarves with crutches equipped will occasionally attack using them.

{{Category|Healthcare}}

v0.34:Troll

2012-05-04T03:37:40Z

Chaos: hemolymph yo

{{Quality|Fine|08:24, 12 August 2010 (UTC)}}
{{Creaturelookup/0
|wiki=no
|contrib=no
|death=nobutcher
}}
{{av}}
{{creaturedesc}}

'''Trolls''' are large, predatory, dangerous subterranean creatures that often appear under the command of goblins during sieges, noted for their "terrifying features". They are [[building destroyer]]s, and will path to your buildings simply for the joy of sheer destruction. During sieges, they act as battering rams so [[trap design|design your defenses accordingly]].

Trolls that show up during goblin invasions may have non military professions due to their [CAN_LEARN] tag.

Goblins can take trolls as [[pet]]s to start a fort. As of version v0.31.19, Goblins can shear Trolls for their fur, similar to Sheep.

Trolls have <s>light blue</s> hideous cyan blood (apparently [[wikipedia:Hemolymph|hemolymph]]).

{{gamedata}}
{{creatures}}
{{Category|Humanoids}}

User talk:Chaos

2012-05-03T20:19:25Z

Chaos: r

Just read your changes to the Vampire page. Look at this quote from the Dwarf Fortress Talk #18 [http://www.bay12games.com/media/df_talk_18_transcript.html transcript].

''"Yeah. I mean, your fortress should eventually get marked as a death trap if you keep murdering your migrants and then since you'll have no one come to your fortress your vampires would start to slow down. They don't ever die from not drinking, they just get really slow. If they're at maximum slowness they might still be better overall than a regular dwarf in terms of their combat abilities and stuff because they have resistance to damage and higher attributes and stuff like that. There's not really a reason not to do it. I mean, you would have an evil fort, it would be bad to be a vampire. I guess you'd be more immune to zombie attacks because the zombies wouldn't attack your vampires."''

I think he is implying that vampires won't slow down if they can regularly feed on other dwarfs. --[[User:GoldenShadow|GoldenShadow]] 20:05, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

:I'm pretty sure they slow down from both not drinking alcohol and not drinking blood, independently. The blood part won't help with the alcohol part. (Though really, dwarf blood has to be at least five proof.) [[User:Chaos|Chaos]] 20:19, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-05-03T19:43:28Z

Chaos: /* Uses for Vampires */ wikilnk

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Vampires''' are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similarly to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception, of course, is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, with the corpse bearing the original name entombed in it. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could have been bitten by a vampire. More obvious will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act, they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire.

In addition, his/her [[Personality trait|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day, a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator.

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X".

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day").

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf Therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire.

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However, one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up, they may make exceedingly effective [[manager]]s/[[record keeper]]s. Work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue. However, vampire dwarves are still alcoholics, yet cannot drink anything but blood; the resulting job performance penalty from the "can't even remember the last time he/she had some" level of [[Drink|alcohol withdrawal]] significantly reduces the usefulness of vampires in this sort of role.

A cloistered vampire can also be used as a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and have him pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. Since dwarves get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away, a vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there are [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

More actively, vampires may be used as tireless craftsdwarves, eternal miners, sleepless guards or even frontier military units (if all squad members are vampires). A vampire will never break his burrow restrictions, but make sure nobody accidentally sleeps in his burrow. Then again, assigning some filthy nobles or useless immigrants to the same burrow as a vampire food source may be <s>fun</s> an easy way to get rid of said dwarves.

Vampires do increase their stats like other dwarves, so that a weak vampire may be easily upgraded into a mighty one by using him as a miner or easily trained into a legendary swimmer. A vampire craftsdwarf may be burrow-limited to his workshop plus a stockpile or a miner restricted to specific mining levels, avoiding any other miners. It will be safe, if all of the miners have separate, assigned bedrooms.

So, in general, when under control, vampires tend to be much more useful and valuable then most of your non-bloodsucking dwarves. Without access to any sleeping places or hospitals, they tend to be totally harmless to other dwarves.

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: The game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. {{version|0.34.07}} The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. To get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature. This could lead to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes, unless you beat your victim senseless first.

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively set a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly.

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower alone, because bringing companions will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, causing you to outrun them. This increased agility will also give you better odds against bogeymen and night trolls, since you'll be quicker than both.

Playing as a vampire is a strong advantage, assuming you can manage your bloodthirst. The most convenient method of drinking blood is to wield a blunt weapon such as a mace: as long as you don't strike the head, enemies rarely bleed out or suffocate from blunt damage and it's easy to force them to give into the pain. Interestingly, your allies don't seem to care if you drink blood from enemies, and blood can be drunk in a single turn in combat (occasionally killing the creature, depending on its size and your thirst). Vampire bloodthirst shows up less often than normal thirst, and can usually be sated in a single feeding from a human-sized opponent. Feeding from smaller animals, such as dingos, is possible but multiple feedings may be necessary.

Vampires, as noted before, do not need to eat, nor drink (normal fluids), nor sleep. As an adventurer, this is a huge advantage, as you don't need to stop, or worry about carrying consumables. As long as there's living, pain-feeling enemies, you can feed. Vampires also do not need to breathe and do not tire. They can swim as long as necessary and cannot drown, even to the extent of being able to swim oceans. A sufficiently skilled and armed vampire is essentially immortal for all intents and purposes.

v0.34:Vampire

2012-05-03T19:43:07Z

Chaos: /* Uses for Vampires */ clarify what's actually going on

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Vampires''' are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similarly to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception, of course, is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, with the corpse bearing the original name entombed in it. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could have been bitten by a vampire. More obvious will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act, they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire.

In addition, his/her [[Personality trait|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day, a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator.

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X".

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day").

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf Therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire.

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However, one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up, they may make exceedingly effective [[manager]]s/[[record keeper]]s. Work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue. However, vampire dwarves are still alcoholics, yet cannot drink anything but blood; the resulting job performance penalty from the "can't even remember the last time he/she had some" level of alcohol withdrawal significantly reduces the usefulness of vampires in this sort of role.

A cloistered vampire can also be used as a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and have him pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. Since dwarves get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away, a vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there are [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

More actively, vampires may be used as tireless craftsdwarves, eternal miners, sleepless guards or even frontier military units (if all squad members are vampires). A vampire will never break his burrow restrictions, but make sure nobody accidentally sleeps in his burrow. Then again, assigning some filthy nobles or useless immigrants to the same burrow as a vampire food source may be <s>fun</s> an easy way to get rid of said dwarves.

Vampires do increase their stats like other dwarves, so that a weak vampire may be easily upgraded into a mighty one by using him as a miner or easily trained into a legendary swimmer. A vampire craftsdwarf may be burrow-limited to his workshop plus a stockpile or a miner restricted to specific mining levels, avoiding any other miners. It will be safe, if all of the miners have separate, assigned bedrooms.

So, in general, when under control, vampires tend to be much more useful and valuable then most of your non-bloodsucking dwarves. Without access to any sleeping places or hospitals, they tend to be totally harmless to other dwarves.

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: The game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. {{version|0.34.07}} The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. To get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature. This could lead to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes, unless you beat your victim senseless first.

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively set a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly.

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower alone, because bringing companions will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, causing you to outrun them. This increased agility will also give you better odds against bogeymen and night trolls, since you'll be quicker than both.

Playing as a vampire is a strong advantage, assuming you can manage your bloodthirst. The most convenient method of drinking blood is to wield a blunt weapon such as a mace: as long as you don't strike the head, enemies rarely bleed out or suffocate from blunt damage and it's easy to force them to give into the pain. Interestingly, your allies don't seem to care if you drink blood from enemies, and blood can be drunk in a single turn in combat (occasionally killing the creature, depending on its size and your thirst). Vampire bloodthirst shows up less often than normal thirst, and can usually be sated in a single feeding from a human-sized opponent. Feeding from smaller animals, such as dingos, is possible but multiple feedings may be necessary.

Vampires, as noted before, do not need to eat, nor drink (normal fluids), nor sleep. As an adventurer, this is a huge advantage, as you don't need to stop, or worry about carrying consumables. As long as there's living, pain-feeling enemies, you can feed. Vampires also do not need to breathe and do not tire. They can swim as long as necessary and cannot drown, even to the extent of being able to swim oceans. A sufficiently skilled and armed vampire is essentially immortal for all intents and purposes.

v0.34:Wound

2012-05-03T16:20:20Z

Chaos: /* Scarring */ shield bit needs verification -- i'm looking at a mildwarf who seems to be killing things with an axe and shield on same limb

{{quality|Exceptional|21:13, 30 March 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

There are five different levels of injury in the game, ranging from none to complete part loss.
Shown using the default* colors, they are:


:{| border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=1 style="background: black"
|-
| '''NONE: No recorded active wounds on the part.'''
|-
| '''MINOR: Any damage that doesn't have functional/structural consequences (might be heavy bleeding, though).'''
|-
| '''INHIBITED: Any muscular, structural, or functional damage, without total loss.'''
|-
| '''FUNCTION LOSS: An important function of the part is completely lost, but the part is structurally sound (or, at least partially intact). '''
|-
| '''BROKEN: The part has lost all structural integrity or muscular ability.'''
|-
| '''MISSING: The part is completely gone. '''
|}

:''(* The [[color]] of wounds can be changed in [[d_init.txt]].)''

== Missing limb ==

As the name implies, this signals that a limb has been completely severed. Dwarves with severed limbs frequently either die of blood loss or linger in the [[hospital]] permanently. Those who recover may find themselves unable to perform the same tasks as they had in the past.

Dwarves without arms are unable to [[haul]] items, but are still able to gather crops or work in a workshop. Once created/gathered, the items simply remain where they are until another dwarf comes along to move them. They are also unable to equip armor/clothing, but this won't stop them from biting/kicking in combat. Armless dwarves are unable to operate [[screw pump]]s.

== Function loss ==
The cyan "Function loss" signals impairment of an organ for which "broken" or "bruised" would not make sense. Internal organs and eyes have been observed to turn cyan, indicating failures of sight, liver function, and other maladies.

A dwarf can also suffer nervous damage to sensory and/or motor nerves. For example, motor nerve damage to a leg means that the dwarf will never be able to stand up again, which will show as "Ability to stand lost" in the specific dwarf's personal health screen, in addition to nervous damage information. Sensory nerve damage causes pain to disappear and is thought to make a creatures' attacks weaker. With a crutch applied, dwarves with leg nerve damage can become mobile / useful again. Damage to spinal nervous tissue disconnects all nervous function below the damaged point. For the upper and middle spines this can include the lungs, so damage leads to suffocation.

Creatures can be set to heal spinal nerve damage by going into the [[raw file|raws]], finding the tissue_template_default and setting a number like [HEALING_RATE:100] at the NERVE_TEMPLATE. A higher number translates to a slower healing rate, with bones for example having a healing rate of 1000. However, this setting does not affect non-spinal nerves, as they do not count as "nervous tissue".

== Scarring ==

Dwarves who sustain major injuries may never fully heal—the part will always remain listed in their Wounds section as "Minor" or "Inhibited", and the dwarf's description in his Thoughts and Preferences screen will note that he bears scars. (Of varying degrees and types, {Tiny, very short, short, long, very long, massive, huge, etc.} {Jagged, Dent, Straight, etc.}) While not all scars have an effect, this may result in notes in the [[Health screen]] such as "Ability to grasp somewhat impaired". This means that one of the creature's grasping parts (usually hands) has lost the ability to grasp. Military dwarves with inhibited ability to grasp will not hold a weapon in the crippled arm. If one wants a crippled warrior to keep using weapon, the dwarf must be manually set not to use a shield.{{Verify}}

v0.34:Trading

2012-05-02T19:51:09Z

Chaos: /* Caravan Delay */ ce

{{quality|Exceptional|07:56, 19 January 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}
{{Buggy}}

'''Trading''' in Dwarf Fortress first occurs in the first [[Calendar|autumn]] after establishing your fortress, with the arrival of the [[dwarf|Dwarven]] [[Trading#Caravans|caravan]]. Trading is a good way to acquire resources that are not available or are rare in the local area. It also allows for more freedom in selecting starting gear or purchase of additional skills for the expedition party, because items can always be obtained through trade later.

'''Trader''' is the term used at your Trade Depot to refer to your fortress [[Broker]] when dealing with merchants in a visiting caravan ({{key|r}} - "''Trader requested at Depot"''). As a [[profession]], the term usually only applies to visiting merchants, or to a dwarf whose highest [[skill]] is [[Appraiser]].

== Trade Depot ==
Building a [[Trade depot]] is a requisite for trade with caravans that arrive at your fortress.

While it may be convenient to build a Trade Depot outside at first, it is usually a really good idea to move it inside or build walls, bridges and other fortifications around it to protect caravans and your goods from animals (guzzlers), [[thief|thieves]] and [[goblin]]s.

Everything that is on your map belongs to you, except:
* the items of non-fortress members (only if they are alive, when they are dead they belong to you if you claim the items),{{Verify}}
* the items that are on merchant animals{{Verify}}
* the items that are on the trade depot (they belong to the caravan until they are moved out of it)

See the [[Trade depot]] article for more information on how to interact with it.

==Trading Flowchart ==
{{:Trading/Flowchart}}
After entering the trade menu, select the items to offer from the right, and the desired items from the left. All caravans have a weight limit which cannot be exceeded, and the allowed additional weight is displayed in the lower right corner. If the acting broker has at least Novice or better [[Appraisal]] skill, the value of all items will be displayed. Once the proposal is ready, press {{K|t}} to propose the trade, but merchants will not agree unless they make adequate profit. Be sure to use '''trade''', not '''offer''' {{K|o}}, as this will make a gift of the selected items. The amount of acceptable profit is determined by the broker's [[Broker skills|skills]] and the merchant's mood, described below. Merchants may attempt to propose counteroffers if they do not accept the proposal, which can then be accepted, rejected, or further amended by the broker.

With more experienced brokers or pleased merchants, even marginally profitable trades can be successful, and counterproposals can be rejected safely, offering the same trade again. Note however that a low profit margin for the traders may not be desirable - it has been suggested that both export and profit numbers influence the size of next years caravan and, in the case of the dwarven caravan, immigration numbers.{{Verify}}

Goods brought by caravans do not have base quality higher than superior, but decorations on a good may be of any quality.{{Verify}}

== Trading cue colors ==

* '''Brown''' Items have been created (or modified) by your fortress. They can be traded away or offered as a gift.
* '''White''' Items were created by another source. They can be traded, but if one of these items has been selected, the entire selection cannot be offered as a gift.
* '''Purple''' Items are under a no-export mandate. If they are traded away it will result in disciplinary action (see [[justice]]) against the dwarf that brought the item to the depot.{{Verify}}
* '''Green''' Items have just been gifted to the caravan and they will not trade it back.
* '''Red''' Items have been seized from another caravan and cannot be traded as is; you will need to decorate them or turn them into other items for them to become "valid" trading items. However, a caravan from a different civilization ''may'' accept stolen goods without changing them first.{{verify}}

Note that containers (barrels, bins, etc) will be displayed according to the origin of the container, not the contents. So a foreign barrel holding locally-produced beer will display as foreign (white). Once you {{k|v}}iew the container, the locally-made contents are displayed as local (brown).

== Merchant mood ==
If your broker has Novice or better [[Judge of intent]] skill, there will be a line added below the merchant's dialogue describing the caravan's attitude. Their attitude rises with successful trades (especially if they get lots of profit) and falls when you propose deals they don't like.

* (trader) seems ecstatic with the trading
* (trader) seems very happy about the trading
* (trader) seems pleased with the trading
* (trader) seems willing to trade (Default, at least for humans)
* (trader) seems to be rapidly losing patience
* (trader) is not going to take much more of this
* (trader) is unwilling to trade

The happier you make a merchant, the less profit margin he will demand in a trade. If merchants reach the lowest level, no further trade will be possible, and they will immediately pack up and leave your depot. Since annoyed traders are more likely to reject deals, you should be generous in initial negotiations. Skilled negotiators seem less likely to offend traders with unsuccessful deals.

An easy way to capitalize on this mood system is to perform several partial trades. First trade for a few items, offering goods twice the value of the items you ask for (e.g. offer 2000☼ for 1000☼ of his stuff). This will likely make the merchant ecstatic about trading with you. Exit the trade screen, unpause briefly, and then return to trading with a vengeance. With the merchant in such a good mood, he is more likely to counteroffer than reject a trade outright.

== Seizing items ==

Pressing {{K|s}} from the trade menu will seize the selected items of the merchant's. If you seize goods from a caravan, the merchant will respond "Take what you want. I can't stop you." and then leave immediately without the seized goods. Items cannot be seized from the dwarven caravan, and other races will not buy goods stolen from one of their caravans (then marked in red) unless they are tricked into asking for them via counteroffer, or the items are "laundered" by decoration or used to create other goods. Seizing goods will hurt diplomatic relations, but is not grounds for an automatic [[siege]].{{Verify}}

Pressing the seize button while no goods are selected will result in the merchant interpreting your seizure as a joke. This apparently does nothing to benefit or hinder your trading.{{Verify}}

As a side note, if you deconstruct your trade depot with a caravan in it, all the caravan's items will drop to the ground, to be readily hauled away by your Dwarves. This does not mark the items as stolen, and the caravan will leave. However, ''next'' year's caravan is partly based on the profits from the previous year - so if you are relying on that race's caravans for needed items, you're hurting yourself in the long run.{{Verify}}

Another way to steal without marking as stolen is to forbid the trade depot just before they leave, causing them to leave their goods at the depot.{{Verify}}

Note that the civilization attached to a particular caravan will keep track of the value of items the caravan was carrying when they set out to trade, and they will compare this value with the value of items they return home with. Regardless of what method you use to confiscate items from a caravan, even if you came to possess the goods through no fault of your own (an [[ambush]] killed the caravaners, for example) the parent civilization may decide that you stole from them and send a [[siege]] instead of a caravan the following year. It is prudent to take measures to protect caravans visiting your lands!{{Verify}}

==Offering items==

{{key|o}} You can also give away items, as gifts to the leaders of the [[civilization]] you are trading with. This presumably helps relations between yourself and the other faction, though there is not yet a clear correlation between the value of the offerings and the improvement to relations. The exact effects of offerings on trading are unknown but it is believed due to the offerings' net trade value being counted towards the traders' profit, possibly with a modifier (possibly a multiplier of more than 1 as a bonus or less than 1 to compensate for the improved relations){{Verify}}, which in turn increases the quantity and variety of trade goods brought by next year's caravan. Also the [[King]] requires offerings to be made before his arrival.(5,000 in 0.31.25) You cannot offer items that were not made at your fortress; the traders do not want your spare goblin harvest clothes.

Unless you are looking for [[fun]], under no conditions should you offer or trade items which are wooden or used wood in their creation (glass, for example) to [[elves]], as this will insult the traders, and may cause them to leave or even damage relations enough to provoke a war between you and the elven civilization you traded with. They will be equally insulted by you trading back their wood-related items.

== Miscellaneous Trading Advice ==
* Thieves and thieving critters tend to follow caravans. Expect assaults and intruders.
* Be careful about asking traders to bring lots of individual lightweight items (such as meat and fish) as it can result in traders taking a very long time to unload their goods. Unless the path to your depot is extremely long, though, this is unlikely to cause significant problems.{{Verify}}
* Create your trading depot inside your fort, preferably in the beginning. Place a 3-tile wide path (which must be free of obstructions such as stairways) to the entrance of the fort and line this with traps; this will help to protect the traders and keep the depot close to your supplies.
* All caravans will bring extra food (meat and edible plants) and wooden logs if the supplies of your fortress are low enough, independent of whether or not you requested them. This does not apply in the case that the weight limit is exceeded by (other) items you requested. The supply situation, as observed by traders, is based solely on the number of unforbidden items in your fortress, whether stockpiled or utilized in buildings (such as wooden axles, water wheels, windmills, or workshops); thus, it is possible to trick caravans into thinking your supplies are low by [[forbid]]ding all of your relevant stocks immediately prior to their arrival.  This also seems to apply to elven caravans bringing [[cloth]] (except that cloth that's turned into [[clothing]], [[bag]]s or [[rope]] isn't counted). So if you want elven caravans to ''stop'' bringing cloth, buy up all the cloth that the first few caravans bring and stash them somewhere.
* Define your trade depot as a burrow. When traders arrive, you can add your broker or another dwarf, perhaps one you want to train in trading, to the burrow. They will head to the depot immediately, and stay there until you remove them from the burrow.
* Each trade you make (regardless of value) will increase your broker's skills by 50, distributed among Comedian, Flatterer, Intimidator, Judge of Intent, Negotiator, and Persuader. Each skill seems to gain around 5-15 points, but the sum will always be 50. The skill gain occurs as soon as the "t" button is pressed - if the offer is rejected, the dwarf will still gain 50 points. If the same offer is subsequently accepted, no additional skill will be gained.

== Caravans ==
Each friendly race will send a caravan per year, linked to one season, which is autumn for dwarves, summer for humans, spring for elves. In rare cases, goblins will show up in winter.{{verify}} However, in the first year only a dwarven caravan will arrive, although it will tend to arrive later than mid-autumn, unlike previous versions {{verify}}. Caravans will only show up if that race considers the fortress site accessible (as denoted on the embark screen), with the exception of dwarves, who always arrive unless they are extinct.{{verify}} Caravans appear to enter the map from a random direction which does not coincide with the relative direction of the originating [[civilization]], and they may appear from different directions or z-levels each year. Caravans may leave without trading if it takes too long to reach the trade depot. Caravans will embark on their journey back exactly one month after their arrival, whether they have succeeded in reaching the depot or not.{{Verify}}

Note that if traders or their animals are prevented from leaving, they will eventually go [[insane]].

Also worth mention is the pathing behavior of the entire caravan. If one member of the caravan reaches a block in their chosen path (i.e. a raised drawbridge that was lowered when they entered the map) the entire caravan will re-path, instead of encountering the obstacle one by one.

If a caravan has a lot of junk to load up, it can take a while (>=2 months), but don't worry, the other caravan can unload / trade while the first one is still uploading

==== [[Dwarves]] ====
:''"Our fortunes rise and fall together"''

The dwarven caravan:
* arrives in [[Calendar|autumn]].
* carries metal bars, [[leather]], weapons and armor, food and booze, and more. Dwarves alone may bring [[steel]] and steel goods. They can still bring steel (and steel goods) and [[pig iron]] bars even if they do not have access to [[iron]], but will not bring iron products.
* is well guarded.
* sends a liaison who will speak with the [[Expedition leader]], [[Mayor]], [[Baron]], [[Count]], or [[Duke]] to negotiate an import-export agreement (unless the [[Monarch]] is present).
* influences the number of immigrants received (if the caravan leaves intact).{{verify}}
* will not cause sieges when repeatedly destroyed or lost.
* is the only caravan to arrive during a fortress' first year.
* always arrives regardless of embark location, as long as the dwarven civilization is not extinct.{{verify}}
* cannot have its goods seized from the trade menu.
* may not arrive if your civilization lacks any notable figures.

==== [[elf|Elves]] ====
[[Image:Evil_elves.png|thumb|400px|A typical elven caravan.]]

The elven caravan:
* arrives in the [[Calendar|spring]].
* carries [[cloth]], [[rope]]s, various above-ground seeds, [[plant]]s and their byproducts, [[log]]s, [[wood]]en goods & [[weapon]]s, clothing and [[armor]], and may carry tame exotic [[creature]]s.
* is unguarded.
* does not accept some items in trade:

Elven traders do not like to be offered any tree byproducts. Forbidden items include:

* [[Wood]]en items (including subterranean mushrooms such as [[tower-cap]]s)
* Items derived from wood - [[ash]] and [[charcoal]], as well as [[lye]], [[potash]], and [[pearlash]]
* Items made from clear and crystal [[glass]] (due to the [[pearlash]] used) - green glass appears to be perfectly acceptable
* Items [[decoration|decorated]] with any of the above materials
* [[Obsidian]] shortswords (since they have wooden handles)
* [[Soap]] (made with [[lye]])

Offering or trading forbidden items will cause the mood of the trader to drop rapidly, causing them to refuse to trade any more that season and leave immediately. Additionally you will be called uncouth, crude, and barbaric for not understanding their customs.

However, [[stone]] and [[metal]] items, even when [[charcoal]] is used in production, are acceptable. Items made from [[silk]] are acceptable, as are all non-wooden plant-derived products such as [[cloth]] and [[thread]]. Items made of bone (totems too), horn, shell or leather are acceptable, so are meat and fish. You can also transport your goods to the [[trade depot]] in a wooden [[bin]], as long as you do not try to sell the bin. Living animals are acceptable, as long as the [[cage]] or [[trap]] is not made of [[wood]].

Be especially careful with reselling decorated items from other caravans, as non-wood/glass items may have decorations of wood or clear/crystal glass. All such items that elven caravans sell are also unacceptable to sell back to elves, as the dwarves have no means of proving that they were made in an "elf kosher" way.

==== [[Human]]s ====
The human caravan:
* arrives in [[Calendar|summer]].
* carries metal bars, sand, [[leather]], cloth, wood, food and booze, ropes, waterskins, quivers, backpacks, metal weapons and clothing and armor, cages and a few domestic animals.
* is moderately guarded.

==== [[Goblin]]s{{Verify}} ====
A goblin caravan ''may'' arrive if your civilization is at peace with the goblins.

The goblin caravan:
*will arrive every season, four times per year{{verify}}
*unguarded
*brings mostly food and cloth
*does not send a liaison or a guild representative
*does not make import/export agreements

== Liaisons ==
[[Liaison]]s may be sent with caravans to speak to important dwarves (and they ''will'' speak to those dwarves, even if they have to wait at their bedside in the hospital for months after the caravan has left). Liaisons allow you to choose the type of items that your fortress is interested in, and will focus on bringing more of that kind of item on the next caravan (however, those items will also be more expensive). In turn, they will present a list of the items they're willing to pay more for, which will be effective upon their next arrival.

Trade agreements can be viewed at a later time through the Civilization menu ({{k|c}}). These trade agreements are cleared when a liaison of the corresponding civilization enters the screen, so they are generally not accessible after the caravan has arrived.

If a liaison is prevented from leaving, they will eventually go [[insane]]. {{Verify}}

== Destruction ==
If caravans are destroyed (intentionally or unintentionally), the items may remain for use. Traders caught in a [[cave-in]] will flee as if they were attacked, but will leave all the items dropped by the caravan behind. Pack animals carrying items are affected just like a normal tamed [[mule]] and must be killed in the cave-in for them to drop items on the ground. It is however much more likely that the pack animals will only be stunned or rendered unconscious, and flee shortly after recovering from the hit.

While caravans can defend themselves, they don't like being ambushed. An encounter with unfriendly creatures resulting in the death of any merchant or pack animal will cause them to retreat and forget about trading with you for the season. Repeated caravan destruction (intentional or unintentional) will strain diplomatic relations and may result in a [[siege]].

== Caravan Delay ==
If a caravan has arrived at your trade depot and is unable to leave for about six months after they arrived, the merchants and animals will go insane. This can result in a bunch of merchants attacking your dwarves, or just standing around moping until they starve to death. It is not known for certain if this hurts diplomatic relations, but most likely it's the same as any case where the entire caravan fails to return home.{{Verify}}

If you have locked the caravan into your fortress to hold out against a siege, it's a good idea to station a squad of soldiers near the trade depot in case the merchants [[Insanity#Types|go berserk]]. You may also want to make the depot a restricted area to encourage civilians to go around it. Alternatively, you can design the trade depot using drawbridges, so that it can be sealed off from the rest of the fortress during a siege.

If you want the merchants to leave safely, you can build four or more tunnels to each corner of the map, connected to your fortress only by drawbridges. As long as there is no other way to enter and exit your fortress, invaders and merchants will both go towards any tunnel that you activate. You can lock the merchants into the trade depot, and then open a tunnel entrance on one side of the map to make the invaders head towards that tunnel. When they get close to it, you can close it, and then open the entrance on the other side of the map, and let the traders out of the depot. If your fortress and depot are in the middle of the map, this will give the traders quite a head-start to get away.{{Verify}}

Merchants can leave the map from any map edge-- including underground map edges. If an unobstructed path through your fortress reaches an edge, then blocking an overland path will cause the merchants to travel underground. This can be useful, if you're suffering a prolonged siege; it can also be dangerous, if your underground regions are less secure than your surface.

Caravan guards cannot be starved, dehydrated, or driven to insanity if prevented from leaving, their employers and animals will however.

If an large amount of items is sold / offered to the caravan, it may take a while to load it all, especially if you wish to keep the precious bins, selling low value individual items with low weight.

== Bugs ==

*Aggressive, untrainable animals (capture goblins, for example) cannot be traded; when a dwarf attempts to move the caged animal to the Depot, the creature is set free.
*If your [[hospital]] isn't already stocked with the specified amount of thread/cloth, your dwarves will carry off as much from the caravan as they need to fill it. {{Bug|66}}
*Caravans show up very late in the season. {{Bug|1756}}

== Loyalty cascade ==
*If you order your military to kill merchants from your own civilization, your soldiers will simultaneously become members ''and'' enemies of your civilization, resulting in a civil war within your fortress. When this happens, all current members of the fortress (excluding incoming migrants) will turn on each other yet they will still be seen as normal working dwarves in the status screens. This will only last for those who were alive ''during'' the attack, they will always be hostile to everyone including incoming migrants (yet they still do their jobs/ follow military orders and work as dwarves although they will interrupt other's work. They will not be shown as enemies in the Units screen).

== Exploits ==

*Deconstructing the Depot will cause merchants to leave your fortress and abandon any goods in the Depot because items are not available until the building is fully deconstructed. However any animals they had caged will still belong to the merchants and only become friendly, you won't actually own them.

*If you wait some time (2-3 months{{verify}}), you can "claim" animals by linking a lever to the cage and opening it, the animals will be released in a tamed state. Check the {{k|u}}nit screen before releasing them; if the creatures still show as Merchant creatures, they will wander off the map when released; if they show as Tame creatures, they will stay once released.

v0.34:Security design

2012-04-29T07:04:11Z

Chaos: /* Guard Animals */ hunting animals aren't trained at kennels any more

{{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]]'''.

:::::'''''Editors & Contributors''' - Please see the discussion page before posting.''

==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 should 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.

===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. 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.
:* 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. 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. In the days of [[wagon]]s, this used to block the appearance of trade caravans or their movement along the 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, which may disrupt passage?Needs testing
** Fortifications carved into the 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===

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.

NOTE: It is better to construct walls and then carve fortifications into them, than to construct fortifications. The reason for this is that constructed fortifications do not provide a walkable tile on the layer above them, as walls do. Walls cannot be constructed without access from one of the four compass directions. Because of this, if you were to construct fortifications, when you progress to the level above, you would need to build a walkable path to the corner tiles. This path would need to be deconstructed before the wall or fortification could be built. Once deconstructed, the building material will drop onto the tile below with the fortification, trapping it until the fortification is deconstructed.

As discussed step-by-step in the article on [[mega construction]], this particular design is about as basic as it gets. As shown, it assumes entry from an underground tunnel, but a door or drawbridge (with moat!?) could easily be added, or even access via a protected sky-bridge.

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.)

Side Below Ground Archer Roof
view: ground: Level: Level: Level:
╔═╗ ╔═══╗ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
___ ║<║ ║X..║ ╬>++╬ ·+++·
╬>__╬ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
___║X__║___ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
<...... ║.║ ╚═══╝ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
(Fortress->)

This can hold 3 archers/side, and has the potential to be as many "archer levels" tall as you wish. A top-level "down stair" is necessary to build the "roof" - might as well build an up/down stair instead, no real reason not to. Remember to use the "corners first" technique when necessary. (See [[Tower]].)

All told, for a simple 1 archer-level tower, this takes just over 50 stones or blocks (plus 25/extra archer level).

Larger towers (or this with larger floors on higher levels) could house barracks, practice ranges, and other facilities. Just expand to preferred size with floors, and then attach walls to those to act as a base for the next level of building. Add more stairs (adjacent to each other is always better) if high traffic is anticipated.

====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.

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.

=====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 statues can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control its 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.

=== 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.

++++++++++++++++++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.

===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}}

v0.34:Security design

2012-04-29T07:01:38Z

Chaos: /* Guard Animals */ ambushing enemies are noticeable at range now

{{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]]'''.

:::::'''''Editors & Contributors''' - Please see the discussion page before posting.''

==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 should 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.

===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. 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.
:* 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.

Hunting Animals (trained at [[kennel]]s) 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. 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. In the days of [[wagon]]s, this used to block the appearance of trade caravans or their movement along the 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, which may disrupt passage?Needs testing
** Fortifications carved into the 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===

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.

NOTE: It is better to construct walls and then carve fortifications into them, than to construct fortifications. The reason for this is that constructed fortifications do not provide a walkable tile on the layer above them, as walls do. Walls cannot be constructed without access from one of the four compass directions. Because of this, if you were to construct fortifications, when you progress to the level above, you would need to build a walkable path to the corner tiles. This path would need to be deconstructed before the wall or fortification could be built. Once deconstructed, the building material will drop onto the tile below with the fortification, trapping it until the fortification is deconstructed.

As discussed step-by-step in the article on [[mega construction]], this particular design is about as basic as it gets. As shown, it assumes entry from an underground tunnel, but a door or drawbridge (with moat!?) could easily be added, or even access via a protected sky-bridge.

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.)

Side Below Ground Archer Roof
view: ground: Level: Level: Level:
╔═╗ ╔═══╗ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
___ ║<║ ║X..║ ╬>++╬ ·+++·
╬>__╬ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
___║X__║___ ║.║ ║...║ ╬+++╬ ·+++·
<...... ║.║ ╚═══╝ ╬╬╬╬╬ ·····
(Fortress->)

This can hold 3 archers/side, and has the potential to be as many "archer levels" tall as you wish. A top-level "down stair" is necessary to build the "roof" - might as well build an up/down stair instead, no real reason not to. Remember to use the "corners first" technique when necessary. (See [[Tower]].)

All told, for a simple 1 archer-level tower, this takes just over 50 stones or blocks (plus 25/extra archer level).

Larger towers (or this with larger floors on higher levels) could house barracks, practice ranges, and other facilities. Just expand to preferred size with floors, and then attach walls to those to act as a base for the next level of building. Add more stairs (adjacent to each other is always better) if high traffic is anticipated.

====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.

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.

=====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 statues can serve the same purpose as bait animals. Building destroyers will hunt down and destroy structures, so carefully placing them can control its 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.

=== 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.

++++++++++++++++++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.

===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}}

v0.34:Military design

2012-04-29T06:42:10Z

Chaos: /* Daylight training room */ de-afterthought

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

:''This page is one of several inter-related articles on the broader topic of defending your fortress and your dwarves. '''Military design''' focuses on the training, organization and deployment of your military and how to prepare them for any situation. 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 tips on laying out your architecture to protect your military, see '''[[security design]]'''. or 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]]'''.

:::::'''''Editors & Contributors''' - Please see the discussion page before posting.''

=Military=
The role of a military force in fortress defense can be central or non-existent, depending on the player's overall approach and strategy. Their one advantage is mobility - they can go where no static defenses exist, to rescue or support other dwarves, or escort a caravan through unknown or deadly threats. Only military can take the fight to the enemy (doomsday devices excepted).

==Training==
One of the important parts of a military is to have dwarves with high physical [[attribute]]s, and that requires training them up. See [[cross-training]] for suggestions on various attribute training plans.

The "[[Main:Danger room|Danger room]]" method is a quick and effective way of both training shield/weapon/dodge skills and reducing your cat/child/baby population.

A very effective and less exploitive way of training is making your military fight captured invaders or wildlife, especially with training weapons equipped. See [[mass pitting]].

===Daylight training room===
Put a [[weapon rack]], [[armor stand]] or [[archery target]] on the surface near your entrance and make it a training room by designating it as a barracks. Training dwarves will be in position if there's trouble. This also helps prevent [[cave adaptation]] in your military.

===Archery training / Marksdwarf training===
A couple tips/troubleshooting for training your ranged military (feel free to add!):
* If you use archery targets, make sure you have one for each dwarf in the squad and assign each target to the squad.
* If you use live captured targets, you dwarves are most likely to shoot if they have no path to the target.
* Force your dwarves to stand next to fortifications (touching them). You can use burrows or walls for this.
* Every marksdwarf needs a quiver.
* Make plenty of ammunition and assign 100-200 bolts per dwarf to each squad, instead of the default 200 or so per squad.
* Don't have any arrows or bows in your fort.

* Build a Goblin Shooting Range where you drop the caged prisoners down a shaft 4-5 z-levels down to break their little legs. Then have your Marksdwarfs shot the stunned and immobile goblins from 14-18 steps away. The further away you place your Marksdwarfs, the higher probability that they might miss, thereby prolonging their target practice. Remember to add a lever and a bridge to retrieve the goblin goodies and clean up the mess you just made.

Goblin Shooting range:

╔═══════════╗ four z-levels up:
║···········║ ╔═╦═╦═╦═╦═╗
║·+·+·g·+·+·║ ║·║·║·║·║·║
║···········║ ║+║+║+║+║+║
║▼·········▼║ ║+++++++++║
║+++++++++++║ ║+++++++++║
║+++++++++++║
║+++++++++++║ ║D║
║+++++++++++║ ║+║
║+++++++++++║ Locked tunnel
║+++++++++++║ one z-level down
║+++++++++++║ ║+║
║+++++++++++║ ║+║
║+++++++++++║ ║+║
║+++++++++++║ ╔════╝D╚════╗
║···········║ ║+ò+++++++++║
║▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼║ ║▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲║
║++☺+++☺++☺+║ ╚═══════════╝
║+☺++☺++☺+++║ Lever to
║+++++++++++║ bridge

===Basic military training Setup===

Since the military update, training can be quite tricky at first but once you use the following steps (aimed at training without danger rooms) it should be reasonably manageable.
Start with these preparations either at your first or second migrant wave, if your first wave is kinda small and you need more time its still okay, but by the time the third wave arrives you should have step one complete.

This tutorial does not go into the deeper areas of "why" to do this, or even how you use certain panels like the military panel and schedule. All that info is found somewhere else on the Wiki already (I checked).

== Step 1: Roughneck Squad (a.k.a. Suicide Squad) ==

The sole purpose of this squad is to prevent an early goblin attack from crippling your military before it is even trained and equipped properly.

You will need:

* 10 sets of bone/leather armor, or any cheap but reasonably effective armor you can get your hands on. It does not have to be anything pretty... suggestions on armor can be found further below.
* 10 melee weapons. Axes work great and make these dwarves additionally useful as cave wood cutters later on; spears only work for military, and hammers if you plan to draft the survivors as future marksdwarves. If you can, try to mix axes, spears and hammers. Crossbows or any ranged weapon + ammo takes too long to set up for it to be useful. Most importantly, DO NOT USE TRAINING WEAPONS!
* 10 expendable dwarves. Really important is to have as close to 10 as possible (>10 is overkill, 9 or 8 works, 5 or 3 does not...). Their stats do not matter other than you do not want to use your best dwarves for this - use peasants/cheesemakers that have no or only 1 or 2 friends, become ill quickly, heal slowly, or are weak and flimsy.
* 1 bed or other "barracks" building (armor stands or weapon racks also work).

Let's start!

# Make a 10 man squad in the [[military|panel]]. Try to pick people with as few friends as possible for this; it does not matter if they are flimsy in stats or if they are extremely susceptible to disease. We literally do not expect these dwarves to survive a decent siege.
# Assign them the predefined "leather armor" uniform in the military panel (or make your own cheap and fast uniform; anything you have on hand is good, even metals if you brought them on embark, and have an anvil and some [[fuel]]). If you do not have everything for the uniform for every dwarf then stick to leather and bone, and let a dwarf or 2 be dedicated solely to crafting everything those cannon fodder dwarves need. Once they've trained crafting skills you can use them to craft the leather parts of the armor the "real" military squad is going to need.
# Once you have your 10 man "Suicide Squad", make a barracks with your barracks item (bed, armor stand, weapon rack, etc.) next to your entrance or next to your most busy area (preferably outside) and assign your roughnecks to it. Make them active in the squad menu so they will hang around in the barracks constantly, waiting for their chums to show up for training (and sometimes even train!).

Try to have only 1 entrance in this stage, or at least only 1 "outside camp" - it's easier to defend.

More on early defences below.

== Step 2: Conscripts (a.k.a. Conscript reporting!) ==

'''You will need:'''
* 6 sets of decent armor - more info about it below.
* 6 weapons, preferably something like 2 spears, 2 axes and 2 hammers. If you ''really'' want marksdwarves, flip the hammers for crossbows and also craft some bolts... but I advise against it for now.
* Your roughneck squad from step 1.
* 6 new dwarves with decent to good stats. Basically anything goes as long as they are not susceptible to diseases, not weak or flimsy, do not tire fast or have some other military related traits handicap.

'''Proceed to...'''
# Create 2 (yes, 2...) new squads. Put 3 dwarves in each squad and try to make them "compatible" (don't put dwarves that are friends or hate each other together, and don't put spouses together). Give them the decent armor as their uniform. Now go in the schedule panel and make it so 2 dwarves minimum train year round for both squads. (In other words, 1 can break from training and can eat/drink/be useful while 2 train.)
# Now make it so your roughneck squad gets some breaks in their training - something like only half of them have to train each month, so they can be used as haulers or whatever you need dwarves for at this point. If you haven't gotten an ambush by now, expect one to show up any day. Defend with your roughneck squads only. Keep your conscripts as last resort and preferably never counter-attack any enemy further then 20 blocks from your entrance.

== Step 3: Standing army ==

'''You will need:'''

* Your roughneck squad (if some survived)
* Your 2 "conscript" squads
* 3 or so more decent armour sets
* 3 or so crossbows and for each crossbow 1 quiver
* Minimum of 100 bone bolts or 50 metal ones and 200 wooden bolts per crossbow
* Flasks and backpacks for everyone
* 3 Archery targets
'''Proceed to...'''
#* Once your 2 squads of 3 dwarves with decent armour show they are battle worthy (at least "competent" at their weapon and armour but more is better), take out 1 dwarf from each squad, and put them in a new 3rd squad (set the new squad up just like the other 2). Disband your roughneck squad if some survived up until now and spread them over the 3 squads evenly, make sure you are not using any seriously wounded dwarves!
#* Add in 1 new dwarf in each squad, give him a crossbow and decent armour. Try to aim for at least 3 squads at this time, each holding 2 melee dwarves and 1 crossbow dwarf.
#* Make lots of wood bolts and some bone or metal bolts, metal is by far better but can still be too costly at this point, bone bolts are very easy to make and do reasonable damage but come in small stacks...
# Now set those marksdwarves to carry the bone or metal bolts for combat in the ammunition panel and the wooden for training, a total of 100 combat and 200 training bolts will do, be sure to make a quiver! This is also a good time to be making backpacks and flasks for each of your military dwarves.
# Make sure any squad is set so 2/3th is training while 1/3 is off duty throughout the year, keep check on your bolt supplies and any medical "incidents".

Once a squad has reached "talented" for everyone, start melting 2 squads together, but keep the basic makeup of 3 melee dwarves for every 1 marksdwarf in each squad, add in a fortress guard of weak and flimsy dwarves that wear the same armour as our roughneck squad, but also get crap wooden crossbows (so they suck at melee, they will beat people with them occasionally and you dont want your dwarves to die from them).

== Uniforms ==

'''Basically these uniforms "work" but they are not the best option see the [[armor]] article for more about this.'''
 
Use the "Cheap" outfits in the armor article. They are maxed out protection for their material.
If you KNOW you have full suits of armor for the recruits, use replace clothes and exact matches. This lets you wear the full set without
a XXCave Spider Silk RobeXX leaving your less protected,

Cheap "I have no metal yet" uniform:

# Leather shirts+
# Leather trousers+
# Leather gloves+
# Leather caps+
# Leather armors
# Leather low/high boots
# Bone gauntlets
# Bone helms
# Bone greaves
# Wooden shields
# Melee weapons (non-training) or Crossbows

Basic uniform:

# Leather shirt+
# Leather trousers+
# Leather caps+
# Leather hoods+
# Leather gloves+
# Leather mittens+
# Leather shoes+
# cloaks+ x6
# Socks+
# Metal helm
# Metal mail armor
# Metal gauntlets
# Metal greaves
# Metal shield
# Metal melee weapon (non-training)

Advanced "I have the resources" uniform:

You can order your dwarves to wear more than one piece of same type, typically you would want three suits of mail armor and six cloaks. [[Armor]] article possibilities of this is detail.

(+ counts as clothing)

==Organization==
Archers are deadly, but vulnerable to melee - crossbows as clubs just aren't the best, but you can't have archer towers every 15 tiles across the map (well, you can, but that sometimes would be tedious) - sometimes you want to take it to the enemy. Beyond that, mixing or matching is largely up to you.

===Squad management===
Ordering multiple [[squads]] around can get tiring. It's best to set most of your dwarves to follow a good regimen of training, guarding important [[burrow]]s, and patrolling routes along the fort by programming their [[scheduling|schedules]]. By preparing a number of different alerts with different schedules, you can largely manage your military by swapping a few squads to different alerts. With the majority of your squads patrolling the fort, you're free to take one or two squads of your highest-trained soldiers out to [[thief|take]] [[snatcher|care]] [[ambush|of]] [[siege|some]] [[megabeast|business]].

Keep in mind that dwarves are bloodthirsty fiends. If a [[creature]] crosses their path, no matter the odds or whether they've been ordered to stand down, your dwarves will open pursuit and attack until either it or they are dead. Keep an eye on your dwarves, and if they're going to be in combat it's a good idea to make sure there's a few highly-trained melee dwarves in the squad with them.

If trained to (near-)legendary in [[dodger|dodging]], [[fighter|fighting]] and a weapon of choice, and armored up with [[steel]] or [[adamantine|better]], one lone hero can take out several squads of goblins without a scratch. But combat always has a random element - [[losing|Fun happens]].

==Strategy & Tactics==
===Roughing it===
Always have your soldiers carry food. They will each need a [[backpack]] to carry it. This keeps your soldiers from wandering off to eat. You can also have them carry [[alcohol]] or [[water]] in [[waterskin]]s or [[flask]]s, though water isn't recommended for the long term, as it makes your soldiers sluggish - always remember to keep the booze stockpiles full. For an around the clock guard, have them sleep on the ground while on duty. Hopefully the sounds of combat will wake them up before they get killed. Sleeping on the floor causes unhappy [[thought]]s.

===Wait for my signal...===
When ganging up on dangerous creatures (such as megabeasts), keep them far, far away until all your units are in position, and try to ambush the target in an area with no other creatures. If your dwarves get too close, they'll smell blood and charge in, regardless of what you do. Getting all your units into position, pausing the game, and then turning them loose at once, can achieve the desired advantage of numbers against formidable opponents.

When under [[siege]] or other attack, keep the entire squad far back from the exit until they are all armed and armored, and ready to roll as a unit. Having a good lockable front gate will also avoid this.

==Militia and armed civilians==
Besides professional, full time military, it's quite useful to incorporate part-time soldiers or armed civilians into the mix.

* See also '''[[Cross-training]]''' for suggestions on training attributes & civilian/military mixes.



====Gobbo season open!====
It can be a fairly decent idea to keep mass numbers of cheaply-made crossbows (or your lower-quality rejects) and bone/wood bolts on hand, and all expendable dwarves in one mass military squad set to use crossbows (and leather armor, if you have enough). What [[skill|dabbling]] marksdwarves lack in speed and accuracy, they more than make up for with incredible enthusiasm, as a hailstorm of pathetically-aimed bolts will tear over anything stupid enough to move. Not nearly as effective or useful as properly-emplaced marksdwarves with high skill and proper equipment, but a good emergency measure, especially if you keep your [[craftsdwarf|craftsdwarves]] busy churning out cheap ammo from spare bones from the [[kitchen]]s and cheap crossbows from fishbones from the [[dining hall]].

====Non-hunting hunters====
Sometime you will embark in an area devoid of (huntable) wildlife. In that case, you can turn on the [[Hunting]] skill for all civilians and use the {{k|m}}ilitary menu to arm (and more importantly, armor and shield) them. Normally turning on hunting will cause dwarves to wander outside looking for wildlife, and turning it on on all your dwarves would delay your economy greatly - but without wildlife, no hunting jobs are generated, and they go about their business armed and armored. Note that if X number of hunt-able animals do appear on the map, that many dwarves will then go hunt them. Do note that hunters will sleep on the ground when they are tired instead of walking to a bed, which will result in unhappy thoughts.

====Woodcutters====
Any dwarf with the Woodcutting labor designated will carry an axe, even when they are not cutting wood. If one (or more) of your starting seven have one rank or more of [[axedwarf]], no unhappy [[thought]]s will be generated if they are drafted into active service. This dwarf might serve to fill several or all above-ground activities, such as Plant Gathering, Architecture and Masonry for bridges and defensive walls, above ground farming, and any hauling, as well as wood cutting. Later, a squad of dedicated woodcutters, possibly with some training in axedwarf, masonry and other skills, can respond en masse to orders to cut trees, providing mutual support and finishing off a large section of trees and getting back to safety that much faster. Actually training them in axedwarf is optional, but certainly helps.

Note that so long as you have no tree {{k|d}}esignated for cutting (or have no [[path]] to those trees), the woodcutters will not respond. However, if you do, as many woodcutters as trees will respond to those locations - it's recommended that if/when you do, you centralize the designations to allow them to more fully support each other.

===Miners===
The above tactic can also be used with Miners. When you activate a miner with a [[pick]] into the military with no weapon designated, they fight with the pick they are holding and their skill is their [[mining]] - and it's not hard for a miner to gain legendary miner skill quite quickly. Parallel problems arise when designating areas to be mined, but careful use of locked doors or hatches on mineshafts can prevent too many from responding to an area to be excavated.

A dwarf will hold ''either'' an axe or a pick, depending on which labor is activated - it's not possible to activate both at once; the game does not allow it.

==Siege operators==
There are four important things to remember about siege operators:

# They are civilians. This means that when manning (dwarving?) their stations, they will flee if enemy units approach too close. Doesn't matter if there is no actual path, it's the mere distance that triggers it. On the plus side, they don't get unhappy thoughts from being "Activated" for the military - it's just another civilian job.
# Training siege operation is slooooow. Start early.
# Siege engines do not fire quickly, so you want high skill to make the few shots you get ''count''.
# Once trained (some years later), they can be trained up in other civilian skills that are useful whenever they're not at their stations. (See [[cross-training]] for suggestions.)

==A guide for siege engine operations==

Please bear in mind that this is VERY long term stuff (10 years). Only by having highly trained siege operators and high quality siege weapons can you shoot accurately.

* Start off with two [[miner]]s and a [[wood cutter]] trained to proficient siege engineer status

* After your fortress has about 50 dwarves, build a siege workshop, place it at the front of your fort near the battlements and designate a custom [[stockpile]] within the battlements that can take only ballista arrows. Designate another custom stockpile that can take only regular stone.

* Make sure only one of your dwarves is set to have siege engineering as an active labor. Change that dwarf's orders to have nothing but siege engineering enabled. It may help to give that dwarf a custom profession title (such as SIEGE) to distinguish that dwarf from others. When new [[Mechanic]] or [[Siege engineer]] dwarves arrive, make sure to disable siege engineering for them.

* You'll need [[wood]]. ''Lots'' of wood.

* Get the siege engineer dwarf to build 18 catapult parts, place them inside behind fortifications (which catapults CAN shoot through), designate a custom stockpile of regular stone within the battlements.

* Train six dwarves to legendary status with mining or another fast-training skill: their high attributes are absolutely necessary for siege operating. All operators should have no job orders other than their stat-training and siege operating. When there is no mining to be done, set six catapults to "fire at will"

* After the catapult parts are done, get the siege engineer dwarf to build about 100 wooden ballista arrows. Don't bother with metal arrowheads as they'll use 3 pieces of metal each, and that certainly adds up.

* Now that his or her skill is at a high level, your siege engineer dwarf should be able to build superior quality (*) siege engine parts with about a 75% success rate. Build about 40 catapult parts and 40 ballista parts.

* Build ten catapults and ten ballistas with a MINIMUM of superior quality (*) components in an alternating sequence along your well stocked battlements. Dump any inferior components.

* By this point your miners/operators should be at a high level of skill, possibly legendary. This gives your superior quality weapons a devastatingly high rate of fire and awesome accuracy.

==An alternate training program==

This works well if you have a secure above-ground enclosure, a statue garden or farm plots with a surrounding wall, or a privatized plateau, as it can avoid cave adaptation while training (and the engines could be placed where they also have a useful field of fire). At a minimum, a wall with an interior area of 6x6 is barely adequate for two practice engines, stairs up and recovery trench, but a training facility could be built entirely underground.

Embark with a Proficient Siege Engineer. (Training takes far too long, and it's not a moodable skill.)

After the first caravan departs and your fortress begins to settle in, build your Siege Workshop near access to the topside if possible - parts are heavy, and [[clutter]] a workshop quicker than other finished goods. Manufacture a half-dozen or a dozen (or more) of one type of siege weapon part, enough for 2-3 decent engines - higher overall quality is better, if you have the logs and time to spare. Choice between ballista/catapult is up to you, but don't worry about building up ammo supplies - you will have some stone lying around, and one ballistae arrow per engine is enough for training. No rush, don't have to be done until your operators are actually ready to practice.

If possible, build theses close to the dining hall and barracks/bedrooms - not too close (see [[noise]]), but close enough to reduce travel time. Dig a channel (double-wide if for ballistae ammo) on one side that can catch ammo, and add a wall (or drawbridge) behind that, plus a ramp or stairs down behind the engines to access the fallen ammo in the trench. (If ballistae, take precautions against accidental friendly fire accidents.) If the location allows the engine to be turned and used when needed, so much the better, but this is mainly for training for now.

<pre>Side view

ss> | ss> = siege engine (fires to right) | = wall or drawbridge backstop
X...__ X = stairs/ramp ... = access tunnel to trench
__ = bottom of channel for ammo catching </pre>

Once your first wave of immigrants shows up (first Winter or second Spring or so), pick a bunch to become "military" - don't decide who will become what, not quite yet.

Put them to training on [[pump]]s, mining through soil and/or [[Bookkeeper|bookkeeping]] to improve [[attributes]]. "Tough" recruits chase more attributes and go into military training, where sparring will be dangerous and injuries expected - "Very Strong" recruits, with no other attributes, become siege operators, for lugging heavy ammo (and to avoid hurting each other during sparring). ''(Agility is universally beneficial, dealer's choice.)''

Set your chosen few to firing the siege weapons into the wall asap, as soon as they have some useful attribute increases - you aren't looking for uber-dwarves, just something above peasant level. If you want, use [[cross-training]] to allow them to become useful masons when the need arises, though this delays their siege training. (This can be done sooner if you have a lot of urgent building projects, or later once they have achieved acceptable levels of siege operator.)

If you want to manufacture more ammo, you can set a stockpile adjacent to the engines and designate some haulers, and that will speed training some, but the walk down to retrieve ammo is not a long one.

Add more trainees and training engines as your work-pool grows. Final numbers depend on your needs, defensive plan and environment.

Once they've trained to Legendary (some few years?), they can be fully cross-trained to be productive while not firing the engine. Give them beds near their final stations, and don't forget to train replacements before accidents happen.

==Animals==

[[Dog|War dogs]] can also be assigned to dwarves who go outside frequently, whether military or civilian. Then when the dwarf encounters danger, the war dog runs at the danger while the dwarf runs away from it. Unfortunately, war dogs are slower than dwarves with high [[attribute|agility]], and do not shadow the dwarf perfectly. Try to not assign more than one or two dogs to a dwarf, the loss of happiness from a assigned dog dying (Assigned War/Hunting dogs are pets) can lead to FUN. Also, dogs can't be reassigned once they are assigned, To get around this, have the dwarf you want to be guarded train the dog.
{{Category|Guides}}
{{Category|Fortress defense| }}
{{Category|World}}
{{Category|Design}}



{{Military}}

v0.34:Web

2012-04-28T05:35:08Z

Chaos: clarify antedecent

{{av}}{{Quality|Exceptional}}
'''Webs''' are the source of [[silk]], and appear in [[cavern]]s. The web itself looks like a light-grey [[gem]], and is most often labeled as being from [[cave spider]]s or (in [[evil]] biomes) [[phantom spider]]s, but the presence of the actual [[vermin]] is not necessary for the web to be formed on a given spot (though cave spiders and/or phantom spiders will appear in the general [[biome]] where the webs are found). Similar webs can be found in a biome inhabited by [[giant cave spider]]s; an actual [[giant cave spider]] will be present if these are found.

Webs will be collected ''automatically'' by dwarves with the [[weaving]] labor enabled, but not until the fortress has a [[loom]]. A ''collect web'' task will be triggered at the loom as long as webs are on the map and in reach. This can be comfortably deactivated with {{k|o}}-{{k|W}}-{{k|w}}. An important option since webs often occur in dangerous places you might want to secure first. The [[weaver]] will then drop the collected thread in the loom and, depending on the loom setting and availability of a stockpile, either leave it there, immediately weave it to cloth, or put it on a stockpile. Other ways to prevent collecting are preventing any dwarf from using the loom ({{k|q}}-{{k|P}} - requires [[manager]]), deactivating the weaving [[labor]] on all dwarves or removing all looms. (Lack of stockpiles alone will ''not'' prevent this!) An easier alternative is just to suspend the collect webs task in each loom. ({{k|q}}-{{k|s}}). It may be a good idea to only allow non-skilled weavers to collect webs and only skilled ones to actually weave cloth. Set high minimal skill on the actual weaving loom ({{k|q}}-{{k|P}}) and just as high maximal skill on the collecting loom. Suspend weaving on collecting loom and collecting on weaving loom. This allows higher efficiency, since collecting is not in any way affected by weaving skill (it happens instantly), but trains it and the skill affects quality of cloths.

Webs become [[thread|silk thread]] the moment they are picked up. (They are, however, shown in the {{k|z}}-stocks menu under -> thread.) Cave spider and phantom spider silk thread are worth 6[[currency|☼]]; giant cave spider silk webs and thread are worth 24[[currency|☼]].

[[Giant cave spider]]s shoot long strings of dangerous entangling webs at targets prior to attacking - this behaviour can be used to create [[giant cave spider|giant cave spider silk farms]]. It is not advised to allow weavers to randomly gather webs on maps where giant cave spiders might be lurking nearby. Certain types of [[titan]]s, [[forgotten beast]]s, and [[demon]]s also shoot webs, and just as other spider webs are found naturally in their environments, [[HFS]] may also contain demon webs.

Webs are delicate, and can be destroyed by contact with any creature (except a dwarf that is gathering that web), or by any other rough treatment such as [[Irrigation|irrigating]], etc. It also appears that if open to the outside, [[rain]] will destroy the webs remarkably fast

[[Vermin]] that come into contact with a web will immediately turn into [[corpse|remains]].

Creatures that spin webs are also immune to them. This means that cave spiders and phantom spiders are immune to webs' vermin-killing effect, and that web-spinning forgotten beasts cannot be captured by webbed [[cage trap]]s.

A creature just caught in a web will be considered by the game to be momentarily [[unconscious]], which causes [[trap]]s to be triggered by creatures normally immune to them.

[[Category:Items]]

v0.34:Web

2012-04-28T05:34:51Z

Chaos: generalize

{{av}}{{Quality|Exceptional}}
'''Webs''' are the source of [[silk]], and appear in [[cavern]]s. The web itself looks like a light-grey [[gem]], and is most often labeled as being from [[cave spider]]s or (in [[evil]] biomes) [[phantom spider]]s, but the presence of the actual [[vermin]] is not necessary for the web to be formed on a given spot (though cave spiders and/or phantom spiders will appear in the general [[biome]] where the webs are found). Similar webs can be found in a biome inhabited by [[giant cave spider]]s; an actual [[giant cave spider]] will be present if these are found.

Webs will be collected ''automatically'' by dwarves with the [[weaving]] labor enabled, but not until the fortress has a [[loom]]. A ''collect web'' task will be triggered at the loom as long as webs are on the map and in reach. This can be comfortably deactivated with {{k|o}}-{{k|W}}-{{k|w}}. An important option since webs often occur in dangerous places you might want to secure first. The [[weaver]] will then drop the collected thread in the loom and, depending on the loom setting and availability of a stockpile, either leave it there, immediately weave it to cloth, or put it on a stockpile. Other ways to prevent collecting are preventing any dwarf from using the loom ({{k|q}}-{{k|P}} - requires [[manager]]), deactivating the weaving [[labor]] on all dwarves or removing all looms. (Lack of stockpiles alone will ''not'' prevent this!) An easier alternative is just to suspend the collect webs task in each loom. ({{k|q}}-{{k|s}}). It may be a good idea to only allow non-skilled weavers to collect webs and only skilled ones to actually weave cloth. Set high minimal skill on the actual weaving loom ({{k|q}}-{{k|P}}) and just as high maximal skill on the collecting loom. Suspend weaving on collecting loom and collecting on weaving loom. This allows higher efficiency, since collecting is not in any way affected by weaving skill (it happens instantly), but trains it and the skill affects quality of cloths.

Webs become [[thread|silk thread]] the moment they are picked up. (They are, however, shown in the {{k|z}}-stocks menu under -> thread.) Cave spider and phantom spider silk thread are worth 6[[currency|☼]]; giant cave spider silk webs and thread are worth 24[[currency|☼]].

[[Giant cave spider]]s shoot long strings of dangerous entangling webs at targets prior to attacking - this behaviour can be used to create [[giant cave spider|giant cave spider silk farms]]. It is not advised to allow weavers to randomly gather webs on maps where giant cave spiders might be lurking nearby. Certain types of [[titan]]s, [[forgotten beast]]s, and [[demon]]s also shoot webs, and just as other spider webs are found naturally in their environments, [[HFS]] may also contain demon webs.

Webs are delicate, and can be destroyed by contact with any creature (except a dwarf that is gathering that web), or by any other rough treatment such as [[Irrigation|irrigating]], etc. It also appears that if open to the outside, [[rain]] will destroy the webs remarkably fast

[[Vermin]] that come into contact with a web will immediately turn into [[corpse|remains]].

Creatures that spin webs are also immune to them. This means that cave spiders and phantom spiders are immune to their vermin-killing effect, and that web-spinning forgotten beasts cannot be captured by webbed [[cage trap]]s.

A creature just caught in a web will be considered by the game to be momentarily [[unconscious]], which causes [[trap]]s to be triggered by creatures normally immune to them.

[[Category:Items]]

v0.34:Trap

2012-04-28T05:21:48Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ as it turns out no, not quite everything

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

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 nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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 in the current version; the only creatures it cannot capture are those immune to both cage traps and webbing, such as a web-spinning forgotten beast.

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]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==Upright Spear/Spike==

A variation of the weapon trap, the Upright Spear/Spike itself requires no mechanisms, and can be fitted with up to 10 [[Weapon|spears]] or [[Trap component|spikes]]. However, it requires an external trigger to actually impale things. Either a [[pressure plate]] or a [[lever]] must be connected to this trap for it to be operated. An advantage of this trap is it doesn't require a mechanic to set it up - just to link it to a trigger.

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 the mechanisms that 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Statue

2012-04-28T04:09:44Z

Chaos: liquid interaction

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

{{furniture|name=Statue
|tile=Ω
|stone=y
|metal=y
|glass=y
|rooms=
* [[statue garden|Statue Garden]]
|value=25
}}

'''Statues''' are buildings which can be built from the {{k|b}}uild menu under {{k|s}}tatue. They can be made using one [[stone]] at the [[mason's workshop]], 3 [[metal]] at a [[metalsmith's forge]], or [[sand]] at a [[glass furnace]].

Statues, like [[engraving]]s, depict people, places, things and times. They will depict events from the game's generated history. They do not display random geometric shapes, such as diamonds, unlike engravings. Statues often will depict creatures that the mason [[preferences|likes or loathes]], or even other dwarves surrounded by the creatures they like or loathe.

Statues can have very high [[value]]s if crafted from valuable [[material]]s, such as precious [[metal]]s, or if they are crafted by a highly [[skill]]ed dwarf. This makes them a good choice for raising the value of a [[room]] to create a legendary dining room, for instance, or to meet [[noble]]s' requirements for rooms of a certain value.

You can create a [[sculpture garden]] from a statue's {{k|q}}uery menu. Dwarves [[on break]] or with no job will spend time at a communal (non-assigned) statue garden appreciating the statues (which generates a happy [[thought]]) and may even organize parties there. If the sculpture garden is private (assigned) then the owner will hang out there when on break or when there's no job to do.

Be careful when placing statues, because dwarves cannot move through the same square they occupy. (This will also prevent dwarves from smoothing or engraving the floor underneath a statue.) A poorly placed statue can potentially seal off parts of your fortress. One can place a statue instead of a wall on a built floor, which leads to another possible use of statues: you may build a statue on a tile you don't want your dwarves to stand at. That makes intentional [[cave-in]] much safer to carry out.

Statues do not impede the flow of liquids ([[water]], [[magma]]).

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

v0.34:Magma

2012-04-28T01:02:25Z

Chaos: redact kinda pointless language that was about another version anyway

{{av}}{{Quality|Exceptional|21:13, 6 July 2010 (UTC)}}
'''Magma''' is a red-hot [[flow|fluid]] that wells up from deep within the earth (but not so deep that it cannot be found by dwarves). Magma that is above the ground is called '''Lava'''; the substance itself remains the same. It can often result in [[Fun]].

Magma serves as an energy source, powering [[magma smelter]]s, [[magma forge]]s, [[magma glass furnace]]s, and [[magma kiln]]s. Magma is ''extremely'' hot which can lead to even more [[fun]]. Workers that dig into a magma reservoir are not instantly killed as the magma touches them, but they are set on fire, which will kill them very quickly. For this reason, taking steps to ensure there is adequate water available to extinguish flaming dwarves running in random directions is advised before digging into any magma pools from the side. Channeling a single square wide pit across the planned magma pipe one tile away from the wall to breach and filling it with water using the [[Activity zone#Pit/Pond|pond zone]] tool is recommended, so the panicking dwarves have no choice but to run through the water, and the water itself turns into an obsidian wall as soon as the magma flows into it.

The list of materials that are '''[[magma-safe]]''' is extensive. Magma never cools, but can [[evaporation|evaporate]] if left at a depth of 1/7 for long enough. When magma is mixed with water it forms [[obsidian]]. Note that magma located above [[semi-molten rock]] will be listed as a Magma Flow and cannot be cooled into [[Obsidian]].

Without [[screw pump]]s to impart [[pressure]], magma flows rather slowly (though no more slowly than unpressurized water). A pipe to bring magma across the full map can take as much as a year to fill. This, combined with the fact that it will [[Evaporation|evaporate]], can make filling a reservior difficult and tedious. As a rule of thumb, the area coming out of a 1-wide-pipe shouldn't be more than three squares wide and 20 squares long, or else it will evaporate as fast as you fill it.

== Bringing Magma Up ==

Magma can be brought to the surface by two different methods:[[pump|pump stack]]s, and magma pistons. Pump stacks are conceptually the simplest, but require an enormous amount of in-game time to make. Magma pistons tend to be faster to make, but require more time to understand how to build them.

=== Pump stacks ===
Pumping magma up from the magma sea via a conventional [[pump#Example layouts#pump stack|pump stack]] is a lot of work, requiring dozens of pumps and significant amounts of power. Making all of the pumps [[magma safe]] also requires a lot of precious materials like steel or glass.

=== Magma pistons ===
[[Magma piston]]s are another way to move magma near the surface. Magma pistons require less time and fewer precious materials to construct than pump stacks. However, magma pistons are a bit more complicated than pump stacks, so it takes more time to understand how to operate and build them.

==Magma pools==
Although the name suggests them as pools, they are actually pipes (Unknown why Toady changed the name). They can be found underground, however they rarely reach the upper z-levels (40+). Most end just a few z-levels above the magma sea, though some may span more than 100 z-levels.
Magma pools seem to be always connected to a magma sea, and the sea and pipe can occasionally reach up to the same level, making them hard to separate. However, magma pools can be identified by the obsidian walls which surround them.
Magma pools will slowly refill themselves, giving the player an infinite source of magma.

==Volcanoes==
[[volcano|Volcanoes]] are magma pools that extend all the way to the surface. Volcanoes are an endless source of magma as they will always refill themselves.

==Properties of magma==
Magma behaves the same way as water with the exception of not being affected by [[pressure]] (except when being moved by a [[screw pump]]) and apparently not showing [[flow]]. Magma will turn into [[obsidian]]1 if it touches [[water]]. In the game, magma's temperature is 12,000 (2,032°F, or about 1,111°C). See the list of '''[[magma-safe]]''' materials for more information on what can (or cannot) be safely submerged in magma.

Tiles directly adjacent to magma will be heated to a temperature of 10,075 (107°F, or about 42°C), causing revealed unmined tiles to flash with {{Tile|☼|6:4:1}} when placing digging designations and causing unrevealed mining-designated tiles to cancel their designation (with a "warm stone" warning) once they are revealed.

1 - the rock that is used when magma mixes with water is the first rock encountered to have the [LAVA] tag ''during worldgen''.

==Dangers of magma==
In DF2010, magma was not immediately fatal when first touched, due to a bug in the physics model that caused body fat to melt independently of the creature, resulting in an unintended Leidenfrost Effect[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect] preventing the creature's body temperature from rising high enough to trigger combustion. In DF2012, this bug has been fixed, and now any contact with magma results in nearly instant immolation, followed by death if water is not close at hand.

Unlike how waterfalls create mist magmafalls create no magma mist, yet if some debris from a [[cave-in]] lands in some magma a deadly cloud of [[magma mist]] is released.

{{Category|Physics}}
{{Magma FAQ}}

v0.34:Wear

2012-04-27T18:02:30Z

Chaos: rv: no longer certain about this (yet more cloistered vampire observation)

{{av}}
{{Quality|Fine}}

'''Wear''' is the degradation of materials over time, primarily in the context of [[food]] and [[clothing]]. Wear will alter the quality of an item, denoted by the symbols x, X and XX. For example, over time a dwarf's "Pig tail shirt" will degrade into a "xPig tail shirtx" and eventually a "XXPig tail shirtXX" before disappearing entirely.

Animal-based products can rot, which is different from wear (see [[miasma]]). Crops and harvested plants can '''wither''' if not stored in a stockpile, making them useless but generating no miasma.

Notes on wear:
*Clothing over time will wear due to normal usage.
*Clothing and leather items are worn down very rapidly after catching on [[fire]].
*[[Troll]]s can beat on doors, wearing them out until they break.
*Wood and cloth items in a [[Trade depot]] built outside in a [[Glacier]] biome will degrade until purchased. This will also happen to items in a [[Wagon (embark)|starting wagon]] in a similar location. Walls do not halt the effect.
*Invaders' clothing is also subject to wear.
*Cages do not prevent wear.
*Certain items suffer wear when placed in a [[refuse stockpile]].{{verify}}

v0.34:Fortification

2012-04-27T16:59:14Z

Chaos: webs too (obviously given web generators)

{{quality|Fine|16:06, 6 January 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Fortifications''' are a special type of [[wall]]. They allow the passage of [[ammunition|projectiles]] [in and out] and liquids, [[mist]], [[steam]], [[web|webs]], [[fire]] and [[smoke]], but not [[creature]]s, making them an important part in a fortress's [[defense guide|defense]]. An archer must have a skill level of accomplished or higher to shoot through fortifications from a distance; otherwise they must stand directly next to the fortification to shoot through it. Creatures with a [FLIER] tag can of course fly over and avoid these walls. One can build [[floor]] tiles on the Z-level above, to make a roof against flyers.

Fortifications allow liquids to pass through in any direction except vertically -- they are open at the top, allowing liquids to be poured in from above, but they implicitly include a floor (even when constructed over empty space) so liquids will not fall out their bottom.

Note that goblin '''elite''' bowmen and crossbowmen have sufficient skill to ignore the distance from your fortifications; they will shoot right through every time and (likely) decimate your forces. This can be avoided without compromising the usefulness of a fortification network by constructing a thin 1-tile wide raising [[bridge]] just outside the fortification. Attach each bridge to a [[lever]] and pull the lever if an elite goblin poses a threat. The blocking bridge will cut off line of sight and prevent bolts from penetrating your defenses.

Beware that fully submerged (i.e. 7/7 depth) fortifications will '''not''' block the passage of creatures that swim in water (or magma) - wall [[grate]]s and vertical [[bars]] work, but they are vulnerable to [[building destroyer]]s. A partially-submerged fortification (even with 6/7 depth) completely blocks the passage of creatures, despite the fortification being invisible. If the water is flowing though, it can push creatures through fortifications, even if they are not fully submerged (that is at least true at 2-3/7 depth).

Curiously, a fortification carved into a tile at the very edge of the map will allow water or magma to drain through it and off of the map.

In [[adventurer mode]] you can throw any item (such as bows, arrows, axes, hammers, shields, body armour, severed limbs, corpses, etc.) through a fortification, but you cannot climb through them.

== Building Fortifications ==

Fortifications can be built one of two ways. Firstly, they can be carved from [[construction|constructed]] walls or [[smoothing|smooth]]ed natural walls by pressing {{K|d}}esignation and then C{{K|a}}rve Fortifications. The second way is through the [[construction]] [[menu]]: First press {{K|b}}, then {{K|C}} followed by {{K|F}}ortifications. As with most [[building]]s, this will require one unit of [[wood]], [[stone]], [[metal]], or [[glass]]. Note that constructed fortifications do ''not'' have walkable [[floor]]s above them, while carved fortifications do.

Carved fortifications must be carved by a dwarf with the [[Stone detailing]] [[labor]] enabled. Constructed fortifications must be built by a dwarf with a corresponding labor to the material used.

{{buildings}}

v0.34:Fortification

2012-04-26T18:36:15Z

Chaos: just happened to verify that creatures can hurl and breathe fire through fortifications; super fun!

{{quality|Fine|16:06, 6 January 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Fortifications''' are a special type of [[wall]]. They allow the passage of [[ammunition|projectiles]] [in and out] and liquids, [[mist]], [[steam]], [[fire]] and [[smoke]], but not [[creature]]s, making them an important part in a fortress's [[defense guide|defense]]. An archer must have a skill level of accomplished or higher to shoot through fortifications from a distance; otherwise they must stand directly next to the fortification to shoot through it. Creatures with a [FLIER] tag can of course fly over and avoid these walls. One can build [[floor]] tiles on the Z-level above, to make a roof against flyers.

Fortifications allow liquids to pass through in any direction except vertically -- they are open at the top, allowing liquids to be poured in from above, but they implicitly include a floor (even when constructed over empty space) so liquids will not fall out their bottom.

Note that goblin '''elite''' bowmen and crossbowmen have sufficient skill to ignore the distance from your fortifications; they will shoot right through every time and (likely) decimate your forces. This can be avoided without compromising the usefulness of a fortification network by constructing a thin 1-tile wide raising [[bridge]] just outside the fortification. Attach each bridge to a [[lever]] and pull the lever if an elite goblin poses a threat. The blocking bridge will cut off line of sight and prevent bolts from penetrating your defenses.

Beware that fully submerged (i.e. 7/7 depth) fortifications will '''not''' block the passage of creatures that swim in water (or magma) - wall [[grate]]s and vertical [[bars]] work, but they are vulnerable to [[building destroyer]]s. A partially-submerged fortification (even with 6/7 depth) completely blocks the passage of creatures, despite the fortification being invisible. If the water is flowing though, it can push creatures through fortifications, even if they are not fully submerged (that is at least true at 2-3/7 depth).

Curiously, a fortification carved into a tile at the very edge of the map will allow water or magma to drain through it and off of the map.

In [[adventurer mode]] you can throw any item (such as bows, arrows, axes, hammers, shields, body armour, severed limbs, corpses, etc.) through a fortification, but you cannot climb through them.

== Building Fortifications ==

Fortifications can be built one of two ways. Firstly, they can be carved from [[construction|constructed]] walls or [[smoothing|smooth]]ed natural walls by pressing {{K|d}}esignation and then C{{K|a}}rve Fortifications. The second way is through the [[construction]] [[menu]]: First press {{K|b}}, then {{K|C}} followed by {{K|F}}ortifications. As with most [[building]]s, this will require one unit of [[wood]], [[stone]], [[metal]], or [[glass]]. Note that constructed fortifications do ''not'' have walkable [[floor]]s above them, while carved fortifications do.

Carved fortifications must be carved by a dwarf with the [[Stone detailing]] [[labor]] enabled. Constructed fortifications must be built by a dwarf with a corresponding labor to the material used.

{{buildings}}

v0.34 Talk:Forgotten beast

2012-04-23T00:07:34Z

Chaos: /* FB arrival in HFS */ new section

<s>Can forgotten beasts path through constructions? My fortress is sealed off entirely from the underground, yet a forgotten beast down there keeps ending up in my fortress somehow, seemingly teleporting in, and often just sitting in one place, until my military engages it. I've re-loaded the save, and it seems random where the beast ends up(first time it was in my hospital, and the second time it was near my forges, a difference of about 20 z levels), but eventually it gets in. It always appears near my central staircase, which runs through all the caverns.</s>Okay, they can path diagonally through a stairway and a wall. example:0 = wall X= staircase W=water Z1: XXX0 XXX0 XXX0 0000 Z0: XXX0 XXX0 XX00 000W Through the water tile, the beast is able to path up to Z0--[[User:Struck Down|Struck Down]] 17:00, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

'''Higher Frequency? (0.34.07)'''

I've been having a lot of forgotten beast encounters as of the latest update (0.34.07), including times when I've had three of them in short succession. It might extend to general megabeasts (I just killed one dimetrodon, and no sooner have I returned victorious than a mighty louse monster appears), but I've been noticing a lot of forgotten beasts just popping up. My military are good enough to handle most of them, meaning that I now usually have a consistent bulk supplier of meat, but it seems a little strange that I'm getting this much activity all of a sudden from a regularly generated map.

== FB arrival in HFS ==

Interestingly, after opening up the [[HFS]], I saw a FB arrive in it. Not sure if this is worth noting. [[User:Chaos|Chaos]] 00:07, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-20T06:22:28Z

Chaos: /* Uses for Vampires */ yeah cloistered vampire functionaries aren't all that

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, with the corpse bearing the original name entombed in it. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they may make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue). However, it has been observed for cloistered vampire managers to dramatically underperform compared to a non-undead dwarf manager of the same skill level, so drawbacks to this strategy may have been introduced.

A cloistered vampire can also be used for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: As of 34.07, the game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. Note that to get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature, which could lead up to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes. (unless if you first beat him senseless.)

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively setting a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly. (I once fought a trio of raptors with one bowman at my side. He died taking two down with him, the last in perfect condition. I thought I'd be able to drain him, but, as luck would have it, he died after a single spear thrust.)

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower after alone, because bringing companions with you will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, so you'll evidently outrun them. (you'll also have a chance against boogeymen and night trolls now, since you'll be quicker than both.)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-20T06:13:25Z

Chaos: /* Vampires In Fortress mode */ oops no that was just process lag

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, with the corpse bearing the original name entombed in it. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: As of 34.07, the game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. Note that to get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature, which could lead up to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes. (unless if you first beat him senseless.)

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively setting a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly. (I once fought a trio of raptors with one bowman at my side. He died taking two down with him, the last in perfect condition. I thought I'd be able to drain him, but, as luck would have it, he died after a single spear thrust.)

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower after alone, because bringing companions with you will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, so you'll evidently outrun them. (you'll also have a chance against boogeymen and night trolls now, since you'll be quicker than both.)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-20T06:12:27Z

Chaos: /* Vampires In Fortress mode */ bit more

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, but the corpse will be left to rot rather than buried in it, apparently because its name doesn't match. Memorial slabs will be dedicated to the vampire's original name.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: As of 34.07, the game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. Note that to get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature, which could lead up to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes. (unless if you first beat him senseless.)

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively setting a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly. (I once fought a trio of raptors with one bowman at my side. He died taking two down with him, the last in perfect condition. I thought I'd be able to drain him, but, as luck would have it, he died after a single spear thrust.)

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower after alone, because bringing companions with you will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, so you'll evidently outrun them. (you'll also have a chance against boogeymen and night trolls now, since you'll be quicker than both.)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-20T06:11:13Z

Chaos: /* Vampires In Fortress mode */ expand on vampire corpse treatment

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things. (A coffin will be designated for burial of the vampire's cover identity, but the corpse will be left to rot rather than buried in it, apparently because its name doesn't match.)

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: As of 34.07, the game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. Note that to get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature, which could lead up to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes. (unless if you first beat him senseless.)

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively setting a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly. (I once fought a trio of raptors with one bowman at my side. He died taking two down with him, the last in perfect condition. I thought I'd be able to drain him, but, as luck would have it, he died after a single spear thrust.)

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower after alone, because bringing companions with you will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, so you'll evidently outrun them. (you'll also have a chance against boogeymen and night trolls now, since you'll be quicker than both.)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-20T05:59:42Z

Chaos: /* Indication */ injuries

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things.

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

It's not often a practical test, but a vampire with injured guts will not vomit, and a vampire with an injured lung will not develop difficulty breathing. (It remains to be tested whether vampires drown if submerged.)

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

*Note: As of 34.07, the game does not give you any confirmation that you have become a vampire. The only way to make sure that you have transformed is to wait for twenty-four hours (enough time for any regular mortal to hunger for food.) until you get thirsty, which should show up eventually. Note that to get rid of the thirsty tag, you MUST drink directly from another living <s>knocked out or unconscious</s> sleeping creature, which could lead up to hazardous mishaps if you're discovered/if the victim awakes. (unless if you first beat him senseless.)

Due to such conditions, it is relatively impossible to quench your thirst (on any member of a civilization) without antagonizing any of your companions, and even if you don't have any, there's still that chance that your victim might wake up in the middle of your feast and effectively setting a whole civilization against you. One way to counter this is to raid goblin/bandit camps, concentrating on one lone weak unit far from any of his comrades, beat him till he gives in to pain (NOT TO DEATH) and then feed on him directly. You can do the same with wildlife, although some of them may be more aggressive and most might die too quickly. (I once fought a trio of raptors with one bowman at my side. He died taking two down with him, the last in perfect condition. I thought I'd be able to drain him, but, as luck would have it, he died after a single spear thrust.)

After becoming a vampire, you become invincible to zombies, since you're now a night creature. It is usually preferred to raid a necromancer tower after alone, because bringing companions with you will only get them killed, and your agility when you become a vampire will rise drastically anyway, so you'll evidently outrun them. (you'll also have a chance against boogeymen and night trolls now, since you'll be quicker than both.)

v0.34:Trap

2012-04-20T00:45:11Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ +apparently missing words

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

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 nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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 absolutely '''anything''' in the current version.

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]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==Upright Spear/Spike==

A variation of the weapon trap, the Upright Spear/Spike itself requires no mechanisms, and can be fitted with up to 10 [[Weapon|spears]] or [[Trap component|spikes]]. However, it requires an external trigger to actually impale things. Either a [[pressure plate]] or a [[lever]] must be connected to this trap for it to be operated. An advantage of this trap is it doesn't require a mechanic to set it up - just to link it to a trigger.

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 the mechanisms that 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Trap

2012-04-20T00:44:44Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ vermin cages now visible

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

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 nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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 absolutely '''anything''' in the current version.

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 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]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==Upright Spear/Spike==

A variation of the weapon trap, the Upright Spear/Spike itself requires no mechanisms, and can be fitted with up to 10 [[Weapon|spears]] or [[Trap component|spikes]]. However, it requires an external trigger to actually impale things. Either a [[pressure plate]] or a [[lever]] must be connected to this trap for it to be operated. An advantage of this trap is it doesn't require a mechanic to set it up - just to link it to a trigger.

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 the mechanisms that 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Trap

2012-04-20T00:44:04Z

Chaos: /* Cage Trap */ dungeon master no longer relevant, and why would you tell somebody to see something without a wikilink?

{{quality|Masterwork|21:10, 26 April 2011 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Traps''' are a comparatively quick and easy method for 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. To build a trap, go to the {{k|b}}uild->{{k|T}}raps/Levers menu. You'll generally need one [[mechanism]], a dwarf with the [[mechanic]] labor designated (ranks in this [[skill]] reduce the time to place 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, and require a level ground square with no other constructions in them.

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 nasty surprises. Any unconscious creature will trigger traps, including your own dwarves.

Note that only dwarves with the mechanic labor enabled will reload traps (cage, stone or weapon). 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 out there as well. [[Forbid]]ding traps after they are built will keep [[Main: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 left alone for an extended period of time (nearly a year or longer) the caged individual escapes and and you will get the announcement "Something has emptied a cage!" Once put into a stockpile or claimed this will prevent the captured individual from escaping.

It is possible to determine the state of a trap (loaded/unloaded) and the components it contains using the {{K|t}} query.
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{{verify}}, 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|s}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and an ordinary [[stone]]

==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.

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 it is possible for the traps to jam when the unfortunate victim gets stuck in the mechanism (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 may be necessary to save him from the victim's friends.

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 fewer limbs 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 1 to 10 weapons.

==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 absolutely '''anything''' in the current version.

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 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.

Merchants, especially Elfs, will bring cages that on the trading screen look empty. However, if you {{k|v}}iew the item, you will often see that it contains a tame vermin like a frog or squirrel.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|c}}
:*Components used: [[mechanism]] and a [[cage]].
:*If the trap is a Dark Green, then it does not have a cage in it.
:*If the trap is a Light Green, then it does have a cage in it.
:*Note that cage material has no effect (beyond weight for hauling, value of finished trap, and the fact that [[elf]] merchants will get pissy 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.

==Upright Spear/Spike==

A variation of the weapon trap, the Upright Spear/Spike itself requires no mechanisms, and can be fitted with up to 10 [[Weapon|spears]] or [[Trap component|spikes]]. However, it requires an external trigger to actually impale things. Either a [[pressure plate]] or a [[lever]] must be connected to this trap for it to be operated. An advantage of this trap is it doesn't require a mechanic to set it up - just to link it to a trigger.

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 the mechanisms that 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.

:*Shortcut {{k|b}} {{k|T}} {{k|S}}
:*Components used: between 1 and 10 spears or spikes.

==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 weapons 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. No visible effect of mechanism quality has been observed in cage traps beyond the usual value.

==Other Traps==
You can create 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 not trying hard enough.

==See Also==
*[[Trap design]]
*[[Mass pitting]]
{{buildings}}
{{Category|Traps}}

v0.34:Wear

2012-04-19T22:51:45Z

Chaos: socks?

v0.34:Wear

2012-04-19T22:50:50Z

Chaos: add note that shoes wear out faster than other things, based on observation of cloistered vampire

v0.34:Clothing

2012-04-19T22:00:32Z

Chaos: children are definitely no longer unconcerned about their clothing, rewrite

{{quality|Fine|15:54, 8 October 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}
:''For making clothes, see [[Textile industry]]''

'''Clothes''' are items made out of [[cloth]] or [[leather]] which are worn by sentient [[creature]]s to protect them from the elements, from damage, and to cover themselves. Articles of clothing work similarly to [[armor]], but are distinguished by the fact that they are ''owned'' by your dwarves, and [[wear|wear out]] over time. Technically, clothing is simply [[armor]] with an armor level of 0. In particular, boots (low or high) are armor, and not clothing.

In theory, clothing provides less protection against attacks than "real" armor, but some players claim that leather cloaks and hoods offer significant protection from attacks. Also, there have been humorous bugs in the past where animal teeth were not hard enough to bite through silk shirts and artifact glass serrated disks could not pierce [[goblin]] clothes.

Currently dwarves need no protection from cold environments, but get bad [[thought]]s if they are naked, or wearing old or tattered clothes. Babies do not wear clothes, but all adult and child dwarves will claim, and wear, clothing automatically. [[Tantrum spiral]]s are likely unless you produce shoes (an item of particular concern -- lack of shoes produces a specific bad thought separate from general nudity- and clothing-decay-related thoughts) and body-covering items such as shirts, trousers, dresses and robes.

Another use for clothes (besides selling them to [[caravan]]s) is keeping your dwarves from stepping barefoot in the [[syndrome|poisonous]] blood left by some [[forgotten beast]]s.

Clothes are stored as [[finished goods]], and may be stored in [[bin]]s. Dwarves will store their personal unworn clothing in their rooms, either directly on the floor, or in [[cabinet]]s.

While in a stockpile (or a dwarf's personal quarters), clothing is usually safe from being damaged, but as soon as a dwarf puts on an item of clothing, it begins to degrade, and will [[wear|wear out]] eventually. Clothing that is owned but which is not worn and not in a dwarf's quarters will eventually revert to unowned status, eligible to be picked up by some desperate, rag-clad (or unclad) boor. Clothing which is in a [[stockpile#Refuse|refuse stockpile]] is supposed to degrade quickly.

== Size ==
Clothing and armor all have a size associated with them, and equipment made for one size of creature cannot be worn by larger or smaller creatures. For dwarves, this applies to clothes and armor worn by [[human]]s and [[troll]]s (which will appear to be "'''large'''"(*) as well as [[kobold]]s (which will appear to be "'''small'''"); [[goblin]]s and [[elf|elves]] are the same size as dwarves, so their clothing and armor can be equipped rather than being limited to [[Melt item|melt]]ing (in the case of metal armor) or using as [[trade]] goods (especially once [[Decoration|decorate]]d).

Any clothing/armor that isn't ''small'' or ''large'' is one-size-fits-all, and can be worn by any dwarf, from the smallest child to the biggest adult.

:''(*) With one exception: Items made from leather from [[large rat]]s will appear as "large rat leather ______". Human-sized gloves made from large rat leather would be "large large rat leather gloves." There are no "rats" that provide leather, so while confusing, this is definitive.)''

{{Category|Items}}

v0.34 Talk:Web

2012-04-18T18:26:54Z

Chaos: Spider demon silk webs spotted

== Spider demon silk webs spotted ==

So I recently accidentally opened up the HFS (ever notice how much harvesting adamantine is like a game of Minesweeper?), and, to my utter surprise, my fortress (and even a couple of my military dwarves that ''weren't'' sleeping) survived. Poking around the map down there, I can see "spider demon silk webs" with a listed value of 6. I haven't mustered the chutzpah to try harvesting them yet, but I thought I'd mention it. [[User:Chaos|Chaos]] 18:26, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-13T15:21:36Z

Chaos: /* Uses for Vampires */ punishment delay happiness

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things.

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above? Another way to mitigate cloistered vampire unhappiness is to convict them of one or more of their murders after they've been sealed in; they will eventually derive happiness from having their punishment "delayed".

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.

v0.34:Vampire

2012-04-12T18:07:58Z

Chaos: /* Indication */ de-verified: have a vampire whose hair is "gray with some taupe"

{{quality|Fine|10:59, 20 February 2012 (UTC)}}{{av}}

Vampires are [[night creature]]s that live off of blood, cursed in world generation by profaning against certain gods. In [[fortress mode]], they occasionally appear in migrant waves and hide themselves amongst your dwarves.

Vampirism is believed to be spreadable (in [[fortress mode]]) by drinking water that has been [[contaminant|contaminated]] by vampire blood. Also, in [[adventurer mode]], if you drink vampire blood, this will immediately change your character into a vampire.

Having a vampire as the last "dwarf" standing in fortress mode will not trigger a "game-over" screen -- in fact, they may be preferable to regular dwarves because they don't need to eat, drink, or sleep.

== Vampires In Fortress mode ==

In a fortress, a vampire acts similar to any other dwarf, except for subtle differences too small to notice easily in any sizable population. A vampire will act like any other citizen of your fortress, performing jobs which are assigned to them and generally acting normally. They can be assigned to [[burrow]]s, be given or claim rooms, possess items, and even be drafted into a military squad just like a normal dwarf. The exception of course is that rather than partaking of a fortress's provisions, they help themselves to the blood of the unwary to sustain their unnatural existence, living long and dark lives. Vampires will from time to time drink the blood of dwarves that they catch sleeping, whomever they can get their <strike>hands upon</strike> fangs into. This often kills the victim, but sometimes leaves them alive but weakened and unaware of what has happened to them. If any tame animals somehow fall asleep (for instance, via a syndrome), vampires will drink their blood as willingly as they will a dwarf's.

If they are caught in the act of draining a victim, the crime will be reported in the [[justice]] screen as a murder; if such a corpse is discovered it will be listed as a murder with no suspects. Even in the case that someone is accused, be aware that the deceitful vampire is capable of framing others for its crimes to send suspicion away for a time. Vampires routinely lie about their past so as to avoid identification by others, going so far as to adopt a false name when entering a new fortress. If a vampire is killed, the corpse will bear the original name of the creature rather than that of the dwarf who was seen to die, which might lead to some confusion among managers of such things.

== Identifying a Vampire ==
None of your starting 7 dwarves will ever be a vampire. Vampires are created as historical entities during world generation, and your starting 7 are created independently of that process.

=== Signs ===
The presence of a vampire will be indicated by different signs. You can be confronted with dwarves who have mysteriously acquired the 'pale' or 'faint' statuses without having apparently been wounded. These dwarves could be bitten by a vampire. More obviously will be the discovery of a corpse which has been drained of all its blood. If you happen to look at the units screen while the vampire is in the act they will be clearly visible.

=== Indication ===
Vampires who migrate to your fortress do sometimes have an abnormally massive looking list of former group associations in their [[Thoughts and Preferences|historical background]]. Although this could result in false positives, it is a decent litmus test in cases where two dwarves accuse each other, as vampires will sometimes counteraccuse those who catch them sucking blood in order to avoid suspicion. Furthermore, they are likely to have very large lists of relatives, none of whom can be found within the fortress itself (in stark contrast to the parents, siblings or cousins whom most dwarves will share their home with). If the suspect is married, but his/her counterpart is not present at the fort, this is a very strong evidence. They may also have an unusually large number of children. Note, however, that lacking relatives within the fortress is not an automatic indicator of being a vampire. The history of a vampire is fake as it's name. As a normal dwarf only live about 150 years, in fortresses with a longer history you could find more regular dwarves with many relatives.{{verify}}

In addition, his/her [[Thoughts and Preferences|personality]] can be scrutinized for abnormalities. Their biographies may indicate that they 'have the appearance of somebody who is (x) years old', which is a very good indicator of a vampire. As vampires do not eat, sleep, or drink, they will never have recent thoughts about meals, drinks, beds, dining rooms, or chairs. In the case of older vampires, particularly those who have immigrated, in the line which speaks about needing alcohol to get through the working day a comment may be added to the effect that "s/he could really use a drink," "s/he has not had a drink in far, far too long," or "can't even remember the last time s/he had some," indicating that they have been sober of alcohol for a time. (This may change in future versions.) Vampire immigrants frequently have very high social skills, and one or more skills at the "Great" level. By itself, this may not be sufficient evidence to prove a dwarf is a vampire, but it is a frequent indicator. 

Another (possible bug) indicator can be found if you like to give custom profession names to your dwarves. Often a vampire's profession will not change, even when you create a custom title. For example, a vampire trapper will remain a trapper in the unit screen regardless of what you set his or her profession title to.

=== Proof ===
You can check for vampires empirically: Lock the possible vampire into a room or burrow without food or alcohol. If the dwarf does not get hungry or thirsty, he or she is a vampire. Or, somewhat less subtly, you can wait for one to be caught in the act by a room full of witnesses.

If you make a copy of the save and go into legends mode, look up someone who was killed by the vampire and it will say "in the year 200 Dwarf X was drained of all blood by the Vampire X"

=== Other methods ===
To see if a vampire was cursed by a deity that it worships, look under the <s>vampire's</s> dwarf's relationships and view the deities that are listed. Give the dwarf a nickname and, when viewing the deity relationship, it will say: "In the [season description] of [year], [deity] cursed the dwarf vampire [nickname you chose] [dwarf's original name] to prowl the night in search of blood in [original location]". Since the nickname applies retroactively, this is a sure way to identify a vampire, *if* it became a vampire through being cursed, and happens to worship the deity that cursed it. This method is very tedious when looking at many suspects, and may apply to only a small fraction of vampires, so you should probably use it after trying the more obvious signs (like many former associations, or tags after "needs alcohol to get through the working day"). This could be considered cheating.

At the moment the [[Utilities#Dwarf_Therapist|Dwarf Therapist]] can be used to identify a vampire for sure, as they are listed by their real name. This is done by going through the list of your units in game and then comparing each name in Dwarf therapist. If the name is in your units list, but not in Dwarf Therapist, that is the vampire. This surely is cheating, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do...

== Defense against Vampires ==
Vampires attack and drink from dwarves who are sleeping, so one defense is to force all dwarves to sleep and meet in the same room, increasing the likelihood of eyewitnesses catching the monster in the act. Curiously, even if convicted of a vampiric murder, a convicted vampire will not necessarily be killed, but given a normal justice penalty such as temporary imprisonment. In this case, it is advisable to take [[justice]] into one's own hands and introduce the leech to a pit of lava, bottomless pit, arena fight, dropping tower, or other elimination method of your choice. This can be facilitated through the use of burrows. However one must take care that the vampire is properly memorialized because even the ghosts of vampires will seek out your sleeping citizens and kill them.

== Uses for Vampires ==
If you can correctly identify a vampire and isolate it from the rest of your population, you can make use of them without fear of blood feedings. A lone vampire in a sealed room will never die of hunger or thirst, doesn't need to sleep, and will never age. The only way a vampire can die (without your vengeful intervention) is in combat, through syndromes, or through insanity. Sealing it somewhere prevents the first two, and early detection will prevent the vampire from making friends who he will obviously outlive. Since a vampire wants for so little it is difficult for him to fall into insanity without relationships.

Once you have your sealed emotionally detached vampire, ''your fortress becomes effectively eternal'', since the vampire will always be alive even if horrible [[Losing|FUN]] claims your entire population. Be wary of [[ghost]]s, though, as they are the only being capable of reaching your vampire's eternal prison. Simply wait for the fun to pass and new immigrants to repopulate your otherwise abandoned fort.

Consider placing a chair and table in your vampire's sealed room and making them an undead accountant. As they have nothing to do but sit around for eternity, once they get their skills up they make exceedingly effective [[manager|managers]]/[[record keeper|record keepers]] (work orders and stockpile updates currently seem to be psychically transmitted from the desk of the dwarf assigned to those labors, so entombing them in their office isn't an issue).

As another bonus, you can use him for a sleepless, un-eating and drinking dwarf who is always ready for some lever pulling, even if the rest of your dwarves die. You could even fill your fort with bridges, link them all to a lever in his isolation cell, and pull the lever repeatedly to remove any enemies short of a dragon.

With all that said, having an eternally cloistered vampire is not without drawbacks. As vampires do not drink, yet are still alcohol-dependent, they will eventually suffer performance penalties and take longer breaks. This can have fatal consequences if you need the lever to keep the goblin siege outside pulled ''now''. As of v.34.06, dwarves once again get unhappy [[thought]]s from having their clothes rot away. A vampire that's been naked for years is quite prone to [[tantrum]]ing or going [[insanity|insane]], which can lead to [[Fun|even worse outcomes]] should he be assigned to the lever room. Of course, you could drop him some clothes from a chute, but what fun is that when there's [[cave-in|other]] [[dwarven atom smasher|things]] to drop from above?

== Dealing with Vampires ==

Although keeping a single vampire in eternal solitary confinement can be a bonus for any fortress, it is always important to be capable of killing them whenever necessary (especially if the peasants unwittingly elect one as their leader and an [[unfortunate accident]] becomes necessary). However, vampires have certain abilities which will make it more difficult to properly take care of them - they cannot drown, and their physical strengths could make them tougher to kill with regular weapons. Fortunately, they are not resistant to [[Dwarven atom smasher|high-tech particle physics experimentation]].

Alternatively, vampires' special qualities make them well suited to serve certain roles in your fortress more easily than other dwarves. For example, a vampire in a secluded, walled off room full of levers will always be able to instantly pull any switch you desire, with no need to drop food in, and no need to worry about him or her being asleep at the critical moment. However, as mentioned, you will need to drop them clothes once in a while, and be wary of them taking horribly ill-timed breaks.

==Vampires abroad==
In the wider world, vampires continue the sort of behavior they exhibit in a fortress: deception and predation. Younger vampires stalk the streets of towns and cities, indistinguishable from the average mortal, and drink the blood of unsuspecting innocents. Elder vampires, those with power and ambition, mislead the gullible and power-hungry into forming vampire cults dedicated to worshipping and feeding their master. Should a vampire rise to a position of power in mortal society, it may deign to expose itself and impose a rule of tyranny upon the subjects who so unknowingly elevated it to power.

==Creating new vampires==
New vampires are created whenever a dwarf or a human drinks the blood of a vampire, so by contaminating the well with blood and cutting off the booze supply, one can create a large population of vampires.

==Playing as a Vampire==
By drinking the blood of a vampire in adventure mode, you immediately become a vampire. You will be able to feed on other creatures by using {{k|e}} and choosing the "Feed" option on an unconscious target.