Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

Extinction

2018-08-06T13:35:38Z

FONZACUS: /* Repupulation */ not my day lol

{{Quality|Superior|23:19, 20 September 2016 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

'''Extinction''' means one of two things in ''Dwarf Fortress''.

== Sapient extinction ==
The first meaning of the word pertains to [[world generation]]: fighting between different sapient species may be so intense that a particular sapient species is wiped out entirely, going extinct in the process. Extinction events are exceedingly rare in larger worlds, but surprisingly common in pocket ones, where inter-species competition is at its fiercest. Sapient species that go extinct will obviously no longer [[caravan|trade]] with your dwarves, nor threaten them with [[ambush]]es or [[siege]]s. You can somehow still start a fortress mode game in a map vacated of any dwarves, but you will not receive any [[migrant]]s beyond the first two (hard-coded) waves, nor any [[noble]] appointments (including the [[monarch]]). Conversely, if your fortress receives a third migrant wave, a dwarf trade caravan, or a monarch, then your civilization was not truly extinct, only "dying". Civilizations can remain "dying" for hundreds of years{{bug|9503}}, and the game won't allow you to embark from an extinct civilization if any non-extinct civilizations are available, so a truly extinct civilization embark is fairly difficult to obtain, but not impossible.{{cite_forum|154368.msg6754648#msg6754648}}

On a smaller scale, landmass-specific extinctions can also occur, and although they are not nearly so dramatic as ''mass'' extinctions, and are in fact quite common, they can still affect your game. This usually happens on separated landmasses and [[island]]s inhabited by more than one sapient species below a certain area. Since [[civilization]]s cannot yet cross
bodies of water that don't freeze over, such extinctions will affect your gameplay should you chose to settle on such a landmass. The effect of settling someplace inaccessible to dwarves is the same as starting a fortress when they are extinct: only two, hard-coded, migrant waves.

[[Calendar#Ages|Calendar ages]] are greatly influenced by the relative lack or abundance of sapient life in your world, and so provide an at-a-glance view of the state of civilization on your lonely planet (if you know what they stand for, of course). Two calendar ages are more directly associated with extinction: the ''Age of Death'', in which all civilizations have been wiped out, and the ''Age of Emptiness'', in which all sapient creatures have been wiped out (includes those that don't form civilizations, such as [[gnome]]s). The latter is an edge case: it can only be achieved by killing every thinking creature in a world in Adventurer mode, then committing suicide, then [[embark]]ing on the same map in fortress mode, then committing suicide with all of ''those'' dwarves. Once all of this is done, you will finally get an [[announcement]] telling you of the passing of the age. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=46033.0 It's been done before].

== Site extinction ==
The second, more nuanced form of extinction has to do with the wildlife in your [[surroundings]]. Every [[site]] can have a certain number of [[creature]]s appear in it; ''which'' creatures depends on the site's [[biome]]s, ''how often'' depends on the <tt>[FREQUENCY]</tt> [[creature token]] in their [[raw file]]s, ''how many'' depends on the number of biomes you abridge and on the creature's <tt>[CLUSTER_NUMBER:#]</tt>, and ''how many before none will ever appear in the wild again'' depends on a somewhat randomized token in specific creatures' definitions, the <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER:#:#]</tt> tag. That is, if as many (wild, non-[[mount|siege mount]]) creatures die or are [[cage trap|captured]] and kept upon visiting your fortress as <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER]</tt> is set to, they will be considered locally extinct, and will have their range clipped from your fortress surroundings.

This cap will not limit any [[breeding]] you do once you have captured the creature, and will obviously not affect any creatures visiting your [[site]] that are allowed to leave. It ''will'' affect the maximum number of non-breeding creatures that you can have at your fortress, however, and will not allow the appearance of creatures in clusters larger than are allowed by the cap. Note that the cap is biome-specific: even though [[sea serpent]]s are capped at one serpent per site, it is possible to get multiples, and even [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75780.0 start a breeding program], if your fortress abridges multiple valid biomes - note that such a breeding program wouldn't work in the current version, as sea serpents are now egg-laying and aquatic egg-layers don't breed due to a bug)

Every time a species becomes locally extinct it is (obviously) taken out of the wildlife visitation rotation. Rendering a policy of mass genocide on the countryside can thus eventually force the appearance of a sought-after species of wildlife, if you push hard enough. However, for the most part the number of creatures that can appear in the biome is so large, and the population caps are set so high, that it doesn't seriously affect gameplay. Aggressively hunting the local wildlife ''will'' eventually restrict its variety, however, and eventually you can prevent ''any'' wildlife from spawning at all on your map.

The cap does have important ramifications for a few specific species, however. Wildlife appearances on [[glacier]]s are heavily restricted, for instance, so the particularly aggressive [[yeti]], which only appears five to ten times, is often made extinct very quickly. Because of a bug, aquatic vermin do not restock when fished, resulting in guaranteed eventual extinction.{{bug|2780}} [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=84112.msg2252463#msg2252463 A certain nuance] of the tag's implementation allows maintained hunting of certain species, with some micromanagement: if a cluster (or pack) of animals appears on the map, as long as at least one animal in that cluster is allowed to leave, the species will not have been considered depleted. This obviously does not work on solitary creatures. Another option is to capture a [[breed]]ing pair and release their (untamed) young back into the wild; doing so can even raise the site population past its starting value.

== Repopulating Site Extinction with DFHack ==

To fully bring back creatures from permanent extinction, the DFHack [https://dfhack.readthedocs.io/en/stable/docs/_auto/base.html#region-pops region-pops] can help. The script is versatile, and when used correctly, can selectively weed out creatures a player does not want to bring back. This tool is not perfect, and with time, creatures you have weeded out may return. This may be due to a range limit, and does not take very long range migration in to account.

To view which animals may spawn in your embark, use 'region-pops list-all'

=== Repopulation ===

To get started, first download the template [https://github.com/EldrickWT/eld-dfhack-scripts here] named 'region-pops.list' (credits to EldrickWT), and open it up with any text editor. The finished file should be structured like a .bat (all commands are stated before the options). By default, this scriptlet will remove every creature, which is not what we want. All we have to do is flip (or replace) the value in to a positive number. Once done, save, copy and paste it in to the dfhack terminal. This script will restock all creatures with the value you inserted.

=== Fine Tuning ===

With the basic repopulation done, you can fine tune which creatures you don't want, out with this part. Since a negative value removes creatures from the region, you can add below the last line, 'region-pops incr-all BIRD -X' to remove X from all creatures with 'BIRD' in its name. This also includes giant and animal men variants. Just remember to have the removing part at least larger than the repopulation part, to play it safe. Flying creatures often have a big impact on FPS, and removing them from your embark will definitely help. After saving the file, you can easily copy and paste your preferred region populations on every new play through.

There is (currently) no known script to repopulate civilizations.

{{category|Game mechanics}}
{{category|World}}

Extinction

2018-08-06T13:34:36Z

FONZACUS: /* Repopulaing Site Extinction with DFHack */ typo

{{Quality|Superior|23:19, 20 September 2016 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

'''Extinction''' means one of two things in ''Dwarf Fortress''.

== Sapient extinction ==
The first meaning of the word pertains to [[world generation]]: fighting between different sapient species may be so intense that a particular sapient species is wiped out entirely, going extinct in the process. Extinction events are exceedingly rare in larger worlds, but surprisingly common in pocket ones, where inter-species competition is at its fiercest. Sapient species that go extinct will obviously no longer [[caravan|trade]] with your dwarves, nor threaten them with [[ambush]]es or [[siege]]s. You can somehow still start a fortress mode game in a map vacated of any dwarves, but you will not receive any [[migrant]]s beyond the first two (hard-coded) waves, nor any [[noble]] appointments (including the [[monarch]]). Conversely, if your fortress receives a third migrant wave, a dwarf trade caravan, or a monarch, then your civilization was not truly extinct, only "dying". Civilizations can remain "dying" for hundreds of years{{bug|9503}}, and the game won't allow you to embark from an extinct civilization if any non-extinct civilizations are available, so a truly extinct civilization embark is fairly difficult to obtain, but not impossible.{{cite_forum|154368.msg6754648#msg6754648}}

On a smaller scale, landmass-specific extinctions can also occur, and although they are not nearly so dramatic as ''mass'' extinctions, and are in fact quite common, they can still affect your game. This usually happens on separated landmasses and [[island]]s inhabited by more than one sapient species below a certain area. Since [[civilization]]s cannot yet cross
bodies of water that don't freeze over, such extinctions will affect your gameplay should you chose to settle on such a landmass. The effect of settling someplace inaccessible to dwarves is the same as starting a fortress when they are extinct: only two, hard-coded, migrant waves.

[[Calendar#Ages|Calendar ages]] are greatly influenced by the relative lack or abundance of sapient life in your world, and so provide an at-a-glance view of the state of civilization on your lonely planet (if you know what they stand for, of course). Two calendar ages are more directly associated with extinction: the ''Age of Death'', in which all civilizations have been wiped out, and the ''Age of Emptiness'', in which all sapient creatures have been wiped out (includes those that don't form civilizations, such as [[gnome]]s). The latter is an edge case: it can only be achieved by killing every thinking creature in a world in Adventurer mode, then committing suicide, then [[embark]]ing on the same map in fortress mode, then committing suicide with all of ''those'' dwarves. Once all of this is done, you will finally get an [[announcement]] telling you of the passing of the age. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=46033.0 It's been done before].

== Site extinction ==
The second, more nuanced form of extinction has to do with the wildlife in your [[surroundings]]. Every [[site]] can have a certain number of [[creature]]s appear in it; ''which'' creatures depends on the site's [[biome]]s, ''how often'' depends on the <tt>[FREQUENCY]</tt> [[creature token]] in their [[raw file]]s, ''how many'' depends on the number of biomes you abridge and on the creature's <tt>[CLUSTER_NUMBER:#]</tt>, and ''how many before none will ever appear in the wild again'' depends on a somewhat randomized token in specific creatures' definitions, the <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER:#:#]</tt> tag. That is, if as many (wild, non-[[mount|siege mount]]) creatures die or are [[cage trap|captured]] and kept upon visiting your fortress as <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER]</tt> is set to, they will be considered locally extinct, and will have their range clipped from your fortress surroundings.

This cap will not limit any [[breeding]] you do once you have captured the creature, and will obviously not affect any creatures visiting your [[site]] that are allowed to leave. It ''will'' affect the maximum number of non-breeding creatures that you can have at your fortress, however, and will not allow the appearance of creatures in clusters larger than are allowed by the cap. Note that the cap is biome-specific: even though [[sea serpent]]s are capped at one serpent per site, it is possible to get multiples, and even [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75780.0 start a breeding program], if your fortress abridges multiple valid biomes - note that such a breeding program wouldn't work in the current version, as sea serpents are now egg-laying and aquatic egg-layers don't breed due to a bug)

Every time a species becomes locally extinct it is (obviously) taken out of the wildlife visitation rotation. Rendering a policy of mass genocide on the countryside can thus eventually force the appearance of a sought-after species of wildlife, if you push hard enough. However, for the most part the number of creatures that can appear in the biome is so large, and the population caps are set so high, that it doesn't seriously affect gameplay. Aggressively hunting the local wildlife ''will'' eventually restrict its variety, however, and eventually you can prevent ''any'' wildlife from spawning at all on your map.

The cap does have important ramifications for a few specific species, however. Wildlife appearances on [[glacier]]s are heavily restricted, for instance, so the particularly aggressive [[yeti]], which only appears five to ten times, is often made extinct very quickly. Because of a bug, aquatic vermin do not restock when fished, resulting in guaranteed eventual extinction.{{bug|2780}} [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=84112.msg2252463#msg2252463 A certain nuance] of the tag's implementation allows maintained hunting of certain species, with some micromanagement: if a cluster (or pack) of animals appears on the map, as long as at least one animal in that cluster is allowed to leave, the species will not have been considered depleted. This obviously does not work on solitary creatures. Another option is to capture a [[breed]]ing pair and release their (untamed) young back into the wild; doing so can even raise the site population past its starting value.

== Repopulating Site Extinction with DFHack ==

To fully bring back creatures from permanent extinction, the DFHack [https://dfhack.readthedocs.io/en/stable/docs/_auto/base.html#region-pops region-pops] can help. The script is versatile, and when used correctly, can selectively weed out creatures a player does not want to bring back. This tool is not perfect, and with time, creatures you have weeded out may return. This may be due to a range limit, and does not take very long range migration in to account.

To view which animals may spawn in your embark, use 'region-pops list-all'

=== Repupulation ===

To get started, first download the template [https://github.com/EldrickWT/eld-dfhack-scripts here] named 'region-pops.list' (credits to EldrickWT), and open it up with any text editor. The finished file should be structured like a .bat (all commands are stated before the options). By default, this scriptlet will remove every creature, which is not what we want. All we have to do is flip (or replace) the value in to a positive number. Once done, save, copy and paste it in to the dfhack terminal. This script will restock all creatures with the value you inserted.

=== Fine Tuning ===

With the basic repopulation done, you can fine tune which creatures you don't want, out with this part. Since a negative value removes creatures from the region, you can add below the last line, 'region-pops incr-all BIRD -X' to remove X from all creatures with 'BIRD' in its name. This also includes giant and animal men variants. Just remember to have the removing part at least larger than the repopulation part, to play it safe. Flying creatures often have a big impact on FPS, and removing them from your embark will definitely help. After saving the file, you can easily copy and paste your preferred region populations on every new play through.

There is (currently) no known script to repopulate civilizations.

{{category|Game mechanics}}
{{category|World}}

Extinction

2018-08-06T13:33:50Z

FONZACUS: adding repopulation

{{Quality|Superior|23:19, 20 September 2016 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

'''Extinction''' means one of two things in ''Dwarf Fortress''.

== Sapient extinction ==
The first meaning of the word pertains to [[world generation]]: fighting between different sapient species may be so intense that a particular sapient species is wiped out entirely, going extinct in the process. Extinction events are exceedingly rare in larger worlds, but surprisingly common in pocket ones, where inter-species competition is at its fiercest. Sapient species that go extinct will obviously no longer [[caravan|trade]] with your dwarves, nor threaten them with [[ambush]]es or [[siege]]s. You can somehow still start a fortress mode game in a map vacated of any dwarves, but you will not receive any [[migrant]]s beyond the first two (hard-coded) waves, nor any [[noble]] appointments (including the [[monarch]]). Conversely, if your fortress receives a third migrant wave, a dwarf trade caravan, or a monarch, then your civilization was not truly extinct, only "dying". Civilizations can remain "dying" for hundreds of years{{bug|9503}}, and the game won't allow you to embark from an extinct civilization if any non-extinct civilizations are available, so a truly extinct civilization embark is fairly difficult to obtain, but not impossible.{{cite_forum|154368.msg6754648#msg6754648}}

On a smaller scale, landmass-specific extinctions can also occur, and although they are not nearly so dramatic as ''mass'' extinctions, and are in fact quite common, they can still affect your game. This usually happens on separated landmasses and [[island]]s inhabited by more than one sapient species below a certain area. Since [[civilization]]s cannot yet cross
bodies of water that don't freeze over, such extinctions will affect your gameplay should you chose to settle on such a landmass. The effect of settling someplace inaccessible to dwarves is the same as starting a fortress when they are extinct: only two, hard-coded, migrant waves.

[[Calendar#Ages|Calendar ages]] are greatly influenced by the relative lack or abundance of sapient life in your world, and so provide an at-a-glance view of the state of civilization on your lonely planet (if you know what they stand for, of course). Two calendar ages are more directly associated with extinction: the ''Age of Death'', in which all civilizations have been wiped out, and the ''Age of Emptiness'', in which all sapient creatures have been wiped out (includes those that don't form civilizations, such as [[gnome]]s). The latter is an edge case: it can only be achieved by killing every thinking creature in a world in Adventurer mode, then committing suicide, then [[embark]]ing on the same map in fortress mode, then committing suicide with all of ''those'' dwarves. Once all of this is done, you will finally get an [[announcement]] telling you of the passing of the age. [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=46033.0 It's been done before].

== Site extinction ==
The second, more nuanced form of extinction has to do with the wildlife in your [[surroundings]]. Every [[site]] can have a certain number of [[creature]]s appear in it; ''which'' creatures depends on the site's [[biome]]s, ''how often'' depends on the <tt>[FREQUENCY]</tt> [[creature token]] in their [[raw file]]s, ''how many'' depends on the number of biomes you abridge and on the creature's <tt>[CLUSTER_NUMBER:#]</tt>, and ''how many before none will ever appear in the wild again'' depends on a somewhat randomized token in specific creatures' definitions, the <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER:#:#]</tt> tag. That is, if as many (wild, non-[[mount|siege mount]]) creatures die or are [[cage trap|captured]] and kept upon visiting your fortress as <tt>[POPULATION_NUMBER]</tt> is set to, they will be considered locally extinct, and will have their range clipped from your fortress surroundings.

This cap will not limit any [[breeding]] you do once you have captured the creature, and will obviously not affect any creatures visiting your [[site]] that are allowed to leave. It ''will'' affect the maximum number of non-breeding creatures that you can have at your fortress, however, and will not allow the appearance of creatures in clusters larger than are allowed by the cap. Note that the cap is biome-specific: even though [[sea serpent]]s are capped at one serpent per site, it is possible to get multiples, and even [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=75780.0 start a breeding program], if your fortress abridges multiple valid biomes - note that such a breeding program wouldn't work in the current version, as sea serpents are now egg-laying and aquatic egg-layers don't breed due to a bug)

Every time a species becomes locally extinct it is (obviously) taken out of the wildlife visitation rotation. Rendering a policy of mass genocide on the countryside can thus eventually force the appearance of a sought-after species of wildlife, if you push hard enough. However, for the most part the number of creatures that can appear in the biome is so large, and the population caps are set so high, that it doesn't seriously affect gameplay. Aggressively hunting the local wildlife ''will'' eventually restrict its variety, however, and eventually you can prevent ''any'' wildlife from spawning at all on your map.

The cap does have important ramifications for a few specific species, however. Wildlife appearances on [[glacier]]s are heavily restricted, for instance, so the particularly aggressive [[yeti]], which only appears five to ten times, is often made extinct very quickly. Because of a bug, aquatic vermin do not restock when fished, resulting in guaranteed eventual extinction.{{bug|2780}} [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=84112.msg2252463#msg2252463 A certain nuance] of the tag's implementation allows maintained hunting of certain species, with some micromanagement: if a cluster (or pack) of animals appears on the map, as long as at least one animal in that cluster is allowed to leave, the species will not have been considered depleted. This obviously does not work on solitary creatures. Another option is to capture a [[breed]]ing pair and release their (untamed) young back into the wild; doing so can even raise the site population past its starting value.

== Repopulaing Site Extinction with DFHack ==

To fully bring back creatures from permanent extinction, the DFHack [https://dfhack.readthedocs.io/en/stable/docs/_auto/base.html#region-pops region-pops] can help. The script is versatile, and when used correctly, can selectively weed out creatures a player does not want to bring back. This tool is not perfect, and with time, creatures you have weeded out may return. This may be due to a range limit, and does not take very long range migration in to account.

To view which animals may spawn in your embark, use 'region-pops list-all'

=== Repupulation ===

To get started, first download the template [https://github.com/EldrickWT/eld-dfhack-scripts here] named 'region-pops.list' (credits to EldrickWT), and open it up with any text editor. The finished file should be structured like a .bat (all commands are stated before the options). By default, this scriptlet will remove every creature, which is not what we want. All we have to do is flip (or replace) the value in to a positive number. Once done, save, copy and paste it in to the dfhack terminal. This script will restock all creatures with the value you inserted.

=== Fine Tuning ===

With the basic repopulation done, you can fine tune which creatures you don't want, out with this part. Since a negative value removes creatures from the region, you can add below the last line, 'region-pops incr-all BIRD -X' to remove X from all creatures with 'BIRD' in its name. This also includes giant and animal men variants. Just remember to have the removing part at least larger than the repopulation part, to play it safe. Flying creatures often have a big impact on FPS, and removing them from your embark will definitely help. After saving the file, you can easily copy and paste your preferred region populations on every new play through.

There is (currently) no known script to repopulate civilizations.

{{category|Game mechanics}}
{{category|World}}

DF2014 Talk:Macros and keymaps

2018-08-06T13:09:38Z

FONZACUS: Created page with "== Recommending an external macro tool == i feel the built in macro system is inefficient. for example it doesnt play well with dfhacks. trying to build a construction with a..."

== Recommending an external macro tool ==

i feel the built in macro system is inefficient. for example it doesnt play well with dfhacks. trying to build a construction with a specfic dfhack shortcut (like shift + g for green glass) doesnt work. the way macros are structured make editing it nigh unpossible. luckily my preferred gui macroer (windows) works just fine with it, and autokey (linux) works well too. just as long as you set a long enough delay between dfhack specific hotkeys. on my 50 FPS calculation and graphics, 80 millisecond delay works.

https://github.com/Pulover/PuloversMacroCreator

note: since df is a keyboard intensive game, you should also disable everything under 'mouse clicks' in the record button dropdown (red circle icon). you should also remap the default record action (f9), start a new record (f10), and play recording (f5) if you want to maximize speed. if not, then you can simply click the 'action bar' which pops up once youre ready to record.

it may look daunting at first but believe me this will help in the long run as this tool can be used on nearly everything windows related. it can also export as a .ahk for those who prefer autohotkey.

DF2014 Talk:Mass pitting

2018-07-31T23:44:19Z

FONZACUS:

==(44.12) still escaping enemies==
i doubt this feature will ever be fixed. i just forgo the entire bottom level while stationing all of my dwarves in the cage stockpile. out of all of the enemies pitted, i can probably say only 10% will ever be thrown under the hole correctly, while most of the others escape. another good setup is to have your noob squad training under there, but id prefer to get them in on the action as well.

44.10 The only pitting problems I've had are with prisoners who are hostile to each other, such as a caged elf and an undead. Seeing a non-dwarf hostile jolts them awake and starts a fight. ````

==Escaping enemies (43.05)==
I believe I've tracked the cause of enemies escaping during mass pitting. After testing on my own map, I've come to the conclusion that enemies becoming terrified is the reason they are escaping. Every escapee was in a terrified/wallowing-in-misery state during escape, and escape ONLY happened after other enemies had already been killed. Probability of escape shot up DRASTICALLY when there was a dead enemy in the pitting room itself(enemies would see their dead comrades and become terrified, which I guess interrupts the pitting job). Pitting directly over magma seemed to generate an escape after about a dozen or so enemies were pitted. I could get about double this amount when there was a 1 z-level drop to the magma(this could just be margin of error though, it depends on them noticing their dying/dead friends). I'm currently working on a much longer drop pit to test that them seeing dead friends is truly the cause of this behavior. I'll update with the results. --[[User:Struck Down|Struck Down]] ([[User talk:Struck Down|talk]]) 03:10, 15 October 2017 (UTC)

43.03 It seems that if I forbid the hatches the dwarves won't plop the goblins into the pit, instead they release the goblins on the top floor. My previous version was 40.24 and forbidden the hatches definitely worked in that version. I think this has changed. Should we change step 4 in the building section, and remove the part about forbidding?

42.06 Likely has something to do with the new conflict level system. A combination of necromancers, undead siegers, and evil weather husks were pitted with the repeating spikes on, which resulted in escape attempts and fighting. The same set of creatures were pitted again with spike off (until everything has been pitted) and there were no issues. (perhaps this is intentional, as invaders try to make a desperate paniced escape for their life despite being naked? when they notice others are being executed)
-likewise, members of a military squad may sometimes get into random fights with civilians that is neither loyalty cascade, a crime, or defection from the civ. This happens when others in their squad are in conflict elsewhere.

March31: still getting occasional escapees in 42.06. Has happened with caged goblins and undead from a siege. Not quite sure what happens but suddenly they just get released or all aggressive and start attacking the hauler (it's not the case from before where other friendlies attack them and they still get hauled). This doesn't occur all the time but it's regular enough that i started building the cages to be pitted in my barracks and "pitting" them from a ledge into my training squads who promptly kill them; if they interrupt the hauler then they get killed anyway since they were being dragged from the bottom level of the barrack to the ledge. For some reason, this seems to only affect pitting (i only pit one at a time, so no interruptions from previously pitted creatures). Transferring goblins/undead siegers to a second cage seem to not set off their attacks.

Unfortunately this system won't work for anything but tame animals. The Pit/Pond information won't allow you to select Goblins in a cage, so you just spent a bunch of time for nothing.

Re: 40.x

Hey guys I did some experimentation and it appears that normal enemies (non-flying non-thief) can be prevented from escaping mass pits by having forbidden hatches over the top of the pits. Not sure of the behavior with thieves/flyers as I've yet to catch one.

~ Lasserith
: Hatches must be forbidden before pitting, else they can get a finger in and slip out (even though they are below the hatch)[[User:Mesmerism|Mesmerism]] ([[User talk:Mesmerism|talk]]) 04:39, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Attempted !SCIENCE!

Having had Goblins escape in 0.40.24, my dwarves have been conducting experiments with a new batch of mostly Troll prisoners. However, so far all have been suddenly pitted.
The setup is almost exactly as in the article: animal stockpile with hatches to ensure every cage is next to a hatch. Hatches forbidden. Floor smoothed, though I have still had escapees with a smoothed floor so I don't know if that changes anything. I tried with multiple pit zones (pitting only enemies next to the zone each time) and with a single pit zone (pitting all at once). Pitting was no problem even when there were trolls running around under the hatches. Orthogonal and diagonal pitting worked equally well.
We are therefore perplexed.
Possible differences compared to failed attempts (for further enquiry):
:- The lower level (z-1) was completely smooth this time
:- This pitting was done shortly (about 10-15 days) after an attack failed miserably. Could time spent in cages be a factor? Could fear and stress from seeing decimated comrades be a factor?
:- Most of my dwarves have minor discipline experience. However I'm fairly sure the goblin was pitted by a 0 EXP dwarf, and goblins have previously escaped much more readily than trolls.
So it is still unknown what is causing the problem. However it is clear that the recommended layout still works, as long as the unknown factor allowing escapes doesn't come into play. [[Special:Contributions/90.44.54.59|90.44.54.59]] 13:27, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

Related to the above, using the posted layout presented no problems with small (<1 creature / hole) pitting jobs. For larger jobs, escapes were observed, even with overhanging hatches (not forbidden) employed. During these incidents, there was no detritus on the hatches. Escapees included beak dogs, trolls, and goblins. The same layout was used to suddenly perform large pitting jobs provided the hatches were, as instructed, forbidden and tightly closed. So it seems to me that, at least, forbidding and tightly closing hatches over mass pitting operations solves the issue nicely.

~ BCM [[Special:Contributions/108.61.228.8|108.61.228.8]] 21:51, 12 March 2016 (UTC)

Points to clarify

Greetings.
Maybe we can tackle this problem by sorting out and eliminating various possibilities which could be the reason for this new behaviour.

Can someone:
:- Confirm when the break out of the caged prisoner happens? For example, does it only happen when they are pitted, but not when they are lead somewhere else? If so, the release from the cage should not be the reason, but the pitting instead.
:- Confirm if or if not the sight of previously released prisoners on the lower floor might be the reason for the dwarf in question to panic, and therefore release the prisoner which is currently to be pitted? I read on the forum, that Jacko13 supposed this could be the case (last post in this topic: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=141361.30). So the dwarf opens the hatch to drop the current prisoner in, spots a previously released (free) target on the level below, panics and releases his captive instead of pitting it. If this is the case, it should not happen when the pit below is empty, or deep enough.
:- Check in some way, if the escape occurs because the pitted enemies grab the floor of the z-level from which they are pitted when they are thrown into the pit through the hatch? If that is the case, enemies which cannot climb should always be pitted suddenly, while enemies with high climbing skills should almost always escape.

~ [[User:Beryll|Beryll]] ([[User talk:Beryll|talk]]) 09:08, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

== Some reasons for escaping ==

In v0.40.24, I discovered two causes for the failed pitting attempts (on troll recruits):

1. Pitting two or more hostile creatures simultaneously through the same hatch. (This is also reported in the forums.)

2. The hatch cover has one or more items on it, e.g. the body parts of escapees.

Solutions:

1. Try pitting one creature at a time through one hole. Invaders usually have names, so you can just look inside the cages (k-Enter) to figure out, who is safe to pit next. Warning: two of my trolls had the same name and profession, so care must be taken. I have not discovered any problems while pitting creatures through separate hatches at the same time.

2. You could mass dump (d-b-d) all the items on the hatches. The hatch cover will also be marked for dumping, but that should not cause any problems, as long as the hatches are not removed. You can always remove the dump from them later with (t-d), or (k-d) if they have been deconstructed.

Info:

I had not marked the hatches forbidden nor kept them tightly closed. The pitted creatures had no nearby walls to grab, and would fall 34 z-levels down to their instant deaths, so none of them could have climbed back up. In an earlier, less deep version of this pit, they did climb, and not even two levels of carved fortifications could stop the trolls! Perhaps smoothed natural wall works better.

I hope these observations are useful. There is still room for more detailed research, like WHY things behave this way (bugs, skilled
climbers, etc.), but, for now, I leave that for the more experienced dwarven scientists to figure out.

~MarkDwarf (unregistered)

==Equipment Discovery==

v43.03 - My first attempt at mass pitting (dropping goblins and Beak Dogs into the z-level below for my soldiers to train against) resulted in *all* the goblins whose equipment I'd taken escaping, while those who still held onto their gear (due to being from a later invasion, and who I hadn't bothered to strip) staying down below. The Beak Dogs I tried to pit also ended up escaping, so it might be some kind of climbing-related issue. Hatches were forbidden & sealed, but not locked.

Will try again dropping them 2 z-levels to see if the Beak Dogs (and some unequipped goblins) still escape, then test out on trolls.

[[Special:Contributions/92.237.92.189|92.237.92.189]] 02:41, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Cage

2018-07-24T15:45:10Z

FONZACUS: /* How to disarm hostiles in cages */

{{Quality|Exceptional|20:17, 28 February 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

{{furniture|name=Cage
|tile=‼|col=0:6:0
|wood=y
|metal=y
|glass=y
|rooms=
* [[Jail]] (if metal)
}}
:''For information on cage traps, see [[Trap#Cage_Trap|traps]].''

'''Cages''' are used in [[cage trap]]s, [[jail]]s, [[zoo]]s, [[Activity_zone#Pit/Pond|pit]]s and aquariums. A glass cage is called a '''terrarium''' or, if filled with water for holding [[Captured live fish|captured]] live aquatic [[vermin]], an '''aquarium'''.

Cages are stored in an animal [[stockpile]] (unless they have been [[Wear|worn]] out somehow, in which case they are stored in a refuse stockpile). Dwarves will attempt to collect and store cages in stockpiles if the "Dwarves haul animals" order ({{k-|o|a}}) is enabled.

To set a pile to accept ''only'' empty cages, set up an {{k|a}}nimal stockpile (or a custom pile) and in its settings {{k|b}}lock all and use {{k|u}} to enable (or disable) empty cages. ({{k|j}} toggles [[animal trap]]s.)

==Building and using a cage==
A cage can be constructed from a log of [[wood]] at a [[carpenter's workshop]], from three bars of [[metal]] at a [[metalsmith's forge]], and from [[glass]] at a [[glass furnace]].

You can then either build them on a tile via {{k-|b|j}} (this is needed for linking a [[lever]] to them, or assigning a tame animal to it) or simply keep them stockpiled so they can be used to load cage [[trap]]s.

When building a cage, you can choose a cage that already has something inside. To precisely select which cage to use, you can expand the list of cages with {{k|x}}.

===Creature containment===

To assign creatures to a (built) cage, assign the cage to the location you want using {{k-|b|j}}. Then press {{k|q}} and move the cursor over the cage. Use {{k|+}} and {{k|-}} to scroll up and down the list of [[creatures]], and {{k|Enter}} to assign them to the cage. Creatures currently assigned to the cage are listed at the top; the rest of the creatures are listed in order of arrival on the map (including any inaccessible creatures). Note that tame grazing creatures will starve if left in cages, though pet owners may feed their pets. Instead of caging grazers, assign them to a [[zone|pasture]] that has plenty of tasty [[grass]] and/or [[cave moss]].

Multiple creatures can be assigned to the same cage with no penalty. It is possible to fit hundreds of [[dog|puppies]] with dozens of [[dragon]]s, and whatever other animals are on hand, in a single cage with no ill effects. This has led some players to conclude that cages include some sort of hidden "cage space" that allows infinitely tight packing of creatures.

There is no particular labor for releasing creatures from (built) cages. Use {{k|q}} to examine the cage (it must first be "built," not just stored - use {{k-|b|j}} to build cages, and {{k|x}} to be sure to get the right cage), {{k|a}} to assign, and then use {{k|enter}} to toggle the animal(s) currently inside (animals assigned to the cage will have a green "+" next to them). Any available dwarf will perform the job, so beware of pitting untamed or hostile creatures with a weak dwarf.

You can get details about the creatures which are in a built cage by pressing {{k|t}} and then {{k|enter}}. There, you can scroll the list of creatures and get details, for example, you can tell whether a creature is male or female, which is useful if you are preparing a breeding program.

[[Vermin]] can also be assigned to cages, to save space or [[animal trap]]s. However, if you try to release them ({{k|q}} and then {{k|a}}), the dwarf will pickup an animal trap and put the poor creature back in a stock cage. To explicitly release an animal, instead "pull" the animal somewhere else: either assign the animal to a [[pit]] (which could simply be a hillside outside your fortress), or a pasture. This has the benefit of making it clear where the animal is being released. However keep in mind the dwarf will uncage the animal first and then lead it to the release, so large/dangerous animals may escape en route. Consider using the [[dump]] command to move the cage before release, or assign the animal stockpile next to the pit/pasture.

Bees shows up in the list of creatures that can be assigned to a cage, but dwarfs will not start the task, and it will not be shown in the {{k|j}}obs list.

Creatures in cages cannot be attacked (though any existing attack orders will '''not''' automatically cancel, leaving your military dwarves milling around the cage uselessly). Most caged creatures are also unable to attack, although some special attacks (such as gaseous noxious secretions) can still be used. Creatures in cages are also immune to damage from falling, and falling objects. [[Breeding]] creatures are unable to get pregnant if caged, although they will give birth while caged if they were already pregnant. Also creatures in cages age, so [[kitten]]s in a cage will eventually become adult cats. Creatures in cages are affected by extreme temperatures, and [[dwarven atom smasher|atom smashing]] the cage will also obliterate the occupants, even if they are normally immune to smashing. Casting a cage in [[obsidian]] will not harm the occupants (though the temperature might if the cage is subjected to magma for very long).

Beware of cages that contain creature(s) with very high internal temperature, such as [[fire imp]]s. They cannot harm your dwarves directly while caged, but their body heat ''can'', by heating up the tile that the cage occupies. If the dwarf that hauls the cage is very slow and weak they may spend enough time in each tile to feel the effects of the heat, and they will dutifully continue to haul the cage until their head melts off. To move "hot" cages safely over long distances, make sure that a strong or fast dwarf hauls it.

===Prisons===

To set a cage as a [[jail]], {{k|q}}uery the cage, designate it as a {{k|r}}oom, and then set it to be used for {{k|j}}ustice. Only [[metal]] cages may be used in this way, despite [[wood]]en cages being strong enough to hold [[dragon]]s.

===Remotely Opening Cages===

A built cage can be linked to a [[lever]] to remotely open it. When the cage opens, the occupant(s) inside are released, the cage and [[mechanism]] deconstruct and can be returned to their respective stockpiles. Note that you have to use a "built" cage as described above, it won't work with cages on your stockpile. Also note that the mechanism attached to the lever will '''not''' automatically deconstruct; you have to manually deconstruct the lever to get back the mechanism used to open the cage.

===Alternate way of Opening Cages===

When traders are around, you can select "move good to trading depot" and select the cage of choice. When a hauler takes the cage, any untameable creatures inside will be released. Be sure to disarm the creature beforehand... This is also the easiest way of releasing caged dwarfs.

A way to release creatures from stockpiled cages (which have not been built) is to assign the creatures to a [[pasture]] (which is possible for any living thing except dwarves). The same precautions as for trading the cage should be taken first.

Another way is to use [[container]] spilling effect: cages [[Trap_design#Shotgun|hurled from a colliding minecart]] ''also'' spill their contents upon collision (see [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=109460.msg3340230#msg3340230 this forum message]). This combines timing control of a lever or pressure plate with reusability of pitting. If you want to deliver Goblin snatchers into your target practice room despite [[Thief|thieves]]' ability to wriggle out of normal pitting, or a bunch of [[Cave floater]]s toward invaders, this method may be preferable.

===Cages and Fluids===

A cage will protect a creature inside it from [[swimmer|drowning]], so if you want to drown a creature in a cage, you must open it remotely, as explained in the above section (as a corollary, if your fortress is drowning in water, you can cage your dwarves and rescue them later). However, built cages will not protect caged creatures from [[magma]], making this a somewhat faster option, as it doesn't require linking each cage to a lever. Cages which are not [[magma-safe]] will be degraded and/or destroyed by this process, and cages which are made of flammable materials (such as wood) may be set on [[fire]]. Any items the creature had equipped will teleport {{verify}} to wherever the creature was caged, typically a tile with a [[cage trap]] on it. These items may or may not be on fire; no case of teleporting !!large cave spider silk sock!!s have yet been observed, but this doesn't prove it can't happen. Exercise caution.

It's also possible to cage fluids(done by pushing uncaged animals/invaders over armed cage traps with water.) The cage containing the liquid must be built to remove the liquid. *magma not tested (yet)

===Buying Cages ===
Traders may bring cages for sale. If these cages contain a [[tame]]d [[creature]] or tamed [[vermin]], the item will be listed as (creature) cage, and the material will only be mentioned in parentheses behind the item name, e.g. Wolf Cage (Oaken).

===Selling caged creatures ===
If you want to sell an animal, you need to assign it to a constructed cage first (see above) and then deconstruct the cage by {{K|q}}uerying it and pressing {{K|x}}. You can then select the cage in the trading menu.

Note that only tamed animals can be traded safely. The dwarf assigned to hauling a container will look through its contents and chuck out anything that can't be traded. In the case of cages, this means anything sentient - including such nasties as [[cyclops|cyclopes]].{{Bug|4065}} Letting such monsters loose in the middle of your fort is good [[fun]].

=== How to disarm hostiles in cages ===
An easy way to take away all prisoner-held armor and clothing is via the mass designation tool. Designate an area with {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|c}} to claim and {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|d}} to dump an area (i.e. your animal [[stockpile]], filled with caged prisoners). Afterwards, hit {{K|k}}, and go over each cage and press {{K|d}} for each of them - this stops the dumping on the cages themselves. You will need a [[DF2012:Activity zone#Garbage Dump|garbage dump]] set up already for the dwarves to take the dumped items to. The dwarves will strip the prisoners naked and haul the items away. The cages themselves (and the creatures within) will remain in place. The items will end up in the garbage dump zone. If you want to reuse the items, you need only to designate claim {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|c}} on your garbage dump zone to reclaim the items after they are dumped there. If your animal stockpile is outdoors, you need to have the "Dwarves Gather Refuse from Outside" {{K|o}}-{{K|r}}-{{K|o}} order set.

An easier way to selectively disarm prisoners is to designate mass forbid {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|f}} and mass dump {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|d}} on all of the caged prisoner stockpile. You will need a [[bookkeeper]] for this. Press {{K|z}} and go to the [[stocks]] screen. Find an item category with items marked '''F''' and '''D'''. Press {{K|f}} to remove the '''F''' for those items, but don't remove the '''D'''. This will unforbid them, but they will remain marked for dumping. When you exit the stocks screen, the dwarves will haul those items from the cages and drop them into the garbage dump. When the dwarves have finished the hauling tasks, designate a mass claim {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|c}} and mass undump {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|D}} on the same area as earlier to remove the forbid and dump designations from the cages and the rest of the contents.

This method can be used to confiscate specific items from caged prisoners, like weapons, armor or bags containing stolen property or kidnapped children. It can be more useful to just remove their weapons if you want to use your caged prisoners for target practice; they will be more durable with their clothes and armor equipped, but not very dangerous without their weapons.

To selectively remove only weapons from caged prisoners, first claim the entire prisoner stockpile, then {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|h}} to hide everything including cages, buildings and prisoner equipment. Go in to your standard (non-dfhack) stock screen and browse the weapons section. Anything tagged with a blue '''H''' is a hidden prisoners' weapon, dump them. Once you have selectively removed only their weapons, use {{K|d}}-{{K|b}}-{{K|H}} to unhide everything. This works with everything like shields and armor, not just weapons.

[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=81601.0 Source.]

Alternatively, [https://dfhack.readthedocs.io/en/stable/docs/_auto/base.html#stripcaged dfhack 'stripcaged'] is available, but the 'weapons' switch also removes their shields.

=== Emptying refuse ===
If you [[animal trainer|tame an animal]] while it is inside a cage (a process which involves feeding a plant to the caged animal), you may leave seeds inside the cage. To get these out, you must mark them for [[activity zone#Garbage_Dump|dumping]], designate a garbage zone, and wait for a dwarf to dump the seeds in the garbage zone. Then you can reclaim them.

Animals that expire in a cage (built in a [[zoo]], or just sitting in an animal stockpile) also clutter up the cage until removed. If the cage is unbuilt and the animal is [[butcher]]able, your dwarves may haul the animal, cage included, to the butcher shop for processing. If not, you will need to manually clean the cage by dumping the corpse and any other items.

Marking refuse for dumping can be done by pressing {{k|k}} for an unbuilt cage ({{k|t}} for a built cage), then selecting the cage and pressing {{k|Enter}}, then selecting the item and pressing {{k|Enter}} again, and finally pressing {{k|d}} to mark the item (rather than the cage) for dumping. Or if there is a lot of refuse, you can use {{k|d}}-{{k|b}}-{{k|d}} to mass-dump everything in the tile, and then un-mark the cage itself.

=== How to quickly empty out many cages ===
If you have many [[Trap#Cage_Trap|cage traps]] then you may have trouble emptying out cages quickly enough at times. See [[Mass pitting]] for suggestions on how to quickly recycle cages. Be advised that there are now reports of frequent escapes while using this method (confirmed for v0.40.10).

Another easy way to quickly empty cages is to simply send the imprisoned creatures to a pasture, where your squad can slaughter them.
(Your dwarves can drag every goblin except thieves).
The easiest way is to place the pasture right next to the cages and let your dwarves shoot them down. This way you can kill the thieves and monsters too.

Another fun method is to put a 1x1 pasture in the middle of your barracks. Next, tell a squad to kill the target creature in the cage and watch them line up around the prisoner. Finally, assign the prisoner to the pasture in the middle of the barracks. A dwarf will be along shortly to drag the prisoner from the stockpile to the pasture, while your squad beats on them enroute. Even thieves that can't be dragged are still mobbed by your squad waiting as soon as the cage is opened.

{{buildings}}

==Bugs==

* Creatures in cages that come from dead merchants can only be freed by assigning them to a [[Zone#Pen/Pasture|pen/pasture zone]] and then when they have been put there, deassigning them from the pen/pasture.
* When bringing a cage to the Trade Depot in order to trade it, any untameable creatures inside the cage will be freed. Tamed (and presumably also wild but tameable) animals can be safely traded. {{Bug|4065}}
* Aquariums cannot be used to store large fish (they will drown), though vermin fish work just fine. {{Bug|1590}}
* Dwarves trapped in cages cannot be directly freed. They can only be released by building the cage and connecting a [[lever]] to it, or ordering the cage be brought to a trade depot. {{bug|3070}}

{{Translation
| dwarven = mokez
| elvish = ofúru
| goblin = obtux
| human = tin
}}

{{Category|Justice}}
{{Category|Buildings}}

Exploit

2018-07-21T12:14:10Z

FONZACUS: /* Quick trade goods */

{{Quality|Superior|05:12, 17 May 2015 (UTC)}}
{{av}}

An '''exploit''' is a quirk of a game that allows players to gain what other players may consider an unfair advantage, usually by making use of a feature that is not working properly or which defies logic. 'Exploiting the game' is distinct from '[[cheating]]' because exploits occur within the game as written and do not need any external [[utilities]] or [[modding]]. Whether a player chooses to make use of an exploit or not depends on their personal taste; given that ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' is a single-player game, the user alone can decide what liberties to take and what options to shun. Among DF players there is much discussion about what actually should be considered an exploit, going from making [[dwarven syrup]] instead of [[dwarven sugar]], growing crops in winter, or even underground, as the one extreme, to justifying 'water wheel batteries' as the other. This page takes a rather relaxed approach in that you considering it an exploit is basically enough to add it, if you don't get too much opposition.

== Atom smasher ==
{{main|Dwarven atom smasher}}
Lowering a raised [[drawbridge]] can be used to obliterate most creatures or items beneath it. The drawbridge will be destroyed if it is used to crush a creature of too large a size.

==Manager exercise program==
As a [[manager]], skill is gained as tasks are approved, not completed. Simply by queuing lots of jobs ({{key|j}} {{key|m}} {{key|q}}) (and providing a meager office), the manager will quickly level to [[legendary]] as an [[Organizer]]. The tasks can then be removed once approved.

==Merchant swindles==
There are a variety of ways to steal cargo from [[merchant]]s without seizing it; all amount to naked theft. Tearing down the [[trade depot]] while the merchants are there is the easiest way.

Also, marking items for [[dump]]ing, using view creature mode ({{key|v}}), the stocks menu ({{key|z}}), items in room mode ({{key|t}}), or mass dump mode ({{key|d}})-({{key|b}})-({{key|d}}) then marking the entire depot, lets you relieve merchants of their goods. Just reclaim the items from your garbage dump [[zone]] later. You can even take clothing and equipment off merchant and guards this way.

You can make a wall around the merchants (and even the poor animals) and let them starve to death, letting you take what ever you want. Wait quite a while for them to starve. They will become [[Insanity|very angry]] if you do, so never open the door once they are on the brink of death.

However, the merchants will consider any lost goods to be stolen goods regardless of the method used to take possession of or destroy them.{{Verify}} See [[40d:Trading#Note_that_the_civ|the 40d page]] and [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=43771.msg829692#msg829692 This forum post]. So unless you specifically want to take the clothing off the backs of the merchants or steal from your own civ, you might as well just seize the goods anyway.

== Quantum stockpiles ==
{{main|Quantum stockpile}}
A quantum stockpile (QSP) allows you to store an infinite number of items in a single tile. QSPs can make for super efficient storage, allowing more compact fortresses, shorter hauling routes, more efficient manufacturing flows, stocktaking at a glance with look {{K|k}} and [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92241.msg3276117#msg3276117 possibly higher FPS].

== Building destroyer door ==
Forbid something a dwarf is carrying as he goes through a door, and he'll drop it. The door won't close and won't stop any normal creature from going through, but building destroyers seem to stop in their tracks, waiting for it to close before moving on. Note: your civilians can pass the creature safely, but attacking it cancels your protection. {{Verify}}

== HFS's back door ==
{{main|Semi-molten rock#Tunnelling down through multiple layers of Semi-molten rock|l1=Semi-molten rock § Tunnelling down through multiple layers of Semi-molten rock}}
There's a convoluted way to dig down through [[semi-molten rock]] and evade the head-on encounter with [[hidden fun stuff]]. Doing this can enable you to, among other things, mine undiggable [[slade]] and duplicate rare minerals. See the page [[semi-molten rock]] for details.

== Forgotten beast zoo ==
Wall off all the passageways into your lowest level at the outermost square of the map - except one, which leads to a little vestibule surrounded by fortifications. Wave hello to the various ungainly "[[forgotten beast]]s" which accumulate inside.

Alternatively, by using a [[giant cave spider]] or web-spewing forgotten beast to place [[web]]s on cage traps you can capture and display non-web-spewing forgotten beasts, titans, and more.

== Dwarven water reactor ==
{{main|Water wheel#Perpetual motion|l1=Water wheel § Perpetual motion}}
A [[screw pump]] requires 10 power to move water; a [[water wheel]] supplies 100 power if it's got water moving it. Arrange the former to feed the latter, while the latter powers the former, and you can get [[Water wheel#Perpetual motion|perpetual motion]] going - with a surplus of [[power]] available.

== Urist McAdventurer the shield-wall ==
Adventurers are not limited in the number of items they can hold in their hands, allowing them to equip a virtually unlimited number of shields or bucklers with little effect to the adventurer's performance. This offers multiple chances to block attacks (vastly reducing the number that cause damage) and quickly trains up the shield user skill, further increasing the effectiveness of those shields. There is an indirect limit on how many shields you can equip based on how the total weight of your adventurer's items affects your speed, but the tradeoff between wearing a dozen (or more) shields is well worth the minor reduction in speed.

The current version has made this exploit more complicated due to the ability to holster/draw weapons and shields, which is needed for [[climber|climbing]] and to avoid hostility from local guards. While an infinite number of weapons or shields can be strapped to your body, only the first two such items will be drawn, requiring a free hand for each. Retrieving multiple shields after unequipping them requires manually drawing each individual shield.

== Infinite drink in adventure mode ==
Thirst can be quenched indefinitely in adventure mode by emptying a waterskin when you only have 1 unit of liquid left and refilling it from the pool that forms; giving you 3 units of drink. This is especially useful if you managed to find alcohol and fill your waterskin with some, as alcohol never freezes in cold weather.

== Backpack of holding ==
In adventurer mode, if you try to pick something up while both your hands are already holding something, it'll go straight in your backpack, even if it would not have fit had you first picked it up and then tried to put it inside. That means you can stuff as much as you want into your backpack. It will still effect your weight and speed, however.

== And we'll throw in the barrel or bag for free ==
On [[embark]], buying things which are stored in [[barrel]]s gets the barrel for free, with at most 10 items per barrel, so, for example, the 15 units of randomly chosen [[meat]] which come with the default supplies will get you two free barrels, one completely filled with 10 units of meat and one half filled with 5 units of meat; you get another two free barrels from the 15 units of randomly chosen [[Creature#Aquatic|fish]]. You can get rid of all of that food, then for the same cost select one unit each of meat from 30 different kinds of animals, giving you 30 free barrels instead of only 4, since each different kind of animal meat is put in its own barrel. Note that different types of meat from the same kind of animal goes into a single barrel, so choosing 1 yak brain + 1 yak eye + 1 yak spleen will get you only one free barrel instead of three.

The same thing goes for things stored in [[bag]]s. Each unit of [[sand]] comes in its own bag, and since each unit of sand costs only 1 embark point while bags cost a minimum of 10 embark points each, you can get bags for ten times cheaper by buying sand, then [[dumping]] out the sand after embark.

== Infinite metal ==
Because one bar of metal produces 25 bolts and a single bolt can be melted to 0.1 bars of metal, you can create unlimited adamantine wafers in your fortress using a [[Stupid_dwarf_trick#Bolt_Splitting_Operation|clever setup]] with marksdwarves to separate the stacks of adamantine bolts into single bolts. See this [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=51423.0 forum thread] for more details.

Weapon traps filled with crossbows will be loaded with individual bolts (10 per crossbow). Bolts can not be designated to melt while loaded in the trap. It requires deconstruction of the trap. The components will scatter on deconstruction so surrounding the trap with an ammo stockpile set to links only and using dfhack automelt can semi-automate the process. Any metal components of the trap may also be melted.

Coins may also be split at a [[trade depot]] and melted down individually for up to a 50x return. Smelt a stack of coins, then trade it to a caravan. You can then buy the stack back in pieces, and each individual smaller stack will melt and produce .1 bars. One bar produces 500 coins, but splitting it into stacks of 1 coin each would create 500 melt jobs, producing 50 bars in return. The process is discussed in greater detail, both with and without use of macros on this [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=111680.0 forum thread]. While potentially time consuming, this new method both results in far more bars produced per stack (potentially a net profit of 49 bars instead of 1.5), and can duplicate any metal, not just military ones while simultaneously training your broker. Combined with a magma smelter and properly written macros, this method turns a smelter into a free metal generator. Those who are less patient may instead opt to simply melt the coin stacks immediately after they are minted - while this yields only a 10% gain, it is far less time consuming.

For multiplying weapons/armor-grade metals, forging and melting giant axe blades, large serrated discs, and leggings will yield a 50% gain per item; note that this does ''not'' work with adamantine, since adamantine goods require 3 times as many wafers, instead leading to a 70% loss per item.

See the [[Melt item]] article for the best yields when melting down items made of mundane metals for the current version.

== Quick trade goods ==
Since [[trap component#spiked ball|spiked balls]] have an extremely high base [[item value]] of ''126'', they can be produced en masse from cheap [[wood]] or other materials and sold off to unsuspecting merchants. This makes for quick cash in any fortress that has a skilled carpenter and an excess of wood on hand.

In fact, any [[trap component]]s make extremely high-value trade goods, especially since metal components require only 1 [[bar]]. (They also increase the [[value]] of [[noble]]s' rooms, and are useful in defense.)

Single task [[instruments]] can be a very lucrative business. For example, raw [[clay]] can be bought from the traders for under 5 value, and a [[ceramic industry|potter]] can create a single masterwork with 1,200-2,000 (earthenware and stoneware, respectively). Although not as lucrative as prepared meals, raw clay traders often bring are heavy (120-230). Buying their clay can reduce their wagon weight, and allow you to sell more goods to them. Glass instruments have lower gains.

[[Prepared meal]]s can also be quick and valuable trade goods. Purchase an abundance of raw food when the traders arrive, and set your [[kitchen]] to work cooking that food into lavish meals. Then haul the stacks of meals back to the depot and trade them for whatever supplies you really want. The caravan will buy back meals composed of their own ingredients at 25x to 100x their initial value.

== Silk farm ==
{{main|Silk farming}}
A silk farm can serve as a safe and endless source of silk thread from [[giant cave spider]]s or other [[forgotten beast|web-spewing beasts]]. Its essence is a room with a bait creature separated from a web-spewing creature by fortifications. The webber will attempt to attack the bait by shooting [[web]]s through the fortifications. Weavers can collect the webs as silk thread and create silk cloth.

== Dwarven road-dar ==
Dwarven radar is a handy way of checking for caverns and other special features using the [[farm plot]]s, paved [[road]]s, and [[activity zone]]s. Know where the caverns are before you designate your carefully planned, fully symmetric living quarters!

For more details, see the [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93694.0 forum thread].

== Danger room ==
{{Main|Danger room}}
An [[Trap#Upright Spear/Spike|upright spike trap]] full of non-masterwork training spears (''not'' menacing spikes or metal spear, or even [[elf|Elven]] wooden spears) is linked to a [[lever]], which is pulled repeatedly. Dwarves are stationed on the trap. The dwarves quickly learn how to dodge, block and parry these "attacks", gaining [[combat skill]]s much more quickly than through normal [[training]]. Unless they die.

== Coinstar room ==
{{Main|Danger room#Coinstar room|l1=Danger room § Coinstar room}}
A coinstar or popcorn room trains [[armor user]] skills via repeated (unblockable/undodgeable) impacts of small objects such as [[coin]]s. [[Seed]]s, [[sock]]s, [[leaves]], and other small, light objects will also work. Channel a 1x2 trench (leaving ramps), and build two 1x1 '''retracting''' bridges on the bottom of the trench. Connect the bridges to a lever. Add coins (stacks of 15 or smaller are 100% safe) and dwarves.

== Wildlife control ==
Wild animals will not spawn when a certain number of them are still present on the map (2 for default 4x4 embark, for larger sites it's higher). This works also for cavern creatures (each cavern independently), or even for roaming [[HFS]] denizens, and can be exploited to prevent new creatures from a particular layer from spawning. Capture enough wild creatures in [[cage trap]]s, and release them somewhere they couldn't escape from. As long as they're there, no more beasts will show up. Note that thieving and [[gremlin|mischievous]] creatures are an exception to this, as their arrival is timed and unaffected by the number of other wildlife.

== Portable drain ==
Due to buggy [[minecart]] interactions, a minecart on a [[Minecart#Track_Stops|track stop]] set to dump into a wall tile will constantly fill and empty, removing large amounts of liquid from the game. This is generally much more convenient than digging a tunnel and carving a fortification at the edge of the map. The effect can be controlled by linking a [[lever]] to the track stop (or by adding/removing the minecart in some manner). The portable drain will only reduce the fluid in its tile to below the minimum necessary to fill the cart (6/7); the remaining fluid will need to be dealt with in some other fashion.

([http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=154537.msg6657752#msg6657752 original forum post])

{{Category|Game}}