Dwarf Fortress Wiki - User contributions [en]

40d:Siege engine

2009-04-25T01:05:36Z

Ninja Snarl:

'''Siege engines''' include the '''catapult''' and the '''ballista'''. Both are formidable weapons of tremendous range (more than a screen-width) and capable of dealing out horrendous damage. A [[ballista arrow]] means immediate death to each and every common creature in its path and will severely injure even a [[dragon]].

==Building Siege Engines==
In order to build a siege engine, you first need to produce three catapult or ballista parts in the [[Siege Workshop]]; you may then build the respective siege engine like any other building. Both tasks require the "Siege Engineering" [[labor]] and use the "[[Siege_engineer|Siege Engineer]]" skill. 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|masterpiece]] 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.

The dwarves will (re-)load any siege engines that are not currently loaded; there's no way to prevent this short of disabling the labor on all dwarves. Ballistae require [[ballista arrow]]s (made from wooden [[log]]s at the siege workshop, optionally tipped with [[metal]] [[ballista arrowhead]]s made at a [[forge]]). Catapults use simple [[stone]] as ammunition.

[[Ammo]] is usually destroyed upon being fired, unless it falls a z-level.

########
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.

==Using Siege Engines (advanced)==

===Safety Warning===

'''Ballistae 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. 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.{{version|0.28.181.40d}} 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 that misses everything. 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).

===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 [[Fortress_defense#Siege_weapons|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 about 5 tiles, though there has been reports of [[troll]]s scaring civilians away at 10 tiles.  You should therefore place the engines behind a [[moat]] that will keep the enemy at a safe distance, or shield access to their location in some other fashion.

Siege engines can shoot through [[fortifications]], 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 [[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===

Ballistae hit any unit that the ballista arrowhead passes through. This makes them an order of magnitude more effective in combat than catapults, which fire in an arc that hits only a few tiles per shot and is nearly useless against anything smaller than a troop of [[goblin]]s. Also, ballista arrows fired through too many successive targets will be destroyed or lost. 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.

Remember, operators are civilians. They do not care that the fortress is at stake: hunger, thirst and sleep always go first. That's why you trained more operators than you actually need; that's also why you disabled all other work that might distract them. The most effective way to ensure that your operators won't run off is to lock them in with the siege engine when the time comes.

===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.

In the diagrams, the ballistae ('b') fire to the right, and the entrance is the stairs ('X') to the south. The center-line of each engine is marked 'B' for clarity. Ammo storage is near the [[stair]]s, or possibly on another z-level. Expand the room southward 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]] 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 men that any attempts to assault your base will be very, very bloody.

Two tile corridor (8x6 room)

##########
#bbb######
#BBBbbbF++
#bbbBBBF++
#X++bbb###
##########

Three tile corridor (11x7 room)
#############
#bbb#########
#BBBbbbFFFF++
#bbbBBBbbbF++
#+++bbbBBBF++
#X+++++bbb###
#############

==The Hopoate Doctrine==

Forums user John Hopoate has written this guide (now slightly edited for modern versions) to the effective construction and operation of siege engines:

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.

* Download LabourDF from here:

http://dwarf.lendemaindeveille.com/index.php/Utilities#LabourDF

* Start off with two [[miner]]s and a [[woodcutter]] trained to proficient siege engineer status (the latter costs many starting points so choose your other starting gear and stats wisely)

* After your fortress has about 50 dwarfs, 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 dwarfs is set to have siege engineering as an active labour. 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]] dwarfs 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.

[[Category:Buildings]]
[[Category:Fortress defense]]

40d:Ballista arrow

2009-04-25T01:01:54Z

Ninja Snarl:

Ballista arrows are created at a [[siege workshop]] and used as ammunition by a [[ballista]]. Wooden ballista arrows are made using one log, and (presumably) more powerful ones can be made using one log plus a metal [[ballista arrowhead]] from the [[forge]].

Ballista arrows, even mere [[wood]]en ones, are extremely deadly, able to turn a vast swathe of troops into flying [[corpse]]s. It usually takes a [[wall]] or other similar object to stop them, but even then they can still be reused by firing into a wall or raised [[bridge]] above a channel.

Additionally, ballista arrows can be destroyed by hitting too many targets in a row. After a certain number of impacts, the arrow is simply destroyed. Hitting around 5-6 goblins at a time seems to be the rough limit of a ballista arrow's durability. It is currently unknown if adding an arrowhead improves this durability.

[[Category:Ammo]]

40d:Ice

2009-03-24T22:24:35Z

Ninja Snarl:

'''Ice''' is [[water]] that has been frozen by cold seasons. Any water that is [[above ground]] will freeze during the cold time, but it will stay wet if it is on [[subterranean]] tiles.

A water tile with 1 depth will freeze to create ice floor. A tile of water deeper than 1 will freeze into an '''ice wall''', creating an '''ice floor''' one [[Z-Axis]] above it. The ice wall will be the same no matter how deep the water is. As there is no thin ice, the floor can be walked on freely. Ice walls can be [[mine]]d like any other natural wall. The ice wall will melt into water of depth 7 [http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Talk:Water] when warmer temperatures arrive, which can keep ponds full if rain only fills them up to 2/7. An ice floor will also melt, leaving 1 water if it was smoothed or engraved.

Ice can be mined out, creating [[Ice#Ice as a stone|stones]] of ice that melt into thin air come spring. This makes winter an ideal time to get rid of any [[lake]]s that are in the way.

Entire water supplies can become completely frozen upon winter in colder areas. This can depopulate an entire fortress with rapidity in the first winter if they're unprepared. To counter this, make a [[cistern]] inside beforehand or brew enough [[alcohol]].

== Ice as a stone ==

Ice appears as a light blue stone which can be found by mining through an ice wall. Ice can be used to build [[construction]]s and [[workshops]]. Ice boulders and objects made of ice will melt when exposed to warmer temperatures (such as inside a fortress), giving it rather limited use. Nevertheless, workshops made of ice have a certain novelty to them, and it's even possible to make [[furnace]]s out of ice, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.

The game refers to ice boulders as "water." It doesn't appear in any stockpile options or the manager, but it does appear under the "stones" section of the [[Stocks]] menu.

== Icy constructions ==

All constructions are entirely indestructible. Entire fortresses can be built of ice in temperate climates equally impervious to catapults, the summer sun, or a thousand tons of boiling lava. If constructions of ice are dismantled during the warm season, they will melt into thin air.

== Ice as hazard ==

Watch out when digging through ice into ([[subterranean]]) unfrozen water resorts. The space cleared by the miner will freeze solid again instantly, encasing the advancing miner into a wall of ice. This means not only the loss of a valuable [[dwarf]], but also of his now inaccessible equipment.

Additionally, surface ponds which go through a freeze/thaw cycle (on Temperate and Cold maps) can be hazardous, as your dwarves will treat the ice as a normal surface when moving about. Spring thaws happen suddenly and without warning, and dwarves in the midst of crossing a frozen pond will find themselves suddenly swimming in depth 7 water. You can avoid this by marking restricted traffic zones over ponds in high traffic areas.

== Melting outdoor ice ==

It can be very important to be able to extract water from permanently-frozen ice (for instance on cold northern maps) in order to give water to the wounded. This can be done with [[magma]]. Dig out a tunnel one z-level below the ice sheet and fill it with magma. The ice on the above z-level will melt. You can see this happening here: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-153-meltingwateronglacier

If you would like to transport magma to heat a frozen [[brook]] or other such feature that is very far away from the magma pipe, try to use a magma duct that is nearly as wide as the area you intend to fill. Otherwise, magma will tend to evaporate as it disperses from a narrow duct to a wider area.

=="Melting" ice without magma ==

It is also possible to get water from ice without actually melting the ice, though this method is hazardous and destructive. First, dig down to a non-ice layer beneath ice layers and dig out a room. In the layers directly above the room, dig rooms out of the ice with the same dimensions as the first room. Dig channels in the ice floors around the entire perimeter of the room EXCEPT for one square right next to the hallway (this is important; if you don't leave the last square accessible from outside the room, you will likely kill or injure the miner doing the channeling during the last step).

When you channel out the last bit of ice, the entire ice floor will cave in down to the the area you already cleared out. Depending on the stupidity level of the channeling miner, he may simply be stunned or also plummet to his doom. The broken ice will melt at the bottom level, but the floor will also be almost completely destroyed. The newly-melted water must either be redirected to a smaller space (one square of broken ice floor yields roughly one level of water wherever it lands) to avoid drying or multiple ice floors must be dropped in order to achieve sufficient water depth.

Don't expect to create farmland in the original room. Since the dropped floors destroy ground tiles on impact, water must be redirected to an undamaged area to get farmable squares. Otherwise there will only be narrow slivers and bits of farm-worthy ground.

Also note that if there is empty space underneath the destination floor (other rooms, hallways, etc.), the falling ice will crash through that floor as well. Obviously, this can be dangerous. While a dining room full of hungry dwarves will certainly appreciate new farmland despite the frozen wastes above ground, those hungry dwarves will also end up angry, wet, and dead when several tons of ice come crashing through the ceiling. On the upside, fewer mouths to feed.

{{Water FAQ}}
[[Category:Materials]]
[[Category:Map_tiles]]

40d:Door

2008-04-01T17:56:17Z

Ninja Snarl:

'''Doors''' are [[furniture]] which can be built from [[rock]] (at a [[mason's workshop]]), [[wood]] (at a [[carpenter's workshop]]), or [[metal]] (at a [[metalsmith's forge]]). You can also make [[glass]] doors (called '''portals''') at a [[glass furnace]]. The symbol for a stone door is that of a solid tile, the color of its material, with a cross of a different color across it (e.g. {{Raw Tile|┼|Gray|Silver}}) Doors of different materials use different tiles, because Toady hates tileset makers. Glass doors (or portals) use the symbol {{Raw Tile|O|#0f0|#080}}. Metal doors use the symbol {{Raw Tile|╪|#ff0|#880}}. Wood doors use the symbol {{Raw Tile|║|#ccc|#880}}.

<s>Doors made of all [[materials]] function identically, although doors made of more valuable material will increase the "value" of a [[room]] it is used in.</s> High-[[quality]] doors give a happy [[thought]] to any [[dwarf]] seeing them, especially when a door is part of a room that the dwarf personally owns.{{verify}} Items made of a material a dwarf has a [[preference]] for will give an even happier thought.

Doors, when closed, will prevent the passage of fluid ([[water]] and [[magma]]). However, if a dwarf opens the door, the fluid will come spilling through.

== Door settings ==

There are three options one can specify on a door from the {{K|q}} menu:
* {{K|l}} Forbid/Permit Passage
** A door set to Forbidden is impassable to everyone in the game. A door cannot be set Forbidden if the door is open. Invading thieves may lock-pick and bypass a Forbidden door.
* {{K|o}} Keep Tightly Closed/Make Pet-Passable
** A door that is pet-passable allows through traffic of pets. A pet can still pass through a door that is tightly closed if it does so while it is being held open by an object or dwarf. This also affect the door's permeability to wild animals - a tightly closed door is a good way to keep wild animals from blundering into your fort.
* {{K|s}} Set as Internal/External
** A door set to external functions as a [[wall]] when defining boundaries of a room such as a [[bedroom]]. A door set to internal allows the room boundaries to pour over.

== "Building" doors ==

After constructing a door at any of the above workshops, they must be "{{K|b}}uilt" (placed) like all other furniture. Doors can now be placed on any open square adjacent to a wall. Locked doors and [[statue]]s do not count as walls for door-building purposes anymore. For the same result of the statue-door-move statue trick in previous versions to build an infinite line of doors, instead use a constructed wall segment. Doors will not "fall down" when the constructed wall is removed. They will, however, fall down if a non-constructed wall they are attached to is mined out and they have no other support.

== Doors and Construction ==

A door built will not create a floor above it the way a wall will. If construction is to be done above a door, walls, fortifications and floors can be built on top of doors. However, doors cannot be built on top of other doors. Stairs and ramps, of course, cannot be built on top of doors either.

== Doors and Keeping Out Bad Things ==

Not all doors are built equally. Stone, wood, and glass doors can be destroyed by the trolls which usually accompany goblin sieges and presumably other large, horrible creatures like dragons; iron doors, however, are impervious to troll attacks and will keep them at bay indefinitely (although there may exist some creatures which can destroy iron doors). There are, however, rare and unusual creatures which can pass through doors regardless of the door's strength, so doors are not proof against all enemies, just most of them. Also, stone and metal walls are immune to magma, but not necessarily wood or glass doors (unconfirmed).

[[Category:Furniture]]