v0.31:Mass pitting

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v50.14 · v0.47 · v0.34 · v0.31.25 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Mass pitting refers to pitting many caged creatures at one time without having to build each cage and link it to a lever. This allows you to recycle many cages quickly, freeing them up for reuse in cage traps in minimal time.

Mass Pitting System

Also called the Mass Cage Recycling System.

Here's a simple design that keeps you from having to build cages before releasing hostile creatures from them. This is safe for most hostiles, but see warnings below.

Building

1. Dig out a room and another room of at least the same size directly below it.
2. In the upper room channel out 6 openings into the lower room which are spaced exactly 2 tiles away from each other.
3. Build floor hatches and place them over all of the openings.
4. Place one big animal stockpile over the room such that every tile in the stockpile is adjacent (orthogonally and diagonally) to one of the hatches. Disable empty cages on the stockpile.
5. Create one large pit zone that covers all of the openings such that all of them are part of the same pit zone.
6. Disable all other animal stockpiles except for one empty-cage-only stockpile somewhere.
7. Close the lower room off, fill it with traps, your military, turn it into a flood chamber, an arena, a 50 z-level pit, put a live dragon in it, or whatever sadistic sort of thing you want. This lower room is where the creatures will end up, so you get the idea.

The top room should end up looking like this:

=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
=	¢	=	=	¢	=	=	¢	=
=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=
=	¢	=	=	¢	=	=	¢	=
=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=	=

= is the stockpile

¢ is a hatch cover

The bottom room can look like whatever you want as long as all of the openings you channeled out lead into it from the ceiling.

Obviously you can scale up the top part with more or fewer hatch openings to get larger or smaller stockpile areas, but with six hatches you can empty out 48 cages very quickly, without spooking dwarves, which is enough for many people.

Using

Warning!

"Thief" type creatures, flyers, or large creatures like titans will escape using this system. If in doubt, build the cage manually or have sufficient military hanging around the top stockpile area.

Before pitting your captives, you may wish to disarm them -- depending on what you've built for them to fall into.

Now, wait for the stockpile above to fill and assign creatures to the pit all in one shot. Being pitted through the hatches will keep dwarves from being spooked by hostile creatures below and with all cages directly adjacent to pits creatures can be dumped in instantly without having to be led around.

A mass of dwarves will pile into the room, pit the creatures at the about same time, and haul the empty cages off to your empty cage stockpile. The poor pathetic creatures they pitted will then be left to the mercy of whatever is at the bottom of the pits.

Disposal Trench

Another simple, relatively safe way of pitting enemies is to dig a short open trench, filled with magma or extending over a long, lethal drop. Designate the trench as a pit zone, and then place a one-tile line animal stockpile next to it. Restrict the stockpile to disallow empty cages and empty animal traps. Optionally, restrict it to only permit enemy creatures, like goblins, trolls, etc. and/or set the stockpile to take from your main animal stockpile.

The result is a stockpile which is filled only with cages occupied by enemies, each one only a single space from being dropped to their deaths. You can then assign each creature to the adjacent pit with a very low chance of having two creatures out at the same time.