v0.31 Talk:Cage

v0.31.21

"Update: As of v0.31.21, using the above method to disarm hostiles will only come into effect after the cages with hostiles in them have been built. Use b-j-x to select the cage with the hostile in the build menu and then after completion they will be stripped and disarmed." In my current fort (v0.31.25)this does not seem to be the case. I can strip goblins naked and disarm them without building the cages.

Cage your dwarfs and save them later

I think this is made up, how can you cage a dwarf other than if they've commited a crime and your justice puts them in jail. Is there anther way? --Djsmiley2k 15:51, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

GCS webbed cage trap, captures anything. Unfortunately your dwarves will dehydrate quickly, because only prison inmates are given water. --Girlinhat 17:26, 3 March 2011 (UTC)

Is that confirmed for 2010? I recalls being able to build cages with dwarves in them and being watered back in 40d, and I -think- I've seen it happen a few times during my first few forts in 31.18. For OP, cave-in dust will knock them unconscious and trigger traps, as well as unconsciousness or stun from other sources. AutomataKittay 09:55, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Actually I've seen caged dwarves getting water when the cause was not justice. A blacksmith of mine decided to take a friggin nap on top of my row upon row of cage traps and after building the cage I had to wait a few months for the mechanic to get his thumbs out of his nether regions and build the mechanisms and link them to the cage so I could free the little idiot of a blacksmith. At one point Urist McUselessNoble came around with a bucket to give the guy some water. Unfortunately I didn't think of saving to provide proof. --Egodeus 13:52, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Can't release small creature?

I'm trying to empty my cages which are filling up with bats and hedgehogs, but when I un-assign them from the cage I get the message: X cancels release small creature: need empty trap. Does this mean I need traps to empty cages now? I would like some documentation on this--208.81.12.34 17:26, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

That always happens when trying to release a vermin from a cage - rather than let them roam around, dwarves will insist that they be placed inside an animal trap. --Quietust 17:48, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

I had the same problem. One way that I emptied the cages was by designating a pit and having them thrown in it. The dwarfs were fine with that.--Kwieland 16:32, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Animals dying

I have a fairly old fortress - going on 14 years. With military bugged, my current defense is a lot of traps. The trap caught animals. I didn't realize it, but animals do die after a while in cages. They never eat, but I have had several deer, groundhog, (other animals) corpse show up in my cage trap pile. Dwarfs have no problem taking the whole cage to the butcher shop and butchering the animal that way. Summary - 1. wild untamed animals in cages don't need to eat (dwarfs presumably do, though). 2. Animals have a lifespan, even wild ones.--Kwieland 04:41, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

I've got the same problem when set up my zoo. You can't say that animal lifespan is over if you get message "Stray Panda(Tame) died from starvation". How can you feed animals in your zoo, my dwarfs seems to not do it?

If they starve, it's because you need to let them graze. Pandas in particular can only graze on bamboo. --Quietust 15:13, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Infinite Air in Cages

I've captured an entire goblin ambush and decided to drown them, but after setting up their cages and then flooding the room they don't die... --Flying Dwarves Hurt 12:53, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, you'd have to link the cages to a single lever and open it after the room is flooded (or while it's flooding for a little more excitement). Makes for a safe and effective drowning chamber. Any of the cages left unopened will keep their captives alive. --MisterB777 16:42, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

That is what I had ended up doing... would have been more convenient to have them drown in the cages, (My mechanics hate me for it thou) --Flying Dwarves Hurt 20:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Pitting hostiles from cages, bug?

Something somewhat weird happened to me. I was pitting goblins from an execution tower to their deaths, when a goblin thief somehow managed to get away after being removed from his cage. So he ran for freedom. Between him and freedom was a row of cage traps, so he got trapped again. One of my haulers went to the cage, removed the goblin thief from the cage and hauled him ~30 spaces and threw him of the tower. The goblin just followed him. The empty cage was taken to an animal stockpile.

The thief may have gotten away the first time, but he is still in the pit's list as needing to be pitted. Once he was in another cage, the pit made a task to throw him in it again. He simply didn't escape the second time.

What to do with caged goblins by nickbii

1) d-b-c the cages. by default the Gobboes clothes are forbidden so your dorfs can't strip them naked, this unforbids.
2) Create a zone with i, make it a garbage dump.
3) d-b-d the cages. This tells your dorfs to take anything in the cages to your garbage dump. If you've you've done everything right a bunch of Dump Item jobs will appear in (j)obs menu.
4) Build the cages with b-j. You can't hook up levers to unbuilt cages so this step is necessary.
5) Build a lever. It can be built anywhere. I usually put it just outside the Death Chamber, so the puller doesn't have to be physically in the room, and still be close to the cages,
6) Connect the lever to each cage with a-j.
7) Move your troops to the room and lock them in.
8) Pull the lever.

Reassigning the gobboes from the cages would get them out, but has the disadvantage that a civilian would have to walk up to the cage and open it.
The process is actually quite simple when you've done it a few times. When you get good at it you can do really cool stuff like only dump the gobboes weapons from the stocks screen. This leaves them in their armor, so your guys take longer (and get more experience) killing them.
message(copy-pasted for everyone to find by --TomiTapio 16:47, 27 July 2010 (UTC))

Step 1 is presumably new to version 0.31, since it definitely wasn't necessary in 40d and earlier. Also, for step 3 you must also individually un-dump the cages after using d-b-d or the cages themselves will also be tossed in the garbage dump, something you might not want to do. --Quietust 16:50, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

Instead of the levers, you could do the following steps for releasing goblins for your soldiers.

1) order the squad you want to train into the room.

2) lock the door

3) disband the squad (making the dwarves non-military)

4) un-assign the goblins from their cages. Your now civilian dwarves, having nothing else to do in the locked room, will open the cages

5) re-establish the squad

It's a bit roundabout, but it saves the hassle of levers and mechanisms.--Twilightdusk 02:02, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

3) makes no sense - simply lock the door, and then take them off the training (Set as inactive) BLAM they are like civs and will open cages :) --Djsmiley2k 14:16, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Just realised an advantage of what i've said is that you can keep the military as "uniformed" and they wont take their armour off either :) --Djsmiley2k 14:18, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

Zoo noise suggestion

It might be cool if the caged zoo animals and ogres made sleep-disturbing noises, like the workshops do. --TomiTapio 14:37, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

Workshops does not produce noise. 213.134.175.225 10:39, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

But that is a bug, so maybe "like workshops are meant to" 85.118.156.10 16:36, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Selling caged creatures

I had a pretty good collection of Draltha and Cave Crocodiles in cages, so I decided to try to trade some of them. Bad idea. The dwarves seem to think that you just want to trade the cages, not the animals inside them (unless I'm missing something). In the end I lost more dwarves to those damn crocodiles then I did to the recent hydra invasion.

i'm having the same problem... When trying to sell the cage, the dwarves let the creature loose (imagine a Beak Dog running free inside my fortress...) and haul the cage to the Trade Depot. I think its a bug, because when setting "zoo cage", i have to guess which cage contain which creature, since the cage window shows only material names, not the creature inside (nickel cage, instead of Beak Dog Cage, for instance). -- gervas

When placing a cage, pressing 'x' (Expand/Contract) will list all the cages you have, allowing you select a goblin iron cage instead of an empty one. --Xigy

Message: Something has emptied a cage!

I just had a troglodyte freed from its cage. The released troglodyte had been trapped for at least a year and had not been moved to a stockpile due to being in a section of the fortress that had been sealed due to a gremlin infestation. Has anyone else seen this behavior? Would say a goblin free a cave crocodile? Could a creature be freed from an animal stockpile?

The troglodyte in question was one of six. Four were trapped and two have been hanging around the cages. Three cages remain intact, suggesting that this isn't just the result of a timer.

As I understand, opening cages is one of the kinds of mischief that gremlins enjoy. --Neil 10:30, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I just had an Elk Bird escape unassisted from a cage (he had been caught in a cave trap and the cage was just sitting there) So I don't think this has to do with gremlin mischeviousness. In fact, I understand Gremlins can only open constructed cages.

Gremlins can open unconstructed cages as well. An unobserved cage trap in the caverns is precisely the sort of place that gremlins are most likely to strike-- they don't get revealed because nobody is around to see them.98.203.173.56 00:45, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

Goblin just escaped from a hauled cage

This might be worth noting. I just defended my fortress from a goblin siege with cage traps. after they were all captured, I had my dwarves haul the cages to the animal stockpile and as that was being done, one of the goblins escaped from the cage. These cages were being hauled to a stockpile, so I know I didn't accidentally unassign it from its cage, and I didn't mark any of its equipment or anything for dumping or anything of the sort. Luckily he escaped right in front of my barracks and was beaten to death by my fledgling military with training weapons. But its either a bug or intended that he escaped.--96.248.39.87 23:27, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

This sort of behavior has been known to occur in the past when ordering a cage to be brought to the trade depot - are you sure this isn't what happened here? --Quietust 00:54, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

I've heard that thieves can escape from the cages, was it a Goblin Thief? --Twilightdusk 02:03, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

100% sure I wasn't trading the cages, I've been aware of that bug, they were being brought to an animal stockpile. And these weren't goblin theives, they were 9 goblin swordsman swordsmen and an elite hammergoblin, it was a swordsman that managed to escape(also I think goblin thieves don't exist, just snatchers.)--96.248.39.87 13:50, 2 December 2010 (UTC) I edited my post to add how many goblin swordsmen

Dead caravans and caged animals

I remove animals from cages stolen from dead merchants (I usually just kill my merchants) by designating them to be melted (if they're metal). The only problem with this is that the animals inside simply go for the edge of the map, and leave. In the article, it mentions that being unable to remove said animals is a bug, which is only partially true. While it is still possible to remove the animals via non-standard methods (though I'm still not sure how to go about fixing wooden cages. How about pit designations? Just a theory - I'll have to test it soon), they'll leave the map after doing so. 64.24.169.62 08:01, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

"any animals they had caged will only become friendly, you won't actually own them. If you wait some time (2-3 months), you can "claim" animals by linking a lever to the cage and opening it, the animals will be released in a tamed state. Check the 'u'nit screen before releasing them; if the creatures still show as Merchant creatures, they will wander off the map when released; if they show as Tame creatures, they will stay once released." (Trading#Exploits)

Are all of these methods don't work?

• assign animal to the pit
• build the cage and deconstruct it with lever
• assign animal to the other built cage, and while the animal follows some dwarf, unassign it and/or forbid/deconstruct "target" cage; forbid/dump now empty "source" cage too, if the animal tends to return back in it; maybe cancelling related job in 'j' screen rather than unasigning will do the thing
• while caravan is on map, designate the cage to be trading; some dwarf will bring to the depot only the cage, but the animal must be released due to bug
• build the cage in area infested by gremlins, if you are "lucky" to have them on map
• for wooden cage: can we set it on fire and extinguish just when the cage is destroyed but the animal is alive?

Releasing an animal from cage

When you buy animals in cages, the only way to release them seems to be making them available for being taken as pets and then assigning them to pastures.

I've had no problem just assigning them to pastures or other cages... --MisterB777 00:34, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

Items teleporting from creatures killed in cages

It says here and on I think magma page that the items of creatures killed by magma while inside a cage will teleport to the place where the creature was caged, but even though my preferred method of emptying my nickel cages of goblins is letting them soak in a magma bath I've never seen this happening. And this is after disposing I believe some hundreds of goblins this way. Their clothes will stay on the spot the cage was when they died and not magically teleport to my entrance and promptly burn to a crisp. After obsidian casting I just reclaim my cages and the resulting goblinite for melting. If someone has evidence of this happening in recent versions of the game, please upload a video of it happening or at least say here that it does happen. Otherwise I'll remove the comments from where they are in a few days. --Egodeus 06:58, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

I believe that section was carried over from 40d page, where it was mentioned and rumored to happen. I haven't heard of any such event for 2010, myself. AutomataKittay 09:49, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Captive breeding

Caged wild animals appear to keep breeding, and aging. Could this be used for breeding grass eating animals or do wild animals need to eat too? This happened when I had a bunch of badgers from a cage trap and some of the sows gave birth, is it possible that they were already pregnant?

Yes, this is generally how it works. Animals which were already pregnant before being put into a cage will still give birth while in the cage, but they need time out of the cage to get pregnant again. That said, I don't know specifically how wild animals relate to the usual breeding rules. I wouldn't have thought a wild animal could get pregnant at all, but probably it is only that they rarely stay on your map long enough to give birth once becoming pregnant. Were the young wild themselves or pre-tamed? Niveras 09:54, 13 September 2011 (UTC)

The young were still wild. So could you still pit or restrain wild animals and breed them for animals that can't survive if they are tame(like elephants)?

Caged dwarves

Occasionally dwarves fall into cage traps in the heat of combat or after contacting random syndromes. My normal method of releasing creatures from cages (assign to a pasture/pit) doesn't work for dwarves, so I was forced to construct the cage as a building, then unmark the occupant. This did create a "Release large creature" job in the jobs list, but no one actually took the job despite having idlers. I had to turn on one of the Hunting/Related labors for the dwarves to pick up that task. I'm not sure which though, since I just turned them all on (except hunting, since they'd pickup equipment first). Which labor is needed for freeing dwarves? None of the descriptions really apply. -- Qazmlpok 21:47, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

The relevant labor would probably be Animal Training, the same labor required for transferring hostile creatures between cages and chains. --Quietust 04:48, 13 December 2011 (UTC)