40d Talk:Trap

Cage traps clarification

I think I know the answer, but are ANY sort of cages suitable for trapping any kind of invading monster (except those that evade traps altogether, such as kobalds). The page mentions a glass trap catching a colossus, but will that also apply to a rickety wooden trap? I haven't produced any glass. --Rusty Mcloon 06:18, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

Yes. I've had a bronze colossus trapped in an Ashen Cage before. I don't think creatures care what you trap them in.--Dadamh 14:59, 29 May 2008 (EDT)

cage traps for food

Couldn't one generate a mild supplementary food source by putting cage traps out on the map at random? Or create rows of them to catch aggressive creatures that are chasing down a fleeing dwarf. The ability to place them on the surface has some interesting possibilities. Kefkakrazy 04:45, 4 November 2007 (EST)

You can really do this with any kind of trap now - I built a 1 tile wide stair/corridor up an exposed cliff face, and as I was concerned about goblins and the like I stonefall-trapped it. Ever since then some of the local wildlife has used it to get up and down the 5 z-level cliff, with predictable and hilarious results. The goats just die, but the marmots are hurled off the cliff face to splatter on the ground below. It's a nice easy meat/leather/fat source, as well as being entertaining "Dwarfy McDwarf cancels reload stone trap - interrupted by (flying) hoary marmot" Acama 19:48, 20 December 2007 (EST)

berserk dwarves

Will berserk dwarves set off pressure plates? Toady mentioned he was going to stop that from happening VengefulDonut 19:39, 4 November 2007 (EST)

On a possibly related note, pets CAN set off traps. Although in my experience the pet has to be falling unconscious to do so. Anonymousphrase 22:43, 27 May 2008 (EDT)

It may also be the case that you can also get pets killed by a trap if they're in the square when a hostile sets off the trap. —Chaos 12:42, 28 May 2008 (EDT)

flooding a spiked pit

Will flooding a spiked pit break or cancel the spike trap? I'd test this, but I don't have the channel dug in yet. --Xazak 18:30, 5 November 2007 (EST)

confirmed that flooding doesn't affect spear/spike traps. YayTheDwarves 17:52, 6 January 2008 (EST)

I'm pretty sure the "corpse stuck in trap" chance is 50%, according to Toady either on IRC or some forgotten forum post a few months back. I really can't remember for sure. -EarthquakeDamage 02:31, 10 November 2007 (EST)

Do spike traps stop functioning if a corpse gets stuck in them, or can you just retract and continue using as usual? Gairabad 13:11, 9 December 2008 (EST)

cage traps/ fire imps

I've secured the entries oy my magma furnaces with cage traps, but it seems that the fire imps just walk through. Just as the Giant moles did. How so? --Doub

supposedly there is a bug that causes any creatures on the map when it is generated to count as residents, and thus know where your traps are and not trigger them. I've never run into the problem myself, but I've never specifically tested for it so I can't really say for sure if it still exists (or ever did). --BurnedToast 07:41, 6 January 2008 (EST)

I had read about this and tried it out with a trapped coridoor next to my magma vent - an imp I tempted out walked right through 4 cage traps and 4 stonefall traps without triggering them. Seems like indigenous life is currently trap-immune. Most magma creatures can be dealt with by a few marksdwarves though, so you're only in serious trouble if you have a herd of skeletal hippos on your map on embark.--TangoThree 15:42, 19 January 2008 (EST)

There's always the menacing spike + lever combo. And pits. Benitosimies 16:08, 10 March 2008 (EDT)

I've killed fire imps and magmamen with stone fall traps --Strangething 01:20, 19 July 2008 (EDT)

I've caught native fire imps in cage traps loaded with green glass terrariums. Rkyeun 21:42, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

Trolls and Cages

I'm planning on making the only passage to my fortress filled with cage traps, but I'm not sure if dwarves going out and migrants and traders coming in will be affected by them. Does anyone know? Also, do trolls smash goblin cages? Patarak 21:41, 23 January 2008 (EST)

Only hostile units will trigger traps. Trolls only smash buildings and after a goblin is captured the cage is not built. So the answer to your second question is no. --Karlito 21:45, 23 January 2008 (EST)

Make sure to forbid the traps when the siege starts. Otherwise your dwarves will rush out to reload them and store all the cages. --Ikkonoishi 22:53, 23 January 2008 (EST)

Thieves and trap avoidance

Is it possible that Kobold thieves/Goblin master thieves can also trigger traps? I think I killed one and caged another master thief in the past. Maybe the quality of the mechanism is important here? --Qwertyu 13:24, 17 March 2008 (UTC+1)

goblin thieves, both regular and master, have always triggered traps -Chariot 14:18, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

So why does the article then say "Sneaking enemies do not trigger traps"? Goblin master thieves seem very sneaky to me. --Qwertyu 20:33 17 March 2008 (UTC+1)

once goblin thieves are revealed they are captured fine. even revealed kobolds dont trigger. -Chariot 15:45, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

At least "normal" goblin thieves are scewered fine without being detected, says my weapon trap --Koltom 16:58, 17 March 2008 (EDT)

I have to agree with Koltom, I got an "Ambush" event when a goblin (master) thief went into a cage trap, and had another one cut to pieces by a serrated disc, which I only noticed when suddenly all my dwarves rushed off to remove his clothes. --Qwertyu 13:31 (UTC+1)

Weapon traps apparently have a chance of friendly fire. At least, that's what the ghost of my Kitten(tame) told me... QMarx 18:48, 13 April 2008 (EDT)

I think traps have a chance to trigger against theives, not an absolute yes or no. Also, remember that a citizen going unconscious on a trap will trigger it. The reason animals do so is because they ignore traffic designations, of which I presume traps create an invisible 'no sleep' tile. I've tested locking a dwarf in a room where the entire floor space was covered with traps, they starved to death before sleeping on the traps. However, if a dwarf is knocked unconscious by fighting or a bridge, then they will still trigger traps. Sensei: Last seen somewhere in the Basic Jungle of Terror 23:43, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Crossbow Trap?

How does a crossbow trap work? Does it have line of sight, like a Dwarf? – unsigned comment by Lordmick134

Ranged weapons in weapon traps work much the same as melee weapons do, attacking the creature which triggered the trap. The only real difference in functionality seems to be that they require and use up appropriate ammunition, and (according to the article) do not get occasionally stuck and need cleaning like melee weapons in a weapon trap do. --Janus 21:31, 28 March 2008 (EDT)

How much ammo gets loaded into a crossbow trap? I have 10 individual bolts in one and a stack of 39 in another. HeWhoIsPale 09:48, 24 November 2008 (EST)

I assume they load it with whatever stack is close at hand. They'd probably load it with a 1-er if you don't forbid used ammo.--Maximus 12:07, 24 November 2008 (EST)

Trapping cave dwellers

Has anyone sucessfully caged a cave dwelling megabeast? I have tried on two seperate maps to capture a minotaur and an ettin, both times the monster just run right through the cage traps. Perhaps creatures that are spawned on embark are bugged immune to traps?

as said above, some creatures that spawn on the map dont seem to be caught in traps. however, i successfully caught and with the dugeon master, tamed, a giant cave spider that was living in my chasm. I designated it as available for a pet. a legendary engraver adopted it, so i drafted him and am training him up now. hopefully the giant cave spider that now follows him everywhere will be happy to defend its owner against goblins. megabeasts that spawn and attack you can be caged, in fact, its the easiest way by far to deal with them. some, like dragons can then be tamed. im assuming your etin and minotaur fall under the aforementioned bug... try a later game version. --FruityBix 13:04, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

Weapon Trap Jamming

The page says crossbow weapon traps don't jam, but what about a trap with a crossbow and a melee weapon? Does the crossbow still fire if the trap jams? Or does a trap have to be pure crossbows to avoid jamming? --Strangething 01:21, 19 July 2008 (EDT)

Well, it jams in my experience as of 40d, I tried mixed trap, when something jams, the whole trap stops TettyNullus 18:26, 30 November 2008 (EST)

Trap betrayals?

Has anyone else been betrayed by their own traps? I had a dog and a crossbowman killed by weapons traps. Serrated iron disks ripped through their bodies like the bloody tusks of enraged elephants.

Correction. A dog, a crossbowman, and a miner. Will the slaughter never end?--Amenos42 12:08, 30 July 2008 (EDT)

I've noticed that traps tend to fire on people/animals with injuries. They've killed lots of 3 legged dogs for me, and a soldier that was dragging himself off the field.

Traps will (also) trip for any and all unconscious individuals. That may be or be one of the reasons. Drawf irons 20:53, 4 August 2008 (EDT)

Does that include dead individuals? And is it possible to get my dead dog out of his cage? --Groveller 01:32, 14 August 2008 (EDT)

Mark it for dumping? That's usually the solution as to how to get anything out of anywhere! --Raumkraut 09:34, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

Cage Trap Question

I recently received the message that there was a goblin snatcher in my fortress. It zoomed the page to one of the 3 cage traps. I took the game off pause and it gave me the same message again. Now I have two cave traps sprung, and when I press "k" and go over them, one says : "goblin cage (Larch)" and the other says "Goblin cage(nickel)". Does this mean I have successfully caught the scoundrels? Or are they still at large?

If there is a flashing 'g' then yes, if no than It could be possibly a bug.Hoborobo 08:25, 10 August 2008 (EDT)

Goblin Cage(Material) is usually a good indication that you've caught them. In fact, the "____" cage (Material) is a name that's given when something occupies the cage, I believe, so it definitely means the Goblin is trapped inside, as otherwise it would simply be a "Larch Cage". Jwguy 06:15, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Stone Fall Update: Watch Out!!

This is as of release 0.28.181.39f: in the past hour I saw two of my own dwarves - both normal healthy members of society - get killed in two different stone fall traps I'd had set up. Clearly, the old rule that dwarves are immune to their own traps is no longer entirely accurate...unless there's a bug going on here? Has anyone else fallen prey to this occurrence? Grand marquis 06:31, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

See two sections up. :P Anything unconscious will trigger traps currently - did those dwarves fall asleep on the trap square maybe? I've changed the section on triggering traps, so it gives at least a little hint that backfiring is now possible! --Raumkraut 09:33, 16 August 2008 (EDT)

Room of Spiky Death

Alright, after a long, long time, I finally got myself a gross(144) of menacing green glass spikes. I'm planning to put them in airlock area of my castle, so that I can trap the goblins who have been annoying me and spike them to death. Each trap will use ten spikes, and there are 14 of them. There's an animal planted as bait, and once I raise both draw bridges, there's no way out. Can anyone tell me if there is something I should know before embarking on this death spree? -Cypress 14:47, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

Yes. Be prepared for blood. lots and lots of blood. also, it will be awesome.--Jackrabbit 00:56, 15 September 2008 (EDT)

Stop dwarves from automaticaly cleaning traps and getting killed.

its in the title. first big siege comes in, hits the first line of traps in my entry hall of death, and then half the fortress runs out en mass to clean them, getting killed by the goblins in front and the ballista bolts from behind. they also block my military from getting past. this is agonizing! children, peasants, legendary craftsdwarves and nobles all are susceptible. aaaaarrrrrrggh! --FruityBix 17:35 30 September 2008 UTC

Lock the doors. --GreyMaria 22:49, 20 September 2008 (EDT)

Forbid the traps, at least until the siege is over. --Smartmo 17:20, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Build the traps well outside (removing the roof and rebuilding with blocks still counts as "outside"), and forbid your dwarves to go out. Qwertyu 12:17, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm having a similar problem with this, they dont want to clean the traps anymore, oh no, they want to clean the damned splatters of blood off the walls after! luckily my fortress entrance is so convoluted that it takes a full day to traverse it, but It could become a problem in the future. Heliman 11:16, 16 May 2009 (EST)

Caged Creatures and Loot

In this case remove the poor fellow using the goblin's inventory screen.

I just caught my first goblin in my outer line of defenses! It wasn't even complete yet. *dances* Only, I can't seem to access the bugger's inventory screen. How get his goods off him without killing him? --RomeoFalling 04:12, 7 November 2008 (EST)

Mark the bag (or whatever) he's holding for dumping via the stocks screen. HeWhoIsPale 09:29, 7 November 2008 (EST)

weapon trap

anyone got a good combo for a weapon trap setup? I have magma so my last line of defense is a 3x3 grid of serrated green glass disk weapon traps- with ten each. It is generally a one-hit-kill, if they make it past my cage trap field. Anyway, share some good weapon combos here. Good meaning easily producible yet deadly, or really effective.--Destor 00:47, 5 December 2008 (EST)

Bone crossbows trap, nuff said, all you need are some stones, and breeding pairs, and off ya go. Might be a bit high-maintance, but it never jams, and as long as you still have animals and stone around, you can make more of 'em, and fill 'em with just animals. -- TettyNullus 01:46, 8 December 2008 (EST)

I tend to do 2-3 of whatever weapon I've got on hand per trap. This is usually either glass weapons that I've been making to train a glassmaker or silver or copper weapons that I've been training a weaponsmith on. Weapon traps reset quickly between attacks, so a line of 2- or 3-weapon traps 3-4 deep is usually plenty. And why go through the trouble of reloading traps just to avoid an occasional jam? Save your bone bolts for training marksdwarves. IMO.--Maximus 23:07, 8 December 2008 (EST)

Metal tend to be in short supply in early fortresses, and those with lack of wood to burn through. Beside the jamlessness is just a bonus, nicely balanced by the difficulity of keeping it supplied. Breeding pairs of animals are cheap and counts as renewable resource, they provides food, leather and bone, as long as there're enough breeding pairs to keep going. Animal husbandery can be slightly complicated with a -lot- of animals but the benefit is you have armour, weapon and food resource no matter where you go ( And as long as there're enough of 'em to breed ). It's really more player preference and avaliable resources so YMMV! (Plus last I recall, the only weapons that can be made with bones are crossbows, at least in vanilla DF using dwarves, correct me if I'm wrong, since some maps don't have woods. And some don't have stones but at least you can arm your guys with bone and leather equipments) -- TettyNullus 01:30, 10 December 2008 (EST) ed: forget to say that I've had sieges big enough to run through 5 deep of fully loaded glass disc traps, that'd be stopped almost completelly by fully loaded crossbow traps with even bone bolts, but maybe I've just been lucky.

Dwarven Flame Belcher

I'm modding DF to support a flamethrower trap component, and I was wondering whether 'charcoal' is an acceptable ammunition. More specifically, I'm curious what the proper name for refined coal is.

[ITEM_TRAPCOMP:ITEM_TRAPCOMP_FLAMEBELCHER] [NAME:flame belcher:flame belchers] [ADJECTIVE:dwarven] [DAMAGE:100:HEAT] [WEIGHT:200] [HITS:1] [CRITBOOST:1] [MATERIAL_SIZE:4] [RANGED:CROSSBOW:CHARCOAL] [METAL]

It's designated as a crossbow because I don' know if RANGED will work without a skill. And so crossbow users in adventure mode can have fun. --RaguCat 14:13, 11 December 2008 (EST)

If you wanted to be really awesome, you'd have Naptha produceable at an alchemists, and use Naptha as fuel. I suppose you could have Naptha be made from coke and soap, although really you'd need some oil too... but adding oil to the game sounds complicated. --Squirrelloid 15:06, 11 December 2008 (EST)

Do you mean napalm?--Mrdudeguy 20:24, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Refined coal is coke in the game. Whiskey is a nice burny liquid your dwarves know how to make, but it's wasted on goblins. --Jellyfishgreen 19:29, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Friendlies completely immune to traps?

Unless I'm mistaken, except in a few cases, friendlies are immune to traps; if a friendly unit is on the same tile as a trap and an enemy triggers the trap only the enemy will get hurt. Right? --Xonara 01:24, 4 January 2009 (EST)

Well it depends, if the trap in question is a spike trap, it will not discriminate between friend or foe, otherwise a trap shouldn't harm any conscious ally--Heliman 2:12, May 17 2009 (EST)

Traps + Caravans = very bad

Today, I had an elven caravan run into my weapon traps... they all died... this may be because they were wounded from goblin ambush but it is still kind of weird, is this a bug? or is it supposed to happen?

Correction: happened twice, first the elven, then a human caravan was ambushed and the same thing happened when they tried to flee to my fortress

Friendly units can be caught in traps if they lose consciousness, which would usually be due to wounds. Although it could also happen if a dwarf with no bed happened to go to sleep on a trapped tile. --FunkyWaltDogg 05:30, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Um, isn't there a "panic" mode that will let any creatures trigger traps? Like kobold thieves can be caught by a trap after they ve been detected and run off? Maybe the same goes for chased traders. --Koltom 23:53, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Caged Dwarfs not immortal

So the bit about trapping berserk ones instead of killing them needs to be updated out of existence. I fiddeled with a rewrite where in I tried to say it myself, but I'm not very good, so I didn't post it.

Stonefall traps not being reloaded?

I don't know what is going on, but in my game, some of the stonefall traps don't seem to get reloaded since they show a whole bunch of stone on top of it which blinks as it should when icons are on top of each other, however, I'm not sure if this is normal or not.--Smjjames 21:56, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Sure they reload them, just not with the same stone. Because dwarves are stupid like that. I just dump the excess stones once they get annoying enough. --Corona688 23:47, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

Apparently so. Anyways, it was looking like the stones were actually blocking the traps from working right, so I cleared them anyway. Those goblin seiges are pretty skittish, once they take a few casualties from my traps, they run like chickens.--Smjjames 01:28, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

It seems that when dwarves are assigned a job to load a trap, they will pick up stone closest to their current location, not closest to trap. --Denspb 18:16, 14 May 2009 (UTC)

Cage trap bug

recently I caught about 15 goblins in a siege so I decided to drop them in my volcano to prove a point to the rest. Well I dropped them in and then I noticed that one of my cage traps was smoking and that there was everything that a goblin bowmen would where in it. So after a couple of minutes I had gotten a screw pump ready to try and get rid of the smoke when my game crashed then I tried it again and the exact same thing happened. Im pretty sure that this is a bug but I cant be sure.--Cerol The Elf Hunter 00:32, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

disposing of trapped hostiles

What is the safest/easiest way to empty cages? TIA Garrie 06:31, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Build a drowning room that you can fill with a screw pump / floodgate connected to river, build the cages in there, link a lever to the cages, close and forbid the door of the drowning room, pull the lever.

Other ways are more risky, but can also be more fun ;) --Syndic 13:10, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

create a room with a lockable door. Build the cages in that room. Connect the cages to a lever. Use the d-b-d key combo to dump the traps. Use 't' to look at all the cages and stop dumping the cage and mechanisms themselves. Wait for your dwarves to strips the prisoners naked. Lock some of your warriors in the room with the cage. Pull the lever. Free XP. Clean up and go again. --Altaree 18:01, 29 March 2010 (UTC)

Human ambushers trap-immune?

In 28.181.40d it seems that the humans that come with the goblin ambushes walk past my traps without setting them off, luckily they usually flee when their goblin friends follow them and are killed by the traps. Do humans have some sort of trap-evasion now too or (more likely) do human ambushers also benefit from that "not affected by traps their diplomats have seen" thing that human sieges get? --Syndic 07:37, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Update: seems like it really is caused by the human diplomats seeing the traps... another ambush, the human walked past all the traps just fine until he hit a weapon trap that I constructed after the last caravan already left. I'm now building special trap-filled, pet-baited corridors with doors in front so the filthy spies can't see them.--Syndic 12:52, 10 July 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, now an elf leading a goblin ambush walked past traps too... not sure what to make of this --Syndic 14:57, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

{forbidden} animal corpses

when elephants are getting killed by my weapon traps (which IMO are being a great way to train my forest gulag woodcutter/carpenter/mechanic Corps of Engineers) the corpse is {forbidden}. Which means perfectly good meat/skin going to waste.

Is there a way to make dead meat not be auto-forbidden?? Might be worth putting in there somewhere?? I've already got one friendly herd of elephants so don't need to cage-trap any more thanks! Garrie 10:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Try (O)rders (F)orbid to find the right menu. Most of us consider auto-forbidding corpses a feature - it stops foolhardy peasants from running into goblin attackers to loot the corpse of a recently slain one. --Squirrelloid 14:03, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, now I know how the feature works I will be able to toggle it on/off as needed.Garrie 13:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Spike trap actually does work on falling dwarves

The Baron Consort had a bit of an... accident when someone mistakenly pulled the lever that activated the floor hatches in his room that dropped him on top of upright spikes which had no triggers at all. He was impaled on it. The fortress Channeltribes is thrilled with deeply saddened by our loss.

Are you sure it was the spikes that killed him, and not just fall damage? --LaVacaMorada 06:49, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Getting dwarves out of cages

If an individual dwarf falls unconcious on a cage trap (NOT a child in a snatcher's inventory), and the cage used was wood (Can't set it to justice), is there any way to get that dwarf out? The dwarf in question decided that there was nothing wrong with walking around with a damaged lung and fell unconcious on a cage trap. Now he's sitting in my storage room. I tried "building" the cage he was in, then tried taking him out by unassigning him from it, but nobody seems interested in letting him out, even if they have nothing else to do and I have animal hauling, animal handling, etc, activated on them. Any ideas on getting him out? --98.222.254.167 22:11, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

• Link it to a lever, then pull the lever. --Quietust 02:25, 2 July 2010 (UTC)