40d Talk:Cat

Bones, etc. count

Wile butchering cats I always got stacks of 3 bones... Anyone, check this, please. --User:Dorten

Cats are size 3 in the raws so 3 stacks of bones would make sense to me. Maybe they are taking the numbers from kittens, likewise you probably get 3 meat. Can someone confirm this, I don't trust my reading of the raws. --Shades 04:00, 25 January 2008 (EST)

Bone#=Size --Savok 12:58, 3 June 2008 (EDT)

Disable Cats?

I'm getting annoyed with all these cats, is there a way to delete them? Maybe removing their creature details? --AlexFili 05:38, 16 July 2008 (EDT)

Yep, that's the way. Just look for the file raw/objects/creature_domestic.txt and delete the 'cat' creature. Although personally I wouldn't recommend that, since if you just delete the [VERMINHUNTER] the cats act like normal animals, they don't go around slaughtering rats and roaches and they dont 'adopt' owners.

Too injured?

Right after the last siege, I've had a sudden surge of odd announcements along the lines of "Tame Cat Algazud Knogger cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Too Injured". Several cats exhibit this behavior, none of them actually wounded in any way I can tell. Anyone else seen this? -Fuzzy 17:51, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

I'm guessing that the vermin the cat just killed and wants to move to the stockpile is what's tripping the injured message. I'm seeing it I think every time a cat kills a vermin. HeWhoIsPale 18:27, 9 September 2008 (EDT)

Ah, well it's still happening. I took a look through the bug list and someone has listed it under "Announcement spamming". No response yet from The Toady One as best I could tell. It's annoying, but I already have to deal with a lot of spurious cancellation messages, so it's liveable. -Fuzzy 12:00, 10 September 2008 (EDT)

See Cat cancels Store Item in Stockpile: Too injured. The cat needs something to grasp with, apparently; either you make a type of grasping mouth and call it CAT_MOUTH, and assign it to CAT, or just change the CAT raws from [BODY:QUADRUPED:TAIL:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:MOUTH] to [BODY:QUADRUPED:TAIL:2EYES:2EARS:NOSE:2LUNGS:HEART:GUTS:ORGANS:THROAT:NECK:SPINE:BRAIN:MOUTH:UPPERBODY_PINCERS]. See what he did there? Version .40d. --Jellyfishgreen 03:24, 30 September 2008 (EDT)

Indeed... whoever wrote that FAQ entry must have been a very wise and knowledgable person. Truly a paragon among men. -Fuzzy 13:00, 30 September 2008 (EDT)

It is only right that we should link there from here and let his teachings be known more widely. --Jellyfishgreen 11:49, 1 October 2008 (EDT)

Added to the page. --GreyMaria 14:34, 1 October 2008 (EDT)

Closed door method of impounding cats

Recently, a method was posted to isolate cats by means of tightly-closed doors, luring the owner there by drafting, and then letting him leave while the cat is stymied. I haven't had means to test this exact method, but I do know that cats and other pets will eventually get out of the tightly closed doors if there's ever another Dwarf that will walk through. My experience is that cats especially will just sit by the door with a question mark, waiting for someone to open it so they can slip out (just like real cats!). Similarly, I've seen accounts of people on the board who've noticed peculiarly sneaky muskoxen using the same tactic to get into fortresses. -Fuzzy 15:19, 11 November 2008 (EST)

In addition, wouldn't this method just cause the pathfinding algorithm to continually execute for the cat, slowing down the FPS anyway? Also this could be moved to the 'catsplosion' page, rather than being here... --JK 20:45, 8 January 2009 (EST)

All animals will pile up at tightly closed doors because they path like dwarves, so they don't understand the door won't open for them. This should kill your FPS because they are queuing the pathfinding algorithm repeatedly. Now, if you really want to control the cat problem with tightly closed doors, build a Upright Spike trap right next to the door with a lever on the other side. When the cats pile up, have someone go pull the lever. (Works best with 2 doors airlock fashion so you can forbid the other door when you notice a cat pileup to stop dwarves from pathing through the room and letting the cats out before their death). --Squirrelloid 21:47, 8 January 2009 (EST)

Make the floor of the cat impound a retracting bridge. When pulled, cats fall 1 z-level into a completely sealed walled-in room. Now there is no door to escape, and cats cease pathfinding in favor of standing there pitiably until the end of time. Deconstruct a wall to let them out. --Rkyeun 08:27, 10 January 2009 (EST)

Virgin birth?

My current fortress is an obsidian wasteland, complete with haunted area that is spawning undead animals regularly. I only brought 1 cat with me. I haven't kept an eagle's eye on the creatures in the area, but my single female cat just gave birth to kittens. No immigrants have arrived, but I've had the first two caravans come through. They don't bring (uncaged) cats with them, do they?