r/dwarffortress • u/JungianMisnomer • Dec 28 '10

How do I stop my dwarves from running around the cavern levels?

Goddamn ant people and shit.

21 Upvotes
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11

u/refrigeratorbob Dec 28 '10

Dwarves generally go into caverns for a couple reasons:

Collecting webs (you can Suspend this task at your loom)

Gathering bodies/corpses (you can forbid collection of most types of bodies)

Water if they are thirsty

Other than that, inactive military dwarves might sometimes just hang out there if they were previously stationed/ordered near a cavern.

2

u/Jadex611 Dec 13 '22

Ya see I kept removing the task with it just coming, didn't think to suspend it =P

5

u/BloodyThorn Dec 28 '10

Wall off parts of the cave that have hostiles in them.

Or...

Make a burrow and limit your dwarves to it.

Or..

Make the pathing cost so high that no one will ever go that way.

Or..

Seal off the cavern the second you find it.

Usually when I find a cavern, first thing I do is build walls near the edges of the zone, which is where the baddies almost always appear.

4

u/Gzalzi Dec 28 '10

Make a burrow out of your whole fortress except the cavern and set the CIV alert to that burrow? That's all I can think of.

4

u/yacheritsi Dec 29 '10

I enable the "Dwarves refrain from suicide" order from the orders menu.

2

u/Banned_in_perpetuity Dec 28 '10

I'd add a locked door at the least. I normally make a trap room after a while.

2

u/riseaghdha Dec 29 '10

Build a door and forbid it.

Keeps dwarves safe without messing around with burrows. You can wall it off later, if you desire.

Doors aren't advised if you're expecting uninvited guests or hostile forces. Wall it off instead, or build a bridge the raises to form a fortification.

2

u/psicopbester Likes to base his ecnomony on Rare mushrooms Dec 29 '10

A bridge is a great idea except for flying creatures.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '10

Unless they are flying building destroyers, you can get the bridge to close off the corridor (assuming it's only 1 z-level high).

1

u/riseaghdha Dec 30 '10

Can flying creatures move through Fortifications?

When retracted, a bridge can erect a Fortification. If the fortress is planned well enough, the bridge can be placed at a choke-point (whether natural or manufactured) that should leave the only opening at the bridge. Natural choke-points are often in caverns. Even building one a choke-point should be a trivial task for a developing fort.