Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lord Darkstar]

Maklak, the problem with having your dairy farm in the middle of a meeting zone is: Humm--- well, as long as you don't actually have any animals assigned to a cage or chain, you won't get any tug of war problems, nor have your idle dwarves in the meeting zone run over to any animal in the farmer's workshop to take it back to its cage/chain while the milker is walking around getting a new empty bucket (rather than use any of the empty buckets in the farmer's workshop). Downside is that you can never tell what animal a milker will grab--- they'll prefer to grab the nearest animal to them when they decide to do the milking job, and if the animal runs off to the other side of the map, they'll chase it, rather than grab an animal that is trying to pass them in the fortress.

BUT, your FPS will suffer from all those animals wandering free. Keeping them caged up really helps out on the old FPS. Which means you need your milking station (farmer's workshop) and source animals to be far enough away from any meeting zones that you avoid animal tug of wars while the animal is in the process of being milked.

[Sphalerite]

How many doors do you usually use for the airlock? Three?

Varies, depending on how I feel like setting it up for that fortress.  There's no magic number.  In my current fortress I have a single door between the milking room and the butcher room, another door between the butcher room and the tannery/refuse stockpile room, and then one door between that and the main fortress area, all set non-animal-passable.  Animals sometimes make it through one or two doors, but rarely get through all of them.  I like to imagine the would-be escapees having to hang around the butcher's shop while trying to figure out how to get past the next door.

BUT, your FPS will suffer from all those animals wandering free. Keeping them caged up really helps out on the old FPS. Which means you need your milking station (farmer's workshop) and source animals to be far enough away from any meeting zones that you avoid animal tug of wars while the animal is in the process of being milked.

Yep.  This is why I have my dairy farm far enough away from the main fortress areas that even if a dwarf decides to go and return the cow to its cage before it can be milked, the milker will be done by the time he gets there.  So no annoying tug of war, and if the timing is right he arrives just in time to return the cow after it's been milked.

Another reason not to just let the animals wander loose:  animals are filthy.  Any mud or vomit or eyeball melting forgotten beast frozen nerve poison extract that gets into your fortress will get picked up and spread around by every animal in the place forever.  I do not let animals wander my fortresses, everything gets chained, caged, or butchered.

[Maklak]

I plan on caging males, but keeping females around is probably a bad idea with so many kinds of animals.

@Sphalerite: What about cats? I want vermin hunters to roam freeley. Should I chain them in my food stockpile instead?

[Sphalerite]

@Sphalerite: What about cats? I want vermin hunters to roam freeley. Should I chain them in my food stockpile instead?

I do not permit cats to exist in my fortresses.  One of the first things I build is a chamber involving a raising drawbridge and pet-impassible doors to isolate and kill any pet cats that immigrants bring.  I usually make the owner pull the lever himself.

I'd rather deal with live vermin than catsplosions, cats tracking poison blood everywhere, and dead vermin littering my fortress.  If live vermin get to be a problem, I train up a trapper, catch all the vermin, and then sell them to the elves.  I've never had vermin in my food stocks be a problem anyway, I always make and sell far to much food to even notice any wear from vermin.

[RiderofDark]

Assign all your female livestock to the cage.  Take a look at your male animals.  Assign the best (most muscle, largest size) of each species to one of the chains next to the cage.  Butcher the rest.

Some added info, the males can be inside the cages and impregnate females just fine. As long as the male is on the map and at some point the female is outside of a cage spore reproduction is gonna happen.

[Nameless Archon]

Assign all your female livestock to the cage.  Take a look at your male animals.  Assign the best (most muscle, largest size) of each species to one of the chains next to the cage.  Butcher the rest.

Some added info, the males can be inside the cages and impregnate females just fine. As long as the male is on the map and at some point the female is outside of a cage spore reproduction is gonna happen.

Are you sure about this? Creatures inside cages are usually thought of as "on another plane of existence", hence the lack of falling damage for critters in cages, and so forth.

[RiderofDark]

Assign all your female livestock to the cage.  Take a look at your male animals.  Assign the best (most muscle, largest size) of each species to one of the chains next to the cage.  Butcher the rest.

Some added info, the males can be inside the cages and impregnate females just fine. As long as the male is on the map and at some point the female is outside of a cage spore reproduction is gonna happen.

Are you sure about this? Creatures inside cages are usually thought of as "on another plane of existence", hence the lack of falling damage for critters in cages, and so forth.

I'm pretty sure of it. I've had all mine locked up. Then again, it could be that the caravans' haul animals would be the reason for it. Ho hum, so I could be wrong.

[Peewee]

Nope, female caged creatures cannot be impregnated, nor can male caged creatures shoot their spores. It doesn't matter if they're in the same cage, they still can't reproduce.

This has been proven over and over again.

[RiderofDark]

Nope, female caged creatures cannot be impregnated, nor can male caged creatures shoot their spores. It doesn't matter if they're in the same cage, they still can't reproduce.

This has been proven over and over again.

Eh, my post wasn't that clear. Was wrong about why my females were getting impregnated (caravan's animals), but they are getting milked which brings 'em out of the cage.

[Sphalerite]

I have had female dogs become pregnant and give birth during times when the only male dog on the map was in a cage.  This has happened repeatedly over several years with the male dog never being uncaged, and the puppies butchered well before reaching adulthood.  It appears that in the current version it is possible for a male animal who is in a cage to impregnate a female animal who is not in a cage.  I like to keep my male breeding stock chained up outside the cage anyway to make it easier to examine each for physical characteristics and butcher the weaker or smaller ones.