Save the fortress with a wall

dwarf-fortress

(Move to the TL;DR section if you don't care about the context.)

So I was digging too deep when I found some giant cave spider. I think I was bothering it, since it proceeded to decimate my fledgling military. Once I had managed to calm it down, er, permanently, the tunnel revealed another welcome guest; a forgotten beast. This monster, which apparently took the appearance of a giant grasshopper made of iron and with five or so mouths, then tore right through a door blocking off the mines in my fortress from the rest of the place.

Now, what remains of my military is fighting the beast, but I am sensing their inevitable failure. Thus, I need to enact Operation: Grasshopper Blocker, which consists of me building a wall. However, remembering that the grasshopper could destroy doors, and knowing that giant cave spiders (which I'm sure there are more down there) are building destroyers, I am uncertain whether or not my wall would be enough.

TL;DR Are constructed walls (wooden and other) safe from building destroyers?

Followup question: is it possible to cause a cave-in that will permanently close a passage?

Best Answer

Yes, constructed walls are safe from building destroyers, as walls are a type of construction rather than a type of building.

From the Building Destroyers page of the DF wiki:

Constructions (walls, staircase, floors, etc.) are still safe, since they're processed the same way natural terrain is for most situations.

Related Solutions

How to start with a Minimalistic build in Dwarf Fortress

A true minimalistic build is 1 anvil and 2 copper nuggets; so I'm going to assume that's what you meant.

De-construct your wagon (you have no other way to get wood).
Make your wood furnace (copper nugget #1)
Cook 1 ash and 2 coal from your three wood
De-construct your furnace
Use the ash to make a smelter (ash is a fire safe material in DF)
Smelt 1 copper bar (you're going to need the other one)
Build a forge (nugget #2 + anvil)
Forge a battle axe (use this to cut down 3 trees)
De-construct your forge
Build a second wood furnace (with the nugget from the forge)
Bake 1 ash and 2 coal again
De-construct the furnace
Build a forge out of the ash and the anvil (again the ash is a fire safe material)
Smelt the copper bar from the wood furnace
Forge a pick

This gets you a forge, a smelter, an axe and a pick, thus completing the minimalist challenge.

Or you could just start out with 2 ash, 2 coal, an axe, a pick and an anvil and skip this otherwise tedious beginning.

Its worth noting that with 1 copper nugget you have the choice of either a pick or an axe. As a result you either don't have enough copper or not enough wood to complete the challenge.

Edit: actually if you had above ground lava, you could avoid needing the second copper nugget and make two ash giving you have enough for the forge (as lava forges don't need coals).

DF2010

In DF2010 (the latest build) you can use the training axe in place of a normal axe to cut down more trees. People who traditionally used the minimalistic build consider this "cheating" as you essentially get your axe for free. This can let you use 1 copper nugget.

De-construct your wagon (you have no other way to get wood).
Build a carpenter's shop (wood #1)
Construct a training axe (wood #2)
Make your wood furnace out of the copper nugget
Cut down 3 trees
Cook 2 ash and 2 coal
Use the ash to make a smelter
Deconstruct the furnace to get your nugget back
Smelt your copper bar (using ash #1 and the nugget)
Build a forge from the ash and anvil (using ash #2)
Forge the bar into a pick

This gets you your forge, smelter, axe and pick. Everything you need to build a full society.

How to make Dwarf Fortress easier

I found one of the easiest ways to simplify the game without hacking or removing many sources of Fun is to lower the population cap. I found that once my fortress grew to 100 dwarves or beyond, I couldn't figure out how to manage all of them and keep them working productive jobs. So instead they all just sat around throwing parties and pestering my productive dwarves. Until you get enough experience to handle a fortress that size, try lowering the cap to 40 or 50 dwarves.

To do this in v0.31.08, edit data/init/d_init.txt and change the value of this line:

[POPULATION_CAP:200]

Note: your actual population may still go above the cap you set, you just stop getting new immigrant waves after you reach or surpass that cap. And apparently births don't respect caps. Also I think (but I haven't tested) that you can change this mid-game if you save and quit first.

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