how to protect fort from skulking filth?

[grimey girl]

kobolds wont stop stealing stuff from my fort and getting away with it. i put up a guard tower but they always get spotted too far away to get shot and too fast to get caught. i have guard dogs watching my stockpiles. idk what to do

[Morrocco Mole]

Make an airlock with cage traps. As wide as your stairs down to your fort, but one z level goes one way, and the next one down goes the other. Line it with a few cage traps, material irrespective, and you'll catch those skulkers easily. I have several years worth of goblin snatchers in cages waiting to train my military.

[Fel]

Unless it is bugged, thieves (kobold thieves or keas for example) will not get caught in traps.
What you can do is make sure you have some animals (dogs for example) that are right near any entrance point, they will reveal the thieves and cause them to flee.

Snatchers are different and are targetted by traps.

[Ultra]

I usually have a permanently training military squad right at the entrance to my base that one would have to walk through to enter the fort proper, combined with a few dogs anything that does get through gets yomped on the way out. That squad is usually the first one i ever make so they are usually all super elite.

[tranxenne]

You can designate a small pasture zone around the entrance of your fortress and assign your dogs to it. Most of the time they will spot the intruders and scare them away.

[KERNBOOM FORDOLF]

Originally posted by tranxenne:

You can designate a small pasture zone around the entrance of your fortress and assign your dogs to it. Most of the time they will spot the intruders and scare them away.

If I don't go crazy designing elaborate pits of death overseen by archers with optional waterfall flushing, this is what I do.

[Ottfried]

I would really love to see your open fort design xD
Most people dig down into the earth and have entrance guards training there

[Scrotus Gropulonum]

Originally posted by KERNBOOM:

go crazy designing elaborate pits of death overseen by archers with optional waterfall flushing

Oh good, I'm not the only person doing this. Don't forget spikes at the bottom. Lining the landing zone floor with platinum or something really dense seems to help as well.

[Fel]

I prefer to have the spikes being relatively weak instead, leaving invaders wounded but very much alive for my newer recruits to get some experience in fighting.
With the whole "pit arena" being compromised (most escape before being chunked into the hole right next to the cage now) it is a decent way to get the recruits to fight without too much risk.

[Jetrel]

Or you can leash your dogs near the entrance where the guards are set to train religiously.

[Graknorke]

Put your stockpiled further into the fort so that it's harder to sneak in. They're not that good at sneaking, they'll get spotted and run away easy enough if they have to go through any at all crowded area.

[Thumper]

Put a military training area in your fortress entrance, then any thieves have to go through a squad of military to get out :P

[Hollowpoint]

Originally posted by Morrocco Mole:

Make an airlock with cage traps. As wide as your stairs down to your fort, but one z level goes one way, and the next one down goes the other. Line it with a few cage traps, material irrespective, and you'll catch those skulkers easily. I have several years worth of goblin snatchers in cages waiting to train my military.

That last part is brutal.

[Fel]

Well, being brutal with player-made contraptions is something fairly common in this game.
"Just" catching goblins in cages to later release them in an arena for military training is quite tame compared to the contraptions that many came up with over the years.