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Author Topic: magma power from the get go  (Read 1405 times)

saltmummy626

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magma power from the get go
« on: June 02, 2012, 09:41:04 pm »

I was wondering how this is possible. I havent dug more than a couple z levels and I already have access to magma powered furnaces and forges. I have heard that being adjacent to a fortress with access to the caverns makes moss and such grow in your soil tunnels, but I am not near another fort I made, and I was unaware that along with the moss and cave plants, knowledge of magma power came with them. is this regular?
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ResMar

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2012, 09:44:43 pm »

Is there a volcano on your map?
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saltmummy626

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2012, 10:55:47 pm »

nope. little 2x2 embark. no volcano on the whole world either.
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SixOfSpades

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2012, 11:27:29 pm »

According to the wiki, it's not being adjacent to a settlement that has opened the caverns that activates underground plant growth, but rather it's being located above a cavern that has access to the surface. Subtle difference in semantics, but the upshot is that, in all probability,
1) At least one of the caverns under your embark extends beyond your map.
2) On one of these off-map grid squares, there is a cave that connects that cavern to the open air.
This makes the game treat the cavern as "breached," hence, you've got floor fungus.

Your dwarves knowing about magma heat is probably triggered the same way: It's quite possible that the cavern (assumedly the 1st one) has direct access to a volcano or magma pool, and if the cavern "knows" it has that, then so do your dwarves living upstairs. This could be good news, meaning that you don't have to dig far at all to get free heat . . . or, it could be bad news, if the volcano is on a grid square that's off the edge of your map. You might wind up with a Secretive Armorer demanding a magma forge, and you have absolutely no way to give him one. (I don't know if moody dwarves can insist on a magma 'whatever' when you've got a perfectly good coal-fired 'whatever' sitting there . . . but given the levels of dwarven stupidity I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised.)
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Veylon

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2012, 01:26:12 am »

You can always build magma forges (and any other building); there's no tech tree in this game. Your dwarves know how to build anything right from the get-go, all they need is the raw materials.
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Corai

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2012, 01:27:58 am »

You can always build magma forges (and any other building); there's no tech tree in this game. Your dwarves know how to build anything right from the get-go, all they need is the raw materials.

Incorrect, you cannot make magma-anything until you find lava/magma.
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saltmummy626

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2012, 01:28:22 am »

yeah, I knew you could get them at any time, it was just the fact that there is no visible magma to enable them in the building menu.

also, thank you sixofspades for the information. thats what I needed to know.
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Remalle

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Re: magma power from the get go
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2012, 01:29:04 am »

You can always build magma forges (and any other building); there's no tech tree in this game. Your dwarves know how to build anything right from the get-go, all they need is the raw materials.
Not true.  You normally have to have found magma in order for magma-powered whatever to be available to be built.
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