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[Shoruke]

So, I have a bad idea. It is, at best, highly impractical. It serves a function easily provided by a simpler contraption. It will require lots of time and resources to make, and even at peak efficiency it is likely to turn out highly unreliable.

POINTS FOR DORFINESS AMIRITE
SCIENCE DEMANDS I ASK

Is it possible to launch projectiles through a waterfall of falling magma, lighting it on fire and creating incendiary projectiles?
A minecart shotgun seems like the best kind of launcher for this kind of thing. So if you set up a minecart shotgun, and there's a "waterfall" of magma between the launcher and the targets, do the targets get showered by flaming projectiles? Will the magma knock the projectiles out of the sky, or somehow fail to light things on fire?

Yes, I know I could just dump magma on people, but I've done that before...

[xominxac]

Why go to all that effort when you can simply set the world on fire with that magma? Don't get me wrong, a shotgun that shoots flaming ammo sounds like a wonderfull thing to use on your enemies. Honestly, I'm not sure how it would work so I'm going to wait until someone who has experimented shares their knowledge on the matter. Has this been done before by the way?

[Drazinononda]

Setting the surface on fire isn't very repeatable, for one, and not aimable at all. Minecart Shotguns are both.

[pushy]

I'm going off memory of a much older version but creatures in mid-flight are unaffected by stuff like magma. There's an easy way to test if this is still the case in the current version, by dropping a creature in the magma pit. In old versions the creature would sink to the bottom and only start to burn after it hit the floor, rather than burning as soon as it came in contact with the magma. If that still happens now, your plan won't work.

[acetech09]

I'm going off memory of a much older version but creatures in mid-flight are unaffected by stuff like magma. There's an easy way to test if this is still the case in the current version, by dropping a creature in the magma pit. In old versions the creature would sink to the bottom and only start to burn after it hit the floor, rather than burning as soon as it came in contact with the magma. If that still happens now, your plan won't work.

I believe it's still that way but I don't have too much experience in the latest version either.

But, what about dunking the whole cart in magma before firing it? As long as the tracks and minecart are magma safe that might work.

[Di]

Neither temperature nor liquids affect flying objects.
It has been tried by me and by someone else to fire balista through magma forcefield. Firing saltpeter didn't work either.

Setting stuff on fire an using bridge-pult would work.
I believe metal minecarts prevent items inside them from catching on fire. Maybe if you use wooden one and dip it in magma right before launch? Better ensure that it's dipped in water after shot.

[Talion]

We already have water throwing minecart shotguns. So you might want to cut out the middleman and throw the magma itself.

[Urist Da Vinci]

...
I believe metal minecarts prevent items inside them from catching on fire. Maybe if you use wooden one and dip it in magma right before launch? Better ensure that it's dipped in water after shot.

Nope, the items inside will catch on fire. The REAL tricky part of the design is getting the wooden items to target before they all burn up - it doesn't take that long for them to become XXitemsXX and disappear once they ignite.

[edgefigaro]

...
I believe metal minecarts prevent items inside them from catching on fire. Maybe if you use wooden one and dip it in magma right before launch? Better ensure that it's dipped in water after shot.

Nope, the items inside will catch on fire. The REAL tricky part of the design is getting the wooden items to target before they all burn up - it doesn't take that long for them to become XXitemsXX and disappear once they ignite.

Lots and lots of wooden artifacts. Make all your dwarves carpenters.

[Bigheaded]

Setting the surface on fire isn't very repeatable, for one, and not aimable at all. Minecart Shotguns are both.

clearly not read boatmurdered. They did it ~3 times a year on some peoples turns

[Button]

...
I believe metal minecarts prevent items inside them from catching on fire. Maybe if you use wooden one and dip it in magma right before launch? Better ensure that it's dipped in water after shot.

Nope, the items inside will catch on fire. The REAL tricky part of the design is getting the wooden items to target before they all burn up - it doesn't take that long for them to become XXitemsXX and disappear once they ignite.

Bituminous coal/lignite items would seem perfect for this purpose.

[Hostialan]

-Stick elves in carts
-run through Magma-Fall
-send flaming elves at their family goblins
-I don't know how to minecart but I guess that would work

[Shoruke]

So the two most viable projectiles are coal-producing stones, and live creatures?

I wonder if masons could shape bituminous coal into something more suitable as a projectile than a standard rock, for instance by increasing its mass (because DF can do that). For instance, is a table made of one piece of coal heavier than the piece of coal used to make it?

I actually like the flaming coal projectile idea better than the burning elves idea. We shall call it... the Dwarven Flamethrower. Now all we need to do is invent Dwarven napalm...

[Button]

Quick inventory of what I already have in my current fortress, using the most common stone-things-are-made-of:

andesite armor stand   24 g
andesite weapon rack   24 g   (ARTIFACT)
andesite door      72 g
andesite throne      72 g
andesite table      72 g
andesite statue      145 g
andesite slab      145 g
andesite boulder   243 g
andesite blocks      14 g   (x4)
andesite hatch cover   14 g
andesite grate      14 g
andesite millstone   72 g
andesite coffer      48 g
andesite mechanisms   48 g
andesite nest box   2 g
andesite jug      1 g
andesite hive      4 g
large andesite pot   13 g

It looks like if you're going for weight, you want boulders. If you're going for spread, you probably want blocks.