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[Remotejab]

While trawling through this forum, a user mentioned in passing something about obsidian deserts (Can't remember who it was , sorry).

A long exhaustive search on obsidian yielded more information on manufacturing and weaponisation of the stuff than I could cram in one sitting, but nothing about natural surface formation.

So, is it possible for obisdian to form as a flat surface layer?

And if possible, any tips on generating / any seeds you can share?

[BlackFlyme]

I don't have any worlds with an obsidian layer that I know of, so I can't offer any tips. But it is possible. Obsidian is set as an [IGNEOUS_EXTRUSIVE] layer, one of four types of stone layers. The others being metamorphic, sedimentary, and intrusive igneous.

Though the amount of stones that can potentially form a layer can make it hard to come across a natural obsidian layer.

[Urist Da Vinci]

While trawling through this forum, a user mentioned in passing something about obsidian deserts (Can't remember who it was , sorry).
...

You mean this post:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=132568.msg4722413#msg4722413

Not sure what he means by "obsidian desert" though.

[KingBacon]

An obsidian desert is a flat area, usually a rocky wasteland, where obsidian is a layer stone. They often contain silver and fire clay. They are extremely rare and hard to find, I got two worlds I use with some very sweat spots. I can give you the seeds and post the locations of the deserts on a map if you'd like.

The current fort I've been running has some really weird geology. Magma sea at z level 80, magma tube everywhere. Current embark has a magma tube 20 z levels below the fort. Gonna try mining slade in this one, that and mod in rock warhammers.

[Remotejab]

That does seem like the post I read, thanks Da Vinci.

And yes , would love to have a look at the seeds and locations of those deserts, KingBacon.

[Ravendarksky]

I had a fort which ran along a river and the entire riverbed and surrounding area was made of obsidian so it is definitely possible. (I don't know if this was the root cause but there was a magma tube only 4z levels down)

[KingBacon]

Here are the world gen parameters, just put the in the world_gen file. I will post pics of the interesting biomes after I do studying today.
Enamural is a medium world (I once had like 20 forts in this world and there was a massive Bismuth mine, like 8000 ore in a 3x3 embark. Now I'm trying to remember where the insane platinum embark was, you know like 14k Plat ore.)  Nutters is a small world. In Nutters the obsidian desert is located near one of the temperate volcanoes.

[WORLD_GEN]
   [TITLE:CREATE WORLD NOW = Enamural]
   [SEED:iiuQCsMgU0UYmw26muY6]
   [DIM:129:129]
   [EMBARK_POINTS:1324]
   [END_YEAR:300]
   [BEAST_END_YEAR:500:-1]
   [REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
   [CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:0]
   [ELEVATION:1:400:1600:1600]
   [RAINFALL:0:100:200:200]
   [TEMPERATURE:25:75:200:200]
   [DRAINAGE:0:100:200:200]
   [VOLCANISM:0:100:200:200]
   [SAVAGERY:0:100:200:200]
   [ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:4:2:0:1:0:1]
   [RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [MINERAL_SCARCITY:500]
   [MEGABEAST_CAP:220]
   [SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:300]
   [TITAN_NUMBER:200]
   [TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
   [DEMON_NUMBER:32]
   [NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:14]
   [BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:14]
   [VAMPIRE_NUMBER:14]
   [WEREBEAST_NUMBER:14]
   [SECRET_NUMBER:100]
   [REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:28]
   [DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:28]
   [EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:14]
   [EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:14]
   [GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:30:30:0]
   [EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:30:30:0]
   [PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:3]
   [PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:4]
   [VOLCANO_MIN:1]
   [REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:66:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:66:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:264:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:528:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:528:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:16:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:33:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:528:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:528:0:0]
   [EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
   [RIVER_MINS:25:25]
   [PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
   [OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
   [SUBREGION_MAX:2750]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:75]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:25]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
   [LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
   [CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
   [CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
   [MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:50]
   [NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:50]
   [ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
   [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
   [TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:25]
   [TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
   [SITE_CAP:900]
   [PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
   [ELEVATION_RANGES:8000:1056:528]
   [RAIN_RANGES:528:1056:528]
   [DRAINAGE_RANGES:528:1056:528]
   [SAVAGERY_RANGES:528:1056:528]
   [VOLCANISM_RANGES:528:1056:528]

Created in DF v0.34.11.

[WORLD_GEN]
   [TITLE:CREATE WORLD NOW = Nutters]
   [SEED:X6aBh3lidLuPScW3Sxsy]
   [HISTORY_SEED:MvogIqYOg4ylmJY0YjTS]
   [NAME_SEED:5HWkKMAYJ441KZBOKov9]
   [CREATURE_SEED:ZLP0S0HEn4Rd0c0RnRfw]
   [DIM:65:65]
   [EMBARK_POINTS:1524]
   [END_YEAR:300]
   [BEAST_END_YEAR:5:-1]
   [REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
   [CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:0]
   [ELEVATION:1:400:800:800]
   [RAINFALL:0:100:400:400]
   [TEMPERATURE:10:75:101:400]
   [DRAINAGE:0:100:400:400]
   [VOLCANISM:0:100:400:400]
   [SAVAGERY:0:100:101:101]
   [ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:3:2:0:1:0:1]
   [RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:3:1:2:3:4:5]
   [VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [MINERAL_SCARCITY:500]
   [MEGABEAST_CAP:200]
   [SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:300]
   [TITAN_NUMBER:120]
   [TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:60:0:100000]
   [DEMON_NUMBER:25]
   [NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:11]
   [BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:11]
   [VAMPIRE_NUMBER:11]
   [WEREBEAST_NUMBER:11]
   [SECRET_NUMBER:100]
   [REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:22]
   [DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:22]
   [EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:11]
   [EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:11]
   [GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:60:40:0]
   [EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:100:100:0]
   [PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:1]
   [PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:3]
   [VOLCANO_MIN:10]
   [REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:5:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:0:0:0]
   [EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
   [RIVER_MINS:5:5]
   [PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
   [OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
   [SUBREGION_MAX:2750]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:75]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:25]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
   [LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
   [CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
   [CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
   [MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:4]
   [NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:6]
   [ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
   [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
   [TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:18]
   [TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
   [SITE_CAP:510]
   [PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
   [ELEVATION_RANGES:136:272:136]
   [RAIN_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [DRAINAGE_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:528:1056]
   [VOLCANISM_RANGES:0:0:0]

[CaptainArchmage]

Originally, there were no mountain grasses and grazing had not gone in, so all mountains and rocky wastelands had the layer stones exposed to the surface. This meant that you could end up with a flat plain of obsidian if you were really lucky. This changed with 0.31.19, when grass came in and the surface of the Mountains became covered in soil. Unfortunately, this also means no engraved pathways through the Mountains.

Edit: I checked the page again. By "Obsidian Desert", the poster means a sand desert which has obsidian as a top-layer stone, so most of the map surface is sand (black, yellow, tan, red, or white) mixed in with black obsidian pebbles, obsidian rock, obsidian boulders, and a few trees.

[KingBacon]

CaptainArchmage, you are mistaken. These surfaces have obsidian. Proceed to witness the most awesome wastelands know to dorfdum.

Here is Enamural's obsidian desert (one part is obsidian/fire clay, they other is obsidian/sandy loam)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here is Nutter's obsidian waste

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

[CaptainArchmage]

CaptainArchmage, you are mistaken. These surfaces have obsidian. Proceed to witness the most awesome wastelands know to dorfdum.

That's what I meant - the surface layer is bare soil, but there are boulders and patches of obsidian coming through.

I forgot badlands were also like deserts, just not necessarily with sand and they usually have no trees at all.

[FrankMcFuzz]

My very first fortress EVER was in one of these. I thought it was normal. I have been playing for 3 years after that, and I have not been able to get it again since.

[Button]

If you're comfortable with advanced worldgen, cranking Volcanism way up and Rainfall way down should get you a whole world of this kind of territory.