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[Centigrade]

Defense design question.



The picture oval room is going to be my magma-fired industry room. The stairwell on the right leads up 120 layers to the rest of my fortress. I will obviously put floor hatches on the levels above this one which I can lock to keep out the potential magma-swimming building destroyer, but hopefully the vertical tunnel there (which will house a drawbridge) combined with locked doors on both sides of the horizontal tunnels will be enough to contain anything that might swim up through the magma and harass my industry dwarfs.

What would be the best way to limit the damage of such critters?

Closing off the area while I muster my military and then sending them in to exact vengeance after everyone locked inside has already died is effective at preserving the rest of the fortress but a clearly undesirable outcome given that it assumes my legendary workers will die in the process. Should I perhaps move my barracks nearer to the crafting hall and station a squad in the room, or is there some way to keep magma-swimming critters from getting into the works?

To clarify, this room is designated directly above a patch of the magma sea and my plan right now is to just channel tiles for workshop magma access. Any advice would be appreciated!

[KingBacon]

Just going to say that you would be better off digging out that area as a reservoir and pumping the magma up one z level.
Trust me, I had a magma crab in a magma pipe kill a bunch of slag in .34 days; wound out diverting an underground lake into that magmapipe to kill it (which in retrospect was incredible dorfen.)
 

[Centigrade]

I have never pumped magma. I am guessing I would need to make a room to the side of the reservoir (say, to the left in this picture), build the pump in there and let it flow out into the reservoir?

[KingBacon]

Letting magma flow is the slow way. Pumps add pressure. What you really want to do is channel a hole in the floor above the magmasea and build the pump next to that hole. Then have the pump in a side room next to the chamber you want to fill. Make sure to have side access for the dorf. You might want to practice playing with water first though if you don't have pump experience.

       Chamber
=====   ===== Front end of the pump lined up with wall
          Pump
==== Hole ====


http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Screw_pump

[peridot]

If you build a magma-safe pump, it can draw through a floor grate; building destroyers can (to first order) not destroy it from below. You'd then have tunnels or a reservoir on the pump floor to feed the workshops. (Not that they ever use any magma up.)  But each workshop has an impassable tile. If you build this tile over the channel, dwarves can't fall in, and things can't come out without destroying the workshop. But building destroyers can't destroy the workshop from below. So as long as all your channels into the magma are covered by workshops' impassable tiles or grates, you shouldn't have visitors. That said, I have had magma crabs turn up inside in spite of the above precautions. And if you're too close to a magma pipe supposedly you can have magma materialize in your diggings.

[Skullsploder]

Pumping is unnecessary! Building destroyers cannot destroy stuff from below, provided they have no other path to it, so all you have to do is make sure your channels into the magma sea go directly under the impassable tiles of your forges and furnaces. That means top center for furnaces and middle left or right for forges.

[GhostDwemer]

The problem with channeling directly into the magma sea is the period of time when you have the channel, but no impassable tile from a workshop covering it. Back when magma crabs were little magma auto-cannons, I lost quite a few dwarves that way. I guess they are not quite so bad these days, but still, it's an avoidable danger. Pump through grate or bridge assisted sidewall pierce are my favorite magma methods these days.

[peridot]

The problem with channeling directly into the magma sea is the period of time when you have the channel, but no impassable tile from a workshop covering it. Back when magma crabs were little magma auto-cannons, I lost quite a few dwarves that way. I guess they are not quite so bad these days, but still, it's an avoidable danger. Pump through grate or bridge assisted sidewall pierce are my favorite magma methods these days.

Ah, but if you're being as paranoid as I am, you can fill minecarts (via grate/pump/pump/drying chamber) and have dwarves haul them up to fill pits under your workshops; then there's no need to put your magma workshops down at the bottom. But that's no fun. I'd say just park some soldiers around and have a stockpile of workshop bits before you dig the first hole. So you're covered while they're building.