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[snow dwarf]

This is very unexpected. I discovered a magma pool in the first cavern layer on z 120 (aboveground is around 130) and it leads straight to the magma sea that seems to be right below the third cavern layer on z 90. Is there going to be stuff below the magma layer? I'm extremely sure there is no candy this high up, so it can't lead to HFS.

[nuget102]

This happens sometimes. You use to be able to (possibly still can?) discover occasional magma pools on the surface. The thing is, the magma pools are ALWAYS linked to the magma sea. So yes, it is the magma sea right below the 3rd cavern layer (there is only one)

To find out what's underneath just dig a little deeper..

[snow dwarf]

...
To find out what's underneath just dig a little deeper..

Oh, too late. I found out the hard way that there is indeed always THAT under the magma sea, no matter how high up it is.

Edit: Autocorrect

[wierd]

But "that" is where all the fun is!

(Note, I actually TRY to generate worlds that have old fashioned magma pools on the surface. it is actually rather hard to fiddle the worldgen knobs just right to make them spawn)

[PatrikLundell]

How does a "magma pool on the surface" differ from a flat volcano (a magma pool isn't visible on the world map, while a volcano is is the only thing I know of)? As far as I've seen from the DFHack mapping magma pools can only form in the caverns, while volcanoes are distinct structures. I've tried to hack spires to reach the surface, and they just don't show up (I can get them to reach the magma sea or any of the caverns), but I haven't actually tried to hack them to the surface level.

The magma sea is usually right below the lowest cavern, although there are advanced world gen parameters to increase the distance (as well as the distance between the caverns), and the distance can also be larger naturally.

[wierd]

functionally, there really isn't one aside from the layer inclusions, and the depth to the hidden fun stuff.

Bugged worlds can have spires on the surface, for instance. these are outcomes of the worldgen RNG producing just the right edge cases together.  You can increase those odds of occurrence by poking the parameters, but its very much voodoo.



Take for instance, if you set min elevation to something rather absurdly low, say, consistent with being inside the HFS, and max elevation as something equally absurdly high-- then set the X-Y variance to something astronomical.

The diffusion of the resulting heightmap will still be "valid" because sufficient numbers of subregions are in the normal solution space (especially if you turn erosion cycles to max), but will have some regions where mountain tops nearly collide with the sky, and where valley floors are just a short dig away from the HFS, and where spires could pierce the soil layer.

[PatrikLundell]

Neither volcanoes nor magma pools affect the contents of the geo biome (which is where inclusions are defined), and I believe the depth of the HFS follows by various world gen info, with volcanoes and magma pools being generated against that backdrop. However, the Volcanism value affects both geo biomes and where volcanoes (and probably magma pools) form.

I know there was a case in the past where spires reached into the sky, but I thought that was fixed. The current data structure as mapped by DFHack specifies which layer the spire reaches, with valid values being cavern 1 - magma sea, with a bug causing spires to go AWOL if the world has doesn't have the cavern the spire is generated to reach, so they won't appear for the most common cavern case of cavern 3 if there are only two layers (the logic ought to count caverns from the bottom for this case, but it doesn't).
Now, if you hack the mid level tile info to have the surface below the relevant cavern you ought to get a spire in the open (as well as probable cave-ins), but then you're heavily into hacking territory.
Embarks with large elevation differences tend to result in a longer distance down to the HFS in order to fit the caverns in. Also note that everything with an elevation of less than 100 will become ocean (again, you can hack the mid level tiles pre embark, but DF won't generate that naturally), and so not particularly suitable for embark purposes, and caverns ought to be generate below the ocean floor anyway.