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[andrei901]

I recently started a new fortress. Recently being two hours ago. It is a tiny volcanic island in the middle of the ocean. It has sand, it has a magma pipe, it is heavily forested, it has undead stuff. It is perfect, except for the distinct lack of STONE. I decided that I would dig out a large pool for lava, then flood it with water to create minable obsidian. I'm thinking of the most efficient method for doing this, and decided to place a ton of pump/windmill combos to pump the ocean into the magma chamber that I will dig out. Now this seems like a pointless post, but my question is: does anyone wanna optimize/dwarfize my idea?

[Randominality]

any chance you could upload the map, sounds like its awesome

[sonerohi]

If you want to get traders, pump magma out into an enclosed 3 tile tunnel all the way out to the edge. Only idea I got.

[Hamster Man]

I saw a post on building an obsidian farm (and I can no longer find it) which I am currently using. It seems to work rather well. Please excuse my terrible ASCII designing.

- | wall
.  floor
= channel
> stairs down
< stairs up
X floodgate (water source)
M magma source

Above
------------|X|-------------
|.==================.>|
|.=.................................|
|.==================.>|
|.=.................................|
|.==================.>|
---------------------------

Below
---------------------------
|-.................................<|
|-.------------------------|
M..................................<|
|-.------------------------|
|-.................................<|
---------------------------

The idea is you let the magma into the channels, then close off the room and release the water. It flows over the channels, and hardens them into Obsidian. Then you open the room up (or have a 'drainage' room built so you can drain the water out) and then just channel out the obsidian tiles. When you're ready to go again, just channel out the last obsidian tile that links it to the magma.

I used pumps to get the water and magma into the room more quickly, and my drainage room doubled as a Tower-cap farm.

[Magua]

Not to be undwarvenly, but you don't really need a ton of pumps; one or two pumps will be fine.  The holdup is most likely going to be the speed at which the magma reaches its pumps, if you pump the magma. 

If you plan on doing this repeatedly, you'll want to pump the stuff from at least a few z-levels down, so the whole operation doesn't shut down after you've drained off the top layer of magma.

But, I'm surprised -- how can it not have any stone?  You've gone down a z-level or three, right?

[MightyPaladin]

dwarfize: make a giant block of obsidian from which to carve a castle from

[Lexender]

Even more dwarfish: build your castle out of hot, liquid magma!

But seriously, how is a "no rock" map even possible? You have 20 layers of sand? Even under the ocean? And you must have some obsidian around your magma pipe.

Upload the map!

[Foa]

Even more dwarfish: build your castle out of hot, liquid magma!

But seriously, how is a "no rock" map even possible? You have 20 layers of sand? Even under the ocean? And you must have some obsidian around your magma pipe.

Upload the map!

Damn zombies, they pop out of the ground SO much that they powdered the obsidian into sand!!!

Either that or gorons have visited your island estate!

[andrei901]

I didn't completely explain it. There is stone, two levels down from my fortress. There is also an aquifer and this map doesn't freeze (to the best of my knowledge). The only other exposed stone I can find is right by the magma pipe which is filled with fire men. I was thinking of generating obsidian because it seemed easier than coming up with a fire man defence or getting rid of the aquifer.

I like that channel idea.

How do I upload files?

[Magua]

You have magma.  No aquifer can stand before you.  Think about it!

[Lexender]

I think you could dig a 3x3 hole right down to the aquifer, and just fill it with magma. Then, find a way to remove the magma, and dig through the obsidian layer you just created.

I'm not so sure that it would work, though. Anybody more knowledgeabe than I am?

[Agent_Irons]

I think you could dig a 3x3 hole right down to the aquifer, and just fill it with magma. Then, find a way to remove the magma, and dig through the obsidian layer you just created.

I'm not so sure that it would work, though. Anybody more knowledgeabe than I am?

You'll only be able to make it through it one layer like that. If you want to do more at once, you'll need to do a bigger area, tunnel through the middle leaving a casement, then reflood with magma. With three or more layers, you might need to do it in sections.

On the OP, was it my topic you were looking at? What you have is pretty much what I use, either way. A couple of tweaks

Code: [Select]

Level below:
##########
#MMMMMMMM#
#MMMMMMMM#
MMMMMMMMM+^
#MMMMMMMM#
#MMMMMMMM#
##########
Level above:
##########
#........#
#........#
.........#\/ <- this is a stairs down.
#........#
#........#
##########

Draining into a tree farm is brilliance itself. If you have stairs down not protected by a door, the obsidian will encase them and you'll have to build them again.

I had an idea. Instead of just channeled floor, build down-stairs across the whole area, with upstairs on the level below (soon to be obsidian). the stairs will permit fluid flow and dwarf access. When the corresponding upstairs are obsidianed, you can just dig out the obsidian from your little sally port, leaving the stairs suspended. When you reflood the chamber, the down stairs will let water through to repeat the process. I need to find it if this works. (btw, find an aquifer near the magma vent. SO USEFUL.

[Kanil]

The magma vent itself tends to puncture through aquifers just fine. If you dig through the obsidian real close to the vent, you should get below the aquifer.

[Doppel]

Dwarvization of obsidian industry = make it into a trap. Muahahahahaha.

Basically (and i already posted this in another thread) you carve out a big pit. Say 10x30xasdeepasyoucan, except for the first and second (highest) level of your pit being 8x28.
This (highest) level will be "floored" with (retractable) bauxite bridges (two 8x9's with in the middle an 8x10) linked to an awesomely colored lever (preferably purple).
This room will obviously be filled with magma.
The room beneath it will be floored with again 3 (retractable) bridges (preferably of a cool expensive material), this is your entrance granting you and everyone, umm, entrance to your fortress. These 3 bridges will again be linked to your awesome lever. One level beneath it, the third level, will again be floored with bridges (make them blue or whatever) now though three 10x10 ones, these bridges do not need to be linked (they will be destroyed in the process) Fill this room with water.
Wait till nasties (meaning elves, racoons, fluffy things... and most of all every immigrant who as much as contemplate about daring to bring along a cat/kitten) enters your entrance, pull awesome lever, watch them get solidified in mid air while your miners, after having sharpened their picks, wait till the whole slab of obsidian finally touches the bottom level after which they will happily mine the whole thing looking for fun surprises (they sometimes make bets you know, apart from the annual "mine yourself an elf" contest, keeping spirits high). You only need to rebuild the waterholding bridges before making them, um, hold water, which is done in a jiffy seeing that you don't need to link them up or anything (and obviously refill the magma room after having switches back the awesome lever, ready to do its purpose next time)