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[acorn]

so I've built an underwater "research" station to test several things, one of which being the projectile effectiveness of rocks/dwarves underwater. But I will need to build a new station soon and i have a few questions I was wondering.

Defense:
Are there underwater creatures that can knock down bridges?

I've built a few "Airlocks" with bridge-apults in them to launch things, but I realized their are animals out there that can knock down my doors / bridges that seal the room. having a skeleton whale knock down my airlocks would be quick end. Interesting, but quick.

water physics:
Do creatures fall the same underwater?

I want to build little remote "bubbles" for my next one, one for olympics and one as a noble resort of sorts. Basically ideally i'd put them in an outstretched wing of my primary building, open a floor hatch have them drop a few z levels through the ocean and then land in an open but separate airlock below. After that and a few levers they can live a happy but safely separated lifestyle. I could easily drop food/booze down as well. That is of course in theory. I've tested it minimally but are their ocean currents? I'm not worried about a passing shark, that just adds to the fun of my noble drop.

Ocean topography; are their cliffs underwater?

I've browsed around shortly but all the ocean sides seem to be the same. A gradual drop off from the beach to the ocean floor. Are their any maps with a sudden cliff that drops down a few levels straight? I'm guessing there are and I just missed them, but I figured I'd ask before digging through map gens.

How do i burn things?

So this current one I manually pumped the ocean out. It sucked. I try to avoid modding but this was hell. I heard if i drop flaming rocks down the ocean boils away quickly. This sounds amazing and a perfect quick fix. But, how exactly do you ignite the rock without magma/ imp around. I know how crazy fires can get. But I've never had this much trouble actually starting a fire on lignite. Any of you pyro dwarves out there know a good way to actually start a fire? My best attempts with wooden smelters, carelessly placed booze, dwarven lighters either fail to catch or burn so fast they never catch what i want them too.
The time saved makes it worth modding potentially, I just never thought i would have this much trouble intentionally lighting something on fire.

[darkflagrance]

Why not go ahead and test those things as well, considering that your theme is a scientific lab?

I don't actually know the answers myself.

[Shiv]

Only thing I know is that yes, you can fall in water.  If you dump someone in a 3 z level deep cistern, they'll sink to the bottom.  Was a mainstay defense in my second fort. 



I have a question for you though:  how are you building underwater without everyone drowning?  Also how are you going to test underwater projectiles?  Won't the catapult have to shoot through fortifications, which the water will just flood through?  Though I suppose pumps on the side of the room might help keep water at a shallow enough water. 

[Kanddak]

There's no way to start a fire without magma.

However, if you have an aquifer below the level of the ocean, you can drain it into that.

[acorn]

So i'm finishing up my current world as i'm getting mauled by sharks and due to poor construction half of them have drowned. But i did manage to confirm one thing.

Dwarves still fall straight down in water...provided they can't swim.

Its a very small sample size, but i dropped the same dwarf over and over, made him very unhappy to say the least. But after a few drops I noticed he was getting farther from the mark. And after the sixth drop he actually tried to swim away from the safety of the airlock and drowned.
So i reloaded to a past save and the same thing happened, after 7 "dives". As best i can tell dwarves love to swim away from all things safe.

[blue sam3]

Sounds like the catapult will be in an airlock like this:

Code: [Select]


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/-----------------------------------------------------\
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|_____________________________________________________|
~~/----------------------------------/_____________________________________________________|
~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X_____________________________________________________|
~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BRIDX____________________________________________________TO
~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~GEAPX__________________________________________________MAIN
~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ULTSX__________________________________________________AREA
~~X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~X_____________________________________________________|
~~\----------------------------------/_____________________________________________________|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|_____________________________________________________|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\-----------------------------------------------------/

- / | \ = wall
~ = water
X = floodgate
CAT
APU  = Catapults
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