Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Maulrus]

K, so I'm a noob working on my first magma-bearing map. There's got to be some way to dig into any level of the pipe without putting a miner at risk. How can I do that?

[Flaede]

only channel downwards.
the magma does not behave like water (it is a "chunky" fluid), so unless you pressurize it, it will not flow upwards through the hole like water would.

this usually leaves at least a few places on a magma pipe where you can channel downwards and hit magma. If you prep drainage tunnels beforehand this method can be expanded even further by knocking out the one separating wall.

[Talanic]

A little more detail for the unwary:

Prepare a path to the magma that is above the tube that you intend to fill with magma.  Note that magma flows fairly slowly after its initial burst out of the pipe; you don't have to worry too much about it reaching your fort quickly, but you'll want the tube prepared before you breach the pipe.

What needs to be prepped in the tube?  Well, the magma pipe has such Fun creatures as fire imps.  Physically they're pushovers - I've seen them killed by single dogs - but they breathe fire and will swim up your magma tube, coming out in your nifty little magma forges to kill all your craftsdwarves.  To prevent this, make sure that your magma tube is blocked up with grates, bars, or fortified walls (all of which I'll refer to as strainers from here on out).  These can be constructed from any material, by the way; once built, they can't be destroyed by the magma unless you try to do tricks with them (hook them up to levers, etc - not important right now).  Strainers allow the magma to flow unimpeded, but of the creatures that come with magma, only the harmless fire snakes can pass through them.

I usually put at least two rows of strainers between my fort and the magma pool because of a bug: the magma flow can push a creature through the strainer, even if the creature couldn't normally fit.  It's happened to me a couple times, but not often.

Anyway, once the tube is prepped, then use the upper path to channel out the final square that separates the tube from the rest of the pipe.  The magma will never flow uphill if you don't pump it there, so the upper path is safe for your dwarf - except for one thing.  There's now access in that upper path for the nasties of the magma pipe.  Seal that off with a constructed wall and you should be golden.

[Shrike]

A safe way to do it:

Find a level where the magma pipe is larger one level down. Dig a staircase down and dig out your desired magma containment area, but LEAVE TWO TILES distant from the magma pipe itself. Smooth the wall and carve fortifications into it (This should be obsidian, by the way). Magma will flow through the fortifications, and hopefully the resident imps/fire men won't. When you're ready to have the magma pour in, channel out the squares adjacent to the magma  from the level above, then quickly put floor over the channels. See diagram:

Code: [Select]

.= empty space; X=solid wall; F=Fortification; M=Magma
Before Channeling:
XXXXX
...FXMM
...FXMM
XXXXX
After Channeling:
XXXXX
...FMM
...FMM
XXXXX

Your dwarves SHOULD all be out of the area where you're putting the magma.

I also suggest you dig out underneath the magma channels before you start the flow, so you don't have to deal with endless "Urist McFireShy Cancels dig: Warm Stone detected".

I also suggest you put a bend in the magma channels so that fire imps can't try to shoot your metalworkers through the fortifications.

[Flaede]

simpler than fortifications: your forges and smelters have open bits and solid bits. (the smelters have one top center of the 3x3, the forges one on middle left and one on middle right) if the openings into the magma are ONLY under those solid bits, the magma forge/smelter works without ever allowing any trouble with the imps... once it gets built. until then you're on your own. build it quick, and no problems should beset you.

[bmaczero]

These can be constructed from any material, by the way; once built, they can't be destroyed by the magma unless you try to do tricks with them (hook them up to levers, etc - not important right now).

Fortifications can't be destroyed by magma, but non-magma-safe grates and bars will melt after a short time.

[SkyRender]

Incidentally, I've discovered something rather unfortunate: the immunity to magma that walls and doors sport does not extend to wall grates.  At all.  The granite wall grate I installed to test this MELTED.  Odds are good that bars will do the same thing.  If you're going to build a pass-through object, make damn sure it's magma-proof.

[Flaede]

doors only keep their immunity so long as magma doesn't get in the same tile. Once it does, they melt the same as bars. Don't know how hatches fare, since they already get in the same tile as magma.

[Satarus]

Channeling is always you best bet for taping the magma.  Depending on how it is shaped, you can easily make the magma tap as wide as you need it. 

  If you are worried about magma critters, just build some floors over top your tap when you finish or just wall in that section.

[SquirrelWizard]

From my experience with playing with magma (see map in sig) its !!FUN!!

I use a box shaped grid for magma workshops like this

Code: [Select]


z0 (magma level)

xxxxxxxxxx
D--------x
x-xx-xx-xx
x-xx-xx-xx
x--------x
x-xx-xx-xx
x-xx-xx-xx
x--------x
x-xx-xx-xx
x-xx-xx-xx
x-xxxxxxxx
xFx
~~~hot stuff~~~

z+1

xxxxDxxxxxx
D-_--_--_-x
x_--_--_--x
x---------x
x-_--_--_-x
x_--_--_--x
x---------x
x-_--_--_-x
x_--_--_--x
x---------x
xxxxxxxxxxx

x= wall
D= Door
- = Floor
_ = potential channel for access
F = Fortification

remember, the more open space the magma has to fill, the slower it will take before it reaches usable levels, with the design above, it allows you to have 9 magma workshops of any type (you can expand it if you need more, but the important part is to plan ahead.)

as everybody else has pointed out, you would want to channel out the plug to your magma source

[nenjin]

So if you've got to move magma a long ways from the pipe (and are for some reason not using pumps) is it better to restrict the size of the channel to one tile?

[Cruxador]

So if you've got to move magma a long ways from the pipe (and are for some reason not using pumps) is it better to restrict the size of the channel to one tile?

Depends on what you want. A single-tile flow will get to the end of the channel quicker. A two or three tile flow will output a greater volume of magma when it eventually does get there.