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[Shootandrun]

So, dwarfgineers, i just had a idea. After having my whole military dying because of some stupid dragon, i decided that the future of the trap design is the magma. Of course, every one know that.

So i thinked about a little design... It's quite simple.
At the top level, there is magma and hatches.
At the middle level, there is my fortress entrance, wich will not have doors but floodgates (magma safe, of course) and hatches, and pump behind a wall.
At the bottom level, pumps.

I guess you understand. I have my magma at the top. I pull a lever, floodgates close and magma drop (I will put en masse of the blessing liquid, at least enought to cover all tiles by 4/7). I then pull another lever and hatches of the middle level open, dropping magma at the third level. I then (as you guessed) close all these hatches and bring the magma up with a pump stack. Of course, because I can't put pumps everywhere, there will be some magma staying at the bottom,  but I will use a volcano so there is just no problem with that. I will put some back at top.

Alright. It's said. Anyway, because I am a damn idiot, there is a risk of failure in this project.
Do you people see any problem with that design? Danger?

[ISGC]

if you have a volcano, why bother recycling the magma?

[Shootandrun]

Because the place where I drop it is where my fortress entrance is. I won't dig a giant hole to place all that magma for every single siege. It's not recycling, its managing to save time and/or ressources and/or forest fire problem if i put the used magma at a wrong place. Of course i will have to, from time to time, drop some magma in a hole (my system is not 100% efficient) but it will take far less time.

[ISGC]

Because the place where I drop it is where my fortress entrance is. I won't dig a giant hole to place all that magma for every single siege. It's not recycling, its managing to save time and/or ressources and/or forest fire problem if i put the used magma at a wrong place. Of course i will have to, from time to time, drop some magma in a hole (my system is not 100% efficient) but it will take far less time.

you could pump the magma off the side of the map

[NecroRebel]

Rather than hatches, you might find it better to use retracting bridges. A retracting bridge can cover an area up to 10x10, while each hatch covers only 1x1, a bridge and a hatch both take two mechanisms to link to a lever, so if you have more than one hatch you're wasting mechanisms, bridges take less material per square than hatches (1 per 3 1/3 squares as opposed to 1 per 1) so you need less magma-safe material, and hatches cannot be used for a path more than 2 wide as they don't provide support to each other.

Problems with retracting bridges for this use are twofold. First, if there is a very big creature on a retracting bridge, it won't retract. This isn't an issue if said very big creature has been magmaed to death, however. Second, retracting bridges take 100 steps (units of ingame time, each roughly long enough for a dwarf to move 1 tile) to open after the open/close signal has been sent by a lever.

[Jorshamo]

Seems to be a decent idea. NecroRebel brings up a good point. With significant area, you definitely want to use a drawbridge on the upper floor, and possibly on the second floor too, as a building destroyer could bust you hatches, screwing up your plans. However, I can't vouch for whether a BD will destroy a lowered drawbridge.

Also, instead of messing with a pump stack, you simply want to funnel you leftover magma into an obsidian farm since something like that would use magma anyway. However, you might want to pump it into the level above the Magma reservoir, that way the magma will spread properly. Something like this

Code: [Select]

X = Wall
F = Floodgate
X~XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X~~~~~F.....X...... <- Leftover magma
XXXXXXX.....F~~~~~~XXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


[Shootandrun]

Thanks for the remarks guys. Yea, I am going to use a retracting bridge (why a drawbridge anyway? it would be taking a lot of space). And using the left magma in a obsidian farm is a good idea. I could drop the magma of the third level in a fourth level, filled with water. If the whole system is using a 10x10 space, I would get one hundred units of obsidian each time; with legendary miners, it could give to my fortress enought valuable stone for all his constructions between two sieges. I could also place a drawbridge in front of my fortress, so if I can't get all the enemy at once, i will be able to reload my weapon of the death in relative peace.

Pros:
Extremely efficient way to dispatch a siege, an ambush, an elf, and probably even some FB (not all, of course)
Very dwarfy
Obsidian farm

Cons:
Hard to have everything working and ready to use at the good moment.
You can be sure that many dwarves/cats/other useful stuff will die in here because they wanted to do something stupid outside.

[Dariush]

Heh... I've got an awesome idea based on yours:

Code: [Select]

z+2:
S%%__S__%%S
S%%__S__%%S
S%%__S__%%S
z+1:
_%%S___S%%_
_%%S___S%%_
_%%S___S%%_
z0 (entrance):
S%%_O#O_%%S
S%%_O#O_%%S
S%%_O#O_%%S
z-1:
_%%SSSSS%%_
_%%SSSSS%%_
_%%SSSSS%%_
z-2:
OOO_____OOO
OOO_____OOO
OOO_____OOO
O=wall, _=floor, S=empty space, %=pump, #=grate. The magma is poured into the highest level (all components should be magma-safe), and voila - infinite magma-rain!

[Xenos]

look up orbital magma cannons. 

[Dorf3000]

Why not make the entrance actually be an obsidian farm?  You can have everything come in through a 3/7 pool of water, with magma above it waiting for enemies.  Bonus: it cleans your dorfs of any nasty blood they might be covered in.  Double bonus: it can never be broken by building destroyers without triggering the trap anyway and permanently sealing the entrance.

[Shootandrun]

Its an idea to make the entrance a obsidian farm, but it would take a lot of door gestion, floodgate gestion, etc... Also, the idea behind my trap is not sealing my fortress: its DESTROYING TEH ENEMY. However, I could use a water channel (with 3/7 only) to filter my dwarves and clean them. Its even better, because after that I can connect the channel to my volcano, lock it with a floodgate and voila! Easy and cool blood killing devices.

Goddamnit. When I read on these forums, I get "ideas". Because a guy gave me the idea to change my trap in an direct obsidian farm, i just invented a blood cleaning device. A damn blood killing device.

Alright, enought theory. Let the !!science!! begin!