Print

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

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I've recently been mining down to where the mineral tomato ketchup is and have tried to install several magma smelters and forges, but a). I keep hitting warm stone at least 20 levels below magma level b). I haven't quite found out how to make a large hall where I can place all my magma workshops with safe and reliable access to magma.

Any ideas?

[Psieye]

You're looking for magma plumbing to provide heat under the floor of that large hall. This is easy once you understand how pumps work and the concept that natural magma is not pressured - it won't "leak out" if you tap it from above. Build a floor to seal off the hole you made after you're done pumping.

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I could try that. Is mined out obsidian any good?

[Grumbledwarfskin]

Obsidian has a value multiplier of 3, which makes things made from it more valuable than the vast majority of materials (x1), as well as green glass and cheap metals (x2), equal in value to flux stone and earthenware, but cheaper than stoneware (x5), some metal ores, and most metals.

So it's pretty good, but not out of this world good. Among infinitely renewable materials, it's in the middle, better than wood, most animal products, and green glass, but not as good as clear glass or stoneware (both x5). The more valuable types of bone beat it as well, e.g. elephants get an x5 multiplier (oddly, better than unicorns at x4).

Of course, there are more different things that stone can be used to make than any of those other materials, notably, it's the only renewable material (excluding goblinite) that can be made into mechanisms.

It's also said to be bugged, in that you can't use it if you don't have a stone layer of obsidian, since it's considered "economic" (its economic use being to make obsidian weapons), but doesn't appear on the stones menu, so you can't enable using it for other uses unless it started out enabled. The wiki discussion page on obsidian has a way to enable the other uses.