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[Loud Whispers]

I second this notion.

[knutor]

Yup, cooling would be an issue.  But it doesn't stop the magma in an active volcano chute.  Which puts us back to the material used to create the sucking. 

Porcelain.  Isn't that the material crucibles, coffee mugs and toilet bowls are made of.  It can get really hot before shattering.  If heated slowly.  So if a constructive dwarf were to make a bucket or two out of it, couldn't he just donkey cart it upwards without any machinery at all.  Beasts of burden were the engines in the Dark ages, in many cases.  I'm not sure how Porcelain is made, is it glazed?

In many ways this game reminds me of an old classic.  Serf City.  Serfs haul around lotsa stuff on the backs of donkeys.  If a Serf can do it, by god a Dwarf can do it.

There is also the logic, of mining down to mine up.  Its just so hard to mine below the lava sea and do anything like generate a force to propel the magma anywhere.

Sincerely,
Knutor

[Loud Whispers]

Well magma in DF isn't molten rock, it's some magic constantly molten... Magma. If you melt rock you only get a pile of molten rock, not magma. Which is why when magma is at 1/7, it doesn't cool... It evaporates.

[Artanis00]

It was inevitable that we'd get there eventually.

Also, viz the whole realism of dark ages gear pumps moving magma, the current most commonly used alternative is to use Archimedes screws powered by perpetual motion. Made from wood, if you really need to hammer home the point.

And those screw pumps don't back flow, either.

[Romaq]

I had in mind where Dwarves could gather the part for a 'pre-fab pump stack'. It would be VERY expensive, in materials, and you have to have the space or the building fails, just like anything. But suppose you had a 'pre-fab 5 pump stack', in effect you get a rock sealed stack of 5 pumps that have to be driven by the right amount of energy, but internal to DF you just have the water transported up 5 Z levels without calculating events in the middle. You could make 10 'pre-fab' stacks, or 20. In each case, the 'pre-fab' costs the same (or slightly more) in material, requires the same power, comes in fixed sizes, say 5, 10, 25 z height. And they would have to be all complete or all incomplete. The *bonus* to using these is that because it is sealed and functions as a single unit, the CPU gets to skip processing movement of the water or magma on the 'between' layers, so you get better performance.

There would be no 'new' technology in this. All you are really doing is making it reasonable to *NOT* have the pump-stack suck away your frame-rate because it is a single working unit and it is 'sealed'. If the 'seal' is broken on a pre-fab stack, the whole works breaks into its parts.

Is that something that would work and be reasonable?

[Zoomulator]

What about bucket/scoop chains? It's be a simple enough construction that can span quite a few z-levels with the help of a few gears. It may even work with magma if you use steel chains, gears and buckets?

I don't really know the exact term for what I'm suggesting, but here's a modern day version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trencher_(machine)

[Romaq]

Sure! I think the general hope is a means, even with some in-game expense involved for some heavy z-level movement of water and magma without that expense involving frame-rate. If it's buckets, pre-fab pumps or some other tech appropriate to the era, we can already move water and magma some serious Z-levels, but we pay for it in frame-rate. If Toady could please allow us to shift the cost burden to something else and get better FPS, hopefully there is a good means for him to do that and the tech behind it is all hand-waving anyway.

[Tharwen]

I don't think it's beyond them. Remember, bridges can be wirelessly controlled just using bits of wood.

[10ebbor10]

Pipesections will be added in the future. So no need for prefab pumpstacks. Just one pressurizing pump and a variation on the communicating vessels engine.
IE:the fluid is teleported to the lowest nonfilled pipe connected to a filled pipe.

[Neowulf]

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=80372.msg2104580

Chainpumps are better IMHO.

[astaldaran]

this might be a bit far off the deep end of the lava pit but...maybe some sort of profession (sigh..yes bringing alchemy into it again) that specialized in liquids and pump maintenance..heck why not a volcano/smelting priesthood that has its own demands and whole purpose is the mining and smelting of ores and of course forging. They worship some sort of lava or "Earth Blood" God and use magic to help them move said lava..and maintain pumps.  Hmm well a bit out there but I say I like the priesthood idea for a culture that centers around metal forging.

[knutor]

I like scoop chain, because it doesn't use, terms already in use. 'Pump' 'Screw' etc..  Its a well.  So I'd imagine, maybe, we could just elaborate on the well, allowing it to also scoop magma.  Scoop chains.  I like that, and can easily imagine a mechanism serving as a pulley.  The more angles, or turns in the chain, the more mechanism and chain required.  With efficiency relying upon the quality of the mechanism. 

The problem in scoop chains, that I see is in the loading and unloading of buckets.  Who's volunteering to reach out over steaming hot bucket of magma to pick it up from its handle?  Hands?  Beuller?  Right here presents a task for a well mittened dwarf lass.  No mitten would be necessary, if the unloader had a steel splinted arms and was a retired from the military. 

A tip-over, trip, could dump the bucket automatically, however this should innevitably spill a lil out, shouldn't it?  That should be something built, and not garnished in the default scoop chain.  Great idea Zoomulator!

Sincerely,
Knutor