Print

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

[Mohawk_Bravo]

Hey guys, so I've recently started a new fortess after the disasterous failure of my last fortress (which came in about eight flavors of death) and a tip from a previous topic has got me thinking. Now I haven't found any workable iron ores (as I'm not really looking) but I'm interested in Candy armor and weapons for my first squad. Now from what I understand I should employ sharp weapons, not blunt ones, and since it doesn't stop certain types of damage, should I combo it with leather?

Most importantly, however, I am a noob when it comes to Candy mining and would like to know some tips. The only other time I mined Candy, I lucked out and had a huge spire in the middle of solid rock. This time, however, it looks like most are hanging perilously in some rather atmospheric lava lakes. So what are some general tips for this stuff? Should I attempt to cool the lakes with water? Or perhaps hollow out spires? Can someone please spare some tips for this shoeless Urist McCandyMiningNoob?

[i2amroy]

When you are working in the middle of a lava lake this is the general procedure that I use.
1)Drop water on top of the spire until a ring of obsidian has formed around the spire.
2)Dig out the spire.

If you have to go through several layers of magma lake then you can make the top circle larger, then channel out all but the outermost ring of obsidian (make sure you don't cause a cave in though!) in order to allow you to obsidianize the layer of magma below it. The result is a hollow upside-down cone of obsidian with the spire in the middle. Also make sure to do the standard smooth&carve fortification before digging out any tiles in order to make sure that any !!FUN!! that is accidentally unleashed is safely contained until you are ready for it.

For purposes of what to make with it, edged weapons are the best type of weapon (beating out both blunt and piercing weapons, so swords and axes are best). For purposes of armor the general order is helmets first, then breastplates, and then followed up with other pieces of armor.

[TKGP]

Hollowing out spires is a very, very bad idea (they're already hollow, in fact). On every z-level of a spire, there's always a central 4x4 core which leads down to hell. If you can figure out where that is, you can mine any bits hanging off it safely. For instance, it could look something like this:

Code: [Select]

..........
....OOO...
.....OO...
...XXXX...
...X  X...
...X  X...
...XXXXO..
....O.....
....OO....The Os would be safe to mine out; breaching the Xs would release the clown car. Any two levels of the spire have to be connected on the inside, so you can use the layout of one layer to determine where the core of the next one is.

Typically candy spires in the magma sea will extend upwards into the rock a ways. Just carefully dig a shaft right above the sea over to where the spire is and hopefully you'll have a good number of layers in the rock. Getting candy out of the magma itself is a bit of an undertaking, and probably not worth the trouble. If you're lucky, spires can pierce all the way up into the lower caverns.

You're right about blunt candy weapons being horrible. In terms of armor, adamantine should be fine for all purposes. Just make sure you make breastplates and mail shirts, because bolts pass right through normal armor. Addy works well for shields because it's so light, but you may want to use a heavier metal for those, in case they decide to bash with them.

[Lich180]

I usually don't bother with the candy in magma, but you can channel into it (the parts not hovering over the magma at least), but watch out for the clown car. Its a 2x2 hollow part, so you need a 4x4 square to avoid it. Obsidianizing the magma will work too, but that will require a water source and some pipe work (and a way to shut it down)

You can always find the car, and carve a fortification into the side so the clowns are still trapped. Then just avoid that part of the spire, else !!FUN!! Will find you.

As to armor, candy will stop most sharp, penetrating damage, but instead of negating the damage, it converts into blunt damage. Leather will help, but a bolt can still kill through a helm.

[i2amroy]

Addy works well for shields because it's so light, but you may want to use a heavier metal for those, in case they decide to bash with them.

Unless you are rolling in adamantine you will probably want to skip the shields since a wooden shield works for all combat purposes equivalently to an adamantine one whereas copper armor as opposed to adamantine armor will have largely different blocking abilities.

[Mohawk_Bravo]

Okay, so as for channelling water, how would I go about doing that? Should I build stairs up to the lake base and carve through so the water will drain into the lava? How would I go about doing it with pipes? Also, is the Clown Car always one of the spires surrounded by lava? Or can it be one of the ones embedded in the stone as well?

[i2amroy]

Okay, so as for channelling water, how would I go about doing that? Should I build stairs up to the lake base and carve through so the water will drain into the lava? How would I go about doing it with pipes? Also, is the Clown Car always one of the spires surrounded by lava? Or can it be one of the ones embedded in the stone as well?

The best way that I've found for moving the water is to build a tunnel that leads from right above the spire (or next to if the spire connects to the roof of the cavern) up to the bottom of your water source. Make sure that you install a floodgate so that you can control the amount of water that flows through, then just tunnel into the bottom of your water source.

As for the hollow part of spires, 99% of spires will have a hollow tube reaching up to some point, the question is just how high above the base of the spire the hollow area extends and how much of the spire is safe to mine above that.

[Awessum Possum]

The clown car can usually be found either by the smoothing and Fortifying method suggested above, or by dwarven sonar, which is the use of farms to locate open spaces in the spires. It's safe but a bit gamey and exploitive, like danger rooms. It also isn't 100% accurate, its main attraction is its ease of use.

[Mohawk_Bravo]

The clown car can usually be found either by the smoothing and Fortifying method suggested above, or by dwarven sonar, which is the use of farms to locate open spaces in the spires. It's safe but a bit gamey and exploitive, like danger rooms. It also isn't 100% accurate, its main attraction is its ease of use.

Care to elaborate?

[eharper256]

Care to elaborate?

When you (b)uild a a Farm (p)lot, it tells you the suitability of the ground, and hence, will probably say 'open space' where you've got your 2x2 gap. I haven't tested it myself though.

[Sutremaine]

You can also try and build a 10x10 paved road in the unrevealed rock and see where it turns into 2 or 3 purple squares instead of 100 red ones.