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[conein]

The title says it all. Also, if im on a level with magma, do i have to dig near the pool to find it?

[PatrikLundell]

"Magma pools" are usually not present on an embark (but are not unheard of either). Instead, you usually have to dig down to the magma sea. The depth of the sea varies, but is often around 100. When magma pools ARE present they usually appear in a cavern, and would then be revealed when that portion of the cavern is revealed.
While digging, magma is detected by the miner breaking off digging with a warning of "hot stone", similar to digging close to water.
The magma sea is not of a uniform level, but tends to vary 3 or so levels in the depth of its top. Also, the magma sea does not cover the whole embark, but is broken up by both ordinary rock and, underneath that semi molten rock (SMR) which cannot be dug through (well, there is a special case of digging upwards, but it's of little practical use).

Obviously, embarking by a volcano will provide magma above, at, or just below the ground level (with a cone open to the air in all cases).

[conein]

So to make a lava furnace or what is it called, i need to place it above the lava, with some stairs near it?

[NullForceOmega]

a little more complicated then that, but not much

a furnace need to have one of its eight perimeter tiles directly over at least 4/7 magma, usually the top center tile is best for this, you will want all other tiles to be solid (for safety reasons), and the whole thing will need to be accessible by your dwarves.  For a magma forge, you want the open tile to be either the left or right center tile.

[Quietust]

The depth of the sea varies, but is often around 100.

If you're in an ISLAND world (i.e. generated from the regular worldgen menu), anyways - do custom worldgen and make a REGION, and it'll typically be around 40 Z-levels down.

[PatrikLundell]

@Quiestust: I know it's said region worlds are shallower than island worlds, but it might be that this logic is broken for the pocket size, because my experience is that it's around 100 regardless. I might just be unlucky, though.

@conein:
To make magma workshops (forge, smelter, kiln, glass furnace. I might have missed some), NullForceOmega describes the requirements. Workshops have impassable tiles (usually darker on placement, and you want one of these above the exposed single magma tile, to stop dwarves from accidentally falling into the magma. This does NOT however, stop magma critters from coming up from the lava, due to diagonal climbing.

I typically make a tunnel beside the top level of the magma sea, leaving one tile between the sea and the tunnel. I then build a magma safe raising drawbridge beside the blocking tile, test that the drawbridge works as intended (being raising rather than retracting, and that I've actually hooked up the correct lever). (Actually, I tend to have two drawbridges to allow future expansion with a magma pump stack). Above the tunnel, I dig out the workshop area, and the tunnel should be long enough to allow me to place all the magma workshops I want/need above it. Then channel out the tile separating the tunnel from the sea from above (to avoid the fried dwarf syndrome), and place a floor or a wall over the breach into the sea at the workshop level. Let the magma flow into the tunnel, and when sufficiently filled (at least 4/7 throughout), close the drawbridge. Build your first workshop over the hole you made to be able to dig the tunnel, and channel out single tiles for each of the other workshops as needed (after having decided where you need the hole, since different workshops have their blocking tile(s) at different places).

You can also make an iron or steel mine cart and build a magma filling station using a screw pump to fill it with magma. The cart can then be carried up to the main fortress to allow you to place your workshops up there instead. It's also possible to start with the workshops down by the sea and then move them up, if you don't have any early iron/steel access. Note that Nether-cap mine carts can NOT be used for magma hauling, as they are considered dumped into magma when magma is dumped into them, and they thus are destroyed.

[conein]

I typically make a tunnel beside the top level of the magma sea, leaving one tile between the sea and the tunnel. I then build a magma safe raising drawbridge beside the blocking tile, test that the drawbridge works as intended (being raising rather than retracting, and that I've actually hooked up the correct lever). (Actually, I tend to have two drawbridges to allow future expansion with a magma pump stack). Above the tunnel, I dig out the workshop area, and the tunnel should be long enough to allow me to place all the magma workshops I want/need above it. Then channel out the tile separating the tunnel from the sea from above (to avoid the fried dwarf syndrome), and place a floor or a wall over the breach into the sea at the workshop level. Let the magma flow into the tunnel, and when sufficiently filled (at least 4/7 throughout), close the drawbridge. Build your first workshop over the hole you made to be able to dig the tunnel, and channel out single tiles for each of the other workshops as needed (after having decided where you need the hole, since different workshops have their blocking tile(s) at different places).

My bad knowledge of english isn't helping. So, if the lava is at level 100, the tunnel must be at level 100, the channel should bring the lava at level 101, then at level 99 i build the workshop above the hole where i put the lava? And if there is a 4/7 pool of lava, it will never become empty or i need to fill it?



(Also, about something completely different, when i assign a job to a dwarf and he needs something that is in a stockpile right in front of him, he prefers to go get it somewhere else, probably the most far place possible.)

[PatrikLundell]

You're not the only one here who have some language problems. However, the forum tends to be patient.

No, the tunnel would be at level 100, the topmost level of the magma sea would be at level 100, the workshop would be at level 99. The miner would channel from level 99 down to level 100, both removing a bit of the wall at level 99 (if it isn't mined out for the workshop already.), as well as making a ramp out of the tile between the sea and the tunnel at level 100.

Magma isn't consumed by workshops, so there is no need to fill it up after the initial configuration unless you remove it (such as using a screw pump, or extending the tunnel (from above, using channeling).

lvl 99, from above (you probably want it larger in pratice):

wwwwww
w.c..W
w....w
w....w
wwwwww

lvl 100:
wwwwww
w.rbbwm
wwwwww
wwwww
wwwww

w = wall, i.e.unmined rock
W = wall, which at the last stage in c'h'anneled by the miner
. = floor
c = channeled tile to make the tunnel. Also the tile you'd place the impassable tile of a glass furnace over.
b = raising drawbridge. I make the two tiles to be able so see visually if they're raised or not.
m = magma sea tile


The item selection process is not optimal. I think it basically is "last in, first out", or a stack in programmer terms. So the last stone dug out is likely the next one to be hauled away. You can work around this by linking stockpiles to workshops, but that creates its own set of problems (linking a brewables stockpile to a still, but not any stockpile containing barrels/pots is a classic example).

[conein]

And where does the impassable tile go? on the channel? the wiki says it goes on a empty space above lava.

And now i can't find lava. Actually, i cant find shit underground. I digged under the level 100 but there is absolutely nothing interesting, no caves, ma lava, no nothing. I created this fort in a world with extinct dwarves and at war with goblins and elves, and even if i have traps everywhere, i also want some cool silver hammers for my military.

[PatrikLundell]

The impassable tile goes over the 'c', which will be an empty tile after channeling.
To find lava, just dig straight down. You may have to go at least down to 150 before you hit the sea (I think I've had it about there once). I just order digging a staircase straight down for as far as DF allows me to designate digging, as it will stop when hitting hot stone anyway (I then remove the remaining designations).

Metal veins can exist at various depths, and pre embark you ought to have seen if there are deep and/or shallow metal(s). Even if there is one or more metals, none of them might be silver. Also, metal generally does not exist as lumps of raw metal, but rather as various ores that contain the metal (I think Galena is a silver bearing one, but I check the wiki for the various kinds of stone). Once you have built any kind of smelter (magma or wood burning), the ores you have available, and thus can smelt, will be listed in white, which is another way of identifying ores (you'd still have to check the wiki for what they contain, unless you're a geologist).

It's quite possible to miss all the caves when digging straight down. If that happens, make a new shaft somewhere else. For me, it's actually desirable to have a straight path down to the sea that bypasses all the caverns, as that means a safe passage.

[conein]

Yes i will try to dig down more. I already knew about the metal, i was only talking about caves and magma, because in my embark site there are both silver ores and metal ores, so it's kinda good.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

ayyyy

[PatrikLundell]

Congratulations!

Now you just have to deal with the pesky magma crabs and possibly worse critters...