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[Urist Mchateselves]

How do you dig in the walls studded with gems relatively safely? I keep running into annoying pockets of water and lava.

[Blue_Dwarf]

I construct pumps on every level and pump away everything.

[Bumber]

From above is relatively safe. You can dig channels to drain the fluids to the side until they evaporate.

The gems tend to catch fire, though, so setting up to be able to flood with water would be useful.

[Salmeuk]

from above is good, you can pump the water into the lava and get some free obsidian (and prevent the gems from smouldering).

more important is ensuring your military is stationed nearby to whack any baddies that pop out. I like to keep two squads, one acting as reinforcement, in case we roll a webslinger or something.

[Urist McNobody]

The gems won't smolder when they are still embedded in the wall.  So, channeling out obsidian is effective for allowing the fluids to drain without lighting off a !!diamond!!.  Also, a bucket brigade is sufficient to put out a flaming gem.  Set up a pond one level above the !!gem!! and the first bucket of water will put it out.

[Saiko Kila]

The gems won't smolder when they are still embedded in the wall.  So, channeling out obsidian is effective for allowing the fluids to drain without lighting off a !!diamond!!.  Also, a bucket brigade is sufficient to put out a flaming gem.  Set up a pond one level above the !!gem!! and the first bucket of water will put it out.

I recently almost drained a big cavern trying to put down !!rough diamonds!!. Water dripping from above was being instantly evaporated. When it moved the diamonds into another tile (also with some magma) and obsidianised, I thought that would be it. But chanelling revealed the diamonds, burning as ever. I reminded me of trying to extinguish Centralia mine fire. Only when I later created a tunnel from side, it did put the fire out (with much of water). I think that burning diamonds are a way to empty oceans, if water is channelled from above (of course there are easier ways).

As for the original question, after probing, I dig a room roughly 20x20 above the diamond fields, and create a smaller chamber for water from caverns, complete with bridges for controlling flow, and a small staircase, which would go down inside magma sea (but in the stone, if possible). After clearing the room, I floor it with green glass blocks, which allows me to see whats below:
1. empty space (most interesting)
2. solid space
3. magma
4. water
I mark them by using traffic areas. Later I create supports with tiles for cave-in, which will break the empty space tiles (there are usually 4-8 per z-level), link them to a lever (using magma-safe mechanisms), close doors, and pull the lever to break tiles and release what's inside. Sometimes everything dangerous is killed by resulting shockwaves and flying blocks and mechanisms. Sometimes my military has to intervene, but rarely.

Then I remove glass blocks, and then fill the room with water (low level, like 1-2), so later miners create obsidian in place of magma. Miners channel the whole level, now safe to mine, and haulers take all precious stones, obsidian, artefacts and remaining blocks/mechanisms.

Then I repeat on the level below. Additionally I create a small bridge, on the side, to remove excessive water (preferably constructed before the level is flooded).

[Bumber]

After clearing the room, I floor it with green glass blocks, which allows me to see whats below

Wait, that works without actually having the tile revealed? Dwarven X-ray?

[Salmeuk]

The gems won't smolder when they are still embedded in the wall.  So, channeling out obsidian is effective for allowing the fluids to drain without lighting off a !!diamond!!.  Also, a bucket brigade is sufficient to put out a flaming gem.  Set up a pond one level above the !!gem!! and the first bucket of water will put it out.

I recently almost drained a big cavern trying to put down !!rough diamonds!!. Water dripping from above was being instantly evaporated. When it moved the diamonds into another tile (also with some magma) and obsidianised, I thought that would be it. But chanelling revealed the diamonds, burning as ever. I reminded me of trying to extinguish Centralia mine fire. Only when I later created a tunnel from side, it did put the fire out (with much of water). I think that burning diamonds are a way to empty oceans, if water is channelled from above (of course there are easier ways).

As for the original question, after probing, I dig a room roughly 20x20 above the diamond fields, and create a smaller chamber for water from caverns, complete with bridges for controlling flow, and a small staircase, which would go down inside magma sea (but in the stone, if possible). After clearing the room, I floor it with green glass blocks, which allows me to see whats below:
1. empty space (most interesting)
2. solid space
3. magma
4. water
I mark them by using traffic areas. Later I create supports with tiles for cave-in, which will break the empty space tiles (there are usually 4-8 per z-level), link them to a lever (using magma-safe mechanisms), close doors, and pull the lever to break tiles and release what's inside. Sometimes everything dangerous is killed by resulting shockwaves and flying blocks and mechanisms. Sometimes my military has to intervene, but rarely.

Then I remove glass blocks, and then fill the room with water (low level, like 1-2), so later miners create obsidian in place of magma. Miners channel the whole level, now safe to mine, and haulers take all precious stones, obsidian, artefacts and remaining blocks/mechanisms.

Then I repeat on the level below. Additionally I create a small bridge, on the side, to remove excessive water (preferably constructed before the level is flooded).

this is a really great post. the method, while somewhat tedious, appears practically foolproof

[unchow]

I haven't had the chance to try this too many times yet, but a less-foolproof and less-tedious method would be to channel down into the walls of a revealed water pocket, essentially widening out the water pocket until the water is shallow enough to stand in. Then I carve fortifications along the perimeter (or like every third tile, as needed), and if we expose any magma then the water on the ground should take care of it, or at least give the miners time to get clear. You can kind of sudoku your way through a level like this, maybe opening up another water pocket as needed to get more water on the floor. It's still risky, since you will eventually reveal a web-slinger behind some fortifications and you'll have to find a way to either mine it out or wall it back in. But you can do this without pumps or glass or routing in any outside sources of water.

[Saiko Kila]

Regarding the dwarven x-ray: it will only reveal four possible states of otherwise unrevealed tiles (full, empty, magma, water). And since empty spaces create Interesting Things only after actual reveal, by mining or cave-in, this is still a surprise. But you know there is a surprise there.

Regarding fool-proofness: there is one or two catches. First, even 2/7 water can create a current strong enough to push the miner, who can then obsidianise himself. So the more fool-proof method would be to reveal magma tiles, then evacuate miners, and then flood the level. This allows for incursion of magma crabs, but they somehow die off before I come to this point (low reqional population), but it can't be disregarded. Alternatively, wait till most or all tiles are 1/7, this is safe, no water pushes.

Second, sometimes the Interesting Thing with funny syndrome is damaged and stuck in the single tile hole, so you cannot shoot it (because all bolts stop on the tile nearby above, depends on the angle, but game allows for impossible targeting, which only wastes bolts and time, and you may stumble unto it). Then you have to build some cave-in structure above, but this can be tricky and need more headroom, because dwarves start panicking when they see the Interesting Thing.

As a side note, when I first discovered a 3x3 gemstone/obsidian thingy in the caverns, I built a cave in structure on top of it, then I built a big sarcophagus around it, Chernobyl style, so when the cave-in happened, whatever inside would be still safely enclosed, and could be dealt with another cavein.... Wasn't necessary, because apparently they don't have anything interesting at this point of fortress life.

[Bumber]

Second, sometimes the Interesting Thing with funny syndrome is damaged and stuck in the single tile hole, so you cannot shoot it (because all bolts stop on the tile nearby above, depends on the angle, but game allows for impossible targeting, which only wastes bolts and time, and you may stumble unto it). Then you have to build some cave-in structure above, but this can be tricky and need more headroom, because dwarves start panicking when they see the Interesting Thing.

Thankfully you can prepare for this ahead of time once you know you're dealing with an empty tile, which wouldn't be practical otherwise.

Solutions from the side also exist if you can get someone to carve a fortification without seeing the target from above. (Useful things that can go through fortifications: Speeding minecarts, fluids, projectile fluids, crossbow bolts, ballista bolts.)

[Salmeuk]

This allows for incursion of magma crabs, but they somehow die off before I come to this point (low reqional population), but it can't be disregarded.

never disregard the threat of the magma crab

You can kind of sudoku your way through a level like this, maybe opening up another water pocket as needed to get more water on the floor.

this mention of sudoko is so perfect. it highlights what is most interesting about these obsidian geodes - they are a reintroduction of the old, gamey interactions of the 2d versions. these gem-and-monster laden deposits are more like a self-contained logic puzzle than some simulated geologic feature. ah, but how entertaining is this! nothing like some arbitrary challenge, complete with gemstone rewards, to supply motivation for a burgeoning dwarven outpost.

in the old versions, monsters just appeared from your well. Or bats from your chasms. no real simulation, perhaps the underlying populations were tracked, but the actual events would just HAPPEN. Players then are forced to cope, often discovering various unintended interactions and using these to ensure fortress survival. before constructed walls, everything was different too...

in many ways, this was the gameplay loop that defined those early versions of DF:

tragic violence --> paranoid players --> learned survival behaviors --> grand, meaningful fortress designs

it would be nice if the game was allowed to directly affect our games in this manner, once more. the current versions struggle with the fact that, any rational player walls themselves off, and thus all gameplay revolves around self-imposed caveats and challenges. but this becomes an aesthetic exercise, generally speaking...

tl;dr the game is more fun when there are arbitrary, non-simulated 'danger events' that force us to respond in painful but interesting ways

[unchow]

tl;dr the game is more fun when there are arbitrary, non-simulated 'danger events' that force us to respond in painful but interesting ways

I think I half-agree with your sentiment. I do love how unpredictable the strange pillars are, but I also love that you can still approach them systematically and get some sort of predictable behavior out of them. Instead of being arbitrary they're just stupidly intricate. That makes it feel more like whatever happens is still my fault, but they're so complicated that I have no hope of doing them perfectly. That to me is a very Dwarf Fortress situation: things could go perfectly, but they probably won't, so you'd better be prepared for the worst.

[Saiko Kila]

Second, sometimes the Interesting Thing with funny syndrome is damaged and stuck in the single tile hole, so you cannot shoot it (because all bolts stop on the tile nearby above, depends on the angle, but game allows for impossible targeting, which only wastes bolts and time, and you may stumble unto it). Then you have to build some cave-in structure above, but this can be tricky and need more headroom, because dwarves start panicking when they see the Interesting Thing.

Thankfully you can prepare for this ahead of time once you know you're dealing with an empty tile, which wouldn't be practical otherwise.

Yes, and I do it when not many prizes has been obtained yet, but later, I just count on my military, or build ad-hoc. Because statistically it takes less time. Galleries (for shooters) and points of access prepared for one layer, often work on other layers too.