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[denito]

I don't have a question per se but I just wanted to get some advice what to do with my fort.

Since I don't have a lot of CPU power on my laptop, I looked for a map that was only 2x2 wide, but has both a chasm and a magma tube.  What I ended up with was some kind of "mini chasm" not much wider than a medium fortress.  The chasm doesn't open up until 2 Z levels below the ground, so I didn't know it was there until I'd already built the rest of my fortress *smack on top of it*, so I'm thinking it would be neat to incorporate the chasm as part of my fortress in the lower Z levels, maybe with bridges and terrifying chasm-side walkways.

The chasm edge will also make a nice garbage dump on every Z level, now that I know you can dump stones if you make a garbage dump zone instead of a refuse pile.  Also found out that I can put a bridge across the chasm at the very bottom Z level and catch the stones for later reclaiming if I want - it doesn't break the bridge when they land.  Is catching the stones like this too much of an exploit?  I figure a bottomless chasm being an infinite garbage dump is not an exploit because it makes logical sense, but I'm not sure how I feel about catching them all at the bottom with an indestructible "rubber" bridge.

It took a great deal of exploratory mining to find the magma tube because it doesn't come to the surface.  Now that I have it, what should I do with it?  I'm thinking I'd like to pump it to the surface to make a magma moat; I'll need 4 to 5 Z-levels of stacked pumps to do it.  Not sure if there's enough wind on the surface to use a windmill, and there's no flowing water on my map to make a waterwheel.  (Just lots of murky pools - the area is a swamp.)  Can you make a MAGMA-WHEEL?!  I could tap the magma tube in the middle, and let it flow out into the chasm.  That would be freaking awesome, if water wheels can work in magma.

Unfortunately for my magma moat project, I already built a lot of rooms just one 1 Z-level underground (easy to dig in peat soil) and now I'd either have to make a really, really long moat to go outside it, or abandon some of my fort.  Now I have a goblin ambush coming in a month and no military and an indefensible fort (too many doors to the outside).  (I found out by accident that the ambush is coming when I practiced cave-in techniques on a throw-away copy of my saved game.)  Should I:

A)  Make a magma moat that goes around the edge of the map
B)  Screw the moat! Construct a "water tower" with a giant magma tank at the top and pump the magma up to the top for storage.  When invaders come, open a door on the side of the tank and burn the world!  Or remove the tower supports and drop the whole tank on the ground, although that would only work once.
C)  Mysteriously abandon the entire top level fort, cave in the hill over the down stairs so it can never be found, and live in the chasm 2 Z levels below.

Couple of other questions - I have no bauxite; will caravans ever bring it?  There doesn't seem to be a way to request it from my liason.  Is the list of the kinds of stone you can request limited to what is in the nearby countries?  Because I'm worried I might have just picked a region of the world where magma-safe stone is uncommon.  Is it worth waiting for a carvan to randomly show up with bauxite, or does it never happen?

Related question - I got a glass maker (immigrant) and I want to build him a magma glass making workshop, but there doesn't seem to be any sand on the map.  Is it possible to obtain sand from caravans?  Or some other material I can smelt into something I can use for glass?  I requested pearlash from the liason (hoping to make crystal glass) but he doesn't list rock crystal (the other ingredient for crystal glass).  Do caravans ever randomly have rock crystal?

I'd actually be willing to buy finished glass products to smelt to get their glass material.  I know this would be a huge waste of money but it's just for fun.  Are there any item(s) I can request from the liason that have a high chance of being made of glass when they arrive?  (Especially items that are cheap compared to how much glass is in them!)

Besides the lack of sand, I found myself in a region that has a total lack of iron or copper ores, and hardly any other metal that can be forged into tools or weapons.  That was bad because I forgot to bring extra picks on departure, and could only have 2 miners going at a time for a couple game years until a caravan brought some more copper picks - at horribly high prices!  Fortunately I got lucky with some early native aluminum discoveries so I was able to make some valuable aluminum crafts (otherwise I'd have been screwed with the prices the caravans are charging me for copper/bronze/iron objects; 1240* for a pick my ass!), then I found some galena (lead and silver), and most recently I found a vein of gold passing by the magma tube that goes on forever.  So ironically at my fortress rare metals are cheap and common metals are valuable! I have to make chains out of lead (I feel sorry for the dwarves who have to haul the well water up on a heavy *lead* chain!) and I had so much aluminum when I started that I put some aluminum chains in constructions too - ha!.  Silver weapons are more economical for me than steel ones, and now that I've found the gold vein I have electrum (gold nuggets + galena) coming out my ears.

However, these are all low-melting point metals, so dealing with magma is going to be a challenge.  Can I make screw pumps out of lead and expect them to magically work, or do I need to trade for steel?

[Savok]

Wall-o-texty!

The chasm edge will also make a nice garbage dump on every Z level, now that I know you can dump stones if you make a garbage dump zone instead of a refuse pile.  Also found out that I can put a bridge across the chasm at the very bottom Z level and catch the stones for later reclaiming if I want - it doesn't break the bridge when they land.  Is catching the stones like this too much of an exploit?  I figure a bottomless chasm being an infinite garbage dump is not an exploit because it makes logical sense, but I'm not sure how I feel about catching them all at the bottom with an indestructible "rubber" bridge.

If you want to reclaim them later, just dump them in a corner of your fort. The real cheatiness lies in the fact that you can put a literal mountain of stone into a single tile this way.

A)  Make a magma moat that goes around the edge of the map
B)  Screw the moat! Construct a "water tower" with a giant magma tank at the top and pump the magma up to the top for storage.  When invaders come, open a door on the side of the tank and burn the world!  Or remove the tower supports and drop the whole tank on the ground, although that would only work once.
C)  Mysteriously abandon the entire top level fort, cave in the hill over the down stairs so it can never be found, and live in the chasm 2 Z levels below.

Trying to burn the world will cause the game to slow to a screeching halt. Or almost. Too much processing, you are asking it to do.

Also, a moat-construction project like that will probably take six months to a couple years, depending on how much dwarfpower you give it.

Couple of other questions - I have no bauxite; will caravans ever bring it?  There doesn't seem to be a way to request it from my liason.  Is the list of the kinds of stone you can request limited to what is in the nearby countries?  Because I'm worried I might have just picked a region of the world where magma-safe stone is uncommon.  Is it worth waiting for a carvan to randomly show up with bauxite, or does it never happen?

Related question - I got a glass maker (immigrant) and I want to build him a magma glass making workshop, but there doesn't seem to be any sand on the map.  Is it possible to obtain sand from caravans?  Or some other material I can smelt into something I can use for glass?  I requested pearlash from the liason (hoping to make crystal glass) but he doesn't list rock crystal (the other ingredient for crystal glass).  Do caravans ever randomly have rock crystal?

If you can't order a stone from him, you'll never ever get it. I recommend this mod, though - it gives stones much more realistic melting points.

Also, unless you have sand, you'll never ever have any sort of glass. Furthermore, the kind of rock crystal you need is raw rock crystal, which no caravan will ever sell. Yeah. You might be able to hack a smelter reaction to turn cut rock crystal into raw rock crystal, though.

Besides the lack of sand, I found myself in a region that has a total lack of iron or copper ores, and hardly any other metal that can be forged into tools or weapons.  That was bad because I forgot to bring extra picks on departure, and could only have 2 miners going at a time for a couple game years until a caravan brought some more copper picks - at horribly high prices!  Fortunately I got lucky with some early native aluminum discoveries so I was able to make some valuable aluminum crafts (otherwise I'd have been screwed with the prices the caravans are charging me for copper/bronze/iron objects; 1240* for a pick my ass!), then I found some galena (lead and silver), and most recently I found a vein of gold passing by the magma tube that goes on forever.  So ironically at my fortress rare metals are cheap and common metals are valuable! I have to make chains out of lead (I feel sorry for the dwarves who have to haul the well water up on a heavy *lead* chain!) and I had so much aluminum when I started that I put some aluminum chains in constructions too - ha!.  Silver weapons are more economical for me than steel ones, and now that I've found the gold vein I have electrum (gold nuggets + galena) coming out my ears.

However, these are all low-melting point metals, so dealing with magma is going to be a challenge.  Can I make screw pumps out of lead and expect them to magically work, or do I need to trade for steel?

Two miners is plenty for most things.

Try trading for ore and bars with the traders. They aren't too bad.

An ordinary copper pick is worth 30 coins, I think. That one was decorated.

You only need magma-proofness if there is going to be magma on the same tile as it. If you don't submerge the walkable tile of a screw pump, it'll be fine (exception: don't use wood. For a completely different mechanic, it will disintegrate over time spent pumping magma).