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[Carpman]

I am planning on creating a huge, dominating tower made completely out of "naturally" made obsidian. It will be the biggest megaproject I have ever created, but there is one problem. I have not even made a simple obsidian factory before, and I have no idea how to fill up the cast once it is complete. Also I am sure there is plenty I have not yet considered that may be important.  So... tips? Starting builds? Embark locations? Anything?

[Hyndis]

First off you'll need to build the mold. Its basically just a very large empty tower in the form of the tower you want to make in the end. Easiest way is build a wall on the inside, and then up/down stairs on the outside for access.

After that build two pump towers, one for magma and the other for water. Build them 1 Z level higher than the maximum level of the tower.

You can use levers to turn the pump towers on or off as needed.

First, fill up the mold with magma. Pour water on it until you have a solid layer of obsidian. Then more magma, then more obsidian, and repeat for each layer.

It can take quite a long time as magma is only replenished at a finite rate, and if it is a very large tower it may take decades of in-game time to build.

Once its finished go ahead and tear down all of the scaffolding/molds and the pump towers and then start mining/engraving.

[Carpman]

Thanks a lot for your help. The idea is to only have one level filled with liquid at a time, yes?

[Pkassad]

I am planning on creating a huge, dominating tower made completely out of "naturally" made obsidian. It will be the biggest megaproject I have ever created, but there is one problem. I have not even made a simple obsidian factory before, and I have no idea how to fill up the cast once it is complete. Also I am sure there is plenty I have not yet considered that may be important.  So... tips? Starting builds? Embark locations? Anything?

Find a map with epic amounts of naturally occurring obsidian like my map.

[Hyndis]

Yup.

What I do is I actually have the pumping system completely powered by windmills that never turn off except for the very top pump.

The very last pump at the top is dwarf powered, allowing me to instantly shut off the pump when I want to to pour the exact amount.

I first fill the level with magma. Once its full (doesn't have to be 7/7's, but like 3-4's is good enough) I stop the magma pump and switch on the water. As soon as the last big of magma cools into obsidian I shut off the water, wait for the few remaining 1/7's of water to dry up, and pump magma again.

Keep repeating until your tower is complete.

Also this slow process allows time for the magma pool to build up again. If you pump too fast you may run out of magma halfway through, which is a pain because you just wasted half a level of magma, and so it will take even longer.

[Hyndis]

I am planning on creating a huge, dominating tower made completely out of "naturally" made obsidian. It will be the biggest megaproject I have ever created, but there is one problem. I have not even made a simple obsidian factory before, and I have no idea how to fill up the cast once it is complete. Also I am sure there is plenty I have not yet considered that may be important.  So... tips? Starting builds? Embark locations? Anything?

Find a map with epic amounts of naturally occurring obsidian like my map.

You could embark on a mountain and carve a fortress from the mountain itself.

But nothing pisses off the elves more than embarking in a lush forest, clearcutting the forest, slaughtering all animals to decorate everything with bone and leather, and creating a giant cast obsidian fortress with a giant statue of a dwarf on top, middle finger extended.

 

[Carpman]

You could embark on a mountain and carve a fortress from the mountain itself.

That actually sounds easier... but this must be done. 

[Kidiri]

I first fill the level with magma. Once its full (doesn't have to be 7/7's, but like 3-4's is good enough) I stop the magma pump and switch on the water. As soon as the last big of magma cools into obsidian I shut off the water, wait for the few remaining 1/7's of water to dry up, and pump magma again.

Wouldn't it be less micromanagement and faster if you kept on pumping the water in after the first layer has been filled? If I'm not mistaken, there's no difference between magma with water on top and water with magma on top.

[Hyndis]

I first fill the level with magma. Once its full (doesn't have to be 7/7's, but like 3-4's is good enough) I stop the magma pump and switch on the water. As soon as the last big of magma cools into obsidian I shut off the water, wait for the few remaining 1/7's of water to dry up, and pump magma again.

Wouldn't it be less micromanagement and faster if you kept on pumping the water in after the first layer has been filled? If I'm not mistaken, there's no difference between magma with water on top and water with magma on top.

That true, but I'm pumping from the very top rather than from the sides on each level and doing it with a dwarf powered pump so I have perfect control over timing. Also its just out of habit, because it tends to take about that long for the magma reserves to be replenished anyways.

[Quietust]

I first fill the level with magma. Once its full (doesn't have to be 7/7's, but like 3-4's is good enough) I stop the magma pump and switch on the water. As soon as the last big of magma cools into obsidian I shut off the water, wait for the few remaining 1/7's of water to dry up, and pump magma again.

Wouldn't it be less micromanagement and faster if you kept on pumping the water in after the first layer has been filled? If I'm not mistaken, there's no difference between magma with water on top and water with magma on top.

That's pretty much exactly what I did for Rhymestakes (see years 309 and 311 for "before" and "after"), and it worked like a charm. The only tricky part was the very top level, since I had to make sure I didn't overfill the top Z-level (in this case, the very top Z-level of the map) so it would eventually evaporate.

[Carpman]

Yup.

What I do is I actually have the pumping system completely powered by windmills that never turn off except for the very top pump.

The very last pump at the top is dwarf powered, allowing me to instantly shut off the pump when I want to to pour the exact amount.

How would you do this? Don't pumps that are stacked on top of one another automatically transfer power? Wouldn't the top pump operate automatically?

[NecroRebel]

How would you do this? Don't pumps that are stacked on top of one another automatically transfer power? Wouldn't the top pump operate automatically?

Pumps transfer power only through spaces that aren't otherwise blocked by e.g. a floor, and must have a floor (or wall-top, which behave exactly like floors) underneath their passable tile. Pump stacks normally have an open space under their impassable tile, which allows them to transfer power up the stack, but if you have a floor beneath both of one of the pump's squares, that one will be mechanically seperated from the rest of the stack and thus will have a seperate power system.

Like so:

Code: [Select]

Floor arrangement allows transfer of power:

z-level +0
+.+.

z-level +1
.+.+

With pumps, looks like:

z-level +0
+%%. (pump pumps from right to left

z-level +1
.%%+ (pump pumps from left to right)



Floor arrangement doesn't transfer power to z-level +1:

z-level +0
+.+.

z-level +1
.+++
It looks and sounds more complicated than it is.

[Carpman]

That actually made a lot of sense and explains some pumping troubles that I've had in the past. So... thanks!