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[smjjames]

I've had this idea floating around for a bit and I thought, how about making a DNA Helix? However, given that I haven't done many major archetectural stuff, I'm not sure how to go about doing this.

I'm going to start trying various things to try and see if I can somehow get a good helix going soon. I'll be starting with basalt blocks to see if I can get it to work first and then either make a copy with more color or knock out bits of the first one and put colored pieces in.

So, any ideas for how I can do it? If its not really feaseable, I have an idea for a green glass ziggurat I can do. I have 25 z levels to work with, more if I dig a pit for the purpose. I don't exactly have a green glass industry going, but I have the start of one as my longtime mayor occasionally mandates green glass items. Just going to have either snag some pigtail seeds or just ask for alot of bags.

[ungulateman]

You'd need to either turn cave-ins off or build it rather thick. It's possible, just build (not designate) a big staircase for the workers to access each strand going up.

[Retro]

As for the actual planning, I'm not sure how best to lay it out in DF, but I advise building a giant #x# scaffold of up/down staircases, then removing the ones that occupy where you'll be constructing the helix's ramps/walls. Taking down the scaffolding might be a pain later, but it'll make building the actual structure way less frustrating and worth it overall.

And in response to ungulateman, you don't need to turn off cave-ins, though I imagine it'll help. But I'm sure it can be done without.

[smjjames]

Actually, I'm trying something that looks promising, not real sure about how it looks in DFVisualizer, but then again, a mass made entirely of grey stone can be hard to discern the shape of when the shadows are all over the place.

Edit: Its definetly lookling like a spiral, although I don't really like the way the ramps make it look in the visualizer. I'll probably turn off caveins though when I'm adding on colored blocks just to be on the safe side.

[BigD145]

You may want to color code. Bonus if you manage a small chunk of dwarf DNA.

[smjjames]

Its going to be 25 z-levels tall, that would be a tiny chunk of DNA, considering the fact that genes are made up of hundreds to thousands of base pairs.

Anyways, I'll have plenty of room for the green glass ziggurat as the DNA structure only takes up a 7x6 square in the corner of my huge courtyard. Also, the 7x6 square is incidentially 42 tiles, heh

As for colors, I have microcline, gypsum, and kaolinite. I know theres olivine as well on this map, just haven't dug any out yet.

Edit: At this point its looking like a DNA helix all right, although its kind of blocky, but viewed from near ground level, you can definetly see the helix.

Just realized that I could use green glass, but making it entirely out of rock blocks would be more dwarfy so to speak.

[Aachen]

if you manage a small chunk of dwarf DNA.

Gonna need dwarven rum blocks, dwarven wine blocks, dwarven ale blocks, Dwarven beer blocks and magma blocks. Though magma blocks would mostly be to a gloss.

[smjjames]

if you manage a small chunk of dwarf DNA.

Gonna need dwarven rum blocks, dwarven wine blocks, dwarven ale blocks, Dwarven beer blocks and magma blocks. Though magma blocks would mostly be to a gloss.

lol.

Although obsidian blocks would work for magma blocks as its solidified magmna.

[jugglervr]

You'd need to either turn cave-ins off...

sorry to be dense AND hijack, but... i thought cave-ins weren't in the game anymore?
or do you just mean "allow blocks to float in mid-air"?

[smjjames]

You'd need to either turn cave-ins off...

sorry to be dense AND hijack, but... i thought cave-ins weren't in the game anymore?
or do you just mean "allow blocks to float in mid-air"?

He's talking about the init option, and a cave-in will still happen if an unspported floor or wall is disconnected from whatever its connected to. Build a straight line of floors out from a wall (don't connect the other end) and have a dwarf deconstruct somewhere in the middle and you'll see what I mean. If you mean the old 2D thing where large rooms have a chance to cavein, yea thats not happening anymore.

[darkrider2]

Well you technically could carve it out of the mountain and then you wouldn't need staircases, buuuuuut... you'd have to be uber careful and it would be discolored in places.

[smjjames]

I only needed staircases for the base of it, after z level 0, its ramps all the way. It probably helps to know what the structure of DNA looks like as thats what I was going on.

If you look at it in DF and go quickly up and down z-levels, it sort of looks like a propeller, heh. Once I hit on the technique, it was easy. Shouldn't be too hard to scale up either.

In DF Visualizer it looks exactly like a helix, if a little blocky. I'm not really liking the way the ramps look in DF Visualizer, but thats partially because the whole thing is made of basalt blocks. Coloring it will have to wait until I'm finished with my Big Dig (a 141x141x-15 pit) and possibly after the cleanup as well.