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[Graebeard]

Ok, so I'm trying to create some soil on top of above-ground cast obsidian.  I've done this before (in this fort even) using a method similar this; basically you build a construction over cast obsidian floors, deconstruct the construction, and it's replaced with furrowed soil.  Yay!

I was messing around with a succession fort save in .18 and was able to produce furrowed peat this way.  Now, we've updated the fort to .25 and I'm having problems; instead of furrowed peat I'm getting diorite replacing the natural obsidian floors.

Has anyone else faced this issue?  Am I doing something wrong, or did one of the recent updates kill this exploit?

[Quietust]

In what biome are you doing this? If it's in a mountain biome, it wouldn't be surprising for it to produce stone floors.

[Graebeard]

Is there a way to check what biome I'm in?  It's a perfectly flat map with plenty of ground level trees and vegetation, so I doubt it's a mountain biome.

[Dutchling]

I think you cannot have an above ground farm in a mountain biome so you might try farming a little.

[Lytha]

I had something similar in 31.25.

Into a red sand layer, I dfhacked a few obsidian tiles. I then mined them out, constructed walls over it, destroyed the walls - and the tile had turned into slate.

The z-levels constisting of slate are a couple of layers below this red sand layer.


I wondered about it and then dismissed it as an artifact created by dfhack. But it's similar to what you describe.

[Graebeard]

Other than dfcleanmap I've never messed around with dfhack.  Could you use that to add or create soil tiles?

Edit:

When I build a farm above ground it says "no mud/soil for farm" even when I build it over muddied tiles.  Once I build it I'm unable to farm any plants on it.  Also, there is a layer of peat 1 z level below ground that I have no problems growing things on.

I just opened an old save for this fort that I forked a while back in .16 that has all sorts of peat going on:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Hyndis]

Another thing you can do is muddy a stone floor, then wait until plants grow. Cut down the trees and gather the herbs, and muddy soil should be left instead of muddy stone.

[Graebeard]

How does that work?  I've had a big patch of muddied obsidian sitting around for almost a year that hasn't grown anything.

[Hyndis]

Is it underground?

It can't be a constructed stone floor, it needs to be rough/cavern floor. Add water and you get mud.

This is also how you make a tree farm. A tree farm will eventually be all soil because of the continual growing and harvesting of plants.

[Graebeard]

Is it underground?

No, I'm trying to create soil above ground.  55 levels above ground, actually.

[Lytha]

Other than dfcleanmap I've never messed around with dfhack.  Could you use that to add or create soil tiles?

No, DFhack can't do that. I was abusing the DFliquids utility to ged some rocks. DFliquids lets you spawn magma, water, or an obsidian tile. I don't think that you're actually supposed to use it to turn red sand into obsidian, but it worked. :p

I think that there was an utility for 40d that allowed you to manipulate tiles in a very detailed fashion - toggling if it was half dug out, or if it was smoothed or not, and all that. But I neither recall the name nor if something like this exists for 31.x. I could check my old DF folders if I can find the name of this utility, but I am at work right now.


That "the top of cast obsidian turns into the soil back down on the surface" feature was really neat though. I was really happy when I discovered that on my abandoned "obsidian tower on silicious ooze" project. Now this memory and your screenshot give me some ideas for another megaproject... hmm...