Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CogDissident]

I think its just that anything that contains a 7x7 block will collapse. The author didn't (i don't think) know how to tell apart support columns qued to be built, and ones that are built already.

[Toady One]

According to the cave-in code, the supports should cancel pending cave-ins when the build is completed.  It's possible there are bugs with it, but it's supposed to work in a sensible fashion.  A little fiddling hasn't yielded a disaster, but I can keep looking.

[MrDannimal]

Just to double check...

As long as you can't fit a 7x7 "block" inside an open space, it won't collapse.  Correct?

So you could take a 13 x 13 area, and clear it such that you leave the stone in place at the exact center and be sure it won't collapse (assuming no bugs)?

Is there a difference between building a support and leaving the stone unmined?

[UncleSporky]

Yes, 13x13 with one umined section in the middle will never collapse.  In theory of course, this is still an alpha...but in my experience never.  I've got huge rooms with a "pillar" every seven spaces each way and they're just fine.

[Zereth]

Note that supports will block farm plots, while unmined stone will just make the plot move around it. There's probably some other things like this. So, in general, it's better to plan ahead and not mine than it is to build supports.

[RPB]

On the other hand, supports can be linked to levers. So you can hook up every support in the fortress to one master lever and make yourself a self-destruct mechanism. (You could just flood the place, too, but I think it's more impressive this way.)

[MrDannimal]

So far, I haven't been so successful that I need to blow the entire fortress myself.  I've found that the game and my lack of skill often takes care of that before I'd ever get that far.  

[Aquillion]

quote:Originally posted by JT:
<STRONG>You can tell whether the support is finished because when it's finished, it converts to a dark grey/grey/white I on a black background.  When it hasn't yet been finished, it's a black I on a dark grey/grey/white background.

I can't begin to count how many times I've smacked my desktop angrily because someone working on a pillar decides that now would be an excellent time to go get a drink, meaning that I have to halt all mining in the room until I can get someone else to pick up the slack...</STRONG>

...you can just mine out everything but one spot, and mine out that spot when the pillar is done...

[JT]

In general, I mine out the pillars first, such that if I were to mine out most of the rest of the room, it stands a very good chance of collapsing as it is.  It's a whole crapload of designation cancelling which I'm not really willing to do, so I just cancel the whole room to save my fingers for more important things (like smacking my desktop angrily).

[Gronut]

In a most unfortunate incident, I enlarged my food storage to cope with a particularily bountiful harvest without paying attention and the ensunig collapse destroyed about 125 plump helmets and dozens of barrels. I wept. Lucky for me it was summer and I recovered from the loss of food by winter, though I am still defficient in barrels. Oh yeah, one dwarf was also killed.

quote:Originally posted by Zereth:
<STRONG>Note that supports will block farm plots, while unmined stone will just make the plot move around it.</STRONG>

IIRC, while they may mess up farm placement, supports do not obstruct the movement of dwarves, critters, baddies, water, etc. Coincidentally, while they don't have any supportive characteristics and I havent' checked their hydrodynamic properties, statues appear to act as good walls for the purpose of dwarves and critters, and you can even build doors between them.

quote:Originally posted by Toady One:
<STRONG>The dust that blows out from cave-ins can knock down supports.</STRONG>

I've also seen it blow out a stone door and continue beyond it.

[Aristharus]

I use pretty much rooms larger than 7x7. For some I build a support, for some I leave one square unmined and I've never had a cave-in where I shouldn't have. I also saved one room by finishing the support after the message about "rumbling" or whatever, so it seems to be clearing the "About to crash" flag succesfully too.