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Author Topic: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?  (Read 12135 times)

TeleDwarf

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how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« on: February 27, 2012, 05:06:53 pm »

I have tried to pour some sand I purchased from caravan on the gound, but my dwarves decided to clean it up  :(
why can't they clean up blood trails!?  anyway. How can I have a working glass industry without any original sand? any way to create one?
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peskyninja

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2012, 05:16:01 pm »

Usually when you cut a tree on a cavern it chooses a random kind of soil to replace that tile.
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Daenyth

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2012, 11:05:13 pm »

If you pack enough grazers on a square they trample it to sand.
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Strelek

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2012, 07:29:04 am »

I remember reading somewhere that pouring lava over mud will create sand.
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UnHerpers

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2012, 09:37:19 am »

You can change the raws of one of your current soil layers (Or the layer that appears under trees in the caverns) to be sand.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2012, 03:18:15 pm »

You can't create sand on a sandless embark.

*Sad violin music*

Sphalerite

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2012, 04:47:23 pm »

Usually when you cut a tree on a cavern it chooses a random kind of soil to replace that tile.

Yes, but only chosen from the types of soil that are already on your site.  If you have no sand, this won't create it.

On a sandless embark, you will have to buy bags of sand from traders.

I remember reading somewhere that pouring lava over mud will create sand.

I'd like to know where you read that, because it is completely incorrect.
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Strelek

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2012, 11:14:20 am »

It was in the story of The Saga of Weatherwires http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=93279.0.
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DS

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Re: how to create a sand tile on sandless embark?
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2012, 12:06:02 pm »

I remember reading somewhere that pouring lava over mud will create sand.

I'd like to know where you read that, because it is completely incorrect.

Not completely. There is one more step involved - the muddied stone must be allowed to grow vegetation, which is then burned away by magma, leaving a soil tile, as detailed in this post. Later, I discovered that magma is not actually crucial in the process - paving over mud growth with constructions, then removing them, seems to do the trick just as well.

As it turned out, even though there was no actual soil layer consisting of sand on my map, the upper cavern layer (I didn't check the others) apparently consisted of equal parts silt and red sand, hidden beneath the cave fungus. This soil can be revealed via the same method - magma or paving over (or foot traffic or animals, if you have enough) - and was, in my case, completely unrelated to any other soil on the map.

So, while that method worked for "fabricating" sand in my fortress, it was completely unnecessary for the purposes of fueling a glass industry, since that sand already existed elsewhere on the map, hidden from view. In conclusion, even if there appears to be no sand on your map, it may very well exist in the caverns.
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