For reference (although I've mentioned before in historic threads), I tend to find the layer on which I want to put my magma complex (usually level with the
top of the available magma resource, but may be lower) in an area of rock without magma immediately on Z-1 below the planned workshop areas and on that Z-1 dig a magmaduct off towards where I can breach the magma.
This magmaduct usually snakes beneath the planned "hole in the ground " points for each workshop I plan (top middle for most of the magma workshops, middle left or middle right for the odd one out). Access may be from the Z-1 level, but is usually by ramp from the very last workshop in the chain. I'll dig the magma-tapping end until the point at which the next dug spot would breach magma (typically, at a diagonal in the magmapipe/sea wall, or
would be a diagonal to make the tapping point).
Then my OCD takes over. All I need to do is smooth that 'last tile', but I'll generally smooth the walls and floors the entire length. And if any of the dug workshops got their channel into the area of the pipe before the pipe had already been dug that far, there'll be unnecessary ramps to remove. Any ores or gems or flux-type stone in the walls I will dig out (to just one tile's thickness, because later I can go in from above if I want the rest) and replace those walls with
blocks of the same material as the general non-precious walls in the general vicinity.
additional: I also dump everything from the magmaduct. It looks cleaner to not have rocks (or molten rocks) floating around the duct, but also lets me prioritise the removal of precious materials that I want to recover, and make sure I haven't left anything.Once I'm ready, though, I'll construct a suitable floodgate at the (current) end of the magmaduct, attach it to a lever and then pull it open while sending an engraver to fortify the remaining gap to the magma-source. Because of the diagonal nature, I have found that the engraver has
never had problems wandering out, but I always set the floodgate to shut as he wanders away, just in case he decides to go to sleep half-way to the exit.
By this time I may have built magma-workshops over every single pre-planned hole above the magmaduct except the final one (where the escape ramp is), although I've sometimes built 3x3 bridges (no levers) over those workshop plans that I haven't got anvils for/time to sort out. Again, a bit OCD (1x1 over the hole would be enough, as would a floor if I wasn't bothered losing the material upon deconstruction, but bridges leave their materials off to one side when unbuilt), but it's how I work.
With nobody in the duct, and a small tongue of magma already in, I generally build over the escape square (I may also have used a point where I've removed a re-blocked gems or ore from a wall to get in
sideways to remove the last ramp and smooth it down, before replacing said wall), I then open the floodgate again. I let magma fill the place, and keep an eye on it to get it to 7/7ths all the way along, even if I have to wait a while for a '6/7ths' to chase up and down the magmaduct, before it finally bleeds out into the magma-source of whatever kind it was. Then I shut the floodgate. Now I have a 7/7ths-full magmaduct under my workshops that is
effectively proof from all magma-swimmers. The fortification has a floodgate on the inside, and even if something had the wherewithal to transit the
floodgatefortifications and destroy the floodgate, the workshops are sat over the upper exits, capping that escape. This may not be a situation that is safe
forever, during the continual development of the game, but it's a whole lot of overkill over what's technically required right now.
Also, if I, for any reason, decide to drain the magma-source area, my magma-workshops still have their fixed 7/7ths reservoir of magma beneath them, unaffected until I deliberately let it drain out (or tap into it from another direction).
If I have reason to believe I'm going to be tapping the magma a number of times (and not make individual tappings for each and every magmaduct, by the same method as above) I may actually put a space between the aforementioned floodgate and
second one that also seals off the workshops' magma-feed. Once
both are closed I can tap into the the intermediate square (without more than a single 7/7ths magma spreading into the new route, from either magmasource or in-use magmaduct) and arrange the affairs from that point... (Or I might pre-build an alcove or two at appropriate points between the two locks, and pre-set floodgates into these in preparation.) Then I can make further spurs whose filling with magma (from outside, not by depleting the existing full duct) I can keep until when everyone is out of there, and seal again, ready for whatever
other works I need.
It's all quite simple, honest.
[minor edits: as marked, where significant]
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Topic: Magma Smelters (Read 2552 times)