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[GavJ]

In lieu of hatch cover shenanigans, I usually simply do this with my stair shaft:

fort
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   caverns

With a raising bridge in that middle portion if it proves necessary or ahead of time if you're paranoid or have no military.

[joeclark77]

I tend to start cracking rocks into rock blocks as soon as I get through the aquifer, and just use rock blocks to seal off the cavern.  They're light, and dwarves move them into position much faster than boulders.

If you dig an up-down stair (X) into the roof of a cavern, you can replace it with an up-stair (<) and you get a floor under it for free.  (No need to "remove stairs" first... the constructed stair simply goes on top of the dug stair.)  Then just dig a lateral tunnel and continue digging down from a safer area.

[Sadrice]

I don't remove stairs, no need with impermeable hatch covers.


I also usually use the passage to the side that GavJ uses, but with a hatch cover and cage traps, with a weapon trap on the last square (eventually, when I get around to making it, meaning usually never).  I'm not too much of a purist to use traps and hatch covers, and trusting dwarf lever pulling response time when there's an extremely fast FB about to make it into the main stairwell can lead to disaster, which while Fun, is not always fun.

[Loud Whispers]

If you go for magma first its best to move everything underground, because at that point it would be safer and the surface wouldn't be able to provide anything the caverns couldn't.

[Sadrice]

(No need to "remove stairs" first... the constructed stair simply goes on top of the dug stair.)  Then just dig a lateral tunnel and continue digging down from a safer area.

OH!  I see what you mean.  I meant remove the designations for the rest of the downstairs, not the already carved stairs.  When I'm digging down, I usually designate ~30 Zs at a time, and just remove the designations if I run into anything.  Unfortunately, I sometimes forget to remove them, and my dwarves will just bore straight down a column, giving full cavern access to my main staircase.

[Kreydurst]

If you go for magma first its best to move everything underground, because at that point it would be safer and the surface wouldn't be able to provide anything the caverns couldn't.

I've decided to dig tons of ramps so that the trade caravan can get to the 2nd cavern. I'm evil, and await to see the destruction forgotten beasts do to the caravans.

[Uggh]

One level down is as far and takes a dwarf as long to walk as one tile in a horizontal direction, so digging 50 z-levels is not really that far.

For sealing caverns I simply build a wall or floor from the stones left over from mining. They are closest by and are quickly used by a simple mason. Bridges or the like are for later when I really want to make use of the caverns.

[FallenAngel]

Usually, when I dig straight down into the caverns, I make a second stairwell off of the main one.
It is connected to my main workroom, blocked off with a door (this keeps out minor creatures, like elk birds), and with the rest of the path filled with cage traps. It doesn't keep out Forgotten Beasts, but you can set up the door to a lever and close that when a Forgotten Beast is announced. It requires some work from your mechanics and your carpenters/metalsmiths (the former is more likely if you need to dig into the caverns), although if you have severely limited wood, you can make do with just a sealed door.

[Rotten_Karma]

Magma pistons and pump stacks are overkill if all you need is a few magma workshops.

All you need to do is make a small obsidian farm with a minecart stockpile in it.  Fill it with empty magma safe mine carts (iron, steel, nickel, candy), and then flood it with 7/7 magma.  Obsidianize it and then mine out the now safe to handle minecarts.   Assign the full carts to a one stop route on a dumping track stop and voila, 2/7 magma anywhere you want in your fortress.  The only dangerous part is making a safe obsidian farm, and breaching any magma pools.  It takes at least 4/7 to run a magma workshop, so if you only have 1 magma safe mine cart then it will take multiple castings to get it running, but there is always a use for more obsidian. 

This takes about 9 mechanisms with at least 1 being magma safe.  3 levers, and 3 bridges with one being magma safe.  A magma safe door makes access easier.

Advantages of this method include only having to create 2 shafts down, one for water, and one for stairs, which saves on mining time, and allows the magma to be placed nearly anywhere on the map.  Of course if you are gonna need a lot more magma then you better start working on a pump stack or a piston. 

I would think that this was common knowledge, but if it isn't, then it is now. 

[GavJ]

That sounds about equally or more difficult than a piston in terms of overseer time and micromanagement... Also requires water. And iron (or nethercap or whatever)

Although it certainly has the potential to be much much faster in terms of dwarf months. So definitely good to know and keep in the library of tricks!

Do minecarts still dump on dump stops if carried straight to them? or do they have to roll along a couple of pieces of track first?

[Rotten_Karma]

They dump any time they are sitting on a dumping track stop.  This includes while they are being loaded from a feeder stockpile.  Makes quantum stockpiling fairly easy.

As to the difficulty, I have never built a magma piston but i have an OK understanding of their operation.   It may be more complicated than a Magma piston, but even a magma piston requires 3 mechanisms or 1 sacrificial dwarf to cause the cave in. 

Anyways the ability to place the magma anywhere in your fortress is not to be overlooked.  It makes much more aesthetically pleasing fortresses.

[Wormser]

They dump any time they are sitting on a dumping track stop.  This includes while they are being loaded from a feeder stockpile.  Makes quantum stockpiling fairly easy.

As to the difficulty, I have never built a magma piston but i have an OK understanding of their operation.   It may be more complicated than a Magma piston, but even a magma piston requires 3 mechanisms or 1 sacrificial dwarf to cause the cave in. 

Anyways the ability to place the magma anywhere in your fortress is not to be overlooked.  It makes much more aesthetically pleasing fortresses.

I would think that would depend on where you put the lever? As if you put it where the dwarf recieves no harm. The dwarf should live. Then again. Have yet to get there to find out.

[sal880612m]

I took what he said to mean if you use a lever no sacrifice is necessary but you could just as easily sacrifice a dwarf as well.

[Gigaz]

Magma pistons and forges on the magma level are so 2010.

Nowadays I embark with some iron and sand for glass stuff. I make 4 iron minecarts, then I have them filled with magma and hauled to the surface. Creates 2 powered surface magma forges on each repetition. And there's no water required 

[GavJ]

I never could figure out how to fill minecarts with liquid in a way that consistently worked, though. Am I just out of the loop?

Don't remember the exact numbers, but when I tried it with like, 3 initial ramps, it would just stop in the liquid and not have enough energy to come back out. And yet with just one more ramp for 4 total, wuddenly it skipped straight across without filling up. Annoying as hell.  How do you get it to actually go in, fill up and still also come back up again?