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[Bumber]

I have two problems that I don't know how to solve.

1. I cannot plant any above ground crops. It claims that "No Seeds Available for this location". In the stocks menu I can tell that I have: Carrot, Longland grass, and Rye seeds. I have checked, the space is outside, light and above ground.

2. My outpost liaison is a goblin noble, should I be worried?

1. It depends on biome.
2. Not really.

[Demetrious]

Here's a simple one: what's the best way to generate magma mist?



Above is the basic floor plan of my entrance fortifications - a classic two-sided gatehouse, with (what will be) a raised causeway for entering caravans, flanked by lots of obsidian statues for most of its length (hence, three tile row for wagons, one tile row each for decorations == 5 tiles wide.) The one-tile wide side channels will be pumped full of magma and left open to the air for added decorative flair (and to prevent climbing ambushers from getting at the caravan too easily.) Its secondary function is to generate lots of magma mist when I chuck stuff into it for the purposes of turning siege squads into great balls of fire. However I'm not sure what the best way to generate magma mist is, or how "heavy" the things I drop into it should be.

Current options include:

1. Supports built in the magma channels, linked to levers with a single floor tile built atop of them (and maybe a statue there for good measure.) Certainly effective but a major PITA to reset after a siege.
2. A causeway above combined with stockpiles/retracting bridges/The Usual Tricks to drop obsidian blocks into the magma from above. Easy to reset but I'm not sure what constitutes "heavy enough" or how far the magma mist will reach.
3. Acceleration ramps retrofitted into the guard tower that launch minecarts at ludicrous speed down the magma channels, kicking up magma mist as they skip along the surface. I know minecarts will do this if they're moving fast enough, but I wonder what I should make them out of - lighter materiel for more range, or would a lead minecart kick up a bigger splash? If these details are a generally unknown quantity I'll default to this in the interests of educational science.

[pisskop]

magma mist is caused by moving falling magma or thngs falling into mamga.  So probably not going to get magma mist on demand topside unless you construct a tower/cieling.

An option is to build said overhang and partially build walls Zlevels above the magma.  If you suspend a wall that is partiall built (a dwarf has taken a block/rock to the area) then the blockrock stays in the location, suspended.  When invaders are nearby you cancel the building and the suspended rockblock now falls into the magma, making mist.  Or build it over the path so you can drop rocks on invaders directly.

pedit, yah, those would work, and heavier objects work better.  Not sure the exacty weight/height ratio required, but rocks will definitely do it from a height of 3z.

I have no clue wrt carts though.  Try wooden ones then try lead ones.

[Bouchart]

The easiest way to create magma mist would be to drop heavy objects into the magma.  Stones would do the trick, but you could also use large corpses like trolls or goblins, which would help with cleanup after sieges.  The easiest way would be to build a small tower, and designate a dump on a floor hatch at the top of the tower.  Connect the floor hatch to a lever in a safe place, so you can control it remotely.  You'll need the floor hatch surrounded by floor tiles on all 8 sides so dwarves don't dump the stuff off the side of the tower.

If you want a minecart to skip along the surface of the magma you'll probably want a magma safe minecart, so the material honestly won't matter that much unless you make it out of nether-cap or adamantine, since most magma safe stuff is heavy anyway.

[Demetrious]

On second thought... I know that items on a raising drawbridge will be flung outward in the direction of the drawbridge's raise, but will they also be flung upward? I could simply dump lots of obsidian rocks on the drawbridges built into the floor of the channel, and use them to fling things up - and let gravity handle the rest. The same bridges would double as atom-smashers to clear out the channel for maintenance work.

[pisskop]

Item on a raising bridge will be flung in random directions, and very much up.  Sometimes vertically off the map up.  This includes critters, with much hilarity.

[Demetrious]

Item on a raising bridge will be flung in random directions, and very much up.  Sometimes vertically off the map up.  This includes critters, with much hilarity.

For the glory of dorf science, I shall employ both minecarts and submerged magma bridges.

[Bumber]

If you want a minecart to skip along the surface of the magma you'll probably want a magma safe minecart, so the material honestly won't matter that much unless you make it out of nether-cap or adamantine, since most magma safe stuff is heavy anyway.

Loose nethercap items (including minecarts) aren't magma-safe anyways.

[Detros]

Item on a raising bridge will be flung in random directions, and very much up.  Sometimes vertically off the map up.  This includes critters, with much hilarity.

For the glory of dorf science, I shall employ both minecarts and submerged magma bridges.

Put down a bridge, pile magma-safe minecarts and magma on it, then raise the bridge, lower it and repeat. FUN assured.

[Bouchart]

If you want a minecart to skip along the surface of the magma you'll probably want a magma safe minecart, so the material honestly won't matter that much unless you make it out of nether-cap or adamantine, since most magma safe stuff is heavy anyway.

Loose nethercap items (including minecarts) aren't magma-safe anyways.

Are you sure?  They have a fixed temp and the wiki says nether cap is magma safe.

[Demetrious]

Put down a bridge, pile magma-safe minecarts and magma on it, then raise the bridge, lower it and repeat. FUN assured.

The causeway is complete and I'm cranking out iron minecarts and decorative glass-studded statues as fast as my dorfs can move, which is 15 FPS (and therefore not very fast.)

However, something just came to mind - I remember some clever trick about a burning liganite bin, or something similar, left in a hallway as part of a trap. Since I'll have a good ignition source to hand - what would happen if I checker-boarded my new causeway with wooden floor grates and let the magma mist do the rest?

[pisskop]

You can.  Remember that wagons still have to path through, so you'd need to put mechanisms on them to lower them.  or even be sure that lowered wall/floor grates will not impede wagons.  Try wooden hatch covers on the ground?

[Demetrious]

You can.

GLORIOUS. Wooden floor grates can be built over regular floors and they function, well, just like a regular floor, so blocking wagons et al isn't a concern. I can't wait to try this.

[Bumber]

If you want a minecart to skip along the surface of the magma you'll probably want a magma safe minecart, so the material honestly won't matter that much unless you make it out of nether-cap or adamantine, since most magma safe stuff is heavy anyway.

Loose nethercap items (including minecarts) aren't magma-safe anyways.

Are you sure?  They have a fixed temp and the wiki says nether cap is magma safe.

This fixed temperature makes nether-cap wood magma-safe, except that nether-cap wood items dumped into magma are destroyed.

They happen to be the only way to get magma-proof axles.

[Demetrious]

It turns out that accelerating a mine-cart to skipping velocities isn't as easy as I'd thought - the max speed of 270,000... units seems to require a good 50 or so impulse ramps (unless my math/understanding of minecarts is drastically mistaken.) However, corner tracks only cost you 1,000, er, units of speed each, so you should be able to reverse direction for a little less than the cost of a single impulse tile. So if I'm looking to make the unholy equivalent of a dwarven railgun, I could have a track on the Z-level above, with lots of impulse ramps that descends (via turning track-ramp) to the second z-level and sends the cart around a corner to zip down another line of impulse ramps, and the effect should be similar to the same number of ramps laid out in one long line, right?

It seems to make perfect sense. Therefore I must be making a mistake somewhere.