Working on plans for a magma pumpstack... not experienced enough with cave-ins to do a piston so power, temperature, and proper design must be figured out... dipgold will have the earth's blood at its command!
Now to get enough magma-proof materials together, build some power generators, the stack itself... and find magma.
Any recommendations on this thing?
To be honest, a piston isnt all that difficult to build. You need a reservoir at the bottom and the piston itself of which the second highest level becomes the area where you catch the magma with bridges at its side and ontop of that a simple dug out room. On the level above the piston you dig out a ring of floors matching the outline of the piston so you can get rid of all the floors alongside the piston and create open space above the piston for the magma to teleport to.
(Fairly) detailed instructions:
(topview)
the general outline of the piston:
#######
#.....#
#.###.#
#.###.#
#.###.#
#.....#
#######
catch the magma:
#######
#BBBBB#
#B###B#
#B###B#
#B###B#
#BBBBB#
#######
B: retractable bridge/hatch, anything that doesnt support the piston
the top most level of the piston with floors still intact:
#######
#.....#
#.!!!.#
#.!!!.#
#.!!!.#
#.....#
#######
and a level above it to collapse every ring of floors beneath it, note the room is bigger than the ones below it to allow cave ins:
#########
#ccccccc#
#c.....c#
#c.ccc.c#
#c.ccc.c#
#c.ccc.c#
#c.....c#
#ccccccc#
#########
'c' marks tiles to be channeled out.
If everything is channeled out, the dots '.' (floor tiles) around the center are unsupported, will fall down
and tear down every other floor (or here: dots) exactly beneath it - with the exception of the '!' marked
tiles which, once the piston has been used, will replace the center tiles of the catchment area
(the #'s surrounded by the bridges). So the end result will look like this (no magma shown)
piston | catch | above catch | 2 above catch
####### ####### ####### #######
#xxxxx# #BBBBB# #xxxxx# #xxxxx#
#x###x# #B!!!B# #xxxxx# #xxxxx#
#x###x# #B!!!B# #xxxxx# #xxxxx#
#x###x# #B!!!B# #xxxxx# #xxxxx#
#xxxxx# #BBBBB# #xxxxx# #xxxxx#
####### ####### ####### #######
x: open space
The amount of magma transported depends on a) the size of the piston and b) the depth of the reservoir.
For every z-level of reservoir depth you have to add one more z-level of piston on top of the catchment area
since the depth dictates how many z-levels the piston will fall. So in the case above I dropped it one z-level.
Once you understand that you need at least 2 z-levels more than you'd want the magma to end up it is
a very easy concept both to design and dig out.
If that doesnt convince you that the piston is a faster and easier way to get magma up here are some tips on magma pump stacks:
- first find magma by digging/channeling downwards into warm stone (try to be
above the magma sea if you value the lives of your miners)
- every component of the stack has to be
magma safe, from doors for safety reasons (an exception to that follows below) to the components of the pumps themselves. Glass makes excellent pump ingredients when there is no iron around. Also note that nether-cap
wood is magma safe. Do not build pumps out of not magma safe stone blocks!
- the stack itself, if dug out properly, is fool proof to install. If channeled correctly so that power can be transfered downwards, there is only one possible direction to build the pump so you do not need to worry about a pump facing the wrong way
- your dwarves are stupid, remember that if you dig out the stack. Follow the wiki's
basic layout of the stack with doors everywhere; only the doors next to the outtake tile have to be magma safe.
- for ease of use
and to guarantee proper designation of the stack learn to work with
macros. You do not need to save every bit you record, just record CTRL+R the designation of 2 levels and replay it CTRL+P right away.
- power can be supplied by the excellent
Reactor. A reactor can be safely halted by installing a floor or hatch cover over the pump's intake.
- !!science!! has been done on the lag caused by magma pumping. The game calculates the heating of the stone surrounding the outtake tiles of the pumps. That means every time a stack of magma travels through your pump stack, it recalculates the warmth around the outtake tile since the stack quickly enters the outtake and is almost immediately sucked up again by the next pump - it warms the stone nevertheless. To limit these recalculations make the outtakes 3x3 tiles wide instead of 1x1 so there will always be plenty of magma left to keep the surrounding stone warm at a constant level. I do not have experience with large size pump stacks so I cannot comment if this is true.
- both the magma pumping and the water reactors will drain your fps considerably.
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