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[kiffer.geo]

I have a plan... a crazy, crazy plan... I've build a proof of concept set up.

Basically I want magma/lava on a map that does not have any but I don't want to cheat and use a utility to make magma tiles.
So I start a fort on the map on which I want the magma, dig a trench along the edge of the map about 20 tiles long... below the trench is a nice deep chamber which I hope will eventually store my magma.

Then I abandon the fort.

I start a fort in the next map right against this map and construct an above ground channel across the map to/from the magma source and a pumping array...

The pumping array fills the channel which is blocked by a floodgate linked to a lever.
In my original plan I built a large tank for the magma and pumped the magma up several z-levels but then right before I started the pumps a glassmaker went in to a fey mood and because I'm still using 40a the game crashed.

I'd spent ages working on it so I was very frustrated and just rebuilt a much simpler version...

Code: [Select]


     |
W    |  W
W  # |  W
W  # |  WWWWWW 77
W  # |  X    %%77
W  # |  WWWWWW 77
W  # |  W
W    |  W
     |

# = Trench
| = Edge of map
W = Wall
%% = Pump
X = Floodgate


Now... Once the system is primed and full of magma, with all the pumps hooked up directly to windmills I abandon the Fort...

Then I start an Adventurer and head to the site, pull the lever and release the magma.
The magma flows across the map boundary and into the waiting trench filling up the chamber below.

Then I head back to town, retire the adventurer and reclaim the fort, which now has a fresh pool of magma.

Unfortunately I miscalculated the size of the chamber I dug and it's only got a 2/7 layer of magma.

Now before I try this crazy endeavour again I need to know something...
How much magma do I need in one big pool to stop it cooling into obsidian? Does it still do this when disconnected from the magma source?

A lot of magma is lost in the process because every tile keeps 1/7 pools of magma on it... is there any way I can minimise this?

Once I work out the kinks I plan to run the magma across several maps to a desert map and build a massive glass fortress.
I know this is a lot more work then just looking for a sandy map with a magma vent.

Here is a screen shot shortly after the adventurer pulled the lever...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Note the wall is needed to stop back flow of lava around the exit, this is the closest I can get the floodgate to the trench because of the unbuildable tiles at the edges of maps.

[Rhenaya]

nice idea 

thats real dwarfen craftdwarfsship!

[kiffer.geo]

Thanks, I got the idea from another thread...
Someone was complaining that they had a great map but they couldn't get every thing in to a 3*3 map...
So I thought why not pump the magma cross from the other map while in adventure mode...

[Lord Dullard]

Looks to me like the problem is not that your pool isn't big enough, it's that it's TOO big.

Lava, like water, is subject to the effects of evaporation. And because lava travels so much slower, it's even more prone to evaporate when spread over a large area like this.

I suggest you do one of two things (or both): enlarge your channel and increase the number of pumps you've got moving the magma, or substantially decrease the size of your lava pool to avoid the evaporation/cooling problem.

[Caiburn]

You, Sir, win at dwarfdom.

That must be the craziest idea I have heard/seen/read of since I started playing DF Please keep us posted if you really pull this off

--Cai

[kiffer.geo]

The final chamber is actually much smaller than the picture makes it look.
The north trench is long because I wanted to catch as much magma as possible but once it drops a level it gets smaller. (but is still too big... should have made it about half the size OR pumped magma in adventure mode for longer but I had drained the top later of the magma source, next time I'll pump from the bottom)

I'm pumping it through a one tile wide constructed channel as speed of pumping was less important to me than proving that I could do it and also twice the width would mean twice the 1/7 residue left behind.

here is an annotated image...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Lord Dullard]

Ah, now I see.

Suggestion:

Instead of using one big flood chamber, wall several separate flood chambers and connect them with floodgates (if you have access to bauxite or iron).

When the first fills, open the floodgates to the second, then the third, et cetera. Design your system so that you can sequentially fill each area if you have the resources available to do it.

[Jingles]

Also if you want to store more magma just make the pit deeper without increaseing the surface area, you will loose less to evaporation that way and it will fill faster.  Deep and thin is the way to go with magma.

[kiffer.geo]

Lord Dullard: I like your idea of having several tanks, I think it might be a bit too much work to have more than a few on each map, but it would make things work better...


All floodgates, blocks, levers and mechanisms are bauxite.
Resources were not a huge problem as I had to abandon and reclaim several times due to fire imps (grass fires wiped out everyone) and each time I brought a tonne of bauxite and tower caps.

Oh did you know that you can't buy pipe sections before embarking? Bring copper to make them out of... wood works but degrades over time...

Jingles: I'll make the walls of the channel 3 levels high, 3 times the magma with the same surface contact...

Magma is still chunky right?

[Aggiedog]

This is really interesting. I wonder, if you artificially create a magma channel into your fortress map, does it act like a magma river with a continuous flow, or is everything just static?

[Astus Ater]

This is really interesting. I wonder, if you artificially create a magma channel into your fortress map, does it act like a magma river with a continuous flow, or is everything just static?

On that note, would it be possible to dam a river, and have it dry up on other maps?

[Jingles]

I think rivers are generated at the map edge or something like that.  It'd be intresting to see if you could make your own rivers or magma channels that floo differently this way though.  Like diverting a river into a valley or something.

[Lalandrathon]

I wonder how the game would handle breaching a new river out of a lake, or whether lakes are constructed so that's even possible.

[Doppel]

Ah, now I see.

Suggestion:

Instead of using one big flood chamber, wall several separate flood chambers and connect them with floodgates (if you have access to bauxite or iron).

When the first fills, open the floodgates to the second, then the third, et cetera. Design your system so that you can sequentially fill each area if you have the resources available to do it.

I have used this exact technique when making a freakishly HUGE lava moat around one of my fortresses, about 5 big magma pipe z levels of magma could easily fill it, so to prevent having to deal with evaporation coupled with the long process of magma pipes refilling i divided the moat into several parts with floodgates, (no bauxite ones though, didn't have to be).

Also, very nice and creative idea of the OP.

[Unreal_One]

Raised drawbridges can be used as walls all the way to the edge of a map, I just discovered. That could help with the magma loss.