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[Weev]

Alright, so my fort is situated next to a volcano, on a side of a valley.  I've been blessed with various oddities, such as the "Sunken" nature of the volcano. (It being one Z level down from the opening creating natural walls)  Non-psychotic elves. (They bring me tons of wood)  and a small patch of sand.  The brook that runs down the middle of the valley is my watersource for my well, and I would love to keep it that way.  However.  I want to know.

Would it be possible to flood the valley floor with Magma?

I would LOVE to have the only entrance to my fort built in the middle of a vertible sea of lava, with a drawbridge to the other side for the merchants.  However I'm not too sure on the mechanics of having it, and the danger to the brook that runs along the valley floor. 

My idea is to floor over the brook, and create a tower for the military, which of course will have the barracks/armoury submerged if/when I flood the valley.  The volcano is the proper height to do it too.

What other problems will I have?  Will the magma simply slide off the map faster that it is drained in? (Solved with walls.) Will it still dam the brook, causing me to be without a serviceable well?   Is it even feasible?

Any input is welcome.

[Karlito]

I think that as long as you have the patience to wait out the massive lag caused by the flooding of the valley then you should be fine.

[Draco18s]

If the valley has edges to the map it won't fill, but continue to drain off the edges, assuming you want it more than 1 z level thick.  Solved by walls, though it means you'll have a constructed perimeter rather than a natural one.  River shouldn't cause any problems, the magma will flow in, make the squares into obsidian, and block the river (no side effects).

[Weev]

River shouldn't cause any problems, the magma will flow in, make the squares into obsidian, and block the river (no side effects).

Thing is, I would love to keep the brook intact.  I need those sick dwarves to be healthy again some day.

[Hyndis]

Wall over the top of the river and it should be okay.

As for your plan, sounds quite workable, assuming you have the patience to fill up that large of an area with magma.

For speed, I'd consider building a tower of many pumps using the standard pump-stacking method, but start way down deep, possibly even at the lowest level of the magma pipe. Magma replenishes slowly enough that a single pump can drain off the topmost level on its own, but if you have the entire tube to work with it should be enough. Fill the valley too slowly and it'll evaporate before it reaches enough depth to sustain itself.

You'll likely need either a very large windmill farm or a water-based perpetual motion engine to power these pumps, but it would allow you to move massive amounts of magma in a short period of time.

I love the idea though, just be prepared to lose dwarves in the magma during melee fighting. They often times get energetic and charge forward, or can be punted around if the goblins have hammers, and you won't be able to recover any of that metal. Dwarven champions equipped with any weapons will probably punt at least half of the siege off into the magma pits.

[Weev]

Wall over the top of the river and it should be okay.

As for your plan, sounds quite workable, assuming you have the patience to fill up that large of an area with magma.

For speed, I'd consider building a tower of many pumps using the standard pump-stacking method, but start way down deep, possibly even at the lowest level of the magma pipe. Magma replenishes slowly enough that a single pump can drain off the topmost level on its own, but if you have the entire tube to work with it should be enough. Fill the valley too slowly and it'll evaporate before it reaches enough depth to sustain itself.

You'll likely need either a very large windmill farm or a water-based perpetual motion engine to power these pumps, but it would allow you to move massive amounts of magma in a short period of time.

I love the idea though, just be prepared to lose dwarves in the magma during melee fighting. They often times get energetic and charge forward, or can be punted around if the goblins have hammers, and you won't be able to recover any of that metal. Dwarven champions equipped with any weapons will probably punt at least half of the siege off into the magma pits.

I already have a suicide brigade of Fortress guards (Steel plate + Wrestling = Fun times had by all)  But I'm well ahead of the game when it comes to sieges.  My previous forts have perfected my battlement skills.  However, you do have a point, I would have to speed up the process with pumps, or risk it simply cooling off before it gets anywhere.  Cripes, does that mean I have to start mass producing steel pump parts?

[Fossaman]

You could always perform a sectional flooding.

Sets of non-bauxite floodgates linked to mechanisms. They won't melt until you pull the lever they're attached to, from what I understand. Simply wall off the valley in a grid (or whatever) and open a set of floodgates each time the previous section is filled up.

[nagual678]

Could you post the seed and location ? cheers

[Weev]

Could you post the seed and location ? cheers

Uhhh... Seed: [4193839888]

[Hyndis]

You could also use iron for the pumps. I believe iron, steel, and adamantine don't melt, and iron is the easiest to get.

The upside is that you'll train up your metal workers nicely. I'm not sure how many pumps you'd need, but the quicker the material can spread out the more rapid the flow will have to be to counteract evaporation.

A few builds ago I embarked on a map that had a magma pipe at the top of the map, with ground lower around it, much like a regular shield volcano. Just for kicks I tunneled into the volcano from the side, allowing magma to flow directly from the magma pipe into the world. However the magma flow stopped around 15-20 squares from the exit of the tunnel due to evaporation. This was probably due to the tunnel being too narrow and the exit place being too wide, but magma does flow far slower than water, thus is much more prone to evaporation.

[Weev]

Unfortuantly, this map is mostly devoid of gems and minerals.  It's getting to the point where I'm worried about my rough gem supply for my moods. T-T  I dig deeper, but I can only seem to find more and more rock.  Even the phyllite layer seems suspiciously devoid of gems.

[Duke 2.0]

 Possibility: Damming.

 Some players would find an area of cliffs with a large lower area poking into the cliff. They would then dam off the open section and flood the new lake. Then they either make some floodgates/drawbridges to allow for an overflow and/or make waterwheels for power.

 So basically:

 

Code: [Select]

High Land = ▓
 Low land = ▒
 Wall = ║

 ▓▓▓▓▓
 ▓▓▒▒╖
 ▓▒▒▒║
 ▓▓▓▓╜
 ▓▓▓▓▓

[arghy]

You could wall off the brook then build a roof over it and try to build a multi Z level deep magma ocean with the brook being safely walled off and covered. I suggest Dtil with its reveal all and vein helper because you shouldent be forced to leave nice fortresses because you dont have resources. you could also create an artificial lake around the entire map by channeling and strip mineing everything below the natural Z level and have a waterfall of magma to bypass the need for pumps(then have the brooking running above the magma so you could have endless obsidian).

[numerobis]

I find that a 2-wide magma tunnel can go arbitrarily far.  To make it go faster, make it 2-wide and 2-tall.  The top level will fill the bottom level to 7 deep, without being at threat of evaporating (the concept of magma just evaporating is pretty dwarven to me).

[Weev]

Alright, according to how things are going, the 126 dwarven hands at Smitheyes has undertaken a project of somewhat epic purportions. 
The Plan:
-Flood the valley with lava. 1z level thick in some places 2 in others.
-Fortify the center of the valley and widen it's edges where possible.
-Convert the fortress side of the valley completely, no ground must go untouched.
-Convert the other side of the valley into something for the traders to use. Smoothed roads, protective walls, and small military outpost towers that watch the roads.

Steps:
1.) Backup the data.
2.) Begin carving up the valley.
3.) Wall up the Brook
4.) Further add to the base tower in the valley (Already constructed)
6.) Wall up the canal and fortify the road.
7.) Begin flooding the valley.
8.)
9.) Profit and Pride.

Step 8 will be the step where I decide on which course to take.   It's pretty much dependent on some testing I will do with dummy runs.

As for the reveal and terraforming with outside programs?  I'm not too savvy with that stuff, however, I do want to try to do it the old fashion way.

ETA for completion: Spring of year 15.  (Optimism at it's best.)