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[Javis]

My current fortress has gotten to the point where everything is working smoothly.  The population is stable at 120 (about 10 per year die to the river fish), and I have plenty of food, drink and sleeping space.  I want to do something interesting with the fort.  What do I need to successfully use the lava pipe that begins four z-levels below the surface to make a magma moat or something else dangerous and impressive?

[Silfir]

It will take a while to pump enough magma up there to fill a decent moat. Which is all the better. Say hello to your ten incarnations of Recruit Urist McLegendarypumpoperator!

[Foa]

Dude, if you get a moat, you need beasts, like carp, or imps, but make sure to add an empty moat preferably on the inside area, so the demons won't infest your fortress.

[Magua]

If you want to bring magma up 4 zlevels down to the surface, you need three things:

1) A moat for it to fill.  Easy enough.

2) A knowledge of how screw pumps work.  It'll be easier if you create a screw pump tower so that they can transfer power amongst themselves:

Code: [Select]

sP_
_Ps
 sP_
_Ps
   ~

Where _ is a floor, ~ is your liquid of choice (magma), and sP is a screw pump, where s is the source (pump from) and P is the target (pump to).  I can't show it on the forum here, but there should be no floor under the s portions -- that's where the power transfers.  Check the wiki for more details.

Due to the vagaries of the game, the screw pumps do not need to be magma safe, as long as they are not themselves immersed in lava (it can touch the P portion, where the lava comes out, but lava cannot touch the s.  Since screw pumps typically pump from a level below, this is usually not a problem.)

3) A way to power the pumps.  Dwarf power could be used, but may cause heat-related deaths.  Waterwheel or windmill power is better.  If the pumps are stacked correctly, you only need to get power to one of the pumps, and the power will go through the other ones.

4) Optional.  A way to drain the moat.  If you have a bottomless pit or chasm, that's ideal.  Otherwise, you could drain it into a cistern (if you have water available) and make obsidian in the bargain, too.

Draining is easiest if you have iron and bauxite -- make floodgates/raised bridges out of iron, and use bauxite mechanisms when connecting them to the levers.  If you don't, you can still use screw pumps -- set up a screw pump so that it feeds from the moat, and into the beginning of your drain, whatever it may be:

Code: [Select]

sP
~XX


[LegoLord]

If you don't want to worry about magma beasts, use this:

██╬██
██X██
~~~~
~~~~

Above the "X" dig a channel after carving the fortification.  Build a floor tile above the channel.  Since the fortification allows liquids (but not creatures) to flow through it and since it is a carved wall, it will keep Fire Imps and Magma Men out of you fort, and you will still be able to move magma to any part of the fort that needs it.  You can make the fortifications and channel spaces as many tiles wide as you want. 

[Javis]

Thanks for the tips.

2) A knowledge of how screw pumps work.  It'll be easier if you create a screw pump tower so that they can transfer power amongst themselves:

Code: [Select]

sP_
_Ps
 sP_
_Ps
   ~

Where _ is a floor, ~ is your liquid of choice (magma), and sP is a screw pump, where s is the source (pump from) and P is the target (pump to).  I can't show it on the forum here, but there should be no floor under the s portions -- that's where the power transfers.  Check the wiki for more details.

Due to the vagaries of the game, the screw pumps do not need to be magma safe, as long as they are not themselves immersed in lava (it can touch the P portion, where the lava comes out, but lava cannot touch the s.  Since screw pumps typically pump from a level below, this is usually not a problem.)

Ah, I didn't realize that power could be transferred diagonally between stacked and opposed screw pumps.  I was mostly worried that I would have to import magma-safe stone blocks because I don't have any bauxite on my map.  If that part doesn't matter, it looks like I have everything I need.  I have a river, so there's plenty of power available.  As for the magma critters, I was planning to just install a set of steel vertical bars in the channel from the pipe to the pumps.

Is there any chance that my magma moat could ignite the dense forest that covers most of the surface?

[winner]

no, Trees don't burn.

[Archaeologist]

I didn't know Magma could be pumped.

Then again, I can't even get automated pumps working, and am clueless on how a tower would work.

[AlienChickenPie]

no, Trees don't burn.

Trees may not burn, but grass and critters certainly do. One of my most exciting forts involved dropping magma into a wooded canyon, and I can tell you that while trees stayed intact, creatures and possibly smaller plants burned. This led to many deaths and made the entire area unsafe.

You should be careful not to let the moat overflow.

[forsaken1111]

no, Trees don't burn.

Trees may not burn, but grass and critters certainly do. One of my most exciting forts involved dropping magma into a wooded canyon, and I can tell you that while trees stayed intact, creatures and possibly smaller plants burned. This led to many deaths and made the entire area unsafe.

You should be careful not to let the moat overflow.

This is easy... just make sure the final pump is not above the top edge of your moat.

[Javis]

no, Trees don't burn.

Trees may not burn, but grass and critters certainly do. One of my most exciting forts involved dropping magma into a wooded canyon, and I can tell you that while trees stayed intact, creatures and possibly smaller plants burned. This led to many deaths and made the entire area unsafe.

You should be careful not to let the moat overflow.

This is easy... just make sure the final pump is not above the top edge of your moat.

Right, you would only get an overflow if the pump supplying pressure was at or above the plain.  You could accidentally flood a plain if you were lowering magma into a moat, but it's unlikely if you're raising it.

[winner]

no, Trees don't burn.

Trees may not burn, but grass and critters certainly do. One of my most exciting forts involved dropping magma into a wooded canyon, and I can tell you that while trees stayed intact, creatures and possibly smaller plants burned. This led to many deaths and made the entire area unsafe.

You should be careful not to let the moat overflow.

That is true, my brother lost 6 of his starting dwarves to a grassfire, luckily the seventh was cheered up by being promoted to expedition manager.

[Soadreqm]

Even easier approach: Dig a four-level-deep moat, with magma in the bottom. No pumping involved, smaller chance of setting the world on fire. As long as you don't accidentally pierce the roof of your fortress, everything will be fine. The easiest way to do this is to dig upwards ramps in the first underground layer to remove the roof above, then dig upwards ramps to the layer below that, and repeat as necessary. If you want to make your moat tidier, remove the bottommost ramps before flooding the thing with lava.

[Javis]

Even easier approach: Dig a four-level-deep moat, with magma in the bottom. No pumping involved, smaller chance of setting the world on fire. As long as you don't accidentally pierce the roof of your fortress, everything will be fine. The easiest way to do this is to dig upwards ramps in the first underground layer to remove the roof above, then dig upwards ramps to the layer below that, and repeat as necessary. If you want to make your moat tidier, remove the bottommost ramps before flooding the thing with lava.

That would work OK if it didn't involve channeling through three levels of my fortress and my irrigation system .