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[Eagle]

First off, my megaproject is going to be a giant sky city, all supported by 5 giant pillars. All shops, farms, forges, wells, etc will be on top of the platform, with a giant staircase leading down below ground to the quarries and towercap farms. Its gonna be laid out sorta like this:

Top view:

OXXXXXO
XXXXXXX
XXXOXXX
XXXXXXX
OXXXXXO

O - one of the "legs"
X - floor

2 of the legs on one side will pump water; the other side will pump magma; hopefully in a set up like this:

Side view:

XXXXXXX
XWX  XPX
XWX  XPX
XWX  XPX
RRRRRRRR

X - walls
W - waterwheel
P - pumps
R -river/magma

Now my questions:
 
Will the whole thing collapse if its only supported by pillars made of walls?
Will the setup of the pumps/waterwheels keep perpetual motion? (I plan on damming the river so that the water doesnt flow off the map)
Will caravans climb stairs? (if so, the central "leg" will have an opening on the ground level to let traders up into the city)
Can steel be safely used for magma pumps? (Ugh, ive rarely messed with mechanisms; im a total noob when it comes to anything greater than draining a pond)

Obviously, im going to need a special map for this; if anyone has a map with the following features, could you please give me the seed and location?

Needs:
Magma pipe
River
Underground pool/river (for towercap farming)
Many z-levels (as this is going to go at least 20 z's up before i start building anything, and the city itself will be at least 10 or so z's thick, plus with castles/shops/giant constructions on the topside)

Preferably also the following: sand (glass industry), HFS (should be obvious), and a bottomless pit (so i can make a solid obsidian fortress populated by nothing other than warriors)

Ill diagram this better and make an update, but for now yall should have the basic idea. Any help you can give is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Foa]

NO
YES
NO, Three ramps in a row.

[Kelwyn]

I did a smaller scale version of what you're proposing ages ago in green glass

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Built over a magma pipe,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Biggest problem I had was it could only go up 8 stories from the base level, you'll want to select a site that clips the edge of a mountain range to get some extra Z's in.

Those images were from early on in the construction, i got quite a bit further but the save's at home.

1. Will not collapse.
2. Can't help there
3. need ramps, not stairs.
4. Also not sure

[Jack_Bread]

Will the whole thing collapse if its only supported by pillars made of walls?
Will the setup of the pumps/waterwheels keep perpetual motion? (I plan on damming the river so that the water doesnt flow off the map)
Will caravans climb stairs? (if so, the central "leg" will have an opening on the ground level to let traders up into the city)
Can steel be safely used for magma pumps?

1) No, I don't think so. Toady removed that I believe.
2) I'm just not that good with waterwheels and motion in DF. So far, I've used one pump.
3) No. They can climb ramps, though. But there have been problems with wagon-pullers phasing through walls into the magma.
4) Yes, metal is magma safe I believe. Use bauxite if it isn't.
EDIT: Just use bauxite then.

[Cypress]

It will stand up fine. Look at the link in my siggy, that entire city is supported by one five by five pillar.

Wagons can only go up and down ramps, not stairs.

The set up of pumps waterwheels will keep moving for a long time, although in my experience they need occasional refilling

As for magmapumps, steel and bauxite should be fine. Or nickel silver, which is magma proof and cheaper.

Good luck, I wanna see how this goes. The only thing I would worry about is farming on the platform. I don't know if you can make farms on constructed floors, if yes, Awesome.

Also, in my experience, you'll want many, many mason shops running constant repeating 'Create Stone Blocks' jobs to keep up with your needs.

[Cypress]

I did a smaller scale version of what you're proposing ages ago in green glass

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Built over a magma pipe,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Biggest problem I had was it could only go up 8 stories from the base level, you'll want to select a site that clips the edge of a mountain range to get some extra Z's in.

Those images were from early on in the construction, i got quite a bit further but the save's at home.

1. Will not collapse.
2. Can't help there
3. need ramps, not stairs.
4. Also not sure

How did you get 3dwarf to do that? usually it just displays All constructed walls as being out of stone, no with green glass.

[Kelwyn]

How did you get 3dwarf to do that? usually it just displays All constructed walls as being out of stone, no with green glass.

I found a suitable texture online and edited the texture swatch the 3dwarf directory

[Eagle]

Yeah, i wasnt expecting caravans to be able to climb stairs...guess ill just make the depot underground, near the base of the central pillar. As for the legs, i wanted to build them IN the river/magma channel; i think that might keep them from running out. You can also farm on constructed floors; look at the Chasm-Challenge; thats where i also got the idea for a separate obsidian warriors tower. And yes i realize the mason shop drain is gonna be huge. (i might just build it of raw stone if i get impatient)

Thanks for all the feedback!

[Cypress]

How did you get 3dwarf to do that? usually it just displays All constructed walls as being out of stone, no with green glass.

I found a suitable texture online and edited the texture swatch the 3dwarf directory

Hmmmmmm...
*destroys the earth*
Nope, that's how just about all my ideas work out.

[Eagle]

Just checked the wiki; yep, i can use steel for the magma pumps.

Hmm, maybe i should make the city out of some sort of exotic material....crystal glass?

[Cypress]

Just checked the wiki; yep, i can use steel for the magma pumps.

Hmm, maybe i should make the city out of some sort of exotic material....crystal glass?

Have fun with that. You can't order raw rock crystals from the dwarves, and the cut stuff is no good.

[Eagle]

Just checked the wiki; yep, i can use steel for the magma pumps.

Hmm, maybe i should make the city out of some sort of exotic material....crystal glass?

Have fun with that. You can't order raw rock crystals from the dwarves, and the cut stuff is no good.

Hmmmm.....maybe i should mod that in; use 10 bits of rock to create a single piece of rock crystal at the smelter. Or maybe i should just dump the idea; im reluctant to cheat.

Wait, ill just make the temple to Armok out of it. Let the lesser dwarfs know their place; let them bask in the glory of Armok!

[Eagle]

Alright, i think i got a good location; about 50 z's, magma pipe, river, underground pool, bottomless pit, plenty of stone, and i think HFS (somewhere, my savescummed explorations didnt find it). The upper z's are mostly obsidian, so no trouble there; and there's a small patch of aquifer on the east side; i can get some sand from around the map, and i think theres a layer of sand near the aquifer. Although i only really need a single tile of sand for an infinite supply....theres a problem, if there isnt a layer of sand underground, i cant cut myself off until i build a giant stockpile. Hmm.... 

I also made up another idea to keep my fort from interacting with the ground level: a sky bridge, held up by massive supports, reaching to the edge of the map and leading to the depot. That would work, right?

Also, anyone have any input as to perpetual water/magma falls? i want a couple of them in my temple to Armok, like this:

(not to scale)

XXXXXX
X AAA X
M AAA M
X        X
W       W
XXEEEXX

X-wall
M-magma fall
W-waterfall
E-entrance
A-altar to the Blood God, with caged gobbos at sides + statues and stuff

The sky bridge would allow me to shun all contact with the 0 level, but it would probably let gobbos in too. Ideas/feedback?

Edit: heres my world map
http://files.filefront.com/region2rar/;12956889;/fileinfo.html

And heres my location:
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/rr167/shattershard/untitled.jpg

[Berrylee]

You could make a circular stairway (or more a screw) with ramps around the center pillar for wagon access. They look pretty nice, too.

[Eagle]

I might end up doing that, im worried about the gobbos having a beeline to the center of my city.