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[torne]

OK, I have rather a lot of exposed magma on my map after digging various enormous moats and the like. It's connected to a magma pipe that fills to 1 z-level below the ground. I'm slightly concerned that I'm going to end up burning the whole place down (but lakes of magma are awesome).

The wiki says that fire snakes, being vermin, can spawn outside of the magma but in its vicinity: how far away can they spawn? Will a big-ass wall a few tiles away from the edge of the moats stop them getting out and setting fire to the whole map? Can any other fire creatures get out of the magma given that it's a z-level below the adjacent ground at all points and thus they'd presumably need to be able to fly? (there are no ramps/staircases leading out of the moats).

[Zona]

Fire snakes are vermin and teleport at random. A wall wont stop them but don't worry to much. It seems rare that they set anything on fire. Magma and Fire men tend to just sit at the bottom z-level of your pipe. Don't drop anything on there head and the'll stay there. Fire Imps can be a problem but they wont wander to far from the pipe.

[torne]

I *think* fire snakes burnt my last embark to the ground by starting a raging forest fire which got carried into my fortress while I wasn't paying attention (there didn't seem to be any other fire creatures around at the time), so I dunno about that.

Can the fire imps get out of the pipe in the first place? (from the z-level below?) They're regular creatures, so a wall should stop them going any further, no?

[Carcer]

Fire imps, magma men and fire men can get out of the pipe easily enough. Its the same basic idea as a skeletal fish getting out of river, only with a chance of forest fires.

[Duke 2.0]

 All you know about fire snakes are liiiiies.

 Of all the times I have worked with them, both tamed and untamed, they have yet to set fire to anything. Ever. More likely a groundhog got too close to the lip of the pipe and an imp threw a fireball at it.

 Also, generally fire snakes won't appear outside of the pipe or the obsidian around the pipe. Generally they will never see grass, so much as light it up.

[Aspgren]

Fire Imps can be a problem but they wont wander to far from the pipe.

I disagree. In my (limited) experience with fire imps they wandered all over the friggin map. Fire imps in 3 out of 4 corners ... of course this was AFTER they had surfaced and tasted blood.

[Duke 2.0]

Fire Imps can be a problem but they wont wander to far from the pipe.

I disagree. In my (limited) experience with fire imps they wandered all over the friggin map. Fire imps in 3 out of 4 corners ... of course this was AFTER they had surfaced and tasted blood.

Indeed, Imps can get... restless. I've had one travel down to my forges. From the top of the magma pipe, through my entrance, down the main shaft and into the forges I designed to make sure nothing like this would disturb the blacksmiths.
 Damn imps...
 Best thing would be to either make a wall around the pipe or make floors over the pipe.

[Aspgren]

Fire Imps can be a problem but they wont wander to far from the pipe.

I disagree. In my (limited) experience with fire imps they wandered all over the friggin map. Fire imps in 3 out of 4 corners ... of course this was AFTER they had surfaced and tasted blood.

Indeed, Imps can get... restless. I've had one travel down to my forges. From the top of the magma pipe, through my entrance, down the main shaft and into the forges I designed to make sure nothing like this would disturb the blacksmiths.
 Damn imps...

... it's like he just knew isn't it? 

[Mount]

If you have access to water, you can also flood over the top of the pipe and seal it with obsidian.

[Skorpion]

Use pumps to spray it ahead of them, pinning them between two flows.

Oh, you mean magma creatures getting out the magma?
Could always pour water on top.

[Guy Montag]

Firesnakes don't set stuff on fire, but they will "gnaw" on your wooden bins and barrels. Normal vermin "attack" and can destroy food barrels, but firesnakes will destroy your block/bar bins as well. If you have your magma forges near your pipe, you will have firesnakes destroying your wooden bins, and its a little frustrating.

There isn't much you can do about it either, cats don't attack them and trappers are useless, they'll use an entire stack of food to bait their traps and 2/3 times the stack is lost and the snake escapes.

[Duke 2.0]

cats don't attack them

Untrue. After the miasma from the imps died down, a new stench filled the forges: The kitten that adopted my weaponsmith was causing much misery in the fire snake population.

[Guy Montag]

Seriously? Because my cats don't seem to want anything to do with the firesnakes, while they happily genocide just about everything else. Maybe the firesnake population just respawns at a higher rate?

Never noticed a firesnake corpse decomposing anywhere either.

[Time Kitten]

There isn't much you can do about it either, cats don't attack them and trappers are useless, they'll use an entire stack of food to bait their traps and 2/3 times the stack is lost and the snake escapes.

Traps may be useless, causing more miasma than catches, but trappers are not.  Just set your buchery to catrhing live animals, and have  your animal traps stored near the pipe, and you should get them catching the snakes by hand soon enough.

[Albedo]

I've only enjoyed the situation once so far, but that sole time that I breached a pipe and got my magma works going, the fire snakes generated only near the pipe, not in the magma that spread from that.  Not near the forges, not in the obsidian works, not near the distant glass factory or anywhere in between - only in and just outside the pipe itself.

Now, while there is certainly more magma in the pipe than out, I don't think it's magma, it's their biome, which makes some sense. (Not that "not making sense" has stopped anything in a PC game before...)