Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[The Orange Mage]

Alright, I'm on my second year of a one-item embark (axe) and recently started digging once I traded for a pick. I've got a nice chunky chalk layer full of iron and fuel. Problem is that the magma is on the complete other side of the map, on the other side of my carp-infested river, and probably 3 Z-levels down from the surface.

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-5837-dragonbridge

Now, I could do what I always do, which is build a loooooong tunnel a few layers below the top of the magma and wait half a year for it to trickle to my underground forges, but not this time. This time I want my forges on the surface. Seeing as the path the magma needs to take runs along the river, powering any pumps needed is no problem. I also have plenty of bauxite as I have chalk as my first layer.

Never worked with moving magma before like this. I'm assuming pumps still pressurize magma? I'm thinking of cracking into the side of magma pipe a layer or two below its full point, building a pump tower to raise it to a z-level above the surface, and building a nice long magma aqueduct that ends with a floodgate, which empties into a nice wide pool for my smelters and forges, but I'm sure someone else has a simpler or cooler idea. So, who's got some good ideas?

[Martin]

Pump. Make a temporary magma glass smelter on the top of the magma pipe and crank out some glass blocks/tubes/corkscrews. Tap into the pipe as far down as you possibly can if you need to pump a long way, but don't wait for it to flow. It's entirely possible that you are so far away that the magma at the end of the flow will evaporate before it moves any farther.

Pumps will push magma as fast as water, but like with water, they don't push up z-levels above the pump itself. Rather than a wide pool, I just make a series of tunnels under where the forges will be. You only need one tile touching magma, and if you look at where the solid part of the forges are and plan accordingly, you can put it under the solid block of the workshop.

I also plan on putting in a few iron or bauxite vertical grates or fortifications to keep the imps from getting out near the workshops.

[peterix]

Click spoiler for pumping technique diagram.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

You can also aggregate multiple magma inputs. You'll get better throughput.

[piesquared]

Ok, this one's pretty easy.  Just... pump it?  Pumping pressurizes magma... you can fill an indefinitely long tunnel and even half a dozen forks with "pump manually" without worrying about evaporation or year-long flow times.  If you want it to actually go *up* from the surface, obviously you'll need more then one pump... but I wouldn't bother powering it for something that's only ever going to be filled once.

[decius]

If you -just- want to use it to fuel your workshops, then maybe manual pumping will work for you. But that's not dwarfish. Build a MAGMA TOWER!

Near your fortress, but up a few levels, build a reservoir. Be sure to put in a way to dump it on a siege, as well as any other uses you want. Build a aquamagmaduct from the top of the reservoir to near the magma pipe. Tap the pipe near the bottom, and pump all the way up to the magmaduct. Now you've got most of the benefits of the pipe right there at in your home!