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[Hyndis]

After the roaring success of Snaketributes, a vision came to me:



A steep mountain volcano, with a river or brook at the foot of the mountain.

Grass and forestland at the foot of the mountain, near the water.

The mountain squared off, removing the slopes to create sheer cliffs.

A curtain wall built around the entire area, reaching to the very top of the squared off mountain, and to the matching elevation from the grasslands.

Magma filling the space between this curtain wall and the edge of the map. Yes, all 30+ Z levels.

A gatehouse that would make even the dwarfiest dwarf weep at its beauty.

The squared off mountain hollowed out. Completely.

The mountain filled with cooled obsidian.

A city carved from the forged obsidian, complete with streets and towers inhabited by dwarves.



I must make this vision happen! 

[h3lblad3]

Aw, come on, man... I wanted to be the one to build the city inside a hollowed out mountain!
...but I didn't think of using obsidian...  Never used magma or water before...

The real question is, if Hyndis is so possessed with making an obsidian city what's he going to make the menacing spikes out of?  Since all the obsidian is going into the city, I vote turtle shell!

[Iroel]

Well... As much as cutting a box out of a mountain appeals to my dwarfiness, I must confess that I think it'd look better if you only shaved off the area around the gate, or at most only one side of the fortress. That way, it'd really look like you carved out the mountain, and it would be the perfect tribute to dwarfiness.

..or you could, y'know, pump the magma pipe try for a while, then cut down the walls of it, and widen it so that your whole in-the-mountain city was above a giant magma ocean. Now that would be cool.

[Lord Dakoth]

Sounds great! I really hope that you accomplish it!

...But if you go berserk, we're going to capture you in a cage trap and sell you to the Elves.

[Hyndis]

For the sake of building, I've turned off invaders. At least until things get established. So far I've built a little stone fort on the top of the mountain. I have farms and water going, along with a barracks for housing. Nothing fancy, but good enough.

Every single dwarf will be given a mining pick. I need enough migrants though to have a big enough workforce to get things done.

My plan for getting all that magma is to hollow out most of the lower two levels. Then I will breach the second lowest level of the magma pipe. That way the pipe will not drain completely, but will flood the entire lower level for a massive magma resevouir.

Iron pumps and windmills will then pull the magma up from this, which will be used first to create the curtain wall, and then create the giant obsidian block the fortress will be made out of.

Water is plentiful, as there is an aquifer on a corner of the map. However I will have to use single-shot wooden drawbridges to control the magma pouring. If I pour too big too fast, it will evaporate. So I'll fill up one section at a time, pull the lever, and the magma will then move on to the next area.

Then water will be dumped onto the magma to cool it, and new bridges will be made on the next level.

It took me some 40 years to get Snaketributes right. On this one, well...thinking maybe 50 years before construction begins on the city in the mountain? Curtain wall is relatively easy to do and to fill, but the primary issue would be the rate at which the magma replenishes itself. It may take a very long time to pour enough magma to make a block of obsidian that measures some 100x100x10.

Thats an internal volume of around 100,000 tiles. 

The actual size of the city itself isn't set up yet, but it will be around that big. First order of business is to shape the mountain itself. Once the mountain is reformed into sheer cliffs, construction on the wall will begin.

Thinking of some apartment towers, factory towers, and a royal castle inside the mountain.



So this fort would be literally carving a fortress from a mountain. 

[GoneWacko]

How will you make the city available to merchants/migrants?

Please tell me you're going to build a submerged tunnel using bridges as floor/walls/roofing or something of that nature .
Though that might not work if the volcano is too far from the edge :/

[Hyndis]

Same sort of design as in Snaketributes. Magma to the edge of the map with a wall protecting the inner area, and a gatehouse with trigger-happy drunken guards.

[x2yzh9]

Aye, hynis i have a suggestion. Center the city around one market square where, once the economy kicks in, ALL the shops will be. Possible make like 1 shop of a random type on each street, make actual houses for dwarven familys, if it's just a couple move them into an apartment. Apartments would be uber-huge and have differing rooms. Nobles would, if you like them get houses. I also vote for a large death chamber off to the side that has the entire floor made outta grates linked to a lever that's somewhat far away. Build some peasent huts on the entrance and farms for them on the outskirts, construct a massive wall, heres my sketch.
Z-level 1 is the place where the walls will mostly be, 2 is where the place is.. you know blah. - is the entrance of the city, = is a wall, + is a fortification, O is a door, / is floor, and > is stairs.
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As you can see it's fairly crappy. On the right side you might be a bit confused, it arches over the entrance so you can has maximum effectiveness!

[Nexii Malthus]

I'd greatly suggest creating 'moulds' around the largest areas that are primarily empty, like say the great halls. Enough molds and you'd speed up development considerably. From your estimate you could cut the amount of obsidian tiles down to two thirds, or even half if you weigh the costs between the time of construction for the moulds and the heavy engineering for the obsidian manufacturing. You could re-use the moulds, I'd imagine a real dwarven city would be going up and down bustling with activity, not a boring flat american city on a predictable grid.

The moulds themselves would be hollow, just a shell.

You can place the moulds on top of the obsidian layers, after all, think 3D.

[Beanchubbs]

This is an Obsidian covered Fortress made by "Hyndis" McForumite. All Craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It is dug into rock and is decorated with molds of obsidian. It menaces with spikes of ingenuity and dwarvern engineering.
Engraved on the Fortress is a picture of cheese.
Engraved on the Fortress is a picture of Urist McWorker being burned alive. The picture relates to the magma flood of 203.
Engraved on the Fortress is the Forumite, Hyndis, and the Law, Physics. Physics is in a fetal postion. Hyndis is laughing.

[Hyndis]

I actually play with the economy off. I just dislike how owned items are handled, which usually means they're just scattered randomly about the floor and clutter things up.

Same thing with clothes. Dwarves are modded to just have clothes abstracted away. They're naked but have a homeotherm set high to compensate, so they won't freeze even in cold weather.

Once owned items are better handled I'd love to turn these features back on, of course.

But this fortress will be somewhat of a long term project. Just getting the little starting fort up and running at the moment and waiting for enough migrants to be able to do some real building.

[dresdor]

If you are insisting on building the curtain wall out of molded obsidian, you could just form a mold out of constructed walls set 1 square apart, then pump all the magma you'll need into the mold.  once it's full, turn the pour off and pour water in.  Repeat for each additional layer, deconstruct the mold, and profit?

I was thinking something similar could be done for the grand molding of the big block.  You make several molds (dividing the area into four quadrants makes sense to me).  You keep your dwarf workforce in the last quarter until the other three are poured to your satisfaction, then move them and start pouring the last part. 

Of course, you are the possessed engineer, and probably have vastly different ideas of what to do.

[Hyndis]

I'll just build the wall out of conventional obsidian blocks. The only fancy part about the wall will be the height, which will be about 10 levels around the entire perimeter of the map save for the gatehouse itself. On top of the wall will be a windmill farm that will power all of the magma and water pumps.

The city itself will just be poured obsidian, so I can engrave it. I'll do this with single-shot wooden drawbridges. They will act like walls until I pull the lever, at which point they will flatten and be incinerated by the magma. That way the magma won't evaporate.

And I'll use up like 3-4 embark tiles on the bottom two or three levels of the fortress as the magma cistern, which will build up magma so there will be plenty to use. It'll take ages to fully recharge, but thats okay. It will also take some time to get the single-shot bridges and levers installed, and to prepare for the next level of pouring.

[Hyndis]

I'm having difficulty finding a suitable site.

I want a river or brook, with some grass and trees on one side of the map. The other side of the map should be a mountain that contains a magma pipe.

The mountain also needs to be extremely steep. Remember, I'm going to have to cut off most of the ramp to create a vertical cliff, but doing so would mean that the mountain itself would significantly decrease in the size.

The mountain also cannot be very tall, or building the curtain wall just becomes silly.



Due to not being able to find a suitable building site, I've decided to simply BUILD A MOUNTAIN. 

Started on a flat place with a magma pipe and a brook. Its a nice forested area. I'm going to build a mountain out of obsidian.

[Beanchubbs]

Yes, this is a very dwarfy thing to do. If the terrain doesn't please you, you act as god and change it!