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[Dante]

So, I've seen forts where bridges are built right to the map edge and then raised, effectively making walls to the map edge, and also forts where magma flows to the map edge and stops there.

I'm pretty sure I've also seen the two effects combined: a magma moat just a square or two wide, at the map edge.

If these are possible, is it then possible to create natural obsidian walls right at the map edge by pumping water onto magma there? If so, will invaders and wild animals enter the map on top of them, or can they only appear at the 'natural' ground level?

Also, if it IS possible, would you have to use bauxite bridges and bauxite mechanisms to raise them, otherwise they'd deconstruct when the magma hits? I know that a single non-firesafe mechanism will cause e.g. a bauxite door to deconstruct, at that magma deconstructs at least the non-firesafe bridges that it's on top of.

[Dante]

Follow-up question: could you then build obsidian walls several z-levels up completely surrounding the map edges, and then build a roof/floor out of natural obsidian walls in the sky, by pumping water and magma up onto a scaffolding?

You could have a perfectly flat plain of obsidian several z-levels above the bustling countryside of your fortress... and caravans, invaders, animals, immigrants would presumably have to appear on top of it, and duke it out from time to time.

[Nexii Malthus]

Theoretically, yeah, it should work.

Time to test it out!

I haven't got much water around though to make it even barely cover the edges.

[Martin]

The bridges need not be bauxite. Iron or steel will work just dandy. Put that gobbo armor to good use.

[Dante]

So... the bridges DO need to be magmasafe? Or only if magma is going to go on top of them when they're down? Or only if they're connected to non-magmasafe mechanisms?

[Shakma]

You can use anything if magma doesn't touch the down portion of the bridge.  This includes when the bridge is up.  So build them with the down portion facing away from the magma and you can use wood if you want.

[spokehedz]

My current method for when I don't want a lot of invasions/immigrants involves making channels all the way around the edges of the map so that the single-tile wide bit of land is all the closer they get to my fort.

Easy enough to build a bridge to it if'n I want more cheesemakers... But it rarely happens. Some of my best forts are with 35 dorfs. All female. There's no kids to throw off the numbers.

[Duke 2.0]

 Screw it, embarking on a nano-fortress with an aquifer and a magma pipe. This needs to be tested. Now I just need to find my unlimited magma-safe rocks/metals cheat file...

[Dante]

So I've been building this project on a site I hope to be using for some time (sand, trees, magma pipe, underground river, bottomless pit, 3x2 squares).

I haven't got hugely far - partly as I have some big work due at the moment, partly as magma has been a source of inadvertent fun, mainly through crashes.

It's impossible to build it multiple z-levels high using bridges at the edge (you can't build one on top of another, raised one).
So I've switched from bridges to walls, set back five squares from the edge. The flashing colours are saying merchants won't be able to appear on the obsidian and find my depot, but I'll wait and construct a depot near to the edge on top of the rock walls and see if that works.

However, I've now got a random crash-bug at an exact date in game time. I'm trying save files further and further back and they all seem to have it 

So Duke 2.0, I'll be interested to hear if you get this problem, so whether this is a consequence of putting rock walls where nothing should be, or whether it's my mods/machine that are doing it.

[Duke 2.0]

 I shall claim glory in science as the guy that tested this theory out! Your name shall be cast off into nothingness, forgotten to time where I shall persevere!

 But damn, it seems I got rid of that modded folder. Seems like I'll need to make a new one.

[Dante]

Well, really you'd need two copies running, one vanilla version as a control.
And there's always the chance that the crashes are caused by an as-yet unknown factor.

Or to put it another way: your vainglory shall be mocked and ridiculed by all!

"My name is Duke 2.0, dwarf of dwarfs:
Look on my science, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[Hyndis]

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-6594-snaketributes

Older fort of mine that employed this principle.

You do not need to make the bridges magma safe. I used obsidian blocks and obsidian mechanisms. Worked just fine.

Just have the bridges be 5x1 tiles. Things only melt/burn if they occupy the same tile as magma. A raised 5x1 drawbridge does not allow magma onto that tile. So it will not melt.

In theory I could have poured water onto the magma moat to turn it into obsidian, but I rather liked the magma moat look. I did all of my building inside the moat.

[Hyndis]

It's impossible to build it multiple z-levels high using bridges at the edge (you can't build one on top of another, raised one).

You can build bridges on constructed floors, and you can construct floors all the way to the edge of the map.

[Dante]

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-6594-snaketributes
Older fort of mine that employed this principle.

Ah, thanks - I think this is the fortress I originally saw, actually.

You can build bridges on constructed floors, and you can construct floors all the way to the edge of the map.

D'oh! Of course you can.

Still, my five-wide obsidian walls are easier to do and I can build them eight z-levels high (so as to be able to enclose the mountaintops) without as much scaffolding.

Update: caravans WILL embark on the map on top of created obsidian walls. They don't need to be at ground level and they will find their way to a depot just fine.

My next step: walls surrounding the whole map and an obsidian ceiling far up in the atmosphere.
Either a 3x3 hole in the roof and corkscrew ramps to let caravans down through, or a a 3 square hole in one of the walls... which will presumably force entire sieges to appear in one single tiny spot.

The possibilities are frightening.

[Archaeologist]

Yeah, but when do we get to the part where we punish the Hubris of the Dwarves with Volcanic eruptions?

IT'S NOT A BUG, IT'S A FEATURE.

A FEEEEATURE!