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[TheStanman]

Hey hey folks.

Using the 5x5 Vanilla Dream map provided here: http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=37294.0%3Bwap2 I've begun to realize my vision of a massive Obsidian tower/fortress, complete with Magma-moat, self-sustainability, Dragon head statues with magma pouring out of their open maws into said moat, etc. etc.

But as grand as this seems, I've only been graced by this game a few months. I haven't even started to fiddle around with an advanced pluming, power, or pumps for that matter >_>

Which is why I come to you fine people. My quandaries are thus:

1. I am making the cast now, just basically a massive square at the bottom, 40x40, but once I get higher up I'll start to include the dragon heads. However, when I dictate dwarves to build walls, they always seem to do this:

......................
++= =++=+=+
.......................

. - Open air
+ - Wall queued to be made
= - Completed wall
  - Urist McWallspam

As you can see, the Dwarves simply build the first wall, or seemingly randomly any wall they choose to. This slows down construction as I have to remove the wall, suspend the rest, watch as they make the right one, then un-suspend one at a time. Is there any way to make it so they do it, erm, correct?

2. Plumbing - I basically want magma to be pumped up to the top of my fortress, where one floor will basically be a reserve of it, to be fed into the 4 dragon heads that will eventually drop it into the moat. I will either then just pump it right back up from the moat, or just let the moat drain off into the nearby chasm.

However, how would I go about using power to get the magma up to the top? A waterwheel is out of the question, as the brook is around 14 Z levels too far down to make it really viable. I want the Fortress to be about 20 or so Z levels high, so am would I have to use Dwarf power?

Any other awesome things to add to this beast?

[NFossil]

Perpetual motion units! 20-sth levels of power isn't really that hard to get, the boring part is building the pump stack.
http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Water_wheel#Perpetual_motion

I've done something similar so I'll just shamelessly post my map here. BTW: your square is 4 times my size.
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-5925-mysterylances

[Akigagak]

On the construction thing:

`````````````````````
+++ ++++ ++ +
================
`````````````````````
`-open air, +-floor, =-wall,

[TheStanman]

The construction thing would be awesome except then I would need to build platforms like that every floor for a loooong way up. That's a lot of labor time...

[NFossil]

Replace floors with bridges so that less time is spent hauling, and you can have the wall hauling/bridge hauling forces separate. However, you'll need to make sure new constructions are supported. Only building bridges above a completed wall level seems to work.

[Dante]

I'm doing something like this on my current favourite fortress, enclosing the entire map and sky in a gigantic bubble of obsidian.

Unfortunately, dwarfs will never, ever create walls in the order that stops them getting trapped, UNLESS
both
a) you have only one mason
and
b) you designate all walls a single square at a time, starting with the one you want them to make last and finishing with the one you want them to do first (note you don't need to BUILD walls one square at a time, just DESIGNATE them in this order).

Since this generally isn't workable, the easiest way is to have a ring of up-down stairs all around your wall. Build this first, and they can work on it at any point, and from it, they can work on your wall at any point. It's faster in the end.

[Lord Dullard]

Yep, Dante has the correct idea. The fastest way of making a large, multi-level wall/structure is to surround it with stairs (or alternatively, enclose a ring of stairs within it).

Tearing them down is quick and easy, since you can designate them for deconstruction an entire z-level at a time without worrying about injury.

[forsaken1111]

It's like scaffolding!

[The Grackle]

Yep, Dante has the correct idea. The fastest way of making a large, multi-level wall/structure is to surround it with stairs (or alternatively, enclose a ring of stairs within it).

Tearing them down is quick and easy, since you can designate them for deconstruction an entire z-level at a time without worrying about injury.

Yeah this is the best way. Make all the stairs level by level, then do all the walls in one go. 

[TheStanman]

Hmmm. The more I read it the more sense it makes.

Thanks for the help guys!

If anyone has any artistic skills and has an idea for the Dragon Head design... let me know!

[Wraithsight]

REALLY REALLY REALLY important note about the dragon heads spewing magma: yes its badarse, yes its dwarven, however when I tried in one of my first forts I ended up flooding my entrance area due to my own ignorance about fluid dynamics and pressure.

Check the wiki article (here for your own convenience http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Water_pressure) before you try anything, let us know if you need help as if it has a chance of failing and involves magma Iv probably tried it

[cephalo]

My last fort is in the middle of a giant cast. Basically right now it's a large cube type thing. I learned a few lessons about pouring magma.

First of all, if your cast is large, you will need a huge amount of magma. As magma falls into the mold and spreads out, it will start to evaporate if the flow is too slow. The larger your mold the larger this problem becomes. If the flow is too slow the magma will never reach the edges of the mold.

You will want to create a 5 tile wide channel for pumping, and you want to start the pumping many z levels down in the earth so you can empty a large portion of the magma tube if you need to so you can get a good solid layer into your mold.

Another problem is that you can end up with pockets of molten magma or water inside the cast. You want a good medium depth of magma before you pour water on it. If a tile evaporates when the water is being poured, you'll get a pocket of water that will need to be filled. Fixing such things is a pain.

[Ruin]

I too built a 15 level circular tower caste out of obsidian in tribute to Armok.  Instead of magma, however, I pump water to the top, which collects in a small pond and then falls off the sides in 4 waterfalls.  Every mid Summer, a sacrifice is held; 7 sacrifices on the grates above the 7 original dwarves' tombs, covering their coffins in blood.  Then another large group at the top of the temple, so the pond at the top and the water falling of the sides runs red with blood.

I wouldn't recommend dropping magma from any height.  Too dwarfy to be sustainable; fluids tend to fall randomly, and would totally engulf your fortress when one of your rubbing alcohol soaked pigtail cloth ragdolls dwarves catches flame and decides to have one more drink before he dies at the same time your ENTIRE fortress decides to drop what they're doing to stand on top of barrels of rocket fuel while they drink it.

Hmmm.... actually, that would be a great self defense system.  Lock the front doors and let the magma purge all that is unclean.

EDIT: I forgot to mention.  I recommend pouring the cast one z level at a time.  That way you only have to build one wall, fill it with lava and water, then use the new obsidian as "scaffolding" to build up the next wall.

[mission0]

Depending on how tall you want the tower to be and whether you have temp on or not. If you do be prepared to smith tons and tons of metallic pipes and corkscrews.

[Sweedumz]

You HAVE to pour the cast one level at a time. If you try to pour it all at once, then you'll have to deal with cavern collapse messages ad infinitum as the top obsidian layer falls to the bottom. On top of that, the top layer tends to "crust over" as water is poured on it.