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[Jude]

I could be way behind the times; maybe this is how all ocean construction is done. But anyway, do constructed walls get destroyed when you cave them in? or could you do this:



ocean                                           land

                            hanging apparatus                   

                            ]------------|
                                              |
                                              |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/-----------------



And have your dwarves walk over the "bridge" to build a square of consructed walls - like the outer walls of a building, connected by a bridge or a support. Then pull a lever to drop the outer walls into the ocean. Do this repeatedly until you've got

ocean                                           land

                            hanging apparatus                   

                            ]------------|
                                              |
             |        |                      |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/-----------------
             |        |                      |
             |        |                      |
             |        |                      |
             |        |                      |
________|_____|_______________


Then you'll have a tower in the ocean, which you can pump the water out of and proceed to build inside.


Anywway, does this work?

Also, has any ever cast a massive chunk of obsidian OVER the ocean, making it taller than the ocean, and then carved out a fort inside it?

[G-Flex]

Collapsing a constructed wall doesn't result in a constructed wall where it lands. It breaks down into its base materials.


And yeah, flooding the ocean with magma will pretty easily (if tediously) make a big obsidian crust over it.

[Quietust]

Making a multi-level obsidian block in the ocean would require a bridge-based dropper, as simply pouring it would result in a large slab on the surface supported by a thin pillar (since the first few blocks of obsidian would instantly cave-in and fall to the floor, stacking up to the surface). Even so, the topmost layer would probably be rather uneven due to the magma not all hitting the water at the same instant, though that could be fixed just by dropping the topmost layer twice.

[XSI]

There are several ways to make the ocean floor dry enough to build on it, sadly, constructed walls do not stay in one piece when they fall, you will end up with a pile of blocks with the mentioned plans.

There are several ways to drain an ocean, some better then others, but from my knowledge, either using magma, or a burning lignite item in a bin is the way to do it the easiest way, for single z level oceans(Or small sections close to the shore) a ring of pumps all pumping water away works as well.
It is also possible to drain the ocean into an aquifer(Normal science does not apply, this is Dwarven science.)

Magma has to be done with controlled bridges, like mentioned in the posts before this, but burning lignite seems to be capable of easily evaporating everything, estimated to be at the same rate as draining it into an aquifer, but you control where the lignite is, you can't move the aquifer.

Magma is nice, but making the way to drop it takes a lot of time, and leaves an obsidian wall which you have to get rid of(By cave-in).

Pumps will give several kinds of trouble for anything more then a single z level, one of which is job cancellations, drowning dwarves, and the top ring of pumps needs to be very large in order to even get a small bit a few z levels lower.

[Hamster Man]

There are several ways to drain an ocean, some better then others, but from my knowledge, either using magma, or a burning lignite item in a bin is the way to do it the easiest way, for single z level oceans(Or small sections close to the shore) a ring of pumps all pumping water away works as well.
It is also possible to drain the ocean into an aquifer(Normal science does not apply, this is Dwarven science.)

Dammit, I wanted to mention this first. Ah well.

If nothing else, the lignite-in-a-box is the dwarfest way to do this.

[blue sam3]

You could cast an entire obsidan block the size of your future fortress and taller than the ocean and drop that, or just the walls, but it wouldn't work with constructed walls.

[Jude]

You could cast an entire obsidan block the size of your future fortress and taller than the ocean and drop that,

That's actually what I meant by the comment at the end of the last post. I think I might try this. Not that I have any experience molding obsidian at all, much less over an ocean.

When casting blocks of obsidian, do you need to calculate equal amounts of water and magma? or how does that work?

[XSI]

About 3/7 or more magma, and any amount of water will do, the 3/7 is just so it won't evaporate.

It's a lot less complicated then people first think, consisting litterally of 2 steps:

1. Magma
2. Apply water
(Alternatively, water first, then magma, but water is easier to remove if you add too much)

[Hamster Man]

lol... yeah, basically what he said. Since you're in an ocean, it'd be magma on water though.

But yeah it's pretty simple, if somewhat tedious. Build yourself a magma-delivery device (MDD), turn it on and pump it into the ocean. Turn it off, wait for it to settle (or alternatively, activate your WATER-delivery device - conveniently located next to the aforementioned MDD - to cool it off) and dig out the center of your cast/mold.

Rinse, repeat, til you have the shape you want.

If you do it too rapidly over a large scale it IS possible to empty your pipe. It will refill of course, but it may take a while.

[XSI]

Using magma actually has 2 ways to do this that I know of, firstly, make a large amount of obsidian in midair above the location you want the underwater fort to be, drop it, then mine out the fort.

Or, use magma to make an obsidian wall that blocks water from going into your little drydock, then use pumps to get rid of the water already inside, and build your fort on the dry oceanfloor.
Make sure to account your magma input for the depth of the ocean, or you may end up with some bits sticking above water, and others still letting water in.

[Hamster Man]

Using magma actually has 2 ways to do this that I know of, firstly, make a large amount of obsidian in midair above the location you want the underwater fort to be, drop it, then mine out the fort.

Or, use magma to make an obsidian wall that blocks water from going into your little drydock, then use pumps to get rid of the water already inside, and build your fort on the dry oceanfloor.
Make sure to account your magma input for the depth of the ocean, or you may end up with some bits sticking above water, and others still letting water in.

I was thinking along the lines of the 2nd method, but instead of pumping it out, just digging out the topmost obsidian layer and applying magma to any water underneath. But admittedly I don't have too much experience doing it (tried it once with predictable magma-related results).