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[Shenanigans]

How do. I've been lurking around for a while and finally have something worth asking. A silly idea that came from creating self contained "time capsules" that dwarfs could live in and be completely self suffient until opening.

But i digress, the currant completely pointless idea was to build a iron or even steel craft to be dropped into a volcano, with a crew, supplies and tools. To go on a journey deep into the earth for the glory of all dwarf kind. But.. for this to work i need to know some facts before i begin, facts of falling.

Say i have a box (made of whatever material) suspended from a crain like structure, attached to the top. The box has 2 floors and is otherwise hollow. Now, I order the box detatched, either removing the last part of the crains arm or pulling a lever to remove a componant to make it drop. What happens to the box as it falls? Does it stay solid? Or crumble to dust instantly? Or do all the pieces come appart? Further more what happens when it his liquid like magma?

Thanks for your time.

this is highly important to the mission as i want to see my brave adventurers safely off the bottem of the map.

can anyone help me here?

[Dameleth]

All constructed constructs would deconstruct. The only things that survive are actual rock stuff. You'd have to make as most would say, an obsidian caste and carve out the inside. Of course when it lands the ceiling collapses. Natural walls will fill in an empty space, keep collapsing till they reach a solid bit too. Don't know if I described that best. The Cave in method of the Aquifer on the dwarf wiki can sorta describe it ferya.

[andrea]

We just need to know if dwarves die before or after they fall into chasm tiles to their doom.

[balath]

I'm pretty sure that if you carve the vessel from rock directly over a magma pipe and leave it attached by only a support hooked up to a lever, when you pull the lever the vessel and the dwarves inside should be "fine" (until they fall off the map).  Just make sure your vessel is small enough to fit through any tight spots in the magma pipe.

[andrea]

If I had a magma pipe or a chasm I would try it ... unluckily my fort is not on mountains so no chasm features.

[Quietust]

I'm pretty sure that if you carve the vessel from rock directly over a magma pipe and leave it attached by only a support hooked up to a lever, when you pull the lever the vessel and the dwarves inside should be "fine" (until they fall off the map).

Unfortunately, cave-ins won't work quite like that - they fall at the speed of light, while your dwarves fall at "terminal velocity", meaning all of the dwarves inside would be instantly crushed. If the vessel were to fall onto solid ground, it would also collapse instantly and likely destroy everything inside it.

[slink]

I'm pretty sure that if you carve the vessel from rock directly over a magma pipe and leave it attached by only a support hooked up to a lever, when you pull the lever the vessel and the dwarves inside should be "fine" (until they fall off the map).

Unfortunately, cave-ins won't work quite like that - they fall at the speed of light, while your dwarves fall at "terminal velocity", meaning all of the dwarves inside would be instantly crushed. If the vessel were to fall onto solid ground, it would also collapse instantly and likely destroy everything inside it.

What if they fell into a bottomless pit?  Would they vanish off the map or would there be a cave-in at the bottom first?

[MrFake]

Not all explorers use a bathysphere or diving bell.  Why not a special suit?  Deck out your explorer in all steel gear (layered for maximum protection from the elements) with a glass helmet*, station him on a bridge, play farewell on the microcline trumpet, then retract the bridge.  Add booze barrels and roasts for sustenance, weapons to fend off the underground ape-men, and a pet for companionship/dinosaur food.

* mod it in if that's not possible!

[Nexii Malthus]

Here is my theory how cavein works:

Once cavein is detected, goes through all caving walls and floors, pathing straight downwards in the same frame, killing creatures and causing more constructed stuff to cavein if its not a sturdy wall.

Caving Natural walls will be translated down to the lowest local Z level. Cavein dust is spawned where it used to be, and possibly along the cavein path as well as just where the cavein fell into.


So yes, this means the capsule would crush the dwarfs from the ceiling above them.

[TheCatfish]

Hows about leaving the top open, and tall enough to fit in the pipe.

Example:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

  O O
  O O
  O O
  O O
  O O
  ODOv Channel here
W OOOOW
WMMMMMW
WMMMMMW
WMMMMMW
WMMMMMW
WMMMMMW
#######

O - wall/floor whatever
W - Magma Pipe sides
M - Magma
D - Urist McLindenbrock

Would the outer walls block off enough magma in time for the dwarfs to fall into the gap at the bottom, or is this wishful thinking?

[andrea]

Depens on the behavior of the thing when it reaches the bottom tiles.
If it just goes through, it may work. If it stops, even for a second, dwarves will go splat by the high fall.

[Beanchubbs]

If you try to test it, test it with goblins first, that way the only valuable thing you lose is time and replacable prisoners.

[expwnent]

If you just dump a room in, the ceiling of that room will keep falling and crush the dwarves underneath it.

A safe, but very time-consuming method would be to dump in (by using cave-ins) one "layer" at a time until it's a column the length and width you want, but the height goes all the way to the top. Then dig out the room you want and somehow collapse in the sides of the part you don't want.

Certain details would have to be worked out, but you'll need an obsidian factory unless the top of your magma pipe is has more than half the terrain levels of the map above it, which I believe is not possible.

---

Alternatively, you can try draining the magma from the very bottom obscenely fast to not only drain the magma from the entire pipe, but from the "magma flow" as well. This is probably not possible. But if it is possible and you manage it, you can build the room down at the bottom, and when you're finished, let the magma pipe refill around and above it.

Or you can combine these so you don't have to dump as many layers: drain out most of the pipe, then drop in layers from near the bottom. It's not hard at all to drain a magma pipe faster than it fills. Five to seven pumps should be overkill. I know for a fact that ten will do it, because I did it myself back when I vastly overestimated the rate that magma pipes refill.

[Alexei403]

*things*

Five to seven pumps should be overkill. I know for a fact that ten will do it, because I did it myself back when I vastly overestimated the rate that magma pipes refill.

Simply one pump works fine, at least for the first 5 z-levels of my pipe.

[expwnent]

Draining it to other z-levels should be doable with the same number of pumps (although it may take longer). There's only a constant amount of flow into the pipe.