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[Pabbicus]

I've recently started a new fortress, and there's a magma pipe within an embark tile of my start. How should I go about moving it and working with it? How should I dig if I want to set up magma-based defenses at a later date in my main entrance? What's the best way to get magma forges and smelters going? should I do my usual workshop layout of basement stockpiles and simply make a chamber full of magma for the input and keep a wall between it and where the output stockpile is? I don't want too much fun with my first magma game, so some assistance will be helpful.

[Retro]

Some basic tips: It's easy to get magma to flow downwards, or across on z-level, but a pain to pump it upwards, so it's best to puncture the pipe higher up. To actually tap into it, you want to find a convenient z-level where the pipe is wider /sticks out farther than the one above it and dig your flow tunnel to there. My magma tunnels are generally 3 tiles wide, but I imagine other widths work fine as well (just don't go too wide or the flow will be too slow).

Dig to 2 tiles away from the magma, leaving 2 wall tiles in between the magma and the tunnel. Have engravers, or dwaves with the Stone Detailing labour turned on, go and smooth the tiles at the end of your tunnel, then carve them into fortifications after that. Now you can have your miners dig above the magma tunnel and channel out the squares above the wall tiles, allowing the magma to flow through the fortifications and into your tunnel without letting fire imps through. If you want your magma to go far, pumps are handy for speeding up the flow. Also, if you ever want to tap into your magma tunnel again, you can always just dig out the new path into your first tunnel and channel out the last walls from above without worrying about fortifications. For ease of use, magma also does not flow upwards under 'pressure,' so even if its connected to a higher-up source, as long as there is a wall preventing the source from flowing sideways, the magma coming from the source will never overflow upwards.

As for magma forges and smelters, all you need to do is have a tile of magma (I believe higher than 5/7, but it might be higher than 4/7) underneath at least one of the 8 tiles around the center of the 3x3 workshop and channel out the floor above that tile so that the edge of the workshop is directly over the magma. If this is working, the workshop's light should turn red instead of grey.

Hopefully that helps. I might've missed or fumbled something, but feel free to ask again if you have more questions or still have concerns.

[ungulateman]

Leave it alone until you're ready, that goes without saying.

Read the wiki article on magma for more info apart from what I say.

Using magma safely requires two Z-levels unless you want your forges on the surface (hint - you don't). For this diagram, I'm assuming you use the first two layers, but you probably want to work further down a bit.

Code: [Select]

.,.,`.`,`.`.`~~~
#############~~~
#############~~~
#############~~~
The surface is unimportant for now. The first layer you use for smithing needs to have a narrower magma area than the next Z-level. Dig through until you are a few tiles short, doesn't matter. The next level down, dig until you are two tiles away from the magma. On the second-to-last tile, smooth and carve a fortification. Install a door, wall or floodgate locking this layer away from the rest of the fort, unless you like floods. I prefer walls as they can't be deconstructed by building destroyers. On the layer above, channel out the last square on the layer below. This will give you a tunnel full of magma, prevented from flooding your fortress thanks to walls being indestructible. On the layer above again, channel out holes every three tiles or so so that magma runs underneath. Since magma furnaces / forges need an empty space (with magma at least 4/7 deep below it) to work, this will provide them with the necessary power. The fortification you carved prevents fire / magma men from reaching the floodgate / door to deconstruct it, and fire imps (which may get pushed through) can't destroy those buildings, you are safe from flooding. Fire imps may pop up through the chanelled holes, but this is unlikely. Stationing a military dwarf nearby to protect your smiths is wise if you haven't killed the imps yet.

TL;DR: Use doors / floodgates / walls, channel out holes for power, use fortifications ( and/or grates) to stop enemies from coming through.

Have a nice Fun.

ungulateman

EDIT: Dammit, ninj'd.

[monkeyfetus]

I believe magma that's been through a pump will be pressurised. Is this true?

[Thanshin]

One more, very important, detail.

Prepare mist generators and/or waterfalls in different places over your populated areas.

When magma enters your legendary dining hall and kills half the population, you'll want to have some way of transforming them all into obsidian, to preserve their memory forever*.



*After the invaders who weren't killed because of the tiny mistake in the magma trap kill the other half of the population.

[Dorf3000]

One invaluable tip I can suggest is that you make your magma drop at least one z-level just before it comes into the channels for your forges.  That way, when you decide to do something crazy like drain the pipe or pump it into a magma moat, the magma under your forges won't flow back out and turn them all off.

[Retro]

Leave it alone until you're ready, that goes without saying.

Read the wiki article on magma for more info

Gotta stress these again.

I believe magma that's been through a pump will be pressurised. Is this true?

It depends on what you mean by 'pressurized.' Liquids work by teleporting rather than actively flowing, which means that pumps collecting magma from the source will generate it on the far side of the output region at the same speed it collects it (which is fast, esp. if powered rather than dwarf-operated). However, this can also cause magma to behave like water, ie. rising to the top of vertical u-bends. I believe magma rises up to the level just below the one the pump is on. Once the pump is deactivated or turned off, though, the magma will become 'depressurized' and behave as it normally does. If you want to keep a pump activated while not having the magma rise back up, you can use 'baffles' - just before the desired output location of the magma, put diagonal walls along the tunnel like so:

Code: [Select]

OOOOO
..O..
.O...
..O..
.O...
..O..
OOOOO

Liquids that travel through diagonal spaces become unattached to the pump that is 'pressurizing' them, thus keeping them from rising any higher.

[SkyRender]

 For non-defensive purposes, I find the best and safest setup is a designated "forge" room deep under your fortress (but directly under it too).  The trick to this is to pick a layer where you can safely channel to break into the pipe on the lower level without killing your miners; that's usually not a big problem.  Once you've located that, dig a tunnel on the level beneath where your forges will be (on the level you're going to channel into), to form your magma canal.  Stop right before the obsidian wall to the pipe, and set up a wall grate of magma-proof material (just to be safe; options include Bauxite, Iron, Steel, and a few other less practical materials).  You may also want to block off the far end that leads to the stairs/ramp upstairs, but this isn't critical; your Dwarves have enough sense to not walk into lava pools, for the most part.

 Once you have your tunnel in place and grated, you may also want to set up a Bauxite Floodgate and mechanisms to shut off the forges (though this isn't required in the least, as there will never be a need to shut down your forges).  Afterwards, carve out a generous room on the level above for your forges, being careful that it doesn't expand over where you need to channel to get the magma flowing (your limit towards the magma pipe should be the tile just above your grate).  Next, dig your channel for the magma.  You want to get the magma channel in place before you get the magma in place, to prevent unfortunate accidents.  I suggest at least 4 wide, and however long you want, so you can put magma buildings on either side of it.  Leave a catwalk on either side for save travel between the two halves of the forge room.  Obviously, leave your grate unexposed to the upper level.

 When everything is well and ready, channel to let the magma start flowing in, and immediately build a wall on top of where the channel was dug; failure to do so risks letting nasty magma creatures in.  After that, just wait for your magma chamber to fill, and you have yourself an easily accessed and expanded magma forge area that's perfectly safe from magma dwellers.

[Kanddak]

You should read the hydrodynamics thread in my sig to understand how magma works.
Consult this movie: http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1683-safemagma-pipepiercing

If you want to move magma any farther away than right next to the pipe, pump out of the pipe if you don't want abysmally slow flow rates. Any nonflammable material is safe if not submerged in magma; iron, nickel and glass are safe to be submerged. (Also nickel silver, steel, platinum, and the perennially overrated bauxite)