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[immibis]

The rocks have to be loaded by the dwarves, in which case they have to recognize them as rocks.  If the rocks are on fire and the only available ones you get the message that they require a non economic rock.

The answer is NO.

Are you sure it's not an economic rock on fire?

[Flaede]

can they be lit on fire after loading? In an adamantine log siege engine under magma, ferinstance?

[Retro]

The rocks have to be loaded by the dwarves, in which case they have to recognize them as rocks.  If the rocks are on fire and the only available ones you get the message that they require a non economic rock.

The answer is NO.

Are you sure it's not an economic rock on fire?

No, this makes sense. Deep water works the exact same way. The 'non-economic' message is simply the default one.

[Kadzar]

But lignite and bituminous coal are economic rocks.

[Gergination]

But lignite and bituminous coal are economic rocks.

I ensured that my dwarves were considering them as normal rocks.  They were launching the lignite just fine before it became a fiery inferno.

I highly doubt you'd be able to fire the rocks using an adamantine catapult and lighting the rocks on fire after they are in the catapult.  I don't know if they would even be affected by the magma, and if they were the dwarves probably would refuse to launch them.

Your best bet for having a defense that is reliant on setting the world on fire is by paving the sky.  Then setting up a series of hatches and putting steel bins filled with ignited lignite on top of them.  Have designated levers and pull the appropriate ones.  Dwarven atom bombs!

[Torchy]

You can only make the parts using a custom smelter reaction - if you try to actually forge adamantine siege engine parts, the task will cancel with "Needs metal logs".

Oh wow... That's quite an interesting bug.

At first, I wondered why I'd never heard of this before. Then I realized this is probably the first time anyone had a reason to try to waste Adamantine on catapult parts.

[gamegreen33]

What if you put rocks on a bridge, and then dump the magma on it? It would be more predictable, and safer.

[100killer9]

Obviously, it's not that dwarves don't recognize fire. Fire simply adds to the value of things as to make them priceless. This is why dwarves don't extinguish themselves.

[UberNube]

Aww, that's disappointing. I was hoping it would work so I could build that as part of my defenses in DF2010, but alas. The only way I can really see it working now is with fire-proof dwarves and a magma-fall between the rocks and the catapult so they are set on fire mid-loading. Unfortunately that is starting to get a bit too cheatish for normal gameplay.

[Zaranthan]

If the catapult is on fire, will it ignite the coal once loaded? Could you load the catapult, dump magma on it, and then fire it?

[OcelotTango]

Have you tried firing it through a perpetually burning bin? Also, could you do the same thing with wooden ballista bolts?

[BitLooter]

I was just about to suggest firing a ballista through a curtain of magma.

[Jurph]

You could use the design for a mist generator to create a perpetual magma mist in front of the catapult, and fire lignite rocks through a curtain of magma.  I don't think all of them would catch, but the ones that did would end up landing on-or-near the ones that didn't.  You could even fire some dummy rocks to determine the best location for a booze stockpile, and use this setup as a rhesus macaque trap.

>> A rhesus macaque has stolen dwarven wine!
>> Rhesus macaque has died in the heat (x24)

[Lalandrathon]

I've tried firing lignite through a square with a flaming bin. Doesn't catch. Of course I've noticed some delay between dumping magma on something and it actually lighting on fire. Even if the rocks could catch on fire mid flight it may well be that a very long magmafall tunnel is needed to ignite them.

[jellow belly]

You could use the design for a mist generator to create a perpetual magma mist in front of the catapult, ...

wasn't it already proven that magma only generates mist when it is involve in a cave-in not simply by dropping a z-level