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Magma Up!  I need my Sun Berries!

46 (32.6%)

Dwarves Down.  Real Dwarves don't need sunlight!

58 (41.1%)

Magma?  Meh.  Overrated.  I'll just cut more trees.

14 (9.9%)

I use burrows.  Why engineer the terrain when you can engineer the workforce?

23 (16.3%)

Total Members Voted: 141

Voting closed: April 19, 2010, 06:16:05 pm

[LemonFrosted]

I thinned the crust of my world so that magma's only 15-20 down, ironically to make it easier to go down to rather than to make it easier to bring it up.

[Danjen]

Moving magma 120 z-levels has a greater chance of Fun. Do that.

However, you could "compromise" I guess. You could have a little living area set up for herbalists/gatherers exclusively on the way up/down the shaft, that way they'd not have to go far for their supplies (and they'd be the only ones using it). You could also do a supply chain with stockpiles, I've heard that works well in some cases.

[Hellfish]

None/All of the above.

1.My dwarves go down to the first good cave and walls it off. This is for farm soil and a decent supply of wood.

2.I dig down to the great sea and set up some temporary metal workshops to produce the magma safe pump parts.

3.Build a pumpstack up however many levels you need from the sea and set up the permanent metal industry much nearer to home base.

According to my calculations, I'll only need 4.45 whaterwheels per 25 levels, which can be powered in my home cave. (NOTE: This paragraph is hypothetical, I havn't completed the stack yet and am not 100% sure the cave water can power the wheels.Also, the stack is probably a bit inefficient.)

[FreakyCheeseMan]

If we're talking about what we should do... Dwarves down. I'd rather dig a 100-level shaft for my sunberries then dig a 100-level shaft and then fill it with magma-safe pumps. Plus, who doesn't like making elves climb stairs?

If we're talking about what Toady should do... more magma-pipes. Some maps you have to go deep for magma, others bring it up to you. As much as I hate to reintroduce the days of generating a dozen worlds looking for the Map that Has Everything, it seems like the best solution.

I know there still are some... can you reactivate them for finder in Init?

[Socializator]

If we're talking about what we should do... Dwarves down. I'd rather dig a 100-level shaft for my sunberries then [should have been "than", I assume?]dig a 100-level shaft and then fill it with magma-safe pumps. Plus, who doesn't like making elves climb stairs?
...

The problem with "dwarfes down" is that it is not just digging a shaft for berries - you will have to move half of your fortress along with the metal industry - stockpiles, bedrooms etc... Perhaps it is easier to move whole fortress down... while doing new floorplan is interesting, doing all building constructions and bed assignment and placing all furniture AT ONCE might get quite tedious, I guess (didnt do neither tho... 100 magma safe pumps is a lot as well). But pumping magma up sounds more FUN

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Who said move? Build low from the start. Get ramps up there some day, but don't make it any day soon. You have (or can get) water, trees, food, even enemies below ground now. Use them, let the elves have the surface.

[Dorf3000]

I'm going to make my dwarves carry it up in buckets.  Then they will drink Dwarven rum in goblets made from Elf skulls.

[Lytha]

I prefer a map with magma all the way up in a sweet little volcanic magma pipe. Not because of the sunberries, but because of the rope reeds and longland grass.

As an alternative, I guess, I could turn pig tails and cave wheat into crops that grow during the entire year... then it really wouldn't matter to me anymore. Plus, it makes not a whole lot of sense that the subterranean crops are picky about the season while the above ground crops can grow both in hot summers and in cold winters.

Hmm... shafts of 150 height just to farm rope reeds near the magma sea. Sounds interesting. Especially since I revealed the map early on and I know that the caves are just about everywhere between the top and the magma, and that they are crawling with interesting foes.

[Socializator]

Who said move? Build low from the start. Get ramps up there some day, but don't make it any day soon. You have (or can get) water, trees, food, even enemies below ground now. Use them, let the elves have the surface.

but... but... is it safe? (novice dwarf asks ) I have heard stories about dwarfs digging deep

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

eg. beasts of gaseous substances who just pass through fortifications in magma

and even deeper. Besides it feels so wrong to chop down those amazing mushrooms ... Such a waste. Trees are much more adequate choice! Dont forget, mushrooms are our allies, as they feed off dead bodies, unlike those annoyingly green, lamely photosynthesizing "plants"!

[Lytha]

Well, don't start at the very bottom. Start at the first cavern that you find. There should be nothing worse than some giant cave spiders, giant cave crocodiles, and perhaps the backdoor into your local giant's hoard.

[Kaelem Gaen]

How do you thin-crust your world?  Is it the layer options or something I'm missing

[TigerPlushie]

Whew, difficult. I never managed to keep a fortress long enough for this to be of interest. Well, I guess my tendency would be magma up anyway... because it takes much effort and can lead to delicious alternative uses.

[TauQuebb]

The plan for me, though it has never got that far yet, is to build a small fortress on each feature, caves and magma, with a shaft down to dump all the ore into, with a team of haulers that go between the forts with food and goods.

[random51]

Magma up until stockpile to stockpile transfers work again.  Once that is fixed I'll switch to burrows. There will be a fort near the surface and one or two down deep.

[Firnagzen]

Magma up! I need my Sun Berries! gloriously overengineered, dwarven megatraps!

Currently planning another one.