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[Urist son of Urist]

You need to think vertically.  Consider crafting an exploration vessel called the Pillar of Autumn, which has mega-tall walls, a quadruple-thick floor, but no ceiling.  The dwarves and any supplies you wish to send in with them get loaded onto what will eventually be the outer ceiling.

Drop the structure and marvel as the walls remain in place, 2 z-levels taller than the magma.  The dwarves stare upwards in awe at the 6-z-level caisson you've built them... and then tunnel into the 4-layer-thick floor, creating room for the supplies.  The dwarves migrate back and forth happily, moving booze into their new dining hall, beds into their barracks, and a breeding pair of cows into the abbatoir.  One dwarf hollers up when the farm plots are ready, and the mothership opens a storm drain.  Water goes everywhere, but the important thing is that it gets the farm plot muddied.  Seeds are planted.  The water on top of the vessel eventually evaporates out.  All is in readiness, so the explorers retreat belowdecks to draw lots.

One lone dwarf returns to the upper deck. He deconstructs the stairs he came from, builds a bauxite floor over the top hatch, and takes a copper pick over to one wall.

Tink.  Tink.  Tink...

You just re-created "The Core" in Dwarf Fortress. I think Einstein, Freud, and Newton just simultaneously rolled over.

Considering the general state of DF, I think Einstein and Newton are already rotating fast enough that you could hook them up to pumps and use them to kill Elves.

[Dave Mongoose]

That is unfortunate. What about a double-hulled structure, or triple-hulled, with water filling the inner hull? If obsidian is created in that magma, would that also melt away?

That is genius - definitely worth attempting.

Hopefully if the outer hull 'evaporated', the water would turn to obsidian and fall normally? Unless the 'evaporation' is to do with a cave-in hitting lava? If so, you'd just keep losing hulls and never actually be submerged.

This isn't the case with water so an ocean submarine still seems very do-able.

[Shrike]

Thanks. It's my engineering mindset, which pretty much every DF player has to some extent.

I mean, I'm thinking of dwarven biospheres, where they are locked into a room at the middle of a cast obsidian structure with a stockpile of seeds, booze, a bed, a table and chair, a pick, etc. The room is filled with water, the structure is dropped, causing the door to auto-deconstruct and draining the water out into the farming area. Then the dwarf begins to build their own bedroom and dining table, plant seeds and set up the still, sealed beneath the waves. And then... you could drop another dwarf on top of them, or to the side, and create a larger colony.

And now... I'm thinking of a fractal colony of spheres packed in a pyramid.

[illiterate]

Thanks. It's my engineering mindset, which pretty much every DF player has to some extent.

I mean, I'm thinking of dwarven biospheres, where they are locked into a room at the middle of a cast obsidian structure with a stockpile of seeds, booze, a bed, a table and chair, a pick, etc. The room is filled with water, the structure is dropped, causing the door to auto-deconstruct and draining the water out into the farming area. Then the dwarf begins to build their own bedroom and dining table, plant seeds and set up the still, sealed beneath the waves. And then... you could drop another dwarf on top of them, or to the side, and create a larger colony.

And now... I'm thinking of a fractal colony of spheres packed in a pyramid.

that's just disturbing enough to work.  start with your initial 7 as keepers and builders, and put every one of the new arrivals in a pod. 

Maybe also create 2 or three dwarf pods, or put multiple dwarfs in a single pod.. see what happens to their sanity.  [e

edit -- here's something I doodled thinking of this.  tabl = table, stat = statue, char = chair, flor = floor, cabt = cabinet, cofr = coffer
the statues, bed, chair, table, cabinets and coffers would be made by fortress craftsdwarfs. 

subject would be provided with three stone blocks to continually construct and deconstruct flooring until she becomes a legendary engraver, then the walls can get carved.  farms will have one booze-plant and one food plant, and she will cook and brew for herself.  with this plan she will be let out for solvable moods, but will have to farm and brew her own sustenance. 

i figure with the high-quality bedroom and dining, and improving quality food and booze, the subject should remain ecstatic forever. 

Code: [Select]

                            [  tabl  ]
                     [stat   char   stat]
             [ wall  wall   door   wall  wall]
        [--------------  flor    ---------------]
[farm       kitchen       flor          still            farm]
        [--------------  flor    ---------------]
             [wall  wall     door  wall  wall]
                    [cabt   flor    cofr]
                             [bed   ]


[Djohaal]

...um... what freud has to do with physics?

[JoshBrickstien]

My method for a dwarven sub would be building giant ([clear/Crystal] glass) walls around the entire map, with stairs up one side, to the sub, suspended by clear glass supports, with a pump stack bringing water from the underground lakes.....

....I'm so doing that.

The sub need some sort of airlock system... Somehow using Floodgates to make a tube extending to the surface platform, with the trade depot. Bonus points for putting a clear glass roof over the whole thing. It's like a dwarven aquarium! (Note: Must make sure no gaps to the caverns are left open, for the water to flow back down.) On further thought, it would need magma, for forges. Unless trees could be grown inside it...

[Duane]

Maybe you could use the "Dwarves build from the left." mechanic to your advantage.
Create pod to the left, move meeting area to this pod, wall it off.
Create another pod to the left of it, keep one dwarf busy, move the remaining dwarves to the right.


Bonus points for giving them crap to do in their spare time or forcing them to do crafts via dropping supplies in from the top and making them drop the finished goods out the bottom.

[lanceleoghauni]

I tried something similar, and it broke my game.

[Oglokoog]

I have high hopes for you in Goldanguishes now.

Also, in the 5x5x5 case with 3x3x3 (1z of water), what was the end configuration, and was the dwarf stunned?

The hollow cube itself was intact, the dwarf was unharmed (he probably got stunned for a moment, as even a 1-z drop into water stuns you, but he was an Adept Swimmer at that point (by the way, swimming skill inreases ridiculously fast) so nothing else happened to him.
I really hope Toady changes the behavior of falling natural walls when they touch magma to be somehow more realistic (but not too much), with the dropped object just slowly sinking to the bottom. For now, however, I have started planning the construction of a huge dwarf-made lake (to achieve a flat bottom for optimum observation conditions) and a tower above it housing two pump-stacks (one for magma and one from water) and a group of dedicated masons and such for constructing the forms to cast the obsidian in. I have many ideas that need testing, but my biggest problem will probably be managing to keep a fortress alive for long enough to even begin construction, which leads me to the subject of telling you not to have high hopes for me. But maybe I just underestimate myself.

[Hishan]

Can water  break falls? If so could the lucky submarine dweller build some kind of drop zone, in which to ferry additional dwarves?

[Shrike]

Hm. That's true. DFwiki mentions that water appears to cushion falls, but not the effective distance... clearly, this needs to be tested.

[Oglokoog]

...um... what freud has to do with physics?

A huge, firm stone pillar that is used to penetrate Mother Earth. No, that has nothing to do with Freud at all.

[Fluff]

Question: How long 'till we recreate HAL (using pumps and pressure plates and such-such) to antagonise the dwarves?

[Areku]

Actually, water is very efficient in breaking falls. Four or five Z-levels are usually enough to make a safe landing.
It also works with magma.
 Actually, a good way to make a fort invasion-proof is to make the entrance be a "magma elevator", a 1-tile shaft filled with magma, that is kept from falling all the way down by a set of pumps. Since dwarves are not subject to temperature while falling, as it was proved on the Last Stand thread, your dorfs would fall through several levels of magma unharmed, while any flying foe that attempted to do the same would be burned to a crisp instantly.

[Argonnek]

Maybe some dwarves will write songs about these constructions.
We all live in a magma submarine, a magma submarine, a magma submarine...