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Author Topic: Tower design questions  (Read 1856 times)

FelixtheCats

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Tower design questions
« on: May 07, 2010, 09:29:20 pm »

  I'm trying to set up a chamber at the bottom of my tower where I can dump lava via pumpstacks, on top of invaders from a great height, then flood the chamber with water, hopefully melting all that pesky unusable gear and giving me obsidian. Has anyone else tried this? Here is an illustration of the mid levels of my tower, with the purple devoted to pumpstacks. At the top of the tower there is going to be several large storage tanks of magma  and water devoted to the task, and the liquid will be channeled quickly downwards via one of the grayed out corner sections you see.  I have a few questions:

Does the type of metal my pumps are made out of matter?
does magma from the very bottom of the map refill or disappear?
What is a good way to calculate the energy needed by pumpstacks?
can floors be suspended endlessly without risk of falling?
Thanks for your help!

http://lodestones.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/floorplanplus.jpg
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Metroid

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2010, 09:40:51 pm »

From what I have hea- All glory to the hypnotoad!
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Retro

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2010, 09:57:02 pm »

Does the type of metal my pumps are made out of matter?
does magma from the very bottom of the map refill or disappear?
What is a good way to calculate the energy needed by pumpstacks?
can floors be suspended endlessly without risk of falling?
Thanks for your help!

1. Not really, unless they're submerged (ie. magma is on the passable tile). You could even use glass if you wanted. Wood parts will eventually burn up, though.
2. I think it refills. Not that familiar with how 0.31 magma works, though.
3. (Number of pumpstacks * 10) + other stuff. If you're doing it right, pumps transfer power directly up and you won't need exterior mechanisms except to connect the power source.
4. Suspended construction-wise? Yes. If you mean can they be suspended as in floating, no, they'll crash as soon as they lose orthogonal support.

FelixtheCats

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2010, 10:06:53 pm »

Does the type of metal my pumps are made out of matter?
does magma from the very bottom of the map refill or disappear?
What is a good way to calculate the energy needed by pumpstacks?
can floors be suspended endlessly without risk of falling?
Thanks for your help!

1. Not really, unless they're submerged (ie. magma is on the passable tile). You could even use glass if you wanted. Wood parts will eventually burn up, though.
2. I think it refills. Not that familiar with how 0.31 magma works, though.
3. (Number of pumpstacks * 10) + other stuff. If you're doing it right, pumps transfer power directly up and you won't need exterior mechanisms except to connect the power source.
4. Suspended construction-wise? Yes. If you mean can they be suspended as in floating, no, they'll crash as soon as they lose orthogonal support.

  Fantastic, thank you kindly for your post. Bonus points for use of "orthogonal"
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Flaede

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #4 on: May 07, 2010, 10:15:03 pm »

can floors be suspended endlessly without risk of falling?
4. Suspended construction-wise? Yes. If you mean can they be suspended as in floating, no, they'll crash as soon as they lose orthogonal support.
  Fantastic, thank you kindly for your post. Bonus points for use of "orthogonal"

I've been wondering. Can floors be "supported" from above? Like, with an actual, lever-connected "support"?
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Retro

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2010, 10:27:01 pm »

Yup. Ditto from below. Actually, in some weird cases I've seen floors supported by down-stairs on the below floor or statues/trees/closed doors on the below floor, but those are just bugs. I don't remember if 'orthogonal' works in a 3D space as well, but support transfers directly up and down as well. Just no diagonals.

Flaede

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2010, 10:28:03 pm »

Muahahaha! Buildingdestroyer defence is GO.
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Rainforce

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2010, 04:10:19 am »

what is the pink part next to the floodgates?
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Deathworks

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2010, 04:15:23 am »

Hi!

Just something I was wondering about reading the OP: Are you playing 40d or 31? In 31, I think goblins and kobolds became dwarf-compatible, so that your dwarves can actually use all that gear. So, there would no longer be a need to burn it away (^_^;;

Deathworks
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FelixtheCats

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2010, 10:33:23 am »

Hi!

Just something I was wondering about reading the OP: Are you playing 40d or 31? In 31, I think goblins and kobolds became dwarf-compatible, so that your dwarves can actually use all that gear. So, there would no longer be a need to burn it away (^_^;;

Deathworks

 Playing 2001, thats a good point, no goblins in my world, just wave after wave of angry humans ^^.  I didnt know gobbies gear was usable now, neat!
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Deathworks

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2010, 10:50:15 am »

Hi!

Playing 2001, thats a good point, no goblins in my world, just wave after wave of angry humans ^^.

Okay, what did you do? :) :) :) :) :) :)
You didn't kidnap the King's wife, did you? :) :) :)

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I didnt know gobbies gear was usable now, neat!

I think at least it was. I had goblins only once, usually having invasions turned off, but I think their equipment was no longer narrow. Maybe someone else or the forums could confirm this (I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase with false information).

Of course, goblin stuff is still iron or worse, so you may not want to use the armor; but clothes items may be interesting, I guess.

Deathworks
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Greiger

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2010, 11:05:43 am »

Seems right, Dwarves and goblins both average size 60000 and there is not stout or narrow tags to be found.

But who would use dirty old goblin gear anyway?  It must first be cleansed in magma or supercompression(atomsmashed), before it could be used.  Due to the importance of armor, you may reuse armor after simply melting it down into bars before remaking the item.

You wouldn't want your dwarves getting fleas or smelling like goblin would you?
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Deathworks

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #12 on: May 08, 2010, 11:25:17 am »

Hi!

Seems right, Dwarves and goblins both average size 60000 and there is not stout or narrow tags to be found.

Thanks for checking this.

Quote
But who would use dirty old goblin gear anyway?

Given the various layers of vomit and blood your dwarves get covered in from head to toe, I don't see that much of a problem there (^_^;;

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...you may reuse armor after simply melting it down into bars before remaking the item.

Given that there seems to be a serious crash bug with melting items, this is actually not recommendable at the moment, I think.

Deathworks
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Greiger

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Re: Tower design questions
« Reply #13 on: May 08, 2010, 01:55:25 pm »

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Given that there seems to be a serious crash bug with melting items, this is actually not recommendable at the moment, I think.

Huh, odd.  I have been experiencing crashes now and then but not in a significant number, and the ones I did have all seemed to have been military related. (as in I told the whole military to go on no orders and the crash didn't happen at the date it always did)  I don't think I have had any crashes relating to melting items, and I have melted 4 or 5 sieges worth of metal armor.

Maybe I've been getting lucky, now that I look I do see the bug tracker item.
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