Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

I use magma.

No magma. I prefer the Way of Axe, Blood and Coal

[Eagle_eye]

building destoyers cant break constructed walls.

[Rotten]

Wait.

There are people who *don't* use magma!?

I prefer to think of us as "people who don't want to dig a 140 z level shaft, only to have a forgotten beast walk up it and butcher our entire fort"

Walls.

I use magma, one because it has some shiny blue deposits hiding in it, and because I hate trying to deal with the fuel production chain. It just pisses me off. When a smelter goes on break the entire production chain grinds to a halt.

[Eagle_eye]

here's a solution: volcanoes.

[tastypaste]

You can stop Forgotten Beasts with fortifications, which still allow liquids like magma to pass through. Just put them before your pump stack to protect it. It's like an indestructible grate. Won't stop gaseous beasts, but if you've got one of those on the loose you've got bigger problems than losing a pump stack.

[Mr Frog]

I use magma, one because it has some shiny blue deposits hiding in it, and because I hate trying to deal with the fuel production chain. It just pisses me off. When a smelter goes on break the entire production chain grinds to a halt.

This. I'm lazy at micromanaging, and the thought that I could run out of wood and screw up the whole chain just haunts me. Also, I hate using coal because I always overproduce and wind up with 20 bins full of coke with 30 chunks cluttering the smelter and I can't bring myself to make more bins and dig out a bigger stockpile because I know I'll just blow through it all and then what would I AAUUUGGGHHHHH

...Obsessive-Compulsive? ...Me?

[buzz killington]

In my current for no, the magma ended up literally 140 levels down.

[Mr. Accident]

Ironically, you could vaporize said fb with proper application of magma. At least I think it's irony. I'm not very good with that...

Only if it's very ferrous magma.

[Duuvian]

Why isn't there an option to chop down trees AND use magma? Obviously this is the correct vote.

[Greep]

Why isn't there an option to chop down trees AND use magma? Obviously this is the correct vote.

Actually, I do use both.  For the first year I use coal and lignite.  I also chop down about 100 logs and shove it safe under the soil (from there on I just buy barrels and wood).  When I have about 30 units of coal left I go down and strike magma and use it from there on.  Using magma at the very start sounds like a pretty bad idea.  One magma man and you're toast.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

I am with the magma-is-too-much-trouble faction.

First of all, I don't have a murderous fortress, so I don't set up things to kill civilians and traders. And for everything else, there are the good old weapon traps, thank you. (And if I were to challenge something along the lines of forgotten beasts, I would probably go for a cave-in trap) Thus, magma is not useful for me as a weapon.

Secondly, I am more interested in playing Dwarf Fortress as a game of construction rather than survival. Thus, I prefer easy sites, usually heavily forested with lots of plants in a temperate to cold climate. Thus, I have a basically unlimited supply of wood that can easily fuel my furnaces.

Third, I tend to play with a small setup, trying to get few immigrants during the first year, and having a low population cap (< 7). Thus, I have very slow fortress growth which gives me time to hoard fuel. In addition, this also increases the effect the regular import of bituminous coal has on my economy.

For these reasons, there is no real need for magma in my fortresses.

On the negative side, there are the following things:

Dwarves are not careful enough when handling flames or when ablaze themselves. This makes magma itself a highly dangerous substance that can easily ruin an interesting fortress.

Secondly, magma is known to be inhabited by creatures that also wield fire. So, even when carefully designating your mining, there is a risk involved with breaching the magma.

Third, and this only applies to the most recent version, of course, breaching the magma requires first breaching all the cavern layers. And personally, I consider the cavern layers a very nice, game-like feature of the game where the player can freely move on to the next challenge when they have established their current situation. If I made magma important for me, I would basically forfeit this freedom of setting my own pace for the challenges of the game.

So, for me that is 0 pro and 3 contra arguments, leading to a clear "Nope.".

Deathworks

[bmaczero]

Ironically, you could vaporize said fb with proper application of magma. At least I think it's irony. I'm not very good with that...

Only if it's very ferrous magma.

Haw haw.

[Satarus]

I embark on a volcano so I have instant access to the magma pipe.

[postal83]

I embark on a volcano so I have instant access to the magma pipe.

Is there any way to tell on the embark screen where a volcano is?  Would be cool to utilize a volcano

[Eagle_eye]

yes, its the same icon as magma is in game. You should probably raise the min volcano number. I run mine at 100-150

[b1gb0y2013]

I had the oddest one last game... It was on a plain, but it was 5 levels above so it only had the walls around it sticking up out of nowhere.... Then I was bored and punched a hole on each z level... That was

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

fun