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[Ladde]

I do not really like the idea to have magma forges and smelters 40ish levels down, than the rest of my fort.
I'm thinking of moving my whole fortress down to around level 100.
How do you guys/girls do when you find magma?

...relocate your fortress?
...start those pumps?

Or maybe start by digging down, and try to farm down there?
I've never tried that, is it valid?

[thijser]

Well it depends on how easy you can get power and how easy it is for you to move your fort. And how large your metal industry is going to be. And how deep the magma is.
If you have a very small metal indusry then those few extra tiles might be worth it.
If you don't have power acces a pump stack is just not practical (if you have no water and no wind you have no power). If you have a very small fort it's easy to move down.
And if you only have a few z-levels before you reach the magma sea you can decide that this is bascically already part of your fort.

[FleshForge]

What's the difference between 40 levels down and 40 steps north or east?

[TheyTarget]

What's the difference between 40 levels down and 40 steps north or east?

I guess if you use stairs straight up everywhere. Then nothing? The farther it is the more time dwarfs waste walking then working.

[Rose]

I put a magma glass furnace 40 Zlevels down, then make loads of glass pumps.

[Ladde]

What's the difference between 40 levels down and 40 steps north or east?

Oh... you have a point.
I've never really thought of it that way. Silly me.

Although, sometimes it takes alot of corridors to avoid caves and such.

[Arekis]

What's the difference between 40 levels down and 40 steps north or east?

Oh... you have a point.
I've never really thought of it that way. Silly me.

Although, sometimes it takes alot of corridors to avoid caves and such.

I'll try to find a solid column of rock going from my fort down to the magma forges and dig the stairwell there.  If that is not feasible, I'll have it intersect one of the caverns and just wall off the column and construct stairwells in the cavern.  I of course do this as quickly as possible and with military escort.

[thijser]

If it's glass you want you could try caveins to move the sand down.

[Astramancer]

You can also use them to move magma UP.

I can't take credit for it, but the Magma Piston is a great invention.  Basically, when you cave in solid, natural walls into liquid, it displaces the liquid upwards, to the top of the chunk of wall you just dropped into it.  With the proper setup and preparation, you can dig out a huge pillar to drop into the magma, and the magma will then appear on top of the pillar.  The proper setup part is to keep the magma from draining off the sides of the pillar.

Note: Semi-molten rock will INSTANTLY melt anything that touches it, so you have to collapse your pillar onto something solid.

[DaPatman]

I put a magma glass furnace 40 Zlevels down, then make loads of glass pumps.

This, but with multiple furnaces.

[Kanddak]

Although, sometimes it takes alot of corridors to avoid caves and such.

Psh. I'm not going to divert my stairwell for some silly cavern. I'm going to build the stairwell straight down through the cavern, then surround it with a wall.
You can even go right through an underground lake by collapsing a circle of natural walls from the cavern ceiling, then pumping out the area inside.

[Mini]

I personally start preparing for pumping magma closer to the surface fairly quickly after embark. I'm currently embarking with some metalworking professions so I can get armour and weapon production going quickly as well as getting iron pumps going (I have a habit of letting my pump stacks leak).

You can even go right through an underground lake by collapsing a circle of natural walls from the cavern ceiling, then pumping out the area inside.

You could also drop a square of natural walls and just dig through.

[rmunn]

I can't take credit for it, but the Magma Piston is a great invention.  Basically, when you cave in solid, natural walls into liquid, it displaces the liquid upwards, to the top of the chunk of wall you just dropped into it.  With the proper setup and preparation, you can dig out a huge pillar to drop into the magma, and the magma will then appear on top of the pillar.  The proper setup part is to keep the magma from draining off the sides of the pillar.

Note: Semi-molten rock will INSTANTLY melt anything that touches it, so you have to collapse your pillar onto something solid.

100% agreed. If you've never read about the magma piston concept, go to http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59894.0 and start reading. Most useful dwarven engineering invention since sliced bread goblins.

[jester]

First thing I do when I strike magma is throw a kitten in to make sure it isnt red water or something like that.  If I embark with a surface volcano I take a kitten for this purpose.  This may also help to appease the gods of the deep but I they are the dwarfs problems, not mine.

[The Grim Sleeper]

I usually embark only on volcanoes to prevent this paradox (and set worldgen to for bi-polar levels of volcanism, to get lost of volcanoes to choose from) but I did once have a glass forge some 40 z-levels below the sand-layer. So I just collapsed the sand-layer down through the topsoil, the bedrock and the cavern below to get the sand next to the furnaces.
If you want to try that yourself, take note that you will have to move the entire sand-layer 1 z-level below your sand-collection zone. Digging through the sand once it's down there will just expose the rock again.