Print

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

[Rexfelum]

Hello, people.  I'm trying to be certain (yeah, yeah, I could have said "clear") on a few things before I fiddle around with glass.  I would like to safely light up a meeting hall or other room.  The wiki says the following about windows:

"Note that dwarves can see through windows, and will run away from hostile creatures standing on the other side of the window."  Okay, got it.  Windows have the inevitable downside.

"Light from a window built into a cliff face will not illuminate a room and will not prevent cave adaptation."  Oh . . . so windows DON'T have the property that would help me light my hall.

But what about glass walls or floors?  I saw people talking about greenhouse-style meeting halls, which I presume were made out of glass blocks, but what are the properties?  That is, a) does a glass ceiling allow enemies on the roof to freak out dwarves, and b) does it fight cave adaptation?  I'd love to have a combination statue garden and water park with natural light streaming in.

--Rexfelum

[Urist Imiknorris]

That is, a) does a glass ceiling allow enemies on the roof to freak out dwarves, and b) does it fight cave adaptation?

No and no.

[Rexfelum]

That is, a) does a glass ceiling allow enemies on the roof to freak out dwarves, and b) does it fight cave adaptation?

No and no.

Well . . . phooey!

Do you have any suggestions for a reasonably-safe way to prevent cave adaptation in the civilian population?  (I train the military in a roofless barracks, which also serves as my fortified first line of defense.)

--Rexfelum

[Urist Imiknorris]

Build really high walls. Even then, flying creatures can get through. Good thing flying goblin mounts are broken huh?

[Rexfelum]

Build really high walls. Even then, flying creatures can get through. Good thing flying goblin mounts are broken huh?

Hey . . . can you build so high that the Z-levels run out and the walls touch the sky?  Is so, that would prevent all entry, wouldn't it?

--Rexfelum

[Urist Imiknorris]

Cannot build walls on highest z-level

Toady thinks of everything.

[slothen]

once exposed to light, tiles will always count as 'light' and 'outside' regardless of if they have a ceiling built over them, green glass or rock or whatever.  This has many uses.  You can channel out the surface and cover it again with a floor, and the space on the z-level below will fight cave adaption and can even be used to grow outside crops if the floor is a soil layer.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Actually, "Outside" depends on whether there's anything above the tile. "Light" and "Above Ground" are permanent, but "Outside" is what cave adaptation goes on.

[Bobbias]

I think the best bet would be to have a meeting hall set up in a room with no ceiling, and possibly very high walls with a drawbridge or some other way of keeping the outside out, and use that to fight cave adaptation. That way if something did come knocking, you could lock up and just keep everyone underground. There's the added bonus if you stick fortifications around it so your marksdwarves can take pot shots at anything that gets close.

[Firnagzen]

You could create a ceiling with bridges that retracts in peacetime. And if you want to be safe, make one bridge over the other which, when sealed, pumps magma and water onto one each such that a flying building destroyer will cause the water to fall onto the magma, forming an obsidian plug that seals off the ceiling.

Actually building the control systems for that are left as an exercise for the reader.

[Fredd]

As was mentioned earlier, they need exposure to direct sunlight. I enjoy building a ceilinged room, below which a meeting area is. Have a hallway leading to it, from a surface entrance, also with a ceiling, except for a few tiles. For security,place 2 retractable bridges, 1 to protect the surface entrance, and another to protect the entrance to the meeting hall. Allow a underground doorway, to the meeting hall, but keep it locked during peaceful times, so the dwarfs get light exposure.

 Have a lever that activates both bridges. When you give the civ alert for them to go to safety, pull the lever that activated the bridges. As a added precaution, line the hallway with cage traps, in case of a sneak attack, or visiting hungry buzzards. For a nice bonus, use the artificial waterfall setup from the wiki, above the meeting area. To further help, place your statue, and zoo rooms below the meeting hall

[slothen]

Actually, "Outside" depends on whether there's anything above the tile. "Light" and "Above Ground" are permanent, but "Outside" is what cave adaptation goes on.

oh wow, how did i miss this

[Iche_Bins]

Grates make something below it inside?
Darn so much for my plan ^^

[varangian]

Do you have any suggestions for a reasonably-safe way to prevent cave adaptation in the civilian population?

The wiki suggests an outdoor sculpture garden and I've tried that with reasonable success. Most of my dwarves are able to tolerate sunlight for a while and get happy thoughts from looking at the sculptures in the process. The garden is on the surface inside the main perimeter with additional defensive walls so it's no more dangerous than anywhere else.