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Author Topic: Spontaneous Cave-ins  (Read 929 times)

Dorf3000

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Spontaneous Cave-ins
« on: February 14, 2011, 10:57:22 am »

Ok so here's the background:  I've dug out a gigantic ring going down through all three caverns almost to the magma sea, mined out the top and bottom and had it all cave in to a big pile.  This worked exceptionally well.  I then mined out each square in the pile with up/down stairs, removed all the up stairs at the bottom and caved in all the other stairs, which destroyed everything and left a very large and deep pit.  So far, so dwarven.

The problem is that now, at random times and in random places in the pit, I'm getting single-square cave-ins of nothing at all that create huge clouds of dust and knock dwarves off the stairs etc.  It's generally a few times per season.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I'm trying to fill the pit with obsidian now, which may or may not work, and kind of defeats the point of a pit in the first place.
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Quietust

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2011, 12:30:29 pm »

It's possible you've got mud contaminants floating in mid-air - said floating piles of mud permit wild plants to grow, and whenever a plant sprouts, it immediately caves in. Normally, this only happens when you get "deep pit" features.
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Dorf3000

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #2 on: February 15, 2011, 05:07:55 am »

On further investigation this is exactly the problem - I have squares of Muddy Open Space with dustings and piles of mud..  Now the question is how to get rid of them  :P
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Girlinhat

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #3 on: February 15, 2011, 05:15:14 am »

Build a floor over to them, and then deconstruct the floor.  Making a floor removes mud, so once the tile is placed it'll de-mud, and then deconstruct to let the floor's material fall down harmlessly.

ChairmanPoo

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #4 on: February 15, 2011, 05:45:00 am »

I wonder if this could be exploited for sieges.
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Girlinhat

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2011, 06:23:03 am »

debatable at best, but of course everything must be weaponized.  So speaks Armok.

You'll need a floor around your base, raised up a few Z to make a sort of "halo" for the fort.  Then muddy it, and cave-in the whole thing.  Repeat as needed to achieve full coverage.

The problem then, is preventing your civilians from getting random cave-ins on their heads, or caravans, since you cannot control when something caves.  Any bridge or hatch built in the zone would be destroyed by the cave-ins, and a constructed wall (floors get destroyed, remember?) wouldn't be able to retract...

Savolainen5

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #6 on: February 15, 2011, 08:51:18 am »

Could DFHack help with this problem?
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Jingles

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Re: Spontaneous Cave-ins
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2011, 09:57:45 am »

I was going to suggest that you run cleanmap but then remember its mud... I wish there was an option to get rid of mud too.