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[dmurray]

Let's say I want to reach the GMS (Great Magma Sea) without having to train a military or use the reveal tool to carefully plan my minning around the caverns.

Can I just wall of any access to the minning tunnels and the fun monsters from Caverns and so on won't touch me? OR will I need a method?

Also, can I use magma-proof buckets to move magma to an area and then pour water on it or would it just be easier to use a magma-proof door + switch to fill an area, then do the same with water (so the water meets in the room with the magma) and then get obsidian that way, or is it more complicated?

Oh and is the GMS actually infinite?

[Lectorog]

Walls, unless incorrectly placed, will prevent anything from getting through. It's pretty easy to wall off the caverns.

I'm pretty sure the GMS is infinite; at the least, the parts leading to the edges of your map.

And no, you can't use buckets to move magma. Dwarves will not move magma with buckets. Magma-proof pumps are really the only way to go up in small/moderate amounts.

[dmurray]

Okay, thank you.

I'm not sure on how pumps work but assuming I don't train a military, is it possible to pump Magma into a room, then if any sort of invasion happens, I can just flood the fortress entrance (obviously with the interior blocked off) with Magma using a pump or, better yet, just have Magma flowing into the area by having a door opening, then closing the door and once the magma dies down to just 1 level (as in 1 out of 7)... do I just pour water on it and it'll create Obsidian?

And by using walls, is it permantly possible to block access to my fortress? From both sufrace and underworld invaders?

[Azated]

Also, can I use magma-proof buckets to move magma to an area and then pour water on it or would it just be easier to use a magma-proof door + switch to fill an area, then do the same with water (so the water meets in the room with the magma) and then get obsidian that way, or is it more complicated?

If only we had minecraft buckets. 3 blocks of iron and you can drop the entire magma see at the top of the map.

[Girlinhat]

Pumps are easy in theory, complicated in practice.  You place a pump that draws fro the north.  This means it will draw from the square above the top square, but one level lower.  It then outputs the water on the opposite side on the same Z level.

Code: [Select]

%%>
^---This can combine into a pump stack, with every pump facing the opposite direction as the one below it.

Code: [Select]

<%%
 %%^
^%%
 %%^
^%%
---^Magma pump stacks are another beast, as the rapid temperature changes cause huge lag, but someone's made a better version that works extremely well.  Also note that pumps transfer power between each other, so a pump stack doesn't need operators, it only needs a windmill farm above it.

Do note though, that one pump stack is rather slow, and if you want to fill a basin quickly, you'll need more!

[Kassil]

Okay, thank you.

I'm not sure on how pumps work but assuming I don't train a military, is it possible to pump Magma into a room, then if any sort of invasion happens, I can just flood the fortress entrance (obviously with the interior blocked off) with Magma using a pump or, better yet, just have Magma flowing into the area by having a door opening, then closing the door and once the magma dies down to just 1 level (as in 1 out of 7)... do I just pour water on it and it'll create Obsidian?

And by using walls, is it permantly possible to block access to my fortress? From both sufrace and underworld invaders?

Yes. This is actually a fairly common method of dealing with invaders, unwanted migrants, and traders who annoy you. You'll be better off filling an overhead reservoir with a bridge as a floor, though, linked to a lever so you can dump the entire mass of magma at once; if you have a large water tank above that, you can obsidianize the resulting magma pool, then close the reservoir bridges and mine out the resulting obsidian for reuse.

You can wall off your entire fort, yes. This isn't necessarily a good idea, as you will still get migrants unless your civilization is dead, and they'll go insane and die on the surface, causing all kinds of clutter and lag.

[Girlinhat]

I personally prefer to use hatches.  Sure, an insta-flood is nice, but I enjoy the atmosphere of watching the magma/water flow down through 1-2 holes in the ceilings, or bubble up from below under pressure, slowly filling up the chamber and dealing with the occupants...

[EBannion]

If you want to seal off the caverns after breaching them, floor hatches and constructed floors are indestructible from below, so whatever nasties there are down there that you accidentally let out will stay down there if you're quick (and your dwarves listen to you, the little jerks.)

[dmurray]

Constructed floors... as in from rocks? If so, is it possible to have an entire floor removed and then rebuilt from a specific rock?

[EBannion]

'b'uild -> 'C'onstructions -> 'f'loors

You can use h/k and u/m to make them more than one square, similar to farm plots.

If you choose to use blocks, you get smoothed stone floors, comparable to those smoothed form natural stone by an engraver (but they differ in not being engraveable.)

If you choose rough stone instead, you get floors that look like rough stone floors but which cannot be smoothed or engraved.

Edit - I am not sure, but I think that if you select more than one kind of stone when designating a multi-tile floor, the appearance of the floor will be based on the first stone you select.

[Girlinhat]

There's a difference between floor and road.  Paved Road will use any material, and will cover an area efficiently, taking something like 1 material per 4 tiles, or something.  I've been trying to figure out exactly how, but sometimes the road looks like furrowed soil, other times like floor.  A road can be destroyed by a building destroyer, and you cannot build atop it.  They're useful for making a 5 wide path from the map edge to your fort, when/if wagons are re-introduced this paved road will never be clogged by trees.

Floors are 1 material per tile, and each tile is considered a different construction and thus a different color depending on materials.  They are indestructible and fireproof, and you can build atop them.

Also, roads will prevent broken arrows from appearing, so roading over your front of your fort can keep it looking spick and clean.

[EBannion]

<clipped stuff about roads>

Until I read what you wrote, I never would have thought about this - can you build roads indoors?

[Girlinhat]

Yes.  They're frequently used in archery ranges to keep them looking nice, and you can place a road over an engraved floor, to add extra value to the area and (I think) Admiring a fantastic road lately.  Roads are also architectural, and you can have masterpiece roads.  Platinum or Addy bars, made into a masterful road, will raise value considerably.

[EBannion]

Yes.  They're frequently used in archery ranges to keep them looking nice, and you can place a road over an engraved floor, to add extra value to the area and (I think) Admiring a fantastic road lately.  Roads are also architectural, and you can have masterpiece roads.  Platinum or Addy bars, made into a masterful road, will raise value considerably.

As someone who is usually more concerned about the appearance of my fortress rather than its net worth, I am compelled to follow up with: Am I correct in assuming that the color of the whole road is the color of the first stone selected for its construction?

[Girlinhat]

Very likely, but untested.