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[Valdrax]

I've run into a snag with my current mega-project, a 51-story pyramid of clear glass, because of an unexpected invisible ceiling.  My map only has 16 z-levels about the surface.

Does anyone know of a tool or other means by which to give my current fortress more empty levels of sky to work with? 

If there isn't one, I am willing and able to get my hands dirty editing the save files if need be to manually add them in.  If anyone could point me to any documentation people have come up with in the process of writing hack tools for the game, I'd also be grateful for that.

[Leonance]

In the advanced world generation parameters you can set how high you want the sky to be.

[Sphalerite]

No and no.  There's no in-game way to change the number of sky levels, and nobody but Toady has even come close to understanding the structure of the save game files.  Honestly I suspect that not even Toady could successfully change the number of sky levels in an already created game - that seems like something that needs to be defined permanently before the world is generated.

[Oliolli]

That leaves only one solution here.

Lower the ground.

[Vattic]

That leaves only one solution here.

Lower the ground.

If he's going to destroy his pyramid, dig down, and then rebuild he might as well re-gen the world with a higher ceiling and start from scratch.

[Karakzon]

dont know, sounds like a perfectly dwarfy solution to the problem to me.

Sir! Weve run out of sky! people keep suffocating when they go any higher.
-steely glint in his eye-
I know how to solve that one.


Besides: he can just leave the already 16 or so z levels of construction as a kind of outer wall and build the pyramid tip inside in the centre and dig down from there. problem solved.

[Cheveux]

If he cause a massive cave-in with the pyramid on top of it, would the wall of the pyramid stay intact and drop to the desired level?

[Oliolli]

I don't think so, constructions deconstruct if dropped, do they not?

[Karakzon]

Oli is correct.

[Sphalerite]

That would make it much easier to recycle the glass blocks into a new pyramid.  Just drop the whole thing, and you get a pile of glass blocks without having to deconstruct them.

[Valdrax]

Damnit.  Digging down from the top would ruin my tree farms (necessary for pearlash), indoor pastures, easy outdoor farms, the magma pump stack and forges that the first expedition sacrificed themselves to make since they're all outside the pyramid underground, etc.

I've sunk 18 dwarf years and 3 reclaims into just getting the foundation for this thing started.  And elves just brought me a breeding pair of grizzlies and a single giant eagle, which they've never done in over a year of play.  Plus, the site has both sand and fire clay, as well as hematite and marble.  I'd hate to start from scratch again, because I'm sure I'd never find a site as nice.

(edit: grammar)

[MagmaMcFry]

Plus, the site has both sand, fire clay, hematite, and marble.

 

[Itnetlolor]

As long as you have 1 tile of support, the building will still stand. Dig down and build around.

[Lectorog]

Make the rest of the pyramid out of the ground. That's a bit more impressive than glass, isn't it?

[Valdrax]

Make the rest of the pyramid out of the ground. That's a bit more impressive than glass, isn't it?

No, not really.  Clear glass is much shinier than dirt, IMO.  Plus, I'd have to move half my workshops, including all my magma shops, and I'd have to destroy several masterwork engraved bedroom suites, dining hall, and a prison.  Oh, and the ocean runs under the base of the pyramid.  I'd have to drain and carve out the ocean which was central to my future whale breeding side-project and half the reason I chose the site.

And I'd lose my entire clay and sand layers in the process of coring out room for the pyramid, ruining the ability to even build it out of the materials I want.  (Did I forget to mention that I have two poisonous forgotten beasts crawled up inside my magma pump stack too that I'd have to free and fight before I could even get started with that?)  Worse, 1/6th of the area under the pyramid I'd need to level out is an aquifer.

No, it is the sky we need!  And if no one knows how to make one, I may have to figure it out myself.  I'm not spending another 2 weeks gen'ing sites to find one just as good (but this time with a bit of otherwise pointless mountain on the edge).

(edit:typo)