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[Jemeni]

Hello peoples.

I have been playing Dwarf Fortress for about 6-8 months I believe

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 and I haven't even touched the spoilers due to not being interested(not much into the fighting part of the game)

I've always wanted to do something dwarfy enough to be considered a dwarf. So my proposal is to make a fortress in the sea of answers...the magma sea. My plan is to dig to the magma sea and cast obsidian to make it isolated and not connected to the border. Then to drain it(maybe just dump enough water over it to make it complete obsidian?) and then build my fortress there.
Now then I wanted to know if anybody has tried any part of this feat of dwarven engineering and if it is even possible. And if anybody would have any non-!!FUN!! inducing tips/tricks/things that will make it easier or more dwarfy.

The big QCC:
Questions, Comments, Concerns?

[nogoodnames]

I've heard that the layer of magma just above the semi-molten rock cannot be turned into obsidian. Other than that it should be absolutely possible provided you have an infinite source of water. Good luck!

[Agent_86]

I'd say for an extra-dwarfy project you could pump all the magma to the surface so that you don't have any pointy-eared visitors disturbing your endeavor.

[Jemeni]

NoGoodNames: Hmm that does pose a small problem. I was hoping to get a decently sized fortress under there. I didn't think about the limited water in the fortress I'm using for it. Although there is a brook source that freezes in the winter I should be good though right? I think I embarked on the source and if not then it still gets fed from upstream.

Agent_86: It would be a place to put the magma while I'm working down there.

[the woods]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Freezing#Melting

You can melt the freezing brook with magma. If you're inclined you can bring the magma up so you can send the water down.

[Jemeni]

The Woods: I didn't even think about that thanks. Question about that though the wiki says that you can melt from above, so it should be possible to pump the magma on top of the book and have a small reservoir there to keep the brook from melting correct? I wouldn't think that the brook barrier would stop that.

[the woods]

I've never tried it but I know that magma will turn the stone above or below it into warm stone. I'm not sure whether or not the fake water brook tiles will gum up the magma, sorry. It seems worth trying anyway. If you can get the magma up that high then it wouldn't be a big stretch to get the magma under the brook if it doesn't work from above, and relocate whatever rooms were below the brook to make room for the hypothetical new magma plumbing.

[Jemeni]

The Woods: Very true, I'm absent minded most of the times, to I tend to over complicate things.

[wierd]

You can probably defeat/breach the un-obsidianable magma sea layer with a controlled cave in of the materials directly above.  (Think, drop a whole, solid cube of material several z layers thick via a cave in. This could be done by cleverly supporting the suspended block of material on a leverable bridge.  Restrict the collapse area, and pull the lever.  Block falls into magma sea, but being a nonconstructed wall, does not disintigrate or melt.  Assuming the magma sea has a bottom, or if you have devised a way for water to follow the block down, it has a reasonable chance of penetrating the sea and leaving a chunk of workable raw mterial from which to carve out the fort.

An alternative is to aggressively pump the first layer of magma, exposing the layer beneath, which can be frozen into obsidian with water.  Be aprised that unsupported obsidian floors produced will fall into the magma, creating cavein spam, and lots of magma mist mixed with steam.

A clever solution might be a single constructed structure dangling from above that then "supports" the created obsidian foundation. I think a flight of up/down stairs, down which you pour the water should suffice.

[Jemeni]

Wierd: that really might work very well, but I wanted to use the obsidian as little as possible, but it looks like carving my fortress from obsidian will be the only way to do this.

[Babylon]

Dropping a column of natural stone will not work.  This was discovered during the development of the magma piston as a piston dropped directly into the magma sea is dissolved by the semi-molten rock.

[wierd]

Ahh.  Looks like pumping, coupled with controlled flooding and clever "hanging supports" are your best bet then.

Remember that magma does not pressurize (under normal conditions). Once you get the initially supported floor, and some retainer walls up to hold back the first magma layer, you can pump up and over the side of the magma sea to get lower.

[Loud Whispers]

Dropping a column of natural stone will not work.  This was discovered during the development of the magma piston as a piston dropped directly into the magma sea is dissolved by the semi-molten rock.

Dissolved? That would imply a slightly less violent physical transition. More like instant vaporization.

Plus, the magma sea has more IMPlications that could make things difficult.

Just build a giant statue of a Dwarf that vomites magma, job done :p

[Jemeni]

Babylon: Hmm the Semi-Molten Rock is going to provide a big challenge from what you are saying. I'm probably going to obsidianize one layer at a time.

Weird: thanks for the reminder

Loud Whispers: Yes I've read up on natural population, and I was actually thinking about catching a magma crab for stone instead of going out to dig it up.

[Callista]

Yeah, a brook is infinite water.

Caution here, though: Watch your FPS, don't do too much liquid-moving at once or you'll be watching your fortress crawl to a stop.