Bay 12 Games Forum

Dwarf Fortress => DF Gameplay Questions => Topic started by: foop on May 25, 2008, 07:53:00 am

Title: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: foop on May 25, 2008, 07:53:00 am
I've been searching the forum and the wiki for an answer to this, but I'm still confused (which is my default state when plaing DF).

How do I manufacture mechanisms from a specific rock?  I have a large seam of bauxite, and was hoping to make magma-proof bauxite mechanisms.  However, the mechanics workshop option is just "Make rock mechanism" and my mechanic keeps turning out shale mechanisms.  I've tried putting the bauxite in a nearby stockpile, but he's still using shale.

Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Jayfrin on May 25, 2008, 08:05:00 am
Basically that's all you can do is make the rock ones what you could do is forbid all the shale in your stock piles so he'd be forced to use bauxite.
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Brent Not Broken on May 25, 2008, 08:12:00 am
Your mechanic will use the closest available material. You can let him go until he runs out of shale and starts on the bauxite, but I generally just build a temporary workshop right in the middle of the mined-out bauxite patch.
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Jhoosier on May 25, 2008, 10:31:00 am
Another way is to create make a room with the workshop and a stockpile of only bauxite, then lock him in.  Locked doors are your friends.
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: martinuzz on May 25, 2008, 11:11:00 am
You even can do it without the doors. Because, as said, the closest material is used. So you just have to build a stone stockpile around it and set it to accept only bauxite.

Keep in mind that z-axis is not taken into account when measuring distance.
So a piece of shale sitting 10 floors right below your workshop will be 'closer' than a piece of bauxite next to the workshop on the same floor.

And... (And this is an argument to use the locked doors. I think it is annoying because you will have to make your dwarf a soldier to get him to the workshop)

Your mechanic will take the piece of rock that is closest to HIM and not the workshop. So when he initially takes the job, he could take any stone, for he could be anywhere. After that, he is already in the workshop, so closest to him = closest to the workshop.

Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: martinuzz on May 25, 2008, 11:16:00 am
One more (and for me, more important) reason to make mechanisms from specific rocks: You can color-code your levers.
'yellow lever raises yellow bridge. Blue lever opens floodgate. Red lever floods the world with magma. Purple lever activates the noble-crusher'
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Doppel on May 25, 2008, 12:46:00 pm
Wich color colapses the fortress?
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Duke 2.0 on May 25, 2008, 12:53:00 pm
quote:
Originally posted by Doppel:
<STRONG>Wich color colapses the fortress?</STRONG>

It's needs to be big and red. Like a button.

Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: ClimbingEast on May 25, 2008, 04:02:00 pm
Dark grey. Nobody suspects the dark grey lever of doom.
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: Doppel on May 25, 2008, 08:05:00 pm
I prefer the dark grey "i +censored+ told you so to not go anywhere near that one restricted traffic area tile in the middle of my high traffic and long walkabout 1 tile wide hallway crossing in the absolute center of my fortress! Look at what you've done. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T LISTEN!!!" pressure plate of "genevilness".
Title: Re: Choosing mechanism material
Post by: MuonDecay on May 26, 2008, 07:08:00 pm
Be thankful you ran into the less frustrating variant of this problem.

I had to import the bauxite in small quantities the first time I needed magma-proof mechanisms, and to my chagrin my precious bauxite was used to make some doors and tables I had queued.

That might have been amusing as a way to make a dining room that could be cleansed by a magma flow (like Charlemagne's asbestos tablecloth, but way cooler!), had I not just used up the only bauxite I was able to procure that year.

Of course when I finally had the sense to get things right the next time around my magma pumping system backfired and poured a lava flow over a quarter of my castle. The moral of the story is that I'm clumsy and that DF is not forgiving of clumsiness   :p