Bay 12 Games Forum

A single support under the whole town works, *sure*, but it's not as much *fun*.

Allow me to propose wiring up each of the buildings in the town individually.  Then, you can recreate scenes from "Tremors", the movie with the underground worms that destroy things on the surface. 

Bob McHuman: Ohmygawd, the inn just collapsed, killing several people!

Bill McHuman: We're under attack!  Quick, everyone into the church!

Bob McHuman: Oh noes!!!111eleventyone!  The church just collapsed!

Bill McHuman: What manner of fell sorcery is this?  Seek shelter in the meeting hall...

Etc.

It's luck.  I've had terrifying forest that never birthed more than the odd skeletal deer or zombie fox.  And then I've had savage mountains where the dwarves embark on a mountain peak...right next to a skeletal giant eagle.

how very unDwarvenly.

You mean, unlike commemorating a soapmaker?

There's no game effect, but you could set up a waterfall (not magmafall) over the entrance to the tomb that goes through soap floor grates above and below.

The mental image, of course, is that anyone entering the tomb goes through a shower of soapy water.

Dwarf AI; refusing to stand on the safe side of a wall, even when suspended constructed walls are placed.

This. 

Also, how "dragging the bleeding and wounded from the battlefield outside to their beds" seems to have a lower priority than "dump these 500 rocks".

Build a gear or axle next to where you're going to place the waterwheel.

If you use a gear, note that you should never disengage it (with a lever) -- doing so will remove support from the wheel(s) and drop them into the water.

Do they do anything useful?  No.... not really.

The Dungeon Master can tame exotic pets.

Like dragons.

Your nobles needing rooms aren't that bad, once you realize you can shove them all in the same room, slap an artifact table in there, and they'll be too busy admiring it to notice they have less space and privacy than the lowest of peasants.

I did this successfully until the King arrived.  King immediately gets pissed about uppity nobles having accommodations above their station.  Eventually went berserk.

This in itself is not terribly bad, but there are cleaner (though perhaps not as entertaining) ways of getting rid of nobles.

Good guide.  Put it in the wiki!

One note, though: I prefer, instead of flooding a room to make obsidian, which means you then have to wait for it to drain, to drop water in the exact pattern of the magma.  When it's done, it's done, and you don't have to wait for drainage or anything.  For this purpose, I use retracting bridges.

Figure 1: Room filled with maga -- note that making obsidian works with only 1/7 magma.  No need to flood the room entirely.

Figure 2: Retractable bridges holding water above magma.  There's a number of bridges here; the only important thing is that each one has a side touching a wall, so they don't collapse when others retract.  For this reason, the room is only 20 tiles wide, but it can be as long as desired.

Figure 3: Room of obsidian

I use raised bridges instead of floodgates, since it only requires two mechanisms to link to a lever, rather than two per square.  (I also use them instead of doors, because I'm paranoid about stupid dwarves)  When getting the obsidian from this room, instead of mass designating a 'd'ig, I carve 'r'amps, to remove the ceiling.  Otherwise, the next time, there'll be an obsidian ceiling between the magma and the water.  You could channel from above, of course, but dwarves are stupid, and I can mass designate ramps and then not have to look out for stuck dwarves.