Bay 12 Games Forum

Been waiting desperatly for an anvil to start my metal crafting.  When the first caravan arrived, I didn't have enough trade goods.  The second year I was all ready, but they must have loaded all of the anvils into one wagon, because the traders came and left before that one last wagon could reach my depot!  I never got to trade. 

Maybe next year.

I've actually had a shortage of stone, which hurt my early crafting.  I'm building my fortress in the walls of a bottomless pit, and my dining room is hanging out over the pit with glass windows around the perimiter and grates on the floor to let the eventual mist from the giant faucet hanging over the bottomless pit to drain out.

Initially, the plan was to have a hermit with other dwarves rotating in long enough to have a strange mood before being 'liquidated' to make room for the next one.  But lo, my initial two dwarves fell in love and got married, and soon the pitter patter of little feet were heard running the halls.  Life was mostly peaceful, the dogs kept the thieves away, and their little home was of no interest to anyone but the passing traders. 

Soon, with enough of everything stockpiled against hard times, it was time to start the first project.  The young mother had always wanted a waterfall in the dining room, and father was willing to provide.  A system of pumps was designed leading from the well pit to above the dining hall.  Drains were built leading back into the same pit and a waterwheel was connected directly to the whole system.

As the last nail was driven into the waterwheel the entire system began to run.  A fine mist began to drift down into the family living quarters and mother squealed in glee at her lifelong dream.  Father brushed the sweat from his brow and smiled at his beaming wife.  Life was truly good.

Bliss quickly turned to shock however, as water began to flow up from the grates in the floor!  Mother grabbed the two children and fled to the safety of the bedroom.  Father quickly went to check the drainage system, but was forced back by a sudden gush of water erupting from the family well.  Why oh why hadn't he installed a safety switch in the pumps!  The machines were pumping as if possessed, drawing on the limitless supply of the nearby stream and feeding right into their small home. 

Wading back out through the dining room, Father quickly visualized the system in his mind.  The drainage system was clear, but the pumps were far more powerful than he had intended, unable to cope with the massive flow.  If he could disable the topmost pump, the water should be contained in the pump shaft untill some additional drains could be constructed.  The splash of water interrupted his thoughts.  He had easily outpaced the growing flood in the dining room, but why was water coming in the front door? 

Father was shocked at what met him outside.  The entire hillside was covered with water flowing down from above.  The carefully crafted pump system was pouring a flood down the mountain from an unanticipated leak in the upper pump chamber.  A quick look at the torrent was all it took to dash any hopes of reaching the pump.  Father dropped to his knees in dispair, his thoughts inescapibly centered on his wife and children.  The bedroom doors were watertight, but the dining room was now completely flooded and there was no other exit.  His family was doomed to a slow death from hunger or, ironically, dehydration.

Fathers hand tightened on his pick.  He would not be responsible for the death of his own family!

I'm thinking of making a bridge of floor tiles which has a magma fall dropping on it, with a bridge one z-level up which can be lowered to block the magma and allow passage.  Does that sound dwarvenly possible?
It would probably be easier to have a switch controlling a magma pump or floodgate, but it just seems more dwarvenly to have falling magma be the default state which requires activity to prevent from incinerating "guests".