Bay 12 Games Forum

Quote from: Makray on July 26, 2009, 09:47:53 pm

Or would it leave 1 stacks all throughout the chambers beneath the forges?

AIUI, 1-deep magma evaporates into thin air, much the same as water.  If this is the case (I'm an "all or nothing", person, so 1-depth magma is usually only an issue for me at the forefront of a new route being flooded into) then as long as you can drain one spot of a magma-filled area, for long enough, any other 'column' of lava will redistribute itself around within the same area until it too finds itself drained (up, or down), and the process continues.

If you don't have an "infinite dumping ground" (or at least large enough to drain it all and let it settle into 1/7ths and less) I would personally try (for laughs, at the very least) a pump (or hatch) with a magma-sensitive pressure plate on the 'dumping' point that activates it only when there is no magma on that spot, to draw up/dump as much magma as available (the full 7/7ths of the one spot being drained) in the first instance, and with at least 7 squares of 'evaporation chamber' (but make it two or three times as many, to make sure) for this to level out into and dissipate.  Immediately the dunmping starts it'll shut it off, but when it's gone from the plate-top (noting that it might still be 1/7 or even slightly more in the other spots, as well as a delay in reaction, hence the multiplication of the space you make available) more comes in and redistributes accordingly.  It'd also be more efficient in its evaporation if it "spreads", rather than flows along a tunnel.

I'd probably try one of the following solutions (first for a pump from a channel, second for a lower-level cistern centred below a hatch, other variants are possible for same-level pump/floodgate/doorway control methods).

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I think that floodgates also "chomp" anything that is flowing through them when they close (as my concern is usually preserving liquid water on maps with too little available, I try to avoid this situation, as well as 1/7ths evaporation, and without checking the wiki I can't be sure this is the case for magma), so maybe this could be developed into a method of getting rid of excess fluids.  I'm also not sure if you can Atom-Smash a flooded area free of its liquid (a 1x10 tunnel, or even a 10x10 cavern, with a bridge (suitably magma-proofed if necessary) lowering from the far end when a 1x1 alcove at one side detects the presence of the liquid), but something like that might be worth a try, if there's nothing on the Wiki or here that gives a definitive no!

Brilliant! Detailed! Not just a bit intimidating!  Probably going to do a combination of the hatches and the pump for a couple of different cisterns.  I also want to create an obsidian room along the same magma channel.

So, I've only made one foray into magma territory once before. The results were just fine.
Just made 8 magma workshops and dug out tunnels for the magma underneath, with a cutoff floodgate leading back to the main magma pipe.

Now, however, I want to have a bit more control over the flow.

I'm thinking about the previous setup, but I don't know if there's an effective way to drain the magma out of the tunnels beneath the furnaces.  If I understand correctly, you can't make a full floor out of floor grates or bars, and I'm assuming the same could be said about hatch covers.

Would it be prudent to make say, 6 level controlled hatch covers to drain the magma into a large cistern below, just in case I'd want to go back and expand the tunnels for more furnaces?

Also, instead of just tapping into the pipe, I'm thinking I'd try to pump it right from the top of the pipe (which doesn't go to the surface) for better control.

So I guess I'm just wondering if anyone with good magma experience could give me a few tips about pumping and draining it without raining fiery death upon my dwarves?

Well, if it helps, divide everything into estates. I've got the housing estate, which is 2 rows of 6 5x5 rooms opposite each other on every z-level beneath the surface (perfectly accommodates 200 dwarves plus tantrum rooms and nobles)

Funny, I can't believe I've never considered that.  I've always just sort of gone ahead and made one gigantic housing level with hundreds of little rooms. 

Long time player/reader, first time poster.  So I guess it's an introduction too, of sorts.

Hi, and stuff.

Anyhow, been playing for a couple years I think, and I'm completely obsessed with the game.
Although, the one issue I keep having (which I see springing up occasionally on the forums) is horrible ocd
tendencies. 
I'm starting a new fort at a site with absolutely everything but obsidian deposits (which I'll be making anyways),
have plans for a couple megaprojects, but it's always so hard to swing the pick for the first time.

Location, location, location.

I'm always in a hurry to designate the entire fortress right away, with pre-planned expasion points for the
need for multiple workshops of the same kind, and I can never bring myself to mine out metal veins because just walling them off seems like an eyesore!
Most of my forts follow the same pattern.  But I'm wondering, is it usually smarter to build a great deal on one z-level, or make the majority of the fort on multiple ones?

Sorry for the TLDR, and the general confusedness.  Me and my dwarves are too obsessive-compulsive.