Bay 12 Games Forum

Simple, mon ami. I will build the "box" that will house the magma level by level (like I have another option). When a level is finished, I build the bridges (attached to the walls of the "box"), hook all the bridges up to a lever (all of them to the same lever, natch), and go level by level until the construction is high enough. Then I pull the lever, making the bridges "raise", and forming a wall that the magma won't attach to but can't pass either.

And then I kill the Batman.

Check his status, will ya? [v] over him. If it says he's insane, he's just shit out of luck and will die.

I like it, but I'm a newby ;( All my props are as worthless as those of that elementary school play you all know you were in.

All I'm disappointed about is that a lot of people are looking but nobody is responding to the simple question ;(

It would be nice if dwarves could create leather whips for their fortress guard to dispense lashes as punishment.  A leather whip would do very little actual damage,

...dude, I like the idea, but seriously, research your shit. Being lashed was lethal as all fuck-off, man. Still is. Lash somebody too much? Too bad, now they're dead. Lashers who were ordered to give somebody twenty strokes with the whip would count to a number just a few below the actually ordered amount of lashings, just on the off-chance they miscounted and needed some leeway to make sure they didn't kill the victim.

Y'know that "crack" noise you hear when Indiana Jones pulls those impressive bullwhip antics? That's the whip breaking the goddamned sound barrier.

Imagine a thin, strong piece of leather hitting your back about twenty times in rapid succesion. That's what a lashing was. It doesn't need to be made of metal to score away flesh, it does that fine on its own - in the hands of a skilled user. It's certainly a tool of punishment (or cattle herdin', which we don't really need because dwarves are perfectly content to grab a huge, snarling crocodile by the tail and drag it to the proper pasture or cage), and doesn't have much use as a weapon (when it's made of leather, at least), but please, don't underestimate the power of a whip. Giving somebody a lashing will leave them near dead - and in the worst cases, just plum dead.

Just don't assign any weapons to your captain of the guard and he'll punch the living buggery out of any criminal. Or, y'know - spend a few chains and make a jail, so they don't get beaten at all.

Alright, so, yesterday I was buggin' about with some pumps to get a corpse out of a river (the project ended up needlessly huge and it probably won't be done before the end-of-year siege, which is probably when trolls will come to play merry havoc with all the pumps and axels and such), and I must be a Spark, because I went to the Madness Place for a bit (referencing webcomics, yay). When I emerged from my dark torpor, filled with visions of mechanics working tirelessly and my blacksmiths weeping at the prospect of finally having to do more work than fill the occasional dumb mandate, I found that I'd painted some designs for an obsidian farm on the walls in my own blood (thanks to my cat, Mister Mittens, for giving me the scratch I needed to do so). That was vaguely disturbing, so I cleaned it up, but not before copying the designs down, of course.

Here's what I got. W is walls, M is magma, O is obsidian, and H is water (for H2O. Ain't we scientific?)

The initial setup (pumps not pictured, and also, the magma cube would be 7X7...I have something with sevens, leave off).

WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WWWWWWWW

Add some water...

 HHHHHHHH
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WWWWWWWW

Resulting in...

WOOOOOOOW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WWWWWWWW

I figured, then, that the cavein of the resulting obsidian layer would make this:

WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WMMMMMMMW
WOOOOOOOOW
WWWWWWWW

But then I realized: "Oh, millenium shrimp. The walls of the cistern would keep the obsidian layer from falling. My plans are undone!)

But lo, I remembered something from the DF wiki on caveins. Even if a bridge is connected to an otherwise freefloating (i.e not connected to anything else) block of stone tiles, this would not keep the freefloating chunk from falling. Which is to say the bridge doesn't act as a support.

Here we see the updated design, where B is a raised 1x1 bridge (for the 3D 7X7 design, of course, raised 1X1 bridges surround the magma on every layer on all sides).

WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WBMMMMMMMBW
WWWWWWWWW

That's a lotta bridges. The bridges are raised, of course, because otherwise magma would flow onto the bridges...which might cause problems. I'm honestly not too sure, about whether or not that would cause problems or about anything else in the world, really. I do know, however, that those bridges are raised, so even if magma being on the un-raised bridge would cause problems, that problem is now eliminated. Preemptively. Yeah, that's just how I roll, baby. 

Assuming that the bridges would indeed allow the newly formed obsidian layers to cave in and plunge to the bottom of the reservoir, I'd end up with something looking like this:


WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WBOOOOOOOBW
WWWWWWWWW

That's a 7x7x7 cube of fresh, shiny, ridiculously sharp (careful now!) obsidian. That's 49X7=343 pieces of obsidian. I may have to add an extra layer. Y'know...to even it out. 350 pieces. I like that. Divisible by 7!

Also the schematic kinda looks like somebody screaming about breasts.

Now my question is, Bay12... Would this work?

(And, if yes, how awesome is it?)

My dwarves have wood.

"Oi, tuck it up under yer *sheep wool tunic*, Urist. There's children aboot.*
"Aye, tha's why I go' it..."

Did the child get punched at all? I've seen punches to the upper body bruise or sometimes otherwise damage various organs.

Memorial slabs can be made easily enough.

Also, I modded my ethics to allow butchering of other sentients.  Goblin tallow roasts, anyone?

I did that too, once.

Then my stockpiles were overflowing with *goblin eyeball stew*.

The fortress I tried that out in was ended by a tantrum spiral shortly afterwards. For unrelated reasons.