Bay 12 Games Forum

Dear Urist McChild,

I realize that your grown desert lime puzzlebox may seem amazing to you, but would you kindly vacate the obsidian farm by the end of the month? You've been playing for an Armok-damned season already! I'm behind on all my construction plans! I didn't have your parents dig out plumbing for a year to provide you a playpen - that's upstairs next to the semi-wild polar bear. I'm strongly considering releasing the magma on you even if your mother's the legendary armorer for the fortress!
Overseer

Dear Urist McChildren,
That's not a damn invitation to play in the second obsidian farm. Not kidding about releasing the magma.
Overseer

That's not how I set it up; I put the pressure plate about 3 squares away (directly north) from the down stair, and the attached bridge covering the down stair.
W++W
Dp+W
W++W
W++W
WbbW
WWWWW = wall, D = door (so I could connect the pressure plate to other things later, if I wanted), b = bridge and down stair.
Is there a reason your setup would be more efficient?

I'm trying to figure out how to most efficiently set up a steel industry to generate steel bars through recycling, due to the over-unity efficiency of "melt a metal object". Chiefly, I'm trying to figure out what skill my armorer should have while creating steel leggings for maxium recycling efficiency. High skill means faster production, but also means that I get masterworks that I would prefer not to melt down (my dwarves are already on edge enough). So under the assumption that masterworks never get melted down, and that travel distance is negligible (for now; I may add it back in later), what is the most time-efficient armorer skill level for steel bar creation (specifically, through steel leggings)?

I've embarked on a freezing biome with a volcano, and am trying to get permanent running water. Technically, I've done this, but it's really slow to fill - I'm melting 18 squares at a time, and I think  it's around a thousand ticks for each melt. I'm hoping to speed this up, which probably requires understanding the micromechanics of freezing and melting.

Ice is supposed to melt immediately upon lava entering a neighboring cell. It's then supposed to stay melted until the lava is removed. What are the mechanics of it freezing once the lava is removed? From what I've seen, it seems to act similarly to fluid mechanics - I've seen "waves" of freezing. How long does it take on average - or better, what is the distribution of freezijg times? Also, what are the mechanics of freezing next to lava? I've seen it happen several times (though it then melts again quickly), I think exclusively for water in light, above ground cells.

My favorite embark tends to be on a glacier with a towering volcano. And I recently found something fascinating in an embark that was a bit different from my usual embarks.

The volcanoes often have some ice walls on the first level. Obviously, it's not hard to melt these walls by putting magma around them. Putting magma below or to the side doesn't really work by itself (as in either of those cases, unless the square with the ice has been dug out and floored before, the water will merge with the magma to form obsidian), so it's best to spread magma over top of the ice. If you do this on top of an ice wall next to an open square, the water will then spread - and if magma isn't also on top of the new square, and that square is outside, that new square will gain a new ice wall. And due to the fluid mechanics (specifically, because ice always melts to 7 water), this will spread exactly one square beyond the extent you allow the magma to spread. In other words, a self-constructing ice wall.

In my case, I'd built a rectangle of floors 5 wide surrounded by constructed walls at z=+1; this resulted in a rectangle of water 5 wide surrounded by ice walls at z=0. The water was essentially self-refilling due to irregular freeze/melt cycles (even with the magma constantly on top of it - I wasn't even manipulating the magma after getting it out of the volcano), and digging into the ice walls only resulted in the ice wall reforming (and, once, killing the miner - I'm guessing the miner moved in the wrong direction). I haven't tested how various construction like bridges on either level will affect it, or the possibility of draining the water.

I have a few thoughts as to how this could be used in case of sieges, wagon safety, and a few other things, so I was wondering: has this been discovered before and/or put to dorfy uses? Or do you guys have any thoughts on how to use it for !!FUN!!?

I've found an example of the site I was looking for. Only took 10 tries, too. Anyone want a copy?

ETA: The elves may even have sun berries! I'm hoping...
=Uncool-

I noticed that.

I've uploaded 34.11 for windows, small (no sound), SDL for you on the file depot.

Get it here.

If you need another platform, I can get the mirror links from a cache of the DF homepage.

Yeah, I need the one for mac. Thanks in advance!
=Uncool-

Would a grate over a fortification block arrows and stop building destroyers while still allowing vision?
=Uncool-