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[ThatAussieGuy]

We've all seen Boatmurdered and it's legendary lava system, but it can only really be replicated from within a hillside.  How do we create a truly terrifying defense for a flat area that can dispense molten rock where it's wanted least by those we dislike?

For the answer, I give you the Doorstop.  A Bunker design that is both compact, fortified AND can deliver lava in your preferred direction rather than a general distribution over the map

Spoiler:  Doorstop Level 1 (click to show/hide)

The screwpumps are locked in pairs that draw power from the level above and magma from the level below, discharging through fortifications so attacking creatures cant reach them.

Spoiler:  Doorstop Level 2 (click to show/hide)

Drawing from the axle in the top-left corner, power is distributed to one of the screw pumps in each cardinal direction and shared via the axles seen in the previous picture.  The levers are place in an idiotproof design so you know just where your lava is going to come out.  The corners are also Fortifications, so you can add insult to injury with marksdwarves.

Now, you may wonder how magma has reached the surface in the test site of Hamebalanced.  Using a standard 'pumpstack' and an aquifer-driven power supply, magma is deposited in the large 3-level chamber shown below as a sort of battery to ensure there is always lava for those that deserve it most.

Spoiler:   Magma Storage and Supply (click to show/hide)

Although not shown as this is the level below the bottom of the Doorstop, magma is pumped from the lowest level of the tank up to this one, then drawn by the Doorstop magmaguns for discharge onto the surface.  The square area the north and south screwpumps are filling is where the Doorstop pumps get their magma from

As with any successful device, it must be tested to make sure it works.  Fortunately, we have test subjects ready and willing to melt for science!

Spoiler:  Hamebalanced Scientific Volunteer groups One and Elf. (click to show/hide)

With our victims subjects on their marks, we begin with a simple directional test.  The West cannon is activated

Spoiler:  Please note the position of the Trade Depot is accidental.  We promise. (click to show/hide)

Although slow, the lava is constant and has soon consumed Test Group Elf.  The booze they brought with them exploding and burning probably didn't help.  Oh well.

Test Groups One and Two, however, continues to approach the fortress with murder in mind for being told they were going to test adamantine weapons on fuzzy creatures and instead finding themselves in the Home Defense tests

Spoiler:  The Goblins are rather displeased with the Hamebalanced Scientific Community (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately, some of the intervening footage of the south guns being turned on for Group Two have been lost, but we did recover some footage of Test Group Troll

Meet Troll Subject Asno.

Spoiler: She's on FIRE! (You can't see it, but her name is flickering (click to show/hide)

According to our remote sensors, she's proving our test of the Doorstop a raging success!

Spoiler:  Ladies and Gentlemen; The Melting Troll (click to show/hide)

As our demonstration ends, I leave you with this; 

Spoiler:   Nothing says "GET THE HELL OF MY LAWN!" Like a lava-caused wildfire tearing across the map and the bloody trails of melting goblins fleeing from your land (click to show/hide)

edit:  Slight change to the design, the control levers were moved to a room near the Dining Hall.  Turns out the dwarves won't pull them when they can see goblins through the fortifications

[FritzPL]

Duh, another epic and complicated dorfy solution to a common problem. Good job, Aussie.

Now, if you could make a simple landmine design, so everydwarf can have one on his doorstep? (see wat i did thar)

[ThatAussieGuy]

Duh, another epic and complicated dorfy solution to a common problem. Good job, Aussie.

Now, if you could make a simple landmine design, so everydwarf can have one on his doorstep? (see wat i did thar)

I'll admit, I was actually going to try and build your landmines around Hamebalanced, but I wasn't too sure on how they actually work, given how magma/lava generally sits on the level it's pumped to rather than discharging up the pipe to the surface

[Mitchewawa]

Now all we need to do is create a giant wooden dragon that shoots magma at passers by, but somehow getting the magma off the surface to accommodate migrants and non-elf traders isn't nearly as cool as letting everything burn.

Or does it evaporate? Because that wouldn't make sense. Speaking of which, how does water evaporate underground? On rock?

E: It's actually a Lava Doorstep.

[ThatAussieGuy]

A doorstep implies they have a chance of entering.  A doorSTOP means they aren't going anywhere except into the lava.

[rhesusmacabre]

Have you tried this on "full power" yet?

Duh, another epic and complicated dorfy solution to a common problem. Good job, Aussie.

Now, if you could make a simple landmine design, so everydwarf can have one on his doorstep? (see wat i did thar)

I'll admit, I was actually going to try and build your landmines around Hamebalanced, but I wasn't too sure on how they actually work, given how magma/lava generally sits on the level it's pumped to rather than discharging up the pipe to the surface

I believe you have to have the pumpstack reaching several z-levels above ground level to create pressure in the magma first. Frogwarrior's Rampartroots is a good example of this.

[ThatAussieGuy]

Have you tried this on "full power" yet?

I did and it's not as great - each hole is being drawn on by two screwpumps, and the chamber below is only being fed by two screwpumps from the colossal magma tank.  You can get away with two of the directions being active with decent results though.

[Sus]

As fine a demonstration of Dwarven !!Science!! as I've ever seen.
You, sir, are a true mad genius!

[Deadmeat1471]

As fine a demonstration of Dwarven !!Science!! as I've ever seen.
You, sir, are a true mad genius!

+1

[Gamerlord]

As fine a demonstration of Dwarven !!Science!! as I've ever seen.
You, sir, are a true mad genius!

+1

+2

You need to publish some sort of guide filled with your mad creations.

[ThatAussieGuy]

As fine a demonstration of Dwarven !!Science!! as I've ever seen.
You, sir, are a true mad genius!

+1

+2

You need to publish some sort of guide filled with your mad creations.

The only ones I've gotten working properly are this and the Checkerboard.  My attempt at a water pressure defense system (it was meant to knock sieges down a hillside with a torrent of water) didn't exactly work well.  The Clown Piston (dropped a pillar of rock on a clown car) kinda worked, but there's a bug with flame demons losing their flames that causes a game crash.  Might try building that one again when the new version is released and bugfixed.

There is one other thing I've discovered, but it seems to be already uncommon knowledge amongst you guys;  Build a waterwheel over an aquifer and you get constant, steady power.  Build rows of waterwheels and you get a stupidly large amount of power.

edit:  Should I do another Aussieguy Device topic on how to utterly break aquifers for free power so the newbies and whatnot can learn how to do it?  Or just a post here?

[Rallan]

Another solution could be to dot the landscape with pits covered by lever-activated hatch covers leading down to a magma reservoir on the first underground z-level. Keep the magma pressurised with pumps, and when unwanted guests turn up you just pop a few hatch covers from your master control room and hey presto, NO TWO PEOPLE ARE NOT ON FIRE.

I'm not sure if you'd get a very good flow rate though, so it'll probably work best in a heavily forested biome where there's plenty of combustibles to help spread the love. On the upside, turning an entire z-level into a pressurised magma pool at a higher elevation than the rest of your fortress would have a lot of potential for unintended fun.

[Oliolli]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So you thought about making these all around the landscape? Given the slow flow of magma lava, it would be more efficient to have more of these things, simply to be able to strike at the enemy with a little more precision, anywhere on the map.

I understand this is the entrance to your fort, so the enemy will always try to get to it, but isn't it always a good idea to be able to do precision strikes?

[ThatAussieGuy]

I understand this is the entrance to your fort, so the enemy will always try to get to it, but isn't it always a good idea to be able to do precision strikes?

The enemy will always path right to it, and you can pick the direction the magma's pumped towards.  That's as precise as you can get.  The goblins would just ignore other ones and pass on by towards the main bunker.  The lava usually starts a wildfire that burns across the entire map anyway, maiming or killing everything it passes over in a hellish blaze of death.  No kill like overkill!

[MarcAFK]

If you want high pressure magma you need to suspend multiple levels of pumpstack underneath your magma reservoir, at least that's what i read in a few threads.