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Author Topic: Stupid coal tricks  (Read 34460 times)

Kanddak

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Stupid coal tricks
« on: February 20, 2009, 03:49:27 pm »

Summary: Lignite blocks put in an iron bin and submerged in magma ignite and can't be extinguished, bin thenceforth sets fire to dwarves and instantly vaporizes water.

So I heard that you could turn blocks back into stones by putting them in a magma-safe bin; submerging said bin in magma, thereby melting the blocks; then recovering the bin and its contents and allowing the molten blocks to cool into stones.
I set out to test this today. It didn't seem to work.
It turns out there's a difference between a "dolomite" , which shows "Uses: Make steel bars, Make pig iron bars" and is a stone, and a "Dolomite", which has no uses and shows up in "globs" on the stock menu.

When I tried this, I put two Lignite blocks in my bin with some other stuff. Rather than melting, they caught on fire inside the iron bin and began emitting smoke.
As soon as I opened the test chamber to try to recover the bin and see whether I could persuade my smelter to take a big-S Sphalerite, the first dwarf to set foot in the chamber caught fire and died. I poured buckets on it for a while, but that didn't seem to change anything. The bin shielded the burning blocks from being extinguished by water.

I built a system to pump water into the chamber to see what would happen.
It instantly drained my reservoir, so I activated my fill pump from the cave river and started pushing more water in. The bin of doom is still instantly vaporizing all the water I pump towards it from a tile away. (Bin tile: Dry. Next tile: Dry. Second tile: Water [6/7].)
I just pitted a rhesus macaque child onto it, and it died in the heat, then quickly became bones.

I can't move the thing, but I could sure have some fun with it.
I'd like to see what happens if you make one on a retracting bridge and then drop it into a lake, or if you put it in a 1-wide passage that's the only entry to your fort during a siege or elf caravan. It could potentially have magma's advantages of burning goblins to death and destroying their narrow clothes, without the trouble of draining the magma when you want to collect the iron stuff, due to the flaming goblins running past the bin before dying.
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Ivefan

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 03:52:07 pm »

How long have this been burning? i think my burning lignite block(not in a box) was burning for one or half a year before burning out.
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Zaranthan

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2009, 03:53:36 pm »

A black hole, just what I always wanted.
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Mephansteras

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2009, 03:54:04 pm »

Well, that's a nifty little trick you've discovered. Thanks!
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Hyndis

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2009, 04:02:28 pm »

How long does it burn? Does it burn indefinitely?

If so.....   ;D

There are some extremely nasty traps possible from such a device. Or, you can simply set the world on fire by placing the bin outside, where it will continually set all newly grown grass on fire, such that the entire world burns a couple times a year.
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Kanddak

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2009, 04:07:52 pm »

How long does it burn? Does it burn indefinitely?

It's been going for half a year now. They went from being !!({Lignite blocks})!! to !!x({Lignite blocks})x!! to !!X({Lignite blocks})X!!, so I imagine they'll eventually become !!XX({Lignite blocks})XX!! and then vanish.
I tried shutting off the water, reflooding the room with magma, and then dropping water from above to turn it into obsidian, which stopped the smoke, but when I channeled out the obsidian the bin was still there and still burning.
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Foa

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2009, 04:31:14 pm »

I think you should use Tweak ( Put 7/7 water on it, and then set the temp ( both values ) to 0 ) .

I've used this to seal an HFS, all I need to do is to let it thaw out, and then vaporize it.

Oh, and the best parts are when you make an ice tomb, absolute zero, or maximum temp their asses!

Absolute zero turns them into a puddle of blood and most likely destroys all of their possessions, if they don't move out of the afflicted square.
Maximum Temp, sets them on fire ( migrants always move through the same path ) .
Ice tomb either trap them ( if surrounded ) or completely destroys them.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2009, 04:37:00 pm by Foa »
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sonerohi

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2009, 04:49:22 pm »

I think you should use Tweak ( Put 7/7 water on it, and then set the temp ( both values ) to 0 ) .

I've used this to seal an HFS, all I need to do is to let it thaw out, and then vaporize it.

Oh, and the best parts are when you make an ice tomb, absolute zero, or maximum temp their asses!

Absolute zero turns them into a puddle of blood and most likely destroys all of their possessions, if they don't move out of the afflicted square.
Maximum Temp, sets them on fire ( migrants always move through the same path ) .
Ice tomb either trap them ( if surrounded ) or completely destroys them.

I've done that before with making an ice cube wall infront of some goblins that were shooting at me dwarves. Their bolts all got stopped by the walls, and then I move my militiary into position and melted a tile to let my dwarves in. Quite possibly the funnest thing ever.
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Foa

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2009, 04:52:43 pm »

I think you should use Tweak ( Put 7/7 water on it, and then set the temp ( both values ) to 0 ) .

I've used this to seal an HFS, all I need to do is to let it thaw out, and then vaporize it.

Oh, and the best parts are when you make an ice tomb, absolute zero, or maximum temp their asses!

Absolute zero turns them into a puddle of blood and most likely destroys all of their possessions, if they don't move out of the afflicted square.
Maximum Temp, sets them on fire ( migrants always move through the same path ) .
Ice tomb either trap them ( if surrounded ) or completely destroys them.

I've done that before with making an ice cube wall infront of some goblins that were shooting at me dwarves. Their bolts all got stopped by the walls, and then I move my militiary into position and melted a tile to let my dwarves in. Quite possibly the funnest thing ever.
I figured out how to make a temporary death wall, make an ice wall ( Double 0 Temp, Subter, Dark, In ) , and then mine it out, it killed 127 dogs ( Canine Reserves get boo-boos ) , 15 of 27 Dwarves.
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ZeroGravitas

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2009, 05:55:14 pm »

A black hole, just what I always wanted.

sounds more like a stable thermonuclear reaction to me.
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DennyTom

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2009, 06:08:48 pm »

How long does it burn? Does it burn indefinitely?

It's been going for half a year now. They went from being !!({Lignite blocks})!! to !!x({Lignite blocks})x!! to !!X({Lignite blocks})X!!, so I imagine they'll eventually become !!XX({Lignite blocks})XX!! and then vanish.
I tried shutting off the water, reflooding the room with magma, and then dropping water from above to turn it into obsidian, which stopped the smoke, but when I channeled out the obsidian the bin was still there and still burning.

This is great! I must try lignite as fuel for my smoke generator.
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Untelligent

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2009, 06:13:04 pm »

If I remember right, water doesn't extinguish fire anyway. Fire always wins.
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Kanddak

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2009, 07:02:57 pm »

If I remember right, water doesn't extinguish fire anyway. Fire always wins.
I channeled out the floor above the first dwarf that died and designated a pond, and after the first bucket of water, the corpse and clothes stopped burning.
I had been trying to lock him in a workshop and give him a shower that way, but instead of heading for his station when drafted, he made a frantic rush for the booze stockpile. Needless to say, I locked the doors. I'm thinking of installing fire alarm levers to dump large quantities of water onto the booze pile, the main meeting area, and the central stairwell.

I think the potential use for this that most interests me is setting up a heat bin in a drainage area, to prevent disastrous floods.

When the lignite finally finishes burning, I'm going to see what charcoal does, to see if there's a slightly easier way to do this. (Though there's really not many other uses for the lignite blocks caravans show up with, which is why I used them for this experiment in the first place. I'll try graphite, too.)
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sonerohi

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2009, 07:23:35 pm »

If I remember right, water doesn't extinguish fire anyway. Fire always wins.
I channeled out the floor above the first dwarf that died and designated a pond, and after the first bucket of water, the corpse and clothes stopped burning.
I had been trying to lock him in a workshop and give him a shower that way, but instead of heading for his station when drafted, he made a frantic rush for the booze stockpile. Needless to say, I locked the doors. I'm thinking of installing fire alarm levers to dump large quantities of water onto the booze pile, the main meeting area, and the central stairwell.

I think the potential use for this that most interests me is setting up a heat bin in a drainage area, to prevent disastrous floods.

When the lignite finally finishes burning, I'm going to see what charcoal does, to see if there's a slightly easier way to do this. (Though there's really not many other uses for the lignite blocks caravans show up with, which is why I used them for this experiment in the first place. I'll try graphite, too.)

Using Tweak or Dtil to place a tile of 7/7 water in front of the dwarf works to. On him and it evaporates. Fire only dies out when the water hits it.
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LegoLord

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Re: Stupid coal tricks
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2009, 07:33:50 pm »

If I remember right, water doesn't extinguish fire anyway. Fire always wins.
No, it does get extinguished.  I have a dwarf in a community fort that owes its life to water.
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