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[melomel]

I've got an epic face-palm here.

I figured out the mass dumping/reclaiming commands early on and learned how to make constructions without much trouble, all that.

But I have also:

Learned the hard way that you don't forbid fancy materials until a moody dwarf is FINISHED with his artifact...

You can theoretically forbid everything being used for the artifact, and have an artifact made of nothing.

mine said it was made of "toad leather". (or was that toad skin? can't remember and it crashed, darn it)

I think the results are wonky when you forbid the core material of the artifact.  (It was def. an armorer that made a backpack out of bones, and I'm 90% sure those bones weren't from anywhere on the map.)

[Time Kitten]

I think it's been stated that toad bones actually come first in the numbering of items, so if you don't have a material, that's what it defaults to.

[Firemen In My Smelter]

Well today I put 10 floor grates in a line to cover a mistakenly built magma channel. Later on I decided to remove the grates. The dwarves did what they were told and scurried to the work floor removing the grates one by one whilst standing on top of them over the magma. I was looking at the z-level below the grates, where the magma was. Dwarves began to appear in the magma, not good. The end result was 4 dead dwarves.

I also for some reason hadn't believed they were falling in the magma for a few moments. If I was thinking I could have saved a dwarf or two

[warlordzephyr]

towercaps grow in the plumbing.

Tower caps won't grow on roads. You can (h)ide the roads afterwards if you want to see the flow levels.

Hmm... better ask this before I tap my underground river and it's too late...

Smoothing also prevents tower caps, right?  I've smoothed all the pipes for my upcoming waterworks, but I don't have actual roads down.  Should I go dismantle all my floodgates and lay down roads through all my channels to prevent tower cap blockages?

I don't believe smoothed flooring will do the job, though it usually cleans up mud IIRC. Personally, I like having TCs grow in the plumbing; means extra TC farming space, after all. I'd already planned to put cage traps in the plumbing for catching foo-men, cave crocs, and whatever other animals invaded my plumbing, so being able to clean up tower caps is a handy bonus.

Hold on, plumbing can be blocked by tower caps growing??!?!

[darthbob88]

towercaps grow in the plumbing.

Tower caps won't grow on roads. You can (h)ide the roads afterwards if you want to see the flow levels.

Hmm... better ask this before I tap my underground river and it's too late...

Smoothing also prevents tower caps, right?  I've smoothed all the pipes for my upcoming waterworks, but I don't have actual roads down.  Should I go dismantle all my floodgates and lay down roads through all my channels to prevent tower cap blockages?

I don't believe smoothed flooring will do the job, though it usually cleans up mud IIRC. Personally, I like having TCs grow in the plumbing; means extra TC farming space, after all. I'd already planned to put cage traps in the plumbing for catching foo-men, cave crocs, and whatever other animals invaded my plumbing, so being able to clean up tower caps is a handy bonus.

Hold on, plumbing can be blocked by tower caps growing??!?!

Yeah. Tower caps can and will grow in any subterranean mud, including plumbing. They'll grow up as saplings and only jump immediately to full-grown tree when their space is emptied, such as when the water reservoir in my obsidian farm empties and the water level drops.

[SquidgyB]

towercaps grow in the plumbing.

Tower caps won't grow on roads. You can (h)ide the roads afterwards if you want to see the flow levels.

Hmm... better ask this before I tap my underground river and it's too late...

Smoothing also prevents tower caps, right?  I've smoothed all the pipes for my upcoming waterworks, but I don't have actual roads down.  Should I go dismantle all my floodgates and lay down roads through all my channels to prevent tower cap blockages?

I don't believe smoothed flooring will do the job, though it usually cleans up mud IIRC. Personally, I like having TCs grow in the plumbing; means extra TC farming space, after all. I'd already planned to put cage traps in the plumbing for catching foo-men, cave crocs, and whatever other animals invaded my plumbing, so being able to clean up tower caps is a handy bonus.

Hold on, plumbing can be blocked by tower caps growing??!?!

Yeah. Tower caps can and will grow in any subterranean mud, including plumbing. They'll grow up as saplings and only jump immediately to full-grown tree when their space is emptied, such as when the water reservoir in my obsidian farm empties and the water level drops.

e: Oops... managed to write what I wanted into the quote there

I always dig my aqueducts using either ramps or channels for a 2 z-level tunnel for precisely this reason

[Urist McOverlord]

But only if you have discovered an underground water source. Otherwise, you won't get them. Ever.

[smjjames]

Had a big one just now, I forgot to bring ANY drinks at all, and I'm in a desert. Gah. I realized it when one of my dwarves started flashing the blue arrow. I can salvage the situation by regenning this world.

Edit: Or I could have just slapped on no_drink until I had booze, but meh.

[warlordzephyr]

Had a big one just now, I forgot to bring ANY drinks at all, and I'm in a desert. Gah. I realized it when one of my dwarves started flashing the blue arrow. I can salvage the situation by regenning this world.

Edit: Or I could have just slapped on no_drink until I had booze, but meh.

See the "what is cheating?" thread

[Mythos]

I just had one. I spent a bunch of time making a magma execution chamber, complete with a long hallway leading up to it, all smoothed and engraved by my legendary engravers. It had four bauxite masterwork statues in the four corners. It was magnificent... oh, then when I activated it I realized I had no way to close the magma access from the outside. Well, that was a waste of time... now it's just a sealed room filled with magma.

[immibis]

I just had one. I spent a bunch of time making a magma execution chamber, complete with a long hallway leading up to it, all smoothed and engraved by my legendary engravers. It had four bauxite masterwork statues in the four corners. It was magnificent... oh, then when I activated it I realized I had no way to close the magma access from the outside. Well, that was a waste of time... now it's just a sealed room filled with magma.

Pump the magma out from before the floodgate, wait until the magma level is 1/7, wait until it evaporates, then link the floodgate to a lever outside, pull the lever, remove the pump. Preferably with an obsidian wall between the pump and the magma source blocking the inflow of magma.

[smjjames]

Had a big one just now, I forgot to bring ANY drinks at all, and I'm in a desert. Gah. I realized it when one of my dwarves started flashing the blue arrow. I can salvage the situation by regenning this world.

Edit: Or I could have just slapped on no_drink until I had booze, but meh.

See the "what is cheating?" thread

I said meh because I had deleted the file that had the botched up embark.

[Alkyon]

I create an anti-goblin device involving a massive magma cistern over my entrance.  The path goes over Iron grates surrounded by Coke roads and drains into the pit that an underground river drains off into.  I see a trade caravan being followed by goblins, so I get ready to test it...and set the damned thing just a bit off too early.

Results: 
-Caravan go boom! (was full of booze I ordered)
-Goblins and caravan are burned away, so leaving only valuable meltable items behind.  (This was before I learned about mass-melt/mass-dump)
-I learned that constructions made of coal can be made to ignite, creating awesome smoking, burning constructions.
-I also learned that magma does not travel horizontally very quickly, and my rather long drainage tunnel quickly backs up, flooding the entrance to my fortress with magma.

Results 1 and 4 were the facepalms.
Result 2 was the nifty result I was going for.
Results 1 and 3 where awesome.  Result 3 was so awesome that I have created several fortresses in an effort to recreate that result, and I'm still trying to figure it out.  I know it can be done, but not how.  My current hypothesis is that while constructions are temperature proof, they are not fireproof.  Therefore, while you can use coal/charcoal/coke to store magma, if you use magma to set a flammable object (shirt, boot, elf) on fire while it's on a coal floor tile, the fire will spread.

[Shade-o]

Hmm, no fortress or royal guards. Well, better fix that...

Not two seconds later:

Kel Etostamost, Guard has suffocated.

[vyznev]

My current hypothesis is that while constructions are temperature proof, they are not fireproof.  Therefore, while you can use coal/charcoal/coke to store magma, if you use magma to set a flammable object (shirt, boot, elf) on fire while it's on a coal floor tile, the fire will spread.

I suspect that's indeed the case.  I've built magma pumps with wooden pipe sections and corkscrews and had them last for years with no apparent degradation, but in one fortress I had a dwarf die of thirst while operating the pump (a face palm moment in itself).  Some time later, the pile of clothes left on the pump tile apparently caught fire and burned down the pump as well.