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Author Topic: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network  (Read 46406 times)

Terisuke

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Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« on: July 15, 2010, 07:06:43 pm »

Autumn has arrived on the calendar.  The troops of gorillas meander through the countryside. 

Goblins march towards a small, squat construction, trailing the last of the fleeing dwarves as they fly towards shelter. 

A cascade of magma appears from the sky, scorching the flesh from their bones.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

COMPLETE: Building volcano tap.
COMPLETE: Build initial reservoir.
ACTIVE: Build A-ring reservoirs. (5/6)
ACTIVE: Build A-ring pumping stations / lever functionality. (5/6)
ACTIVE: Build A-ring pipes. (5/5)
ACTIVE: ENABLE A-RING. (5/6)
ACTIVE: Build B-ring reservoirs. (3/13)
ACTIVE: Build B-ring pumping stations / lever functionality. (3/13)
ACTIVE: Build B-ring pipes. (6/11)
ACTIVE: ENABLE B-RING. (3/11)
PENDING: Build C-ring reservoirs.
PENDING: Build C-ring pumping stations / lever functionality.
PENDING: Build C-ring pipes.
PENDING: ENABLE C-RING.

July 27 - I'm putting the magma network on hold while I throw together a complementary water network to supply my reservoirs for the cave-in gun.  I'm going to do this a bit differently than the magma networks - because water has a faster flow rate, and because of the intricacies of building a "non-stick" dispenser for the water (i.e., one that won't support the obsidian as it forms, blocking the pipe) I'm going to be using a very large reservoir in the center of the hex with small feeder tubes going to each of the magma reservoirs.  The end of the tubes will look as follows:


X|~|
X|~|
X|~|
 |~|
  ~|
 ---


Where the X is the existing magma reservoir, the | denotes the sides of the tube.  I'm hoping the downward tubing gives the water a bit of horizontal momentum when it exits through the opening.  Regardless, it will impact the side of the magma flow and form obsidian.  To prevent aggregations of formed obsidian on the end of the pipe, I'm considering composing it mostly of bridges.  The z-level of the pump opening will look as follows, tentatively. 


.....
XXXXX
.=~=.
.===.
.....


Equals signs denote bridges, three of them together.  All use the back wall as an anchor.  The sides of the tubes will open to the left and right as is appropriate, and will be closed during operation to form the side walls.  The middle bridge will extend from the back across the center of the tube and under the opening to form the bottom of the chute, and will remain open during operation.  As a general precaution, I'm going to make them all magma-safe, because that seems like just the sort of thing that might happen this close to a magma dispenser. 

It'll be a bit before I have it up and running - my water source is a brook on the edge of the map, and I"m only half done with the 46-pump stack needed to bring it up to the right z level.  The ducting is made easier by the ability to build over top of my existing magma network.  All water piping is done in stylish microcline. 

Hopefully sometime next week I'll have gotten things to the point where I can test out a single reservoir and work out the kinks in the system.  After that, I'll deploy it to hexes radiating out from the central hex, and will expand the network as it seems appropriate. 


July 23

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

July 18
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

July 17
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

July 16.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

« Last Edit: July 27, 2010, 09:58:05 pm by Terisuke »
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existent

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2010, 07:11:37 pm »

Could you elaborate on what you're doing? It sounds awesome but I don't understand it at all.
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Terisuke

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2010, 07:15:49 pm »

Could you elaborate on what you're doing? It sounds awesome but I don't understand it at all.
A network of canals and reservoirs suspended some 40z above the main surface, filled with magma, equipped to be unfilled onto things directly below them.
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existent

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2010, 07:21:53 pm »

A network of canals and reservoirs suspended some 40z above the main surface, filled with magma, equipped to be unfilled onto things directly below them.

This is what I thought. Sounds MAGMARIFIC. Do you plan on having many openings for dumping, or just one big one? What I'm thinking is, an orbital defense network would be more precise, so instead of just flooding the map with magma, you should have a bunch of 3x3 openings attached to levers (or pressure plates...?) so that the lava only falls where needed. Pull ALL the levers, and it's hell-on-earth.
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Helmaroc

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #4 on: July 15, 2010, 07:23:26 pm »

Awesome. So you'll be able to drop magma from the sky on sieges - before they even reach your fort entrances?
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Terisuke

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2010, 07:26:22 pm »

A network of canals and reservoirs suspended some 40z above the main surface, filled with magma, equipped to be unfilled onto things directly below them.

This is what I thought. Sounds MAGMARIFIC. Do you plan on having many openings for dumping, or just one big one? What I'm thinking is, an orbital defense network would be more precise, so instead of just flooding the map with magma, you should have a bunch of 3x3 openings attached to levers (or pressure plates...?) so that the lava only falls where needed. Pull ALL the levers, and it's hell-on-earth.
You see the map in the spoiler, with all the hexagonal constructions?  I'm planning a reservoir at each intersection.  Each will be filled with 4^3 units of 7/7 magma, sufficient to spread over a 21-square area around the drop point. 

@helmaroc - that, or catch them in a fire on the side.  My entrance is on a z-level of its own, so the fires won't touch me. 
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Urist Imiknorris

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2010, 07:31:00 pm »

I love this. Project DOMAIN will be remembered for all time. I'll make sure of it.
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FreakyCheeseMan

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2010, 07:35:24 pm »

Make it one better... include mixing points for water, so you can choose to rain obsidian on them instead.
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Terisuke

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2010, 07:53:51 pm »

Make it one better... include mixing points for water, so you can choose to rain obsidian on them instead.
The pumpstack up from the brook would be a pain.  It's pretty high up there.  However, having my own cave-in gun mounted in the sky does sound kinda fun.  KE projectiles for all! 

Who says DF doesn't have magic - my dwarves will cast METEOR.  Bwahaha.
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Retro

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2010, 08:31:01 pm »

This idea has been thrown around a few times before, but I'm quite happy (and impressed) to see someone actually trying it out! To minimize magma loss upon droppage (since you don't really need to drop that much to burninate stuff) you may want to have a second bridge 1z below the first that catches the magma moments after the first opens, so a bit of magma drops but not unnecessary amounts.

Terisuke

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2010, 08:42:33 pm »

This idea has been thrown around a few times before, but I'm quite happy (and impressed) to see someone actually trying it out! To minimize magma loss upon droppage (since you don't really need to drop that much to burninate stuff) you may want to have a second bridge 1z below the first that catches the magma moments after the first opens, so a bit of magma drops but not unnecessary amounts.

Well, here's my take on that.  Right now I'm doing hexagons of 50 tiles in diameter at the longest transect.  With that spacing, and assuming magma will spread to cover a roughly circular patch at 1/7 depth, 4x4x4 reservoirs will give me complete coverage of the area.  Resulting fires are going to be a plus when the system is young, but I want to plan for the eventual future where magma drops have coated the landscape with obsidian and pain, leaving nothing much to burn.  In that event, I want to be able to deliver death to any square on the map.  Your idea is useful, however, in giving my reservoirs a "second shot" of sorts.  If I instead build them to be twice as tall with a bridge in the middle, it can act as two 4x4x4 reservoirs if I keep the internal bridge closed after a drop.  Migrating the magma to the lower chamber "reloads" the station, and opens the top for filling.  I might just implement that, especially on the outer stations that will take longer to reload.
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Urist Imiknorris

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2010, 09:04:20 pm »

In order to fill the landscape with obsidian, you'd need to obsidianize the entire map.
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Quote from: Jim Groovester
YOU CANT NOT HAVE SUSPECTS IN A GAME OF MAFIA

ITS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE GAME
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If Tiruin redirected the lynch, then this means that, and... the Illuminati! Of course!

nbonaparte

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2010, 09:07:42 pm »

In order to fill the landscape with obsidian, you'd need to obsidianize the entire map.
Note: This is to be taken as a challenge.
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BackgroundGuy

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2010, 09:37:34 pm »

This seems pretty cool.  However, as magma doesn't fall instantly, isn't it possible that the goblins would move out of the area of effect by the time it hits the ground?  If you built the system on Z-20 or Z-30, then you could also use the extra 10-20Z of magma in the pipe to fill the reservoirs initially.  And a pump at the top could potentially pressurize the magma to Z-40...
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Terisuke

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Re: Megaproject (31.10): Orbital Defense Network
« Reply #14 on: July 15, 2010, 10:10:38 pm »

This seems pretty cool.  However, as magma doesn't fall instantly, isn't it possible that the goblins would move out of the area of effect by the time it hits the ground?  If you built the system on Z-20 or Z-30, then you could also use the extra 10-20Z of magma in the pipe to fill the reservoirs initially.  And a pump at the top could potentially pressurize the magma to Z-40...
To avoid aiming problems, I've been marking the centrepoint of each reservoir with an installed chain, to which I eventually plan to attach animals.  Goblins linger at kill sites for a few steps, so keeping them still won't be a problem.  I prefer to execute traps by lever - during a siege, my lever room is designated as a statue garden, which ensures a nearby supply of lever pulling dorfs, ergo consistent timing for trap setoff.  I've gotten pretty good at it, although mostly just with cavein traps. 
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