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[recon1o6]

Dear Soldiers of the Small army, Fighters of the community fortress of Smallhands.

While we do prefer our armour to be over a certain quality, in light of the werepig ambush it has come to my attention that some of you are not wearing steel armour despite orders explicitly stating otherwise. These orders have never been changed since steel was produced in this fort.

Look at our latest death for reason why you should wear steel. The werepig couldn't bite through the steel helmet, but did get through the bronze greaves which were earmarked for disposal years ago for this very reason!

Recon

[Magmacube_tr]

Dear Deadseeking Migrants,

Before leaving your cozy mountainhome behind to go to a completely savage, completely uninhabited continent to join the one and only fortress right in the middle of it, maybe get some weapons with you. Now your mangled corpses are in a fortress' graveyard that you were suppose to live in, but never got to see inside of.

Signed, Magmacube

[Thisfox]

Dear Urist McDoctor
We miss you so much mate.
We really could have used you in the first year.
Somehow I think embarking with two doctors would have been a plan.
--The Dwarves of Katimush.
p.s. There are now a lot of aligator sandbags made in your honour. RIP.

[TheFlame52]

Dear Urist McDoctor
We miss you so much mate.
We really could have used you in the first year.
Somehow I think embarking with two doctors would have been a plan.
--The Dwarves of Katimush.
p.s. There are now a lot of aligator sandbags made in your honour. RIP.

It's rare to see a Dear Urist without the frustration.

[armads]

Dear Urist McLiason,

Why didn't you tell me that removing the [PET] tag from all the animals would cause no traders to appear? Why did you keep showing up demanding goods if you had no one to trade them? What, can't carry things yourself? Why did you keep asking what I wanted if you had no intention of bringing me goods?

//admittedly, this one is on me, but my attempt to make it so animals wouldn't become pets instead resulted in traders showing up alone with no caravans.

[Eric Blank]

Yup, if you can't tame an animal, you ccan't use it in any sense except as food and clothing, basically.

[locustgate]

Dear Urist,
Why did you go into the tunnel seconds after you just dug a channel between the pit of lava and the empty tunnel that leads to a magma forge?

[lucusLoC]

Dear Urist,
Why did you go into the tunnel seconds after you just dug a channel between the pit of lava and the empty tunnel that leads to a magma forge?

If the goal is to just power a magma forge you do not need any flow. Use a diagonal breach as it is the safest method. Make only one way into the magma chamber, dig and clear everything you need, then send one miner in to make a diagonal breach;

Code: [Select]

OOOOOO
OOOOMM
OOOOMM
+++XOO
++++OO
++++OO

O = wall
M = magma
+ = floor of you new magma reservoir
X = final wall to dig to start filling reservoir

As long as the last dig is the only job in the chamber you miner will pop down, dig it, and then head off to the next job. The magma will slowly trickle into the chamber with no pressure, so he will have all the time in the world to walk away. It may take a little while for the chamber to fill up enough to power a forge, but you really cannot beat the method in terms of safety.

Now, if you are planning on using the magma for anything else, like pumping, obsidian production or magma falls, this method is not good. Zero pressure means close to zero flow, and that means a very slow fill. But since forges not not actually consume magma this is not a concern.

[Thisfox]

I don't open the magma floodgates until the area is locked down. To get lava into the floodgates, if it's volcanic, they just need to dig a single tile pit at the mouth of the volcano, and there's no way out but up, so they dig it and leave. My reservoir fills, and I can drain it at need through the floodgates, after locking a lot of doors.

[Eric Blank]

Sometimes the idiots will just stand there, so to decrease that probability I designate a few other tiles to dig right before they finish digging the magma channel. They will usually immediately go to dig one of those other tiles instead of standing in the magma channel. Once they're safe you can cancel the other designation if it's not something you actually wanted to dig.

[Thisfox]

Foolish bastards!

Spoiler: Here's my dorfproof volcano lava collection: (click to show/hide)

7 = surface of the lava
O = rough digging (or alternatively a constructed floor if the volcano was a high one and needed to be built up to be accessed).
H = the one place that needs to be channelled out by the miner.
F = channel covered with floor tiles, totally inaccessible but safe to walk over.
D = floor over where the channel goes down a staircase to another level, and fills a molten rock cistern, and is held in place by a prebuilt closed magma-safe floodgate with a magma-safe mechanism, ready for someone to pull the lever if all goes well.

Code: [Select]

7OOOOOOOOO
77OOOOODOO
777OOOOFOO
777OOOOFOO
777HFFFFOO
777OOOOOOO
When all is ready, and floored, and totally cut off, a miner is set to h-channel the single connecting H (from above, as she can't get into the channel to do it from the level of the lava). This single hole dig will let the magma flow through to the covered channel. She can decide to dive into the volcano or flowing lava, I guess, but I've never had it happen, and the rest of the channel is covered with flooring, and blocked at the other end with a floodgate, so there's no path. She can leave in any direction, job done, as a floor prevents her from getting in the channel, lava or not.

[lucusLoC]

Foolish bastards!

Spoiler: Here's my dorfproof volcano lava collection: (click to show/hide)

7 = surface of the lava
O = rough digging (or alternatively a constructed floor if the volcano was a high one and needed to be built up to be accessed).
H = the one place that needs to be channelled out by the miner.
F = channel covered with floor tiles, totally inaccessible but safe to walk over.
D = floor over where the channel goes down a staircase to another level, and fills a molten rock cistern, and is held in place by a prebuilt closed magma-safe floodgate with a magma-safe mechanism, ready for someone to pull the lever if all goes well.

Code: [Select]

7OOOOOOOOO
77OOOOODOO
777OOOOFOO
777OOOOFOO
777HFFFFOO
777OOOOOOO
When all is ready, and floored, and totally cut off, a miner is set to h-channel the single connecting H (from above, as she can't get into the channel to do it from the level of the lava). This single hole dig will let the magma flow through to the covered channel. She can decide to dive into the volcano or flowing lava, I guess, but I've never had it happen, and the rest of the channel is covered with flooring, and blocked at the other end with a floodgate, so there's no path. She can leave in any direction, job done, as a floor prevents her from getting in the channel, lava or not.

The problem with any of the channeling methods is a channels leaves a ramp behind. This ramp can be used by a dorf to access the other side, by first going down and then back up. If the dorf decides there is a job to do on the other side they can and will use the ramp path in the moment before magma flows into the space. This can obviously end in !!Fun!! for the dorf in question.

The diagonal breach method does not grant any pathing opportunity in the breached square, and even if a stone is produced and the miner decides to pick up that stone for a job the minder usually has the time to grab the stone before the first bit of magma enters the square. In the event there is no stone (which is most of the time) the miner will always choose a path away from the dead-end corner, back towards other jobs.

Now you can get similar pathing setups with a channel by, say, making sure the channel is against a wall, but this takes more setup than a simple diagonal breach, and still means a dorf could decide to grab any produced stone in the channel (and since it is a direct flow instead of a diagonal one the dorf will not have enough time to grab the stone before magma enters the tile).

I think the only way the diagonal breach could be deadly is if you do not have any beds and the miner decides to just sleep there after the digging job is done. So while you can take steps to make a channel breach safe (e.g. turn off all stone related jobs for the miner doing the breach), there is far less management involved in a diagonal breach. Like I said before, the only reason I would ever not use a diagonal breach was if I needed good magma flow, as they are about the slowest way to release magma we have.

[DwarfUli]

Dear Urist,

1) For the love of god, stop fishing and build the fishery already
2) When sent to pull a lever, please don't run up to it, lay down and take a nap next to it first, before pulling it
3) Please place all seeds in bags! Whats with all the seeds everywhere!!

Kind Regards,
Uli
 

[muldrake]

Foolish bastards!

My foolproof method (well not really mine I read it elsewhere):

Magma channel level.

XXXXXXXXXXM
CCCCCCCCBXM
XXXXXXXXXXM

X=Walls
M=Magma
C=Channel
B=Bridge

On the top level, I have the channel and at the square right before where I intend to breach, I build a bridge after channeling down.  I prefer to use non-magma-safe material for this.  Then I wall off the channel level so nobody can get in.

The breach level.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
UCCCCCCCCCCCRX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

U, Upward staircase
R, Ramp

This is in the z-layer directly below the magma channel.  If you don't like a leftover ramp, I think you can deconstruct the ramp originally present and construct a new one out of non-magma-safe material.  It doesn't matter what direction the hallway comes in so long as the ramp is directly below the bridge.

Now double check and make sure the magma channel is inaccessible.  And designate the X directly to the right of the bridge on the channel level.  Watch as the dwarf goes down to the corridor under the magma channel, stands on the ramp, and digs upward diagonally into where you want to breach.

When he's out, build a floor on the stairwell to keep anyone from going in there.

The channel will fill up, the bridge will melt, and you're done.

If you're really concerned with safety you can build out of magma-safe material but I don't like having the ramp and bridge around.  The dwarf will have plenty of time to get out, though, unless that "idiot dwarf decides to fall asleep" thing happens, so make sure you have enough beds.  Always make sure of that.

[Magmacube_tr]

Dear Hauler Urists;

There are plenty of empty barrels lying around in the furniture stockpiles. Please don't just take the food and drop it on the food stockpile, and instead go take a barrel.

Signed,

Magmacube, your lord and god.