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Author Topic: Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?  (Read 1138 times)

Fayrik

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Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?
« on: January 10, 2011, 08:32:33 pm »

Okay, starting with a bit of a weird question.
Does anyone know if things like windows are see through in adventurer mode?
Yes, that's right. A question about adventurer mode here.
I'm currently building a fortress, that I absolutely love.
It's a small cavern-based city right now. In possibly the most peaceful area I've ever seen. There are no wild animals what so ever. The only things we run into in this Fortress is the odd forgotten beast...And, goblin invasions.
To remedy this I built a Goblin shooting range. (I mean, what good is an archery range? True marksdwarves hit moving targets.)
So, as the fort progressed, I cleared the range out, and now have an idea for it. I want to make it into a magmaquarium. I've got a drop design going for it, so I can uncage goblins, or lure forgotten beasts in... But with a magma pump ready to fill the range up, I've had to remove the fortificaitons for obvious reasons. I was considering filling the rest of the ceiling with either grates or bars, so that I could visit the fortress as an adventurer, and stand above the magma pit, and watch it fill up. However, ideally, I'd like to put glass windows in as a flooring... Is this actually possible? Are there any good or spesifically bad ways to make an "invisible" floor?
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So THIS is how migrations start.
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Sphalerite

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Re: Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2011, 08:38:35 pm »

Windows are see-through horizontally, but I don't think you can build them on open space.  If you need a floor under the window, that will bock vertical line-of-sight.

I think floor grates can be seen through.  A floor made of glass blocks is *not* see-though, nor is a glass block wall.
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NecroRebel

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Re: Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2011, 08:49:42 pm »

There's a minor exploit with 40d that allows you to build things like windows over open space. It may still work with 31.x.

Channel out or otherwise remove the floors in the squares you want your "hovering" buildings to be on. On the z-level below, construct walls. Build your "hovering" buildings on the tops of the walls. Remove the constructed walls. Since the tops of the walls vanished with the walls themselves, the buildings that were once on top of them are now over open space.

Now, you may also be able to make see-through "floors" by building windows on every tile of the z-level below the bottom of the magmarium itself, then removing the real floors of that structure. Since magma can't go into the same tile as a window, it might not fall into the lower, many-windows level of the structure. This will of course block passage through that lower level, but you would be able to see through it. I know that this latter trick works with raised drawbridges, floodgates, and doors, and I think that it will probably work with windows, too, but I've not played with windows much, so I'm not sure.



Note that for the first trick the windows probably fall out if they aren't supported, so you probably wouldn't be able to pull the same trick with the bottom level to allow yourself to go underneath the magmarium 2 levels below the magma itself.
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_DivideByZero_

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Re: Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2011, 08:55:24 pm »

I had a floating cage over a volcano once. Constructions are definitely not affected by gravity. Just build the windows over a constructed wall below, and deconstruct the walls afterwards.
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Fayrik

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Re: Glass, Windows, Grates, Bars.. And See-through options?
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2011, 09:41:51 pm »

Alright.. I think I might just give Floor Grates a go, since I need quite a lot of them, and I don't feel like mass producing the glass to then have to put floor grates ontop of them aswell.
However, I think I'm going to make that previously menitoned dump-door out of a combination of glass blocks and windows. Y'know, so I can watch what I'm lowering down from both the side and above! Bwahaha.

Also, I just thought I'd point out, I'm using NecroRebel's magmapump for this. The drainage is a little tougher, but I think the pumpstack is ready to go.
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So THIS is how migrations start.
"Hey, dude, there's this crazy bastard digging in the ground for stuff. Let's go watch."