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Author Topic: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?  (Read 1853 times)

Vehudur

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How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« on: January 15, 2012, 02:08:46 pm »

I am currently casting a very large fortress out of nothing but solid obsidian.  It's not evenly shaped - it's got ridges and corners and spines and ominous spikes just like you'd expect a real fortress to have.

I keep getting "voids" where water or magma isn't turned into obsidian.  There should be nothing above these voids.

I'm alternating layers - first I poured magma (magma first to fill some murky pools) and then water and left enough depth so that I could just pour magma on top of that.   I think this is normal, but I'm not sure what the problem is.  The mould is smooth all the way up on the outside.

Also, curves are annoying.

On a related note, here's the area in front of the (natural stone) front gate:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2012, 02:14:57 pm by Vehudur »
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Oliolli

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2012, 02:44:34 pm »

Oh god, BADGERMEN!
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NecroRebel

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2012, 02:49:16 pm »

These things seem to happen randomly, but usually when you put magma on top of water. It's like the water disappears but no obsidian forms. My own recent cast-obsidian tower fort had several of these happen... I usually "dealt" with them one of two ways. If they were where I was going to want a wall tile, I savescummed back to before that level's pump was put in place and just recast the level. Voids usually didn't appear more than once per four or five levels, so this wasn't a problem. If it was where I didn't want a wall, I'd just leave it and let the trapped magma spread out and evaporate once I actually got to digging that part.
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A Better Magma Pump Stack: For all your high-FPS surface-level magma installation needs!

Loud Whispers

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2012, 03:08:48 pm »

The amount of water and magma have to be roughly equal, or you just get evaporation and no obsidian :|

Regardless, obsidian casting is difficult and you'll have to dig through it and refill these flaws

Vehudur

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2012, 03:11:30 pm »

Amusingly, I've had more problems building the scaffolding for the mould and infrastructure to cast the obsidian then I have had casting the obsidian.
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NecroRebel

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2012, 03:30:32 pm »

The amount of water and magma have to be roughly equal, or you just get evaporation and no obsidian :|
Note true at all. 1 unit of water falling on 2 units of magma will create an obsidian wall. 1 unit of water on 7 magma will, too. You can make obsidian with magma and buckets as long as the pond zone is at least 2 z-levels above the magma itself (otherwise the magma just vanishes and no water appears from that iteration of the fill pond job). 1 unit of magma falling on 7 of water should create obsidian, too. Basically, the combination of water and magma or lava, as long as there's at least 3 units total, creates an obsidian wall no matter the ratio beyond that.

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Regardless, obsidian casting is difficult and you'll have to dig through it and refill these flaws
Not really... Once you have a way to get water and magma to the casting site, it's probably faster, and significantly easier to designate, to cast obsidian than it is to construct structures. So it has a higher startup cost but a lower cost per unit. The tricky part is making the cast and scaffold, which is just a simple constructed structure.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2012, 03:48:29 pm »

The amount of water and magma have to be roughly equal, or you just get evaporation and no obsidian :|
Note true at all. 1 unit of water falling on 2 units of magma will create an obsidian wall. 1 unit of water on 7 magma will, too.

This is not the experience I had when trying to halt a magma flood :d

NecroRebel

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2012, 04:05:22 pm »

The amount of water and magma have to be roughly equal, or you just get evaporation and no obsidian :|
Note true at all. 1 unit of water falling on 2 units of magma will create an obsidian wall. 1 unit of water on 7 magma will, too.

This is not the experience I had when trying to halt a magma flood :d
Were you trying to do it with ponds and buckets? Because that's a somewhat special case; the water doesn't actually become water until it's fallen at least 1 z-level, so the pond zone has to be on the level above the level above the magma or higher. A bucket tossed out produces exactly 1 unit of water, though, and I routinely use buckets to obsidianize the upper levels of the magma sea around candy tubes so I can mine them safely. If 1 water contacting 7 magma didn't create obsidian, that tactic wouldn't work, but it does work, so clearly 1 water contacting 7 magma does create obsidian.
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Loud Whispers

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Re: How to get rid of obsidian casting imperfections?
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2012, 04:16:42 pm »

Were you trying to do it with ponds and buckets? Because that's a somewhat special case; the water doesn't actually become water until it's fallen at least 1 z-level, so the pond zone has to be on the level above the level above the magma or higher. A bucket tossed out produces exactly 1 unit of water, though, and I routinely use buckets to obsidianize the upper levels of the magma sea around candy tubes so I can mine them safely. If 1 water contacting 7 magma didn't create obsidian, that tactic wouldn't work, but it does work, so clearly 1 water contacting 7 magma does create obsidian.

Ah eeyup. Was a pond :C