Hi

I've been playing more DF and I have a theory that I've not good enough to test. So I thought I'd ask here :)

The theory is in regards to completely mining out Adamantine after the HFS.

I have two similar thoughts.

1. Using the Magma Piston would it be possible to drop 1x1 'pillars' right next to a Adamantine squares until the entire vein on the current z-level is surrounded? The 2 high pillar would be to allow a ramp on the top and have the magma flow to the side into a prepared area.

2. Create a giant square that is several z-levels high (equal to the depth of adamantine) to drop down and fence of the entire vein and pump out the magma.

3. Just thought of now: use lots of pumps to keep the magma sea back?

I recall that dropping pillars into the magma sea for a piston doesn't work as has infinite depth or somesuch though once the HFS is done then you can move down through it and it appears to have limits.

Any thoughts?

Karl

You'll have much better luck posting this on the DF forums.

I've always found DF very cool, but I never liked that you have all that huge world and you're stuck with only 1 fortress..

Yeah, I know. I just thought I'd try on the only gaming forum I'm currently registered on :) I have enough trouble with the small part that I can affect :p

Karl

Sounds like a good plan. I was thinking just a large room with bridges to seal it, and a room sized Dwarven Atom Smasher. But it always seems too cheap.

Karl

Don't forget the upright spikes down there. Arrow slits for target practice wouldn't go as well with the rushing water.
Also don't forget an evacuation for the water (although the evacuations for my own water labyrinth tended to get clogged by goblin corpses until I used metal grids as floor drains)

You can even automate it by setting up a floor trigger to activate when something the size of a goblin walks on it. Lever activation is always tricky in DF.
Sure, I can see many dwarf-children corpses in that trap after a few years, but... You're losing some sweet goblinite if you atom smash them, though.
And yeah, it feels a little cheap to atom smash them when there are sooo many cruel and unusual ways to kill your enemies. ^^

Goblin corpses can clog it? Then yeah, I'll try using metal grids as a floor, with fortifications under them to drain the water. I would like to have arrow slits for target practice down there though for whatever manages to survive the fall, but I'll make sure that the pit keeps going deep enough under the metal grids so that the water can't reach it. Dang, I love how you can build just about anything you can think of in this game!

Actually the last couple updates have been working to address this issue. The liaison now brings news of what is going on in the world to some extent, fortress raising and falling, things like that. Fortresses can now build taverns to attract wandering adventurers and bands of musicians who might even chose to settle in your area. Also, you can build a fortress, retire it to auto-run, go exploring around the same world in Adventurer mode, retire your adventurer, then build a new fortress or resume control of the old one, all within the same world. Like everything DF, it's a work in progress, but it is getting more connected and alive as it goes. Oh man, I really want to use that set up, but instead stockpile excess barrels of booze on trapdoors. Army comes on the bridge, trapdoors unleash rain of booze barrels, army drenched in booze or knocked off bridge from crashing barrels. In the bottom of the trench, a couple of captured fire imps. FWOOM! Flaming booze soaked enemies. Crushed, fall to their deaths, and/or incinerated. Of course, probably not as effective as a flooding tidal wave, but it could be hilarious.

Wow, does that actually work in the game? Booze soaked + flame? I've had my fair share of injuries inflicted by stuff falling on heads though, even if only were with my own dwarves. Removing roofs is hazardous :P

Great to know!

Btw, I've always wanted something like this:
1- build first fortress.
2- reach requirements to auto-sustain.
3- set fortress to auto-run and send "settlers" to another region.
4- focus on new fortress until you reach again the auto-sustain.
5- swap to any "automatic" fortress or send "settlers" again.
6- repeat until you conquer the world :P

Maybe you could also build smaller camps\forts instead, so the expansion would be faster and less repetitive.
Also, you could set reinforcements rate, attack expeditions, trade, etc..
If only!

I know alcohols boil, "The goblin is caught in a burst of boiling dwarven ale!" but I am unsure if it deals significant damage. I would assume so. Even if the booze does not, then I hope the boiling at least ignites their clothes starting a fire which does. It's worth a shot at least.

They can jam the floodgates I used to control the draining system (my setup was a drowning labyrinth : Have the gobs run in a trapped maze, then, when one of them reaches the other end, empty a cistern into the maze and drown them all. Then open the floodgates to drain the maze, and wait for the next batch of goblins.
Problem is when a goblin sword is jamming the draining system open in a place that my engieneering teams can't reach, thus preventing the "drowning" part (the water went directly from the cistern to the drain) and allowing a few trolls to bash the last door and enter into my craftsmen's hall. Sooooo much blood... Don't know if that would work, but it has the potential to end up horrendously wrong. So very dwarven. You have to do it. For !!science!!

Ah I see, yeah that's annoying. It's why I always patiently wait for my dwarves to clear an underground aqueduct of all stones before letting any water come through. Damn stones get washed down and jam my floodgates I use to control the water flow into my underground reservoir.

Perhaps if you put fortifications in front of the draining gates to catch 'debris'?