40d Talk:Stupid dwarf trick

Magma pumping

Thanks for the update Cizra, I've modified it to be more encyclopedic. :) I think more research/verification of which parts of pumps need to be magma-proof is warranted. --Raumkraut 17:23, 2 August 2008 (EDT)

Obsidian Factory

Any ideas on how I would get started with this? I actually have a magma pipe near some natural lakes. Do I have the makings of an Obsidian Factory? -- Ehertlein 10:59, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

So you have an unlimited supply of magma. Is your water supply also unlimited? If not, you may want to save some for other things. But yes, that's really all you need, water and magma. It also helps to have bauxite and steel. You have two options: bring the magma to the water (via floodgates or pumps) or to bring the water to the magma (by pumps or floodgates or even buckets -which may be recommended it you have a less plentiful supply of water, as even one bucket of water will turn a square of magma into obsidian). Just be careful not to flood your fortress with anything or leave magma lying around where dwarves will foolishly walk on it and catch on fire before fleeing to their bed in the barracks to "recover". Other safety tips from my experiments with obsidian farming: Magma flows up in magma pipes up to the top of the pipe, so watch out if you're filling in, then mining out the pipe. If you are trying to drop water from a bucket onto magma, it needs to be at least two z-levels above, not just one; this is just the way it works. Good luck. Soon your giant tower made of obsidian blocks will rise majestically into the sky, I'm sure. --Zombiejustice 11:48, 20 August 2008 (EDT)

You don't actually need any bauxite or adamantine to start an obsidian factory. What I did was: build a pump on top of the magmapimp to take magme out of the pipe and pump it into the wall. In this wall create a tunnel to an underground area that is at least 2z levels high. (Use channel to channel through one floor. Ideally the bottom of this area should be one z-level above your sourced water (a brook in my case). The pump only needs the screw and the pipes of iron or steel, everything else can be stone. Don't make the magma tunnel too long since magma will be very slow. Create one or more windmills (depending on wind strength) above and connect one axle to a switch far a way (preferable in your fort), turn the axle of and connect the windmill(s) with the pump. Shield the pump with walls, so the magma will only run into the tunnel and nothing else aruond. Build a pump on the water source, create a channel for the water into the underground area, connect the pump with a waterwheel (but also turned of yet by a lever). Make a water exit with a floodgate, so the water can run back into the river if you open that, connect the floodgate also to a lever in your for (you should have 3 levels in your fort). Shield the whole area from dwarven acess by walls/moats/doors so once you got it ready and every dwarf is outside you can lock it. So no dwarf runs there to drink (like mine did) and catch fire. Pull the water pump level, fill the area with water. Turn the pump of. Pull the magma pump level, let some magma drop down into that area, as the first tiles will transform to obsidian, having a 2 level space will allow the magma to travel over it to more water further away. Never have too much magma, or you could end up with a permanent magma pool on top of the obsidian, you don't want that. So turn the magma pump soon enough off (get some experience, how much magma you can take in one shot)... wait until there are only 1/7 magma tiles left, wait further until everything is cooled down. Push the 3rd level attached to the floodgate to remove access water (there is likely some resevoir on the far end from the pipe left), wait for the water to be gone. Now you can open acess to dwarves, you might wand to channel some obsidian blocks to free some locked water. Or you just can let some of it it be trapped to be reused for the next go. Mine all obsdian. Rinse and repeat. However I found once I started to mine around to create my obsidian factory, I found so much obsidian in that area, I question how useful the whole construction is after all. --Catpaw 10:06, 22 September 2008 (EDT)

One advantage to molding a building as opposed to building it from the ground up is that as it's technically considered earth, you can smooth and engrave the rock, before building even more valuable floors on top of it; the obsidian produced from the mining will still be useful for making swords/doors/other valuable items.

"I dinna say we wurren't crazy!"

Instead of digging channels, dig fields of ramps. Its safe to dig an entire flat field of ramps at once, and very quick to remove the ramps(with 'd' 'z') after. Do that for a few layers and you'll end up with a pit containing untold rocks stacked on top of each other. Put a mason shop down there and a legendary mason'll make blocks faster than you'll believe. --Corona688 19:09, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

It's a Trap

Who honestly considers this Stupid Dwarf Trick worthy? After I alphabetized it in properly I noticed that it really seems to not fit with the concept of a Stupid Dwarf Trick. Okay, so you get a little excessive building traps on Every single tile? It's not useless, and it's not exceedingly hard. So what makes it stupid? Shardok 23:09, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm sad you think that this idea is something easy to do that is reasonable and provides more utility than an alternative (such as posting guards or only trapping the entrance to your fortress). Taking the time and effort to build hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mechanisms and trap components, followed by designating each tile of your local map as a trap, and waiting for your dwarves to get up, go outside, and build them seems like more work than you are giving it credit for.

But whatever. Remove it if you want. 68.102.237.253 02:32, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

HIgh usefulness useless?

"A stupid dwarf trick is any project that requires a large amount time and effort, for little or no practical benefit. They exist only as a challenge for experienced players."

By this definition, surely anything with "High" usefulness doesn't belong here?--198.54.202.154 08:39, 13 February 2010 (UTC)