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40d:Magma-safe
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Magma-safe materials consist of pig iron, iron, steel, nickel, nickel silver, platinum, bauxite, (raw) adamantine, and fire imp bones & leather. It can be difficult to control magma flow with floodgates since mechanisms must be made out of rocks, almost none of which are magma-safe (bauxite and raw adamantine being the sole exceptions).
Strictly speaking, only a material which is solid and stable at the temperature 12000 °U (i.e. MELTING_POINT/BOILING_POINT/IGNITE_POINT/HEATDAM_POINT greater than 12000 and COLDDAM_POINT less than 12000) is supposed to be considered magma-safe.
Note that although the above metals are all magma-safe, their ores (excluding raw adamantine) are not - thus, while a platinum floodgate will operate properly in magma, native platinum mechanisms will melt after several seconds.
In order to construct mechanisms from bauxite, simply ensure that they are the closest available stone to your mechanic, ideally by placing a bauxite-only stockpile around your mechanic's workshop. To use raw adamantine, however, you must allow its use for non-economic purposes in the stock screen (z and select 'stone') - while doing this, you might want to suspend any other stone-using jobs.
When linking a trigger to an object, the first mechanism selected is attached to the object, and the second is attached to the trigger. Unless the trigger itself will be submerged in magma (as could be the case with a pressure plate), only the first mechanism (attached to the object that will be submerged) need be made of bauxite. If you do not have any bauxite or adamantine available, you can also work around floodgate based flow control by using screw pumps to pump the magma over wall-barriers, or using water to form obsidian to plug flows and channel through them to reopen them (necessity and invention and all that).
Constructions that resist magma are:
- Constructions (Wall, Floor, Ramp, and Stairs) of any material can never melt or burn - there is nothing wrong with a wooden magma reservoir. Natural (but not constructed) ice walls/floors/ramps/stairs may melt however.
- Fortifications will allow the passage of magma, but once the level rises to 7/7 they will also allow the passage of large creatures. Additionally, flowing magma can potentially push large creatures through non-filled fortifications, as well as vertical bars and wall grates. Pumps are a positive defense, but can change the dynamics of fluid pressure.
- If not submerged (that is, not opened to let magma flow over/past/around them), doors, floodgates, and raised bridges (provided that there is no magma on the space the bridge would occupy when lowered) of non-magma-safe stone or metal are safe. So long as they are just in contact with magma, only acting as a passive "wall", they are fine. If opened, they will melt.
- Raised drawbridges have a notable exception, in that allowing magma to flow over the area that the bridge would normally occupy when lowered will cause the bridge's components to heat up and potentially melt.
- All parts of a pump, except for the passable tile, provided that none of the components are made of wood.
Glass
Glass behaves oddly in regards to magma. Glass is technically magma safe, based on its melting point of 13600 °U (the same as that of bauxite); however, while glass items used in buildings will survive indefinitely while submerged in magma, glass items dropped into magma will instantly vanish. Glass statues, screw pumps, and floodgates are all fine when submerged in magma. The results of experiments with glass and magma were posted on the forums.
Glass barriers still require magma-proof mechanisms to operate without deconstructing.
Game calculations
In the game, magma's temperature is exactly 12000 °U .
| Type | Material | Melting Point |
|---|---|---|
| Metal | Pig iron | 12106 °U |
| Metal | Nickel | 12619 °U |
| Metal | Nickel silver | 12619 °U |
| Metal | Steel | 12718 °U |
| Metal | Iron | 12768 °U |
| Metal | Platinum | 13182 °U |
| Metal | Adamantine | 25000 °U |
| Stone | Bauxite | 13600 °U |
| Stone | Raw adamantine | 25000 °U |
| Leather | Fire imp leather | 13500 °U |
| Bones | Fire imp bones | 13500 °U |
| Glass | Green glass | 13600 °U |
| Glass | Clear glass | 13600 °U |
| Glass | Crystal glass | 13600 °U |
| Ash | Ash | none |
| Ash | Potash | none |
| Ash | Pearlash | none |
Bugs
All magma-safety checks are broken in this version, repeatedly checking the IGNITE_POINT 5 times instead of checking each individual temperature (Bug:4573). In practice, this only affects the ability to select building components for various workshops and furnaces that are powered by magma.
The following patch for version 0.28.184.40d for Windows fixes both fire-safety and magma-safety checks:
| Binary Patch Enclosed | |
|---|---|
| 0x50549A : 62 DF -> 42 E0 0x5054A4 : C7 -> CF 0x5054A6 : 56 DF FD FF -> 8C 00 00 00 0x5054C2 : 3A DF -> 9A DD 0x5054D2 : 2A DF -> 7A DE 0x505536 = B8 10 F8 56 01 E9 50 E1 FD FF | |