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v0.34:Semi-molten rock
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 This article or section contains minor spoilers. You may want to avoid reading it.
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Semi-Molten Rock (SMR), represented by the tile ░, is generally found at the bottommost edges of Great magma seas. Anywhere that magma is found rests on layer after layer of semi-molten rock, with no normal material to be found beneath it. There is also a layer near the bottom of the map composed almost entirely of semi-molten rock even where magma does not overlie it. Freestanding formations are possible, though less common. Though its name suggests the rock is hot, it is not dangerous to nearby dwarves. SMR acts as a barrier, and cannot be mined through by conventional means, nor smoothed. Unlike magma, SMR does not react with water, producing no steam or obsidian.
The top of semi-molten rock, or its floor when observed from the layer above, is described as a magma flow, appearing in blue text when examined with the Look cursor and resembling a river of magma slowly flowing to the south (just like it did in older versions).
The floor of the stone layer above the SMR at the bottom of the map is not a magma flow when stone is dug into, but appears as the same type of rock as the tile dug into. However, if a channel is dug down into the SMR from this tile, a magma flow floor is revealed; under this intact floor the unusable ramp will appear, if and only if the tile of SMR was previously unrevealed. Otherwise it will be unchanged. (As a result no two of these ramps can adjoin) A magma flow also cannot be dug into, nor smoothed. However, constructions can be built on top of it, and these convert the magma flow into some other kind of stone or soil, which is sometimes useful sand or clay, appearing when the construction is removed.
Curiously, water dumped onto a magma flow with magma on top of it will not turn it into obsidian; rather the magma is simply removed. At the bottom of a magma reservoir with only small amounts of water falling in, such a tile can change from 7/7 to 0/7 and back in a few single step increments with the "." key. A construction (such as a stairway up) can be designated atop the magma flow when it is momentarily is free of magma due to water falling from above. Strangest of all, once designated, a dwarf can build this construction unhindered, without any job cancellations. Once the construction is present, magma and water can react in the square, destroying the construction and converting the square into unmined obsidian.
These odd exceptions to the normal rules means that dwarves on a level partially filled with water can (with much effort) completely wall off the region surrounding some special point of interest, eventually removing all the magma from a large area despite the failure of the usual magma-water interaction.
If the stone floor which replaces a magma ramp under a built and removed construction is channeled into a second time, the ramp below becomes visible from above. Unfortunately, for some reason dwarves still cannot descend into this square with the ramp, nor can they ascend out of it should they find themselves somehow there. A dwarf dumped into the space, say, by a remote controlled hatch "accident", cannot construct anything because the adjacent squares remain semi-molten rock, and won't turn to ramps if channelled from above. Therefore an up/down stairway cannot be constructed in this space, even if it is beneath another up/down stairway.
Semi-molten rock is not synonymous with warm stone, although any given tile of SMR may in fact be warm if it adjoins magma. If you're looking for magma and you find SMR rather than warm stone, your best bet is to do some exploratory mining several Z levels up.
You can also dig up into semi-molten rock just fine (by designating an up/down staircase accessible from below). This also works only if the tile is still unrevealed. But often (but not always) you can't get down there without encountering spoilers first.
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This article contains massive spoilers. If you do not wish to have your game experience spoiled, do not scroll down! |
Channelling down into unrevealed SMR may open it into an Eerie Glowing Pit.
Tunnelling down through multiple layers of Semi-molten rock
Magma flows have very peculiar behavior. If you build a construction such as a floor, wall or upstair on a magma flow and then remove it, it will change into it into a stone or soil cavern floor. If the layer beneath is still unrevealed, you can then channel this new cavern floor to dig down through one layer of SMR. Doing so creates an unusable ramp below, and recreates the magma flow again.
Before Version 0.42.06, digging through semi-molten rock was a complicated prodedure, that killed one dwarf per level. But in the current version it is very easy to dig into hell, by simpy designating a chute downwards.
1. Start on a level, above the lowest reachable level. If you dug a starirway, branch a corridor from it in a level above the lowest stairway. Let's say, SMR is at level 100, your deepest stairs are at level 99, you should start at level 98. If you start to deep (or the miner has the climbing skill) he will walk out the unusable ramp, and you can't procede, as the magma flow won't let him down again. The corridor should be at least 2 tiles long, so no discovered tiles are in the way. It is however better to make it longer, to design traps for the demons.
2. Now simply designate channels (d-h) down to the bottom of the site. The miner will actully dig the chute, thought the chute is blocked with magma flow tiles. The difference to older versions is, the the miner is placed below theese floors, and can simply dig into the unusable ramps with out complicated procedures to remove the ramps and the magma flow.
3. Now build a constructed stairway down the chute. This will remove the magma flow (and let the demons in).
4. Demons canÄt destroy forbidden hatch covers from below, so you should build one to seal it of. Preferable vefore finishing the stairway.
If the site has adamantine, the standard welcoming party will be spawned. They will not, however, attack your fortress with the usual haste. This may be another facet of the "flying creature pathing bug"--presumably there is special code to handle the adamantine veins that does not apply to backdoor tunnels. They will eventually wander through the tunnel, and, once they can successfully path to your fortress, attack. The staggered offensive provides your dwarves with a much better chance to defend the fortress, though victory is still far from assured.