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v0.34:Magma
| This article is about an older version of DF. |
Magma is a red-hot fluid that wells up from deep within the earth (but not so deep that it cannot be found by dwarves). Magma that is above the ground is called Lava; the substance itself remains the same. It can often result in Fun.
Magma serves as an energy source, powering magma smelters, magma forges, magma glass furnaces, and magma kilns. Magma is extremely hot which can lead to even more fun. Workers that dig into a magma reservoir are not instantly killed as the magma touches them, but they are set on fire, which will kill them very quickly. For this reason, taking steps to ensure there is adequate water available to extinguish flaming dwarves running in random directions is advised before digging into any magma pools from the side. Channeling a single square wide pit across the planned magma pipe one tile away from the wall to breach and filling it with water using the pond zone tool is recommended, so the panicking dwarves have no choice but to run through the water, and the water itself turns into an obsidian wall as soon as the magma flows into it.
The list of materials that are magma-safe is extensive. Magma never cools, but can evaporate if left at a depth of 1/7 for long enough. When magma is mixed with water it forms obsidian. Note that magma located above semi-molten rock will be listed as a Magma Flow and cannot be cooled into Obsidian.
Without screw pumps to impart pressure, magma flows rather slowly (though no more slowly than unpressurized water). A pipe to bring magma across the full map can take as much as a year to fill. This, combined with the fact that it will evaporate, can make filling a reservior difficult and tedious. As a rule of thumb, the area coming out of a 1-wide-pipe shouldn't be more than three squares wide and 20 squares long, or else it will evaporate as fast as you fill it.
Bringing Magma Up
Magma can be brought to the surface by three different methods:pump stacks, magma pistons, and minecarts. Pump stacks are conceptually the simplest, but require an enormous amount of in-game time to make. Magma pistons tend to be faster to make, but require more time to understand how to build them. Minecarts are a simple solution, but require more management than pump stacks because they can overfill a resevior.
Pump stacks
Pumping magma up from the magma sea via a conventional pump stack is a lot of work, requiring dozens of pumps and significant amounts of power. Making all of the pumps magma safe also requires a lot of precious materials like steel or glass.
Magma pistons
Magma pistons are another way to move magma near the surface. Magma pistons require less time and fewer precious materials to construct than pump stacks. However, magma pistons are a bit more complicated than pump stacks, so it takes more time to understand how to operate and build them.
Minecarts
Minecarts submurged in 7/7 magma will fill with magma. Minecarts full of magma can be tipped at track stop, which will poor the magma in a specified direction from the stop. Mine cart tracks can be built from the magma sea to the surface. Minecarts used for this must be magma safe. It may also be necessary to build rollers in magma to pull the minecarts out, which would also need to be magma safe. A minecart track can be operated by dwarves or fully automatic, using powered rollers.
Magma pools
Although the name suggests them as pools, they are actually pipes (Unknown why Toady changed the name). They can be found underground, however they rarely reach the upper z-levels (40+). Most end just a few z-levels above the magma sea, though some may span more than 100 z-levels. Magma pools seem to be always connected to a magma sea, and the sea and pipe can occasionally reach up to the same level, making them hard to separate. However, magma pools can be identified by the obsidian walls which surround them. Magma pools will slowly refill themselves, giving the player an infinite source of magma.
Volcanoes
Volcanoes are magma pools that extend all the way to the surface. Volcanoes are an endless source of magma as they will always refill themselves. They never erupt, unlike their real-life namesake.
Lava in volcanoes does not exert pressure unless you pump lava into it. So it is not very hard to design a magma-based industry zone or a defense system around valcanos. But digging the last piece of the channel can be a little dangerous. Several (nearly) safe methods are:
Digging From Above: If you can find a suitable position, at least in the top of the volcano you can, standing on one level above and dig a channel is the most safe and easy way.
Diagonal Digging: Magma moves slower in diagonal than straight. So diagonal digging gives you more time to flee away. But also, slower flow means you must keep in mind the evaporation. You should dig a smaller channel, wait for it to fill up, and extends the channel by Digging From Above.
Busy To Leave: [1] "I find it's pretty simple to do (though I haven't tried this yet in the latest version or two) if you know what you are doing. Simply mine up to the corner of a lava tube and then smooth the last tile. Dig a staircase within a few tiles of the place where you will be breaching that leads up and back into your fortress, this will allow your dwarf to get out before the magma gets him. Now designate the smoothed corner to be carved into a fortification. Now immediately when the dwarf begins to carve the fortification, (and this is the most important part!), designate a bunch of other tiles to be smoothed/carved. It's not important that your dwarves actually smooth, carve, or engrave those tiles, what is important is that your dwarf immediately takes another smooth/carve/engrave task elsewhere in the fortress when they finish the current one. If they do not then they will pause for the briefest of instants as they pick a new task, resulting in their death. If they have the job though, they will instantly turn and head up the staircase, stopping the magma from catching and killing them."
Exploit From Bellow: [2] "Here's the basic premise: Miners are able to mine out tiles diagonally above them EVEN IF THERE IS A BRIDGE OVER THEIR HEADS. First you dig out your magma tunnel to feed magma to wherever in your fort you need it and dig it right up against the volcano pipe. Then you channel a trench against the pipe that can be the width of the tunnel if you wish. Build a bridge over the trench making sure to cover it completely and then seal off access to the magma tunnel. Dig a new separate path to access the now bridged over trench. Finally, designate the volcano pipe wall ON THE Z LEVEL OF THE MAGMA TUNNEL for mining. Your dwarves will stand in the trench beneath the bridge but will somehow still mine out the squares diagonally above them, causing the magma to flow safely onto the bridge leaving your dwarves unscathed."
Properties of magma
Magma behaves the same way as water with the exception of not being affected by pressure (except when being moved by a screw pump) and apparently not showing flow. Magma will turn into obsidian1 if it touches water. In the game, magma's temperature is 12000 °U . See the list of magma-safe materials for more information on what can (or cannot) be safely submerged in magma.
Tiles directly adjacent to magma will be heated to a temperature of 10075 °U , causing revealed unmined tiles to flash with ☼ when placing digging designations and causing unrevealed mining-designated tiles to cancel their designation (with a "warm stone" warning) once they are revealed.
1 - the rock that is used when magma mixes with water is the first rock encountered to have the [LAVA] tag during worldgen.
Dangers of magma
Any contact with magma results in nearly instant immolation, followed by death if water is not close at hand.
Unlike how waterfalls create mist magmafalls create no magma mist, yet if some debris from a cave-in lands in some magma a deadly cloud of magma mist is released.
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This article or section has been rated D for Dwarf. It may include witty humour, not-so-witty humour, bad humour, in-jokes, pop culture references, and references to the Bay12 forums. Don't believe everything you read, and if you miss some of the references, don't worry. It was inevitable. |
Magma is very well known for being the perfect solution to any problem encountered by dwarves. Giant badger invasion ? Pour magma on it. Noble being his usual snotty, useless, arrogant self ? Pour magma on it. Door locked due to invaders ? Pour magma on it !