40d Talk:Magma forge

Operational Magma Depth

More specifically, "nearby" means that at least one of its eight edge squares hangs over a hole which has magma at a depth of at least 4 on the level below.

Verify - I've got a magma forge at the moment over 3 lava squares and it's not working, while the smelter next to it is. I think the building has to have at least one of those red circles over lava. Juckto 15:48, 14 November 2007 (EST)

Sorry for moving this comment off the actual page, but this sort of thing is supposed to go in Talk. Anyway, I'm 100% certain of this information.

Firstly, you're wrong about the "building has to have at least one red circle over lava" bit; the game explicitly says "At least one of the eight boundary squares must be over lava" when a magma building is not operational, and I've built a working magma forge whose upper-left corner is the only part over magma.

Secondly, I built a tube to get magma over to my mineral deposits, on the other side of the map. I built a bunch of smelters and a couple of magma forges over it, and noticed that eventually they started flickering on and off. When I looked underneath, I saw that the entire tube in the area was at a depth of three or four, and the depths were shifting around like they do in water. The workshops only turned on when the depth under their open square was four.

It's possible that if a magma workshop has more than one open area, the depth required to operate it is reduced. I wouldn't know. Tacroy 18:55, 14 November 2007 (EST)

Juckto, make sure the building is built over a channel square with lava in it, there actually needs to be a hole in the ground for the forges to operate. I didn't realise this at first and had to reassemble my workshops after some digging. Jimphraxia 12:17, 28 November 2007 (EST)

Best position for channel

Am I right that if I build the channel where the darker X's are going to be then equipment will cover up the hole in the ground preventing Magma Men etc from coming into the workshop?GarrieIrons 00:55, 23 June 2008 (EDT)

I've been trying this and no nasty things have popped up yet. Mingebag 01:07, 26 July 2008 (EDT)

My advice concerning bad stuff is to, on embark, just spend the 10 points to buy a nickle bar and dig into the lava in such a way that you have a 1 tile wide chokepoint, then setup some vertical bars and let the magma run through, using this strategy I've often ended up with smelters running before I grab an anvil from the first caravan.--Stalinbulldog 04:31, 26 July 2008 (EDT)

Magma only?

Out of curiousity, does lava work as well with the magma forge? As magma turns to lava once exposed to the outside, I wonder if the magma forge might still recognise it as compatible. This might explain why juckto above did not get it to work. --Nexii Malthus 19:04, 8 March 2008 (EST)

ive always built my magma buildings up on the surface(and thus over lava) and they work just fine --Chariot 06:53, 9 March 2008 (EDT)

lava = magma above ground level. it's the same stuff.GarrieIrons 00:53, 23 June 2008 (EDT)

Z-levels?

I was just reading the entry because I'm getting ready to set up my first magma forge. However, I'm not clear (and the article is also unclear) as to whether these can be built many Z-levels above magma, or if they have to be exactly 1 Z-level above the magma channel. For instance, I have a nice rock outcropping above a volcano on my map. Can I build a magma forge in there (effectively 2 Z-levels above the actual magma) as long as I have 'open space'? I mean, does it work like a well, where no matter how high above the water you are, you can get to it as long as there's a chute? --Vix0r 22:34, 19 June 2008 (EDT)

I'm 99% sure you to have the forge the next z-level up from the magma. I imagine the forge is much more like a screw pump or a waterwheel than a well but can't say I've really tried the skyscraper forge method. If you build the forge and the furnace turns red, then the magma is fueling the forge, if not then something is preventing it. --Kyace 22:58, 19 June 2008 (EDT)

It appears that magma forges are more like screw pumps than wells. What a disappointment. :| --Vix0r 00:14, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

I'm not sure what the official policy for the wiki, but it might be simpler to merely edit the well article with "Wells are currently the only construction able to access materials more than one z-level below". --Kyace 02:49, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

In the interests of helping players curious/confused about magma forges themselves, I think this is a better move. Someone curious about how magma forges work isn't likely to check the wells page. --Vix0r 16:49, 20 June 2008 (EDT)

New Player here...I definitely built mine 3 z levels above "magma flow," which I assume is the acrual magma level, because the ones above it all say "open space"--71.88.42.179 08:07, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Blocks/bars as building material

It says "verify" for blocks and metal blocks as a building materials for magma forges, and as I was building one anyways I figured I'd check. I built mine out of a cinnabar block, and various metal bars were also in the list of usable materials for construction. (v 0.28.181.40d) Rahler 16:48, 1 October 2008 (EDT)