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[Serilleous]

This is something fun that I've started playing with recently.  it goes like this:
1.  Find a magma pipe that is open to the surface
2.  Harden the top lay of magma by pumping water over it, repeat for lower levels.
3.  Carve your entire fortress (excluding exploratory mining operations, and initial set-up necessities(first farm, stockpiles, etc...)) downward into freshly formed obsidian inside of the magma pipe.

that's it!  simple eh?
I strongly recommend doing this on an area with either a river close to the pipe, or an aqueduct to supply the water for producing new layers of obsidian.  Also, if using the aqueduct technique, I recommend taking a few stones for your initial pumps.

I'm currently having tons of fun (and dead miners) with this particular brand of nonsense and I would like to hear the thoughts of some other dwarf-o-noughts.

PS:  Sorry if this has been posted before, I'm relatively new to the best game ever made.

[Manchild]

Im doing the same thing except, im using a Volcano, and my map doesnt have a river.... all ponds and rain water tossed into a giant resevior that will eventually lead into a complex set of awesome floodgates and pumps that lead to the said volcano. i was planning on using some lower levels as a obsidian farm, by tossing some water underneath the soon to be hardened magma top, then mining out that area only to let more magma come up and harden more.....

ingenious is it not? and not too bad of an idea for never being able to use magma in some way without killing my fort...lol

[Neyvn]

A flip on that Idea.
Cast the Fortress...

1. Pump so many levels (6 or so) out into a large container.
2. Seal the lowest level for mold construction.
3. Reshape the Pipe to a useable size.
4. Shape the Fortress out of stone/wood/glass/whatever (ash maybe) by building walls in the shape that you want your fortress to look like.
5. Fill each layer of the Mold with Magma and water systematically until you reach the top of your mold, add height above the original level aswell.
6 Remove Mold, smooth/engrave outside walls.
7. From your entrance level, carve the guts out of your fortress having a two story lobby for the entrance.
8. On bottom level work out how to build a Generator floor where hundreds of Water wells power pumps which lift water/magma to the top of your fortress for Waterfalls (inside) and Lavafalls (outside).
9. Refill surrounding pipe with lava after reopening your sealed level.
10. Profit

[Wimdit]

Someone made a golden tower inside a volcano once. It inspired the idea of building a volcano inside a fortress inside a volcano.

Can't find the map or remember how he did it though. I guess he drained the volcano before building it.

[Siquo]

I tried going there. The problems are twofold:

1: The pipe refills FROM THE TOP. So you'll get magma-rain in your empty pipe.
2: The temperature inside the pipe REMAINS, setting all your dorfs on fire as soon as they enter it.

[Neyvn]

I tried going there. The problems are twofold:

1: The pipe refills FROM THE TOP. So you'll get magma-rain in your empty pipe.
2: The temperature inside the pipe REMAINS, setting all your dorfs on fire as soon as they enter it.

Um, thats why you seal your capping for construction at your lowest level you plan to have. Have two thick walls for the submerged part of the fort, I think two is enough isn't it. And reshape the Pipe going down...

[Siquo]

Um, thats why you seal your capping for construction at your lowest level you plan to have. Have two thick walls for the submerged part of the fort, I think two is enough isn't it. And reshape the Pipe going down...

Either I don't get what you're saying, or the other way around
The magma 'spawns' at the top layer of the magmapipe. Sealing up the bottom won't help. Don't know what happens when you seal off that top layer, though. The temperature however, remains. Meaning you can't build anything in a pipe because every dwarf that enters the pipe will catch fire, even though the pipe is empty and sealed.

[Quietust]

Magma pipes do not fill "from the top" of the pipe - they refill from the surface of the magma itself (in 1-3 tile columns directly above "magma flow" tiles), and only if there is open space above them, meaning they will not refill through floor tiles.

Also, I'm pretty sure the high temperature does not remain, otherwise this fortress wouldn't have worked very well...

[Siquo]

You can turn off temperature to stop your dwarves from spontaneously combusting.
I based my previous statements on the tips and experiences I got from the guy who made this. They might be wrong, since I never got to build in my pipe, due to an unfortunate cave-in and subsequent magma-flooding of 90% of my fortress...

[lemonpieman]

A flip on that Idea.
Cast the Fortress...

1. Pump so many levels (6 or so) out into a large container.
2. Seal the lowest level for mold construction.
3. Reshape the Pipe to a useable size.
4. Shape the Fortress out of stone/wood/glass/whatever (ash maybe) by building walls in the shape that you want your fortress to look like.
5. Fill each layer of the Mold with Magma and water systematically until you reach the top of your mold, add height above the original level aswell.
6 Remove Mold, smooth/engrave outside walls.
7. From your entrance level, carve the guts out of your fortress having a two story lobby for the entrance.
8. On bottom level work out how to build a Generator floor where hundreds of Water wells power pumps which lift water/magma to the top of your fortress for Waterfalls (inside) and Lavafalls (outside).
9. Refill surrounding pipe with lava after reopening your sealed level.
10. Profit

Fuck you.

[Quietust]

You can turn off temperature to stop your dwarves from spontaneously combusting.
I based my previous statements on the tips and experiences I got from the guy who made this. They might be wrong, since I never got to build in my pipe, due to an unfortunate cave-in and subsequent magma-flooding of 90% of my fortress...

I just did a test embark in a 2x2 region with ultrafast dwarves where I excavated the entire bottom Z-level and allowed the magma pipe to drain over halfway, and I was able to build a mason's workshop on a constructed floor halfway down the pipe without the dwarf bursting into flame (and temperature is on, since 5 of my 7 dwarves did burst into flame when they punctured the walls of the magma pipe to start it draining). So, no, the inside of a magma pipe does not remain hot after the pipe is drained.

If, however, you drained the pipe while temperature was turned off, then that would indeed prevent the temperature from dropping, and if your dwarves were inside the empty pipe when you turned temperature back on, they most likely would burst into flame. Perhaps that's what happened in the case you mentioned.

[Serilleous]

I rather like Neyvns system.  It seems to me, based on experience (lots of dead miners encased in cooling magma last night) that the only practical way to extend a living area inside a magma vent is to completely obsidianify/hollow out each level, and then channel the level below while there is standing water to turn the next layer down into obsidian.  I was rather hoping I would be able to figure out how to get water into a tile before magma flowed in, thus saving my dwarves and allowing me to expand the workable area; but alas, I have not been able to do it reliably.  the problem seems to be that miners refused to channel out / work a tile submerged any farther than 2/7.

Though the casting operation would likely require a ton of prep work so it's not very possible to build your entire fortress like that :\

looks like magma rooms are reserved for entry way/trade depot (suspended mid air, Moria style, by a couple precarious supports) and throne room in my fortress.  (for now <.<)

[Siquo]

Thanks Quietust! Good to know!