DF-Walkthrough/tutorials/using-magma.rst

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!!Fun!! with Magma
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Today we’re covering building magma forges and smelters and how you can
set up some magma channels. Then we’ll talk a bit about constructing
steps and how to remove constructions. Read on!

Mmm! Mag-maaaa!
===============
By now you should have discovered a magma pool. If you find it at any
level lower than our workshop floor you’ll get a message about hot
stone and digging will stop. If you discover the pool at the workshop
level you’ll see something like this…

.. image:: images/dftutorial9911.png
   :align: center

What we have here is a magma pool on the right, with an open floor for
us to walk around on, and a passage I’ve dug from the workshop floor to
the pool. I didn’t know the pool was just there, but it is extremely
handy for us that it is! Why, I hear you ask? Well, the reason is that
magma helps us skip a step in the metal production phase – charcoal! We
can just use the heat of the magma to do the work for us, neat!

But how do we tap this awesome source of power? Easy! We dig of course!
But before we get carried away, lets talk generally about magma. In
addition to being a source of smelting power magma is also extremely
dangerous. If a dwarf falls into it, they’re dead quickly. If a monster
falls into it they also die quickly. The exception is certain magma
creatures like Fire Imps. You will see a few of these in our magma pool
if you go down a few levels.

Fire Imps are quite dangerous. If your dwarfs go sight-seeing around
the edge of a magma pool you can be pretty sure Fire Imps will
eventually make an appearance and start  breathing fire at your dwarfs.
And yes, your dwarfs can catch on fire and set other things on fire!
Like your precious booze (which will explode)! To help prevent this
I’ve put a door on the passage to the pool, and I suggest you do the
same!

Harness the POWER!
==================
With those notes in mind, lets get expanding our workshop floor and
plan to harness the magma. We’ll cover the ins and outs of why once
we’re under way. So follow along:

* Expand your workshop floor using the dig command so you’re taking up
  most of the space right up to the pool. But don’t breech the pool wall!
  Try something like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9912.png
   :align: center

* While that’s being dug, go up a level and expand our storage floor as
  well. We’re going to want room to expand and we’re going to want to put
  bar storage as close to the new furnaces we’ve got planned as possible.
  Something like this perhaps?

.. image:: images/dftutorial9913.png
   :align: center

* With those levels dug, go to a level below your workshop floor and
  dig some tunnels like this, right up to within a couple of spaces of
  your magma pipe. We’re aiming to eventually create a grid of magma
  which workshops above will be able to tap for their smelting. Like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9914.png
   :align: center

You’re going to have to do a lot of waiting now while all that digging
is done, so why not lets do something useful and build ourselves an
awesome drawbridge to keep us even safer! Here’s how…

Bridge building intermission!
=============================
Drawbridges are wonderfully dwarfy things and central focal points of
many fortresses’ defences. Drawbridges can block an entrance perhaps
closing a straight-forward entrance to your fortress, leaving only a
highly complex, trapped and winding tunnel, or they can be used to drop
magma or flood a room (by holding said substances above an entrance
way) and they can even be used to fling bad guys into the air! Lets
build on!

* Go to your entrance.
* Set a couple of squares to be dug down into using :kbd:`d` and :kbd:`h` for
  channel.
* Maybe something like this will suit. Monsters can’t cross a pit.

.. image:: images/dftutorial9915.png
   :align: center

* Once it’s dug you’ll end up with a pit, trapping your dwarfs inside
  and outside. So lets move quickly and get this bridge built!
* Hit :kbd:`b` and then :kbd:`g`, you will have one green square. Expand the
  bridge’s width to cover the width of the hall and make it one higher
  and deeper than the channel. It’s not really required to be that big, I
  just think it looks cooler. Here’s how mine will be laid out.

.. image:: images/dftutorial9916.png
   :align: center

* Don't hit :kbd:`Enter` just yet (if you have, :kbd:`q` over the bridge and
  hit :kbd:`x` to cancel the construction). Look at the top of the
  placing/size window. See the text that says :guilabel:`Bridge (retracts)`?
  This is where you can change the bridge to either retract (pretty much
  vanish) or to raise in one of the cardinal directions. Work through
  :kbd:`w`, :kbd:`a`, :kbd:`s`, :kbd:`d` and :kbd:`x` and see how the
  arrow changes. Me, I hit :kbd:`x`
  as I want it to raise downwards, sealing my dwarfs into the fortress.
* Hit :kbd:`Enter` and then select the stone you wish to build with.
* Your bridge now needs someone with architecture enabled to come and
  plan it, and then it needs masons to come place the stone. It will
  happen in due course.

Meanwhile, you need to build a lever to trigger your bridge! The lever,
when pulled by a dwarf, causes the bridge to raise (after a brief
delay). Once the lever is build we’ll connect it to the bridge. Both of
these tasks require the mechanics skill, so make sure you have a dwarf
with mechanics enabled. Follow along:

* Head back down to your dining room and chose a corner for your lever.
  Don’t do what a friend did and put the lever close to the bridge and
  then groan as the dwarf running to pull the lever gets cut down by the
  invaders (who then stormed his fortress and killed all but one of his
  dwarfs, who then went mad and killed most of the immigrants who arrived
  at his fortress, and who then died of thirst (he was to busy chasing
  immigrants to bother with drink)).
* Hit :kbd:`b`, :kbd:`T`, chose :guilabel:`Lever`, place the lever in a
  corner of your dining room, choosing a mechanism along the way.
* Wait for the lever to be built.
* With the lever and bridge built you need to hook the lever up to the
  bridge.
* Hit :kbd:`q` over the lever.
* Hit :kbd:`a` and then :kbd:`b` to link up the lever with a bridge.
* You only have one bridge right now so it should go right to it with a
  big yellow X over it, like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9917.png
   :align: center

* Hit :kbd:`Enter`, and then hit :kbd:`Enter` twice to select two mechanisms
  for the lever/bridge hookup (one at the bridge end, one at the lever
  end). Since we don’t have to worry about magma, chose any mechanism. If
  there was magma involved we’d want to be using bauxite mechanisms as
  they are magma proof.

Now simply sit back and wait! Once the hook-up job is done (check by
doing a :kbd:`q` over your lever) have a bit of fun and go :kbd:`q`, :kbd:`P`
to :guilabel:`Pull the Lever`. It might take a few seconds, but hopefully
someone pulls the lever promptly and then a few seconds later
your bridge should be up. Here’s mine up!

.. image:: images/dftutorial9918.png
   :align: center

If you look closely you’ll see that I’ve got a stunned dwarf on the
edge of my pit. Amusingly, he was crossing the bridge when it went up
and got tossed in the air. Thankfully, he’s ok, but somewhat surprised
I’m guessing! Pull the lever again and let the dwarfs get in and out of
your fortress once more.

…Er, a quick note about that. If your dwarfs are under the bridge when
it comes down you you get this message:

    :guilabel:`Urdin Amalstinthad, Miner, has been crushed under a drawbridge.`

This is an example of the :wiki:`Dwarven Atom Smasher <bridge>` in
practice! Oopsie! Right, with that dwarf murdering job done, lets get
back to delicious magma!

Preparing the channel
=====================
By now you should have most everything dug out. Once the channel under
the workshop layer is complete we need to flood it with magma. How
should we do that? If your first instinct is to send a digger down
there to dig through to the magma pipe then you’re a very silly dwarf
manager! This will work but will also result in a quick-roasted dwarf.
What we’re going to do instead is channel from above until our channel
meets our tunnel.

But before we do that we need to think aout those imps. Do you know
Fire Imps and other magma creatures can sneak along your tunnels and
then pop out in your forges? And that this can be quite painful for
everyone concerned? Hah! Well now you do! So what should we do about
this? Some sort of grate might be handy, right?

We could use a wall grate (constructable at a masons), but lets
practice another technique. The last space we’ve dug to the magma
should be smoothed, (:kbd:`d`, :kbd:`s`) and then carved, like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9920.png
   :align: center

From here we’re going to do something cunning. We’re going to :kbd:`d`
designate that same square of wall :kbd:`a`, :guilabel:`carve fortification`.
What happens then is that the wall will have slots cut in it so as to
potentially let your crossbow dwarfs shoot out. But while we won’t have
dwarfs down here, the holes will let magma through, but not monsters!
So go :kbd:`d` and :kbd:`a` that same smoothed square.

While you wait, go to a mason’s workshop and get a floodgate built. It
will be a boxy shaped thing with an X on it. This is what we’ll use to
block the magma from exiting our tunnel complex. Why a floodgate
instead of a door? No particular reason, the floodgate does guarantee
no one will try and open the door, which is handy. Floodgates can only
be opened or closed by levers and pressure plates. Here’s my complex
all completed:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9921.png
   :align: center

So now what? Clearly we need to remove the stone. To do that we need to
channel from above, which is relatively safe. Lets do that now:

* Viewing your tunnel complex hit :kbd:`d`, and then :kbd:`h`.
* Place your X over the first spot to be removed, like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9922.png
   :align: center

* Now go up a level and you will see your X near the edge of the magma.
* Hit :kbd:`Enter` and move the cursor across three places, hit :kbd:`Enter`
  again, the end result will look like this:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9923.png
   :align: center

* Wait, the channel will be dug and magma will flow into your channels,
  through your fortification grill (which you can’t see unless you :kbd:`k`
  and place it over the spot, by the way). Awesome!

.. image:: images/dftutorial9924.png
   :align: center

Here are my channels slowly filling with lava. Now lets USE THE HOTNESS!

Magma Forges for fun and profit
===============================
Lets get sorted with some magma stuff. Chose a square in your magma
channels where there’s some magma, go up a level, and cut a single
channel down. Here’s the spot ready to be cut. This will give our magma
workshops access to the lovely hot stuff.

.. image:: images/dftutorial9925.png
   :align: center

Now, to build:

* :kbd:`b`, then :kbd:`e` for smelters.
* :kbd:`l` for :guilabel:`Magma Smelter`.
* Place the dark green X over your magma hole, hit :kbd:`Enter`.
* Check out my finished magma smelter!

.. image:: images/dftutorial9926.png
   :align: center

Now, get to work!

* Build another couple of smelters.
* Build three magma glass furnaces.
* Under the workshop menu build three magma forges. If you don’t have
  enough anvils for your forges, go make some more at your existing
  charcoal-powered forge. They have two dark green X’s, either one will
  do for placing over the hole.
* Here are my 9, almost-completed workshops. One isn’t placed yet as I
  need to forge a new anvil.

.. image:: images/dftutorial9927.png
   :align: center

If you have problems placing any forge/smelter or running them it’s
possible that there isn’t enough magma under the building, you may have
to wait for the tunnels to fill more. But once the workshops are
complete you can smelt all that ore on repeat and not worry about
charcoal. Best set your smithy’s up with furnace operation, armoring
and weapon smithing and no other job! Get all that ore into bars and
into shiny armor, weapons or trap components! Hurrah!

Now, what about those glass furnaces? That’s something for you to
research and toy with. Glass is a whole ‘nother ball game. Don’t worry,
your twenty level tower made entirely of glass can come later

Constructing stuff
Hang on, wouldn’t it be handy if we could get to our new stockpiles
above our furnaces without having to walk all the way over to the
central staircase? But how can we when we’ve dug out all this dirt? We
have no chance at designating some up-stairs!

But we can construct some, using :kbd:`b`, :kbd:`C`. Constructed stairs
and ramps can be put anywhere, as long as they are connected to the
ground below them or to one side. The same rule applies to floors, and
walls, as you saw earlier. So lets get some more stairs going.

* Hit :kbd:`b`, and then :kbd:`C`.
* Chose the :guilabel:`Up Stair` option.
* Chose a spot, hit :kbd:`Enter`, select the materials, hit :kbd:`Enter`.
* Here are two stairs set to be constructed, with one more due to be set:

.. image:: images/dftutorial9928.png
   :align: center

The stairs will quickly be done, but they won’t be in use. Why not? Go
up a level! There’s no down stair! Thankfully, because there’s dirt
between the floor above and the floor below, we can use the :kbd:`d`, :kbd:`j`
(for :guilabel:`downward stairway`) and the steps will be dug, connecting to
the up-stairs below.

If there wasn’t dirt, and there was space instead, we would have to
:kbd:`d`, :kbd:`C`, construct some stairs down.

Now would be a good time to answer a common question is how you remove
steps and walls in Dwarf Fortress. You’ve got a few ways, one of which
will always work:

* :kbd:`d`, :kbd:`n` for :guilabel:`Remove construction`. All items that
  are constructed will flash with a green C. Select in the usual way
  and the constructed items will be smashed down.
* :kbd:`d`, :kbd:`h` for :guilabel:`Channel`. If you’re above something
  that has been dug and you want it removed, you can channel the dug space
  away. To fill the gap you’ll either need to construct a floor on top
  or you’ll need to construct something in there.
* You can dig your way through anything constructed, thus removing it.

There you go! Magma! In our final lesson we’ll cover building defences
and a new entrance! Hope you’ve had fun, now go away and make a
ton of awesome steel items and set some more traps up.