Problems building a working magma forge in current version of DF

dwarf-fortress

I am having problems building a working magma forge in my fortress (using the most current version of DF). I have built magma forges in prior versions and am aware that I need to place the "darker green" x in the magma forge template over the hole leading to magma in the Z level below the forge. When I build a forge in my current fortress it apparently builds ok, but when I try to set jobs for the completed forge it says it needs magma under the forge. I have excavated a large open area (approx. 50×40 tiles) one Z level lower in my fortress that is still filling with magma (currently filled to 2-3 depth) from a connected magma pipe. Do I need to wait until the magma fills to a higher level than 2-3, or are there other requirements I am missing to get the forge to work?

Best Answer

As indicated in the second paragraph of the introduction to the Magma Forge on the DF Wiki, you need to wait until one of the eight non-center tiles of the forge fill to a depth of at least 4/7.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Magma_forge

To build a magma forge, you must have magma-safe materials (non-magma-safe materials will not be shown on the material list), an anvil, and a build site where at least one tile directly beneath one of its eight non-center tiles contains magma at a depth of 4/7 or greater.

Assuming your influx of magma is sufficient to overcome the evaporation process, you ought to be able to wait for a while and the forge will become active.

Related Solutions

Why is the water source being ignored

When the water level gets to 1/7, it's basically considered a "puddle", instead of actual water. At that point, the dwarfs can't scoop it up in a bucket, so it's useless. Since there are no other designated water sources on your map, your dwarfs default to just finding some water however they can, which in this case means other murky pools.

If your primary purpose was to empty out this particular murky pool, rather than to fill up your new pond zone, congratulations; you've done it. 1/7 water isn't real water, and it will evaporate entirely in a few minutes (probably).

How to design the channel work for magma forging to prevent magma crabs and building destroyers from interfering with production

All magma powered buildings contain impassable squares. If these cover the channeled tiles, it will block entry for the crabs. And prevent dwarfes from falling into magma.

If im not mistaken, the Forge for example has this pattern:

WWW
XWX
WWW

where ´W´ is walkable and ´X´ is blocked. Better check up on the Wiki though. If using this method, there must be no other path "into" the lava, so all channeled spaces need to be covered either by impassable squares or be "floored" from above(I see many such open spaces in your setup). A better way is to channel down a single tile, dig the pipe, let the miner tap the reservoid and get out, then cover the channeled tile with above method.

Also im not sure how this works out for eventual visits from magma-resistant building destroyers.

A failproof option is to separately carve out a section below the workshops and fill the area with a pump that is sourced from a reservoir. The tile where the pump inputs can be covered with a floorgrate which is undestructible from below.

Something like this:

XXXXX
X...XXXX
X...PP#X
X...X..X
XXXXXXX

Where Xis wall, .is floor and P is pump inputting from east. # is floorgrate over channeled tile connecting to natural reservoir. The setup should be safe for manual powering of the pump.

Of course, use magma safe components for pump and floorgrate. That means this requires steel or candy to be available. And it also means that a method of forging the pump components has to be available, which is a bit of a bummer when the original problem is setting up the smelters and forges earlygame. If you add a lever-linked floodgate in front of the pump, you can later close this to restrict the magma flow in order to reclaim the pump components, if steel is a rarity. While considerably more difficult to set up, this method is impenetrable to building destroyers since floor grates cannot be destroyed from below.

XXXXXX
X...XXXXX
X...FPP#X
X...XX.lX
XXXXXXXX

Here F is a floodgate linked to lever l.

Also, as a final reminder, I need to state that any usage of magma reservoirs without the possibility of draining said reservoir is a disaster waiting to happen. Always, before tapping a reservoid, build a floodgate and link it, so you can later interrupt the magma flow.