Dwarf Fortress for New Players ~ 57 Magma Pump Stack

Channel:

DasTactic

Subscribers:

63,900

Published on March 23, 2015 10:56:55 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awXvHLHRIwU

Game:

Dwarf Fortress (2006)

Duration: 20:43

18,666 views

230

ERRATA: You will see in the second half of the video a lot of cork screws, tubing and blocks. It is worth explaining the issue that causes this.
Each pump sits atop the pump below it. If any of the lower pumps is destroyed then all the pumps relying on it for support (all the pumps above) disintegrate immediately back to their component pieces (which are the items you see littered around.
In this video the problem came about because a dwarf tasked with building a pump lost a child and so stopped building causing that pump to basically cease to exist causing all the pumps above the collapse.
One way around this is to find a way to securely anchor the pumps, such as building a gear assembly every 3 or so levels to limit the potential damage, resting on solid ground to lock the pump into place at that level. This of course then adds to your power usage.
Another option would be to stagger the pump stacks into smaller sections (say 3 or so) with the bottom level of each pump on solid ground with a gear assembly next to it linking through the Z level to the set of pumps offset below. Hope that makes sense. Would sort of look like (side view)
. . .x. . .
. . .x. . .
. . .x * . .
. . . .x. .
. . . .x. .
. . .* x. .
. . .x. . .

. = Wall
x = Pump
* = Gear Assembly.
That way the most that can fail in any one accident is 3 pump stacks.

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