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[Pidgin]

I keep getting messages about dwarfs going missing. So, I had a look in the local stream to see if there they were drowning, and I see a pile of bodies splattered around the base of a 20z waterfall. I've no idea why they were even going to the top of the mountain as there is nothing up there of interest. I can only assume they were attempting to fly. Any ideas as to what might be causing this behaviour, before I lose someone useful?

[Garath]

which version are you playing? I thought ramps at waterfalls were removed exactly because of this, but I may be mistaken.

Basically, because the water flowing at the waterfall edge isn't always deep enough to block pathing, dwarfs think they can safely walk to the other side. Obviously, it isn't safe and they are swept away. This can cause a whole fort to go lemming if for example there is a sock they want to pick up on the other side of the river.

[Pidgin]

Oh, I'm playing 34.07. The thing is, I don't see any reason why a dwarf would climb the mountain, unless they wanted to get a drink of water, even though the stream runs right in front of the fort entrance and I've got plenty of booze at the moment.

[GreatWyrmGold]

The water at the edge of the waterfall falls off, hence the name. When all the tiles so so simultaneously, the dwarf goes, "I can path through there to reach the other side!" When the dwarf gets there, the water in the tiles he's entering is quite possibly below the "Stop pathing through here!" point, meaning that the dwarf gets a step or two in. This leads to a quick, current-based death.

[Garath]

was it a migrant group maybe? They'd normally only spawn somewhere where your fort is accessible, but they think the waterfall is pathable so spawn across the river. Or a hunter killed an animal on the other side of the river with a lucky shot and now everyone is trying to get it (less likely).

And yeah, this problem still existed in 34.07, it's been removed since then iirc. Build floors over your side of the river edge to a point where the water is always 4/7 or higher, they should build it from the right side. If you're not against using dfhack, mark the ramps for removing and use 'deramp'

[Double A]

No, don't build floors, build grates, that way you can eat the suicidal fish that drop from the top of the falls and not have to worry about flooding everything.

[Garath]

No, don't build floors, build grates, that way you can eat the suicidal fish that drop from the top of the falls and not have to worry about flooding everything.

build the floors at the top to stop dwarfs falling 20 z-levels. Grates at the bottom won't help them after a fall from that height. Though they'll be happy while bleeding to death, thanks to the mist.

[HiEv]

And yeah, this problem still existed in 34.07, it's been removed since then iirc.

Correct.  As a stopgap solution in v0.34.11 Toady One made it so that it wouldn't create ramps near natural waterfalls, which should keep dwarves from doing their suicidal cliff diver impressions.

[Pidgin]

Having looked at it a little more, it turns out the water at the bottom is stagnant, while at the top is fresh. This could be what's causing the dwarfs to head to the top stream, right? So I've finally gotten around to building a well in my fort. Wells do have a water filtration system built in don't they? I see no reason this shouldn't work.

[Sutremaine]

That's another bug that was fixed recently. It used to be that stagnant water would overwrite fresh water, and you could get river water turning stagnant without ever digging anywhere near it. I think this happened when the RNG placed rivers and murky pools so that they overlapped and then didn't fully overwrite the murky pool tiles, but I never thought of a way of testing it.

Now fresh water destroys stagnant water. DFHack has a 'destagnate water' function that works in 34.07 as well as 34.11.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Having looked at it a little more, it turns out the water at the bottom is stagnant, while at the top is fresh. This could be what's causing the dwarfs to head to the top stream, right? So I've finally gotten around to building a well in my fort. Wells do have a water filtration system built in don't they? I see no reason this shouldn't work.

First off, stagnant vs. fresh water doesn't affect pathing. Second off, wells just make dwarves ignore everything in their water supply (except magma).

[HiEv]

Having looked at it a little more, it turns out the water at the bottom is stagnant, while at the top is fresh. This could be what's causing the dwarfs to head to the top stream, right?

Probably not.  Dwarves only go to water if:

A) They're trying to fill a pond.
B) They're trying to get a drink for an injured dwarf.
C) They're completely out of booze.
D) There's something else in the water that they want (items, etc.).
E) They're going fishing.

In the last two cases they don't care what kind of water it is.

It's more likely that there's simply something on the other side of the waterfall that they're trying to get and they keep taking the moronic shortcut through the falls.  I recommend very carefully walling it off.

So I've finally gotten around to building a well in my fort. Wells do have a water filtration system built in don't they? I see no reason this shouldn't work.

No, wells don't have any kind of filtration system.  You're probably thinking of pumps, which can filter water.  Heck, some people have managed to intentionally get vampire blood in their well so that they can infect their fortress with tons of vampires.