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Author Topic: Strange waterwheel setup  (Read 675 times)

Larix

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Strange waterwheel setup
« on: February 22, 2013, 05:48:31 pm »

In one of my many fits of boredom on the isolated fort, i decided to build a power station, powered by the local brook, without breaching the surface. I ended up with a setup that works, in spite of being not really logical. Basically, i tapped the brook near the source, and once again close to where it leaves the map, connected the two with a channel and let the flow drive my waterwheels. However, since i had vowed to never breach the surface, i moved the channel driving the wheels one z-level down. ...and then it goes back up and re-joins the river.
Basically, it looks like this:

________________________________________
~+~~~~~__WWW.WWW.WWW.___~~~~+~
--------\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/------
           --------------------------------

~ - Water
- - Floor
_ - Ceiling/undug space above
WWW - one waterwheel, drawing power from the 'flowing' water below
+ - Fortification as inlet/outlet

The closed ceiling makes sure the middle area doesn't flood. It's a bit weird that there's usable flow there, because it should just try to flow down from both sides until full and then stop. What's also weird is that those waterwheels don't produce the standard 100 power, but only 50 each. I started with four, which gave 200 power, and later added another four, which increased it to 400.

(P.S. So, Verdana is the monospace font? I should probably write this down somewhere.)
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Triaxx2

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Re: Strange waterwheel setup
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2013, 08:15:37 pm »

I suspect the water is being pressurized to return to it's original level, though the 50 power is a bit weird. Possibly it's generating only partial flow? I seem to recall something like that happening though I don't recall the reason.
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Cerbsen

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Re: Strange waterwheel setup
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2013, 09:08:52 pm »

Let the water flow off the map and not back into the brook. Do this by carving fortifications into the outermost rocks.

Code: [Select]
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓     ▓▓▓▓▓
~+~~~~~▓▓WWW_WWW_WWW▓▓▓▓▓▓▓     ▓▓▓▓▓
▓▓▓▓~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~+  -> off map
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ... ▓▓▓▓▓

better:
Code: [Select]
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓     ▓▓▓▓▓
~+~~~~~▓▓▓▓WWW_WWW_WWW▓▓▓▓▓▓     ▓▓▓▓▓
▓▓▓▓~~~XX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~+  -> off map
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ... ▓▓▓▓▓

X = depressurize water here to avoid flooding accidents

Waterwheels never produce 50 energy... only 0 or 100, so two of your waterwheels provide 100 power and the other two 0
« Last Edit: February 22, 2013, 09:29:14 pm by Cerbsen »
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Larix

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Re: Strange waterwheel setup
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2013, 02:15:22 am »

Oh, i know about map border fortifications. It's what i eventually used, because widening the channel destroyed the flow, and it wouldn't come back. I've no idea how exactly i caused it, but i had for a while ended up with a channel where the water didn't move, but the game registered enough flow to move half of the waterwheels (it was rather misleading that it was exactly half - first half of four wheels, then half of eight).
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