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[callisto8413]

Was building a moot system around my walls.  Having dealt with water before so I made sure not to let it in the water till everything was set up and the moot areas restricted.  Than my Dwarfs channeled the last pieces of land and the river flooded in.  And a Miner and about SIX babies/kids drowned!

Outside of feeling really bad that ONCE AGAIN I some how failed to do a water project without somebody getting killed I am not sure I know what happened...

1.  Were they crossing the channels and got swept in?

2.  Dwarfs cross channels all the time before in other games and never drowned or got overwhelmed.  Were the babies/kids overwhelmed and the Miner went in to try to save a offspring? (I did not bother to check the relationships between the victims yet).

3.  Can I remove the restrictions from the channels now that they know water is there?  My region has cold winters and all bodies of water has been restricted because they turn back into water in the spring and I don't want Dwarfs walking over deep water when it does that.  Can channels be left alone?

I have now restricted the channels and also made enough memorial slabs to make sure there are no ghosts - in fact put up a few statues and made it into a garden.  I figure it was my fault and I need to find out what happened so it does not happen again.

Did I just not foresee something in Dwarf behavior?  Are channels more dangerous than I thought?

[locustgate]

General rule ALWAYS build a bridge over your moat BEFORE you let water into it.

EDIT: Since your area freezes you may want to build a dry/lava moat. Sure the dry moat wont kill your enemies but if you make it deep enough and build in some fortifications and a bridge/door system on the bottom after the enemy's siege is broken you can have your markdwarves pick off the poor trapped siegers at your leisure. or fill the pit with traps.

P.S. Dwarves have the natural swimming ability of a rock.

[callisto8413]

General rule ALWAYS build a bridge over your moat BEFORE you let water into it.

EDIT: Since your area freezes you may want to build a dry/lava moat. Sure the dry moat wont kill your enemies but if you make it deep enough and build in some fortifications and a bridge/door system on the bottom after the enemy's siege is broken you can have your markdwarves pick off the poor trapped siegers at your leisure. or fill the pit with traps.

The moot does not need drawbridges as I left openings in the moot (there are drawbridges designed to lift up and become part of the walls).  I figured I want the goblins to come close to the walls where my Dwarfs, with their bows, can fire down on them. 


But my question was more about the channels, not the moots.

[Garath]

it's a moat, btw

Channels make it easier to get out of the water. Before ramps were added to water edges it was nearly impossible for pretty much anything without inate swimming ability to get out, now it's just very hard. All in all, as has been mentioned, it is more practical to use a dry moat, also because when someone falls in you have some way of getting him/her/it out, which is quite hard with a water filled moat (let's not consider magma moats), so

1: yes, most likely. Moving water, and moving water only, has some force to push creatures and objects away. Once water reaches 7/7 it stops 'moving' and sort of teleports to the lower areas. This makes the flow you created much more dangerous even than most water. Add to that that instead of walking up the ramp they have to swim up the ramp, for which, as mentioned, they have no ability or aptitude, while being pushed along by the flow, you should start to see the problem.

2: It's a possibility. The miner also could have been swept away normally and the baby swept from the grasp of the mother who was crossing the channel.

3: No, they will most definately walk along and over the water when it is frozen with no regards for safety

the things mentioned just yet are some of the reasons most people prefer to use moats without water. Those probably have a different name, here they're just called dry moats. Water doesn't add anything in the way of protection and in fact decreases functionality during winter and against swimming creatures, plus creates a hazard for your own dwarves and an obstacle to retrieving items and bodies.

[callisto8413]

oops, sorry about the spelling.

I think dry moats are just ditches?  Or, for military purposes, trenches? 

[Garath]

yeah, something like that. If you remove the ramps on one side, they become quite impassable

[WhimsyWink]

My 'dry moat' design includes floodgates and a map exit so I can flush it.  The trick being to leave the invaders a path in that takes time to traverse.  eg into the dry moat at one end of it and out at the other end to allow time for the drawbridge activation. 
when I dig a channel to fill a water project that does not need to be a barrier, I leave plugs at both end and fill the channel before opening to the water project and bridge it right away.  Leaving the end plugs means I can remove the ramps along most of the length (just feels like I should get better flow).