quote:
Originally posted by Entity:
<STRONG>dozens of pump operators</STRONG>
I have a power plant that develops 900 power consistently (usually does 1,100, but I can't rely on those 200 that are spotty). It will of course need to be upgraded to power hundreds of pumps, but the design scales well. It's actually a dwarf power amplifier: a lone dwarf pumps one pump that draws from the aquifer The water the snakes around a 1-wide channel in which I suspend water wheels; then it dumps back into the aquifer.
Pumping the first level works, and I got to the edge of the "continental shelf" so to speak, using a similar setup to what you describe. You can take out z-1 just fine. But it doesn't scale to z-2: because of the implementation of pressure via teleporting, and the fact that the edge of the map generates water, you get a really cool wedge of 7/7 water at z that flies out of your pumps and floods everything. I had to save-scum that try.
Linking the ocean to the aquifer wipes out the levels of ocean that are above the aquifer and aren't grounded; the grounded stuff slowly dribbles out (except near the edges where it regenerates). Your framerate goes to hell during this, because the entire edge has to teleport its water to the aquifer. I hadn't thought to put in a floodgate, so I had to save-scum that attempt also. Got a couple nice bug reports out of it though.
My present concept is to link the bottom of the ocean to a tunnel, and to draw out of that tunnel up to the aquifer. The theory is that the water would spawn at the edge of the world, teleport to the tunnel, and get drawn up instantaneously to, in the next frame, drop into the aquifer. I'd need two entrances to the tunnel, one South and one North of where I want to build. And, I need miners with good swimming ability so they can get out alive after opening the tunnels. That, or untrained peasants with no friends.