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[wemb]

Had a brook about six screens away from my mountside entrance.  I decided to build a moat around a  'corridor' of open ground outside my entrance, but I noticed that after connecting my moat to the brook, it only filed up to about four screens away.  I got a fairly even slope of water from 7/7 on the first screen of moat from the brook, down to 1/7 nearer my fortress. 

Why didn't the water flow properly? Was it spilling 'back' into the brook?

[Brian]

I'm not sure if it matters, but did you build your connection such that the waves in the brook were approaching your connection, not moving away? That is, did your connection make sense for the direction that the brook was flowing?

Water will evaporate when it is only 1/7 in height after a period of time.  Therefore if your water is creeping slow enough due to a crappy source (or overly long distance), it'll hit a stopping point, or at least it'll really slow down.

[wemb]

That is, did your connection make sense for the direction that the brook was flowing?

I had my connection at right-angles to the brook.... I can't see how that's going to stop water going into it though...

if your water is creeping slow enough due to a crappy source (or overly long distance), it'll hit a stopping point, or at least it'll really slow down.

Erm, but why does the distance affect it?  Surely, the inifite water source should fill the moat at a steady rate, regardless of the distance to the brook (assuming my channel isn't getting wider and wider).

[Brian]

I think this is how flow works in this game..

The water source is infinite, but it's not all flowing into your section.  For the water to flow in, the square next to the brook must not be 7/7.  If it is, that water has to go somewhere first.  It won't if the squares next to that are 7/7. Keep going down the line you have a big sequence of 7/7 water that's not really doing too much.  Slowly you'll find 6/7's, then 5/7s, 4/7's.  Each of those are filling up to their neighbors, and dumping into their lower neighbors.  At some point from the source, this will reach and equilibrium. 


Another way:

Initially when you tapped into the source, you had 7/7 next to 0/7, so the 0/7 quickly filled to 7/7. One square down from that you had 0/0 next to something quickly filling to 7/7, so it also filled to 7/7.. slightly more slowly.  One square down from that you had 0/0 next to that slightly more slowly filling square, so it too filled completely, although slightly more slowly still.  Work your way down, eventually you get squares filled so slowly that evaporation come into play, and EVENTUALLY you'll hit an equilibrium.


Again I'm not sure, but I think the flow direction of the brook can help provide the push needed.. There have been cases where the trench that I dug got its on waves, and there have been cases where the water appears stagnant, in spite of the fact that water must have been moving.  I'm guessing you have the second case.

[Dyvion]

Try building floors over the channeled sections.  That should flag them as under ground and prevent evaporation, yes?  I channeled from a brook deep into a mountain and ended up with a very long channel of water that fed into a pool that was 4z levels deep (oops...) and 4x4.  created a 2x2 well structure in my meeting room and put four wells down.  The pool was about 10 z levels below my meeting room.  Funny thing was, the wells would work until the pool filled to the next level, where it wouldn't work again until the water hit the 4/7 mark under them.  So I got messages about dry wells fairly often till the pool filled up. 

Oooh, other funny story about that, I had a kobold thief somehow make it all the way into my meeting room where it was discovered by a hammer dwarf who just happened to not be in the barracks at the time, I got the kill message, but couldn't find the body anywhere to melt the dagger down to something useable.  Search around... go to the screen to see the kobold is in fact deceased... then I think... no... the well?  Sure enough, all the way down the 10z levels, then 4z levels of water there's the kobold korpse komplete at the bottom... I guess it survived the fall and drowned.

[corc]

How far is the edge of the map from you connection compared to your moat?  The water just might be spilling over the edge instead.

####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~~~~.....
####~~~########
####~~~########
####~~~######## (edge of map)

red = opening, and source for your channel
blue = possible spill area for that source
~ = water
# = land: blocking water

If your map looks anything like this, the channel you added won't ever fill up because there isn't enough back pressure to keep it moving--you've got a never ending drain to compete with.  The diameter of the blue area would extend to the edge of the map btw.

Otherwise, I'll have to just say that you are living in an area too hot to allow water to flow that slowly from a brook that large of a distance.  Even non-1/7 water evaporates to some extent... just look at maps that start with ponds, and after the 1st summer, they are all empty.  Maybe hope that during the winter it'll survive long enough to make a lasting depth that won't have bother temperature and 1/7 evaporation.

No mater what the cause though, try adding a pump above that opening in the brook and aim it into the channel you added.  That way all of the water that ever enters that square goes into your moat... once the moat is filled, think about turning off or disassembling the pump if it's no longer needed.