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[EvilCheerio]

can anyone give my advice on how to find my underground river. I thought it would be easy because i know that it's in the upper-leftmost corner of my map, but i can't seem to find it, i don't really know what i expect my forum compatriots to do to help, but i'm really getting annoyed because i've seached every other z level, presuming that at the very least i would find damp rock if it was above me (right?) but i just can't seem to find it.

[Il Palazzo]

finding it can be tricky, as they're quite narrow(i'm not sure if i remember correctly, but it should be about 5-6 squares wide)so You can easily miss it with your exploratory mining when using vertical shafts. I guess it's better to dig one shaft and then dig tunnels on every z-level in all 4 cardinal directions, or if You know where it's supposed to be, just dig in that dir. Just try not going from undergdround towards the surface, one of my dorf dug a stairway right underneath the riverbed and got flushed down(and then swarmed with snakeman zombies). and no, there was no 'damp stone' warning.

[Dr. Melon]

Oh yeah, make sure you have a couple of guards on standby near the shaft...those underground rivers are stuffed with lizardmen and snakemen. Not to mention the giant olms.

[EvilCheerio]

so, i'm going to have to search every z level then, huh
I'm going to assume that it could be on any z level below the first.

i'm just trying to find it right now, it's not even connected to my base

i've heard of pressurized underground rivers, are these common/existent, because i could see how it would happen in a narrow tunnel.

[andrea]

not every z level. usually above the water there is one empty tile, and when you are digging just below it you get the damp stone thing, so it is not needed to look in every z level.

[Kardos]

Maybe the 3D Dwarf Viewer would help.  Just remember to have it check for hidden features when it compiles your map.

[JoRo]

My underground river was significantly (like 15+) levels above level 1, so you'll have to look up as well.  I used the 3D viewer to find it.  I have like 140 z-levels, so there was no way I was searching that entire mountain for it.

[Duke 2.0]

 And if you go deeper than five z-levels, be sure to install a LOT of doors. In case of flood, of course. Don't want that iron patch forever flooded.

[Forumsdwarf]

If you're going to do horizontal search tunnels do them diagonally.  It's more efficient.

I think vertical shafts are still your best bet, though.  Build them 32 spaces apart, then insert shafts at 16, then 8, and so on, doubling the resolution until you hit your river.  Here's an example showing the widths of the gaps:

Code: [Select]

Pass 1:
 v-- ...... 31 spaces ...... --v
X...............................X
Pass 2:
 v- 15 spaces -v v- 15 spaces -v
X...............X...............X
Pass 3:
 v- 7 -v         v- 7 -v
X.......X.......X.......X.......X
Pass 4:
X...X...X...X...X...X...X...X...X
Arrange these test shafts on a diagonal and you'll probably only need to dig one line of them.  Rivers generally run in a straight line, so a diagonal series of test shafts will intersect it if it runs either NS or EW.

[EvilCheerio]

i found it with 3d dwarf, but something wierd happened with my cave river. it's supposed to empty out of the top of my map, but instead it drops into a waterfall, then below that is solid rock. I think it's a glitch.