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[Nilik]

So i've never quite figured out how to get water underground without causing a flood, or causing my CPU to grind to a halt.

My most recent attempt involved a brook, a tunnel and some floodgates in order to create my own little underground reservoir by manually letting in just enough water that the place wouldn't flood. Turned out it worked... for a bit. Then I noticed dwarves getting unhappy thoughts from "nasty water". Seems I need RUNNING water, or its going to turn gross... makes sense. The thing is, I don't see how this can be done.

Water will fill up to the level of it's source, so logically if I have water just running in unrestricted i'm not going to get an underground lake, i'm going to get an underwater room! To clarify, this is what i've got at the moment.


----------------- <- surface
     |
     |    rest of fort - >
     |___           
           |_____|  <- reservoir


Now I appreicate the logical solution involves pressure plates and floodgates and more pumps to take water back out to the brook, but that's a pretty cpu-intensive solution. I really just want to shift the brook down a couple of z-levels, but without causing a flood! Is there a better way to do this?
 

[Haedrian]

You don't actually NEED water unless its for the injured ones. Make sure you're producing enough booze.

That said, it has been suggested that wells make water unstagnent. So if you build a well over the pool you might be able to remove the sad thoughts. (Important: Wells somethings SQUIRT water for some reason)

Another alternative is to dig down a few Z levels, create a pool, use pumps and reconnect the water to the brook, then you'll have a flow.

[torne]

Wells don't squirt water, but they also don't block water from flowing. Since they have to be built over a hole, not a floor, if the water in the well is pressurised to the level of the well or higher then it will flow out of the hole. Makes no difference if the well is there or not, it's just normal water pressure behaviour.

[Firnagzen]

There are two notable ways of making water depressurize.

One, a pump will reset pumped water to the level the pump is on.

Alternatively, and much easier:
Top down view

Code: [Select]

#########
## #######
  #
## #######
#########
Basically, making water flow diagonally will depressurize it. In the above setup, pressurized water can be added on the left, but the water after the diagonals will stay on that level.

[Scruga]

I prefer pumps, diagonals are so unrealistic

[gtmattz]

I have solved the running water issue by using the 'carve fortifications in the edge of the map' trick and then diverting the brook and simply let it keep flowing, as long as the water has somewhere to go it should not flood your fort.

[HatfieldCW]

I was just reading the wiki article on wells, and it says that the depth of the well contributes to its construction value.  Does that have an effect on the well's value for happy-thought-generation, or to the wealth of the fortress, or both?  I've been digging my wells to China, trying to max out their awesomeness, but if all it does is add 50 dwarfbucks to my fort's GNP and triple the time it takes to fish up a drink, then forget that noise.

[Grendus]

All water is considered stagnant unless it's either running (such as from a river or brook) or comes from a well. Get yourself a mechanism, block, bucket, and rope and set up a well over your cistern. The same water will cause no unhappy thoughts, just need a building over it.

On the flipside though, while the well will slightly increase the value of your fortress and might get a small happy thought from "admired a fine well", drinking from it will not give your dwarves a happy thought. Better to train up a legendary brewer or two and let them quench their thirst with "a truly decadent drink" than to just avoid the "has complained of thirst" and "drank stagnant water" unhappy thoughts. In other words, don't skimp on the alcohol just because you have water, booze is vital to the morale of your fortress.

[HatfieldCW]

So when someone brings a wounded dwarf water in a bucket, does that operation avoid the "nasty water" bad thought?

[joeyjo0]

Here's my fort:

http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-15864-high-pressurewaterreservoir

An example on how to remove pressure.

[ItchyBeard]

If you don't care about having an awesome well (e.g. you only need the water for fishing and injuries) you can use a floor hatch to block the upwards flow of the pressurised water.

Dwarves will safely drink/fish through a hatch if it's zoned as a water source. Just don't open it .