AAARRRGH!... :mad: ... I cannot BELIEVE that it took me this long to figure out how to fill an indoor well properly!
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: :rofl:
First, I'll explain the situation: I'm playing on my "Rocky Spire" map, which has one big disadvantage... it has no surface water except Ponds (which freeze solid in the winter), and it's so friggin' HUGE that I haven't yet found my underground river. It's hidden somewhere deep inside my 123 levels of stone.
... so any injured Dwarves are always in danger of dying of dehydration during the winter, when the Ponds are frozen solid. Eventually, I intend to channel Magma to a spot just underneath one of the Ponds, to keep it heated during the winter. EVENTUALLY, I may even find that mythical underground river.
But none of that helps me at the present moment.
As a stop-gap (
Plan A), I decided to build a "dry" well indoors, designate it as a Pond/Pit, and have my Dwarves fill it up during the summer (by bucket-brigade from the nearest Pond), and then use it as an emergency water source (for treating the wounded) during the winter.
This didn't work. :mad:
The well filled very slowly, never getting deeper than 3/7, partly due to the fact that as each bucket-brigade Dwarf dumped in some water, he would just negligently toss the bucket down next to the well instead of putting it back in the Furniture stockpile... so the next Dwarf to draw bucket-brigade duty couldn't FIND the damn bucket, and would just cancel the order and do something else.
So (
Plan B), I made a whole CRAP-LOAD of buckets.
This
also didn't work...:mad: ... I just ended up with a whole crap-load of abandoned buckets lying next to my well, while my bucket-brigade Dwarves wandered off to find other duties.
So (
Plan C), I cleverly designated
all of the tiles adjacent to the well as a Furniture stockpile which holds only buckets... that way, when one of my stupid bucket-brigade Dwarves pours in some water and negligently tosses the bucket aside... it automatically lands back in the stockpile!
This
ALSO didn't work... the water level in the well
still never rose above 3/7, and I was at my wit's end trying to figure out why.
Then it finally hit me... FACEPALM!
As soon as the water level reaches 3/7, the well becomes usable... and at that point, instead of hiking outside to get water to pour into the well, my insane Dwarves were simply drawing water OUT OF THE WELL, and pouring it back in... then happily tossing the bucket aside, satisfied with a job well done.
AAARRRGH! :mad:
... so (
Plan D), I used 't' to access the well's components, forbid them all with 'f', and sat back to watch. In less than a minute, my well was filling smoothly towards the 7/7 mark.