Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Marshall Burns]

I like to build wells in my hospitals so the doctors don't have to go too far to get water. At first, what I did was build a cistern underneath the hospital and tap it into a river (or other water source), using a floodgate linked to a lever to cut off the cistern from the water source before it flooded (I don't use the diagonal baffles in this case, because they slow down the flow too much and I want the cistern to fill quickly). The problem with this set up is, when they use up all the water in the cistern, you have to pull the lever to let it back in, then pull the lever to close it back off. Too much supervision required.

So, what I did this time was put a pressure plate in the cistern linked to a bridge that, when raised, would block off the cistern. I set the pressure plate to be activated only by 7/7 water. When I first tapped into the river, the cistern filled with some slight (but inconsequential) flooding in the hospital before the bridge raised.

So far, so good. The problem came when the water level dropped enough for the bridge to drop. It quickly refilled, and then...

...well, you know how if you pull and re-pull a lever to quickly, how one of the signals gets missed by the engine? Yeah, well, that happens with pressure plates too. The bridge never raised again.

Three drowned dwarves later, I remembered that I had an emergency floodgate between the river and the cistern, in case of such a mechanical failure.

Next time, I'm gonna set the pressure plate to lower the bridge at 4/7, and raise it at 6/7. Learn from my mistakes, folks!

[Girlinhat]

Or build your cistern deeper, if there's 2 levels and it's set to plate at 7/7, it should trigger before the second layer fills.

[Jake]

Better still, site the actual well at the same level as the water source. If that means your medics have to carry the victims of a mining accident up a few flights of stairs, so be it.

[krenshala]

You probably still want it to (re)fill at 4/7, even with it being more than one z-level deep.

[ikkonoishi]

Make an overflow tunnel at the lowest level of your fortress that leads to the edge of the map, and then carve fortifications on the map edge. Water will drain off.

[Lamphare]

flood your hospital!


but seriously, you could build a trench right below you hospital level, and assign pond to fill it. as it's full, change zone to water source, so your dwarf should happily use it.

[Girlinhat]

The problem is that dwarves invariably attempt to draw water from the well, in order to fill the pond zone under it, and this isn't quite as hilarious as it seems.  Even assigning a water source zone seems to have unreliable results.  Plus it's not always possible.  Once you get larger than a 5x5 area to be filled, the water starts to evaporate faster than dwarves put it in, unless you go overboard with some 30 dwarves assigned to pond duty, but if you have that much spare labor you have other concerns really.

[j0nas]

My general solution for these kinds of scenarios, and basically any scenario involving water pressure, is the diagonal pressure reset:

Code: [Select]

#####
WWW##
###V#
#####

Legend:
# - wall
W - pressurized water, treat with caution!
V - pressure-reset water, this water will not flow upward from here

This way, water will 'leak' through the diagonal and into your well, which stays full permanently as long as the pressurized water next to it remains, but will make it impossible for water to flow upward from your well since the water below it is unpressurized.  I think this is an intended game mechanic so I don't see it as cheese, but that part comes down to personal preference.

[Marshall Burns]

Yeah, I know. But it takes forever for it to fill that way. I want instant results. So what if a few dozen dwarves drown? This is Vesselbone, not some elf commune.

[Dorf3000]

Yeah, I know. But it takes forever for it to fill that way. I want instant results. So what if a few dozen dwarves drown? This is Vesselbone, not some elf commune.

So dig a regular water tunnel that allows full flow, and put the floodgate in a corner.  Whenever you need the cistern to fill quickly, open the gate, when you want the pressure regulation, close it again.

Code: [Select]

####
  X#
## #
 # #


[Uristocrat]

I just keep my reservoir fully sealed and pressurized, but build + shaped walls (with no wall in the center of the +) beneath every well shaft on any level where water can get beneath the well shaft from the side.  That prevents water pressure from letting water come up, out of the well, while allowing my cisterns to be continually fed from the river or brook.  Yes, there is a shutoff floodgate, but I don't actually use it.  It's also not something you can easily tap into again, without shutting it off and draining it (something you have to plan for ahead of time), but I generally make just two wells:  one in the hospital, and a meeting area well to admire, so it's not really a problem to design all that ahead of time.