Print

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

[Arkenstone]

I had this idea, one which would let me hook up hook up hundereds of water weels in a perpetual motion machine with very low amounts of flowing water, and therefore theoretically low amounts of lag.  The way it works is that if water "passes through" other water due to water pressure, then (theoretically) the water it "passes through" will count as "flowing".  The question though is whether or not the water weels will stop the water from flowing up through them, causing much Fun.

If they do, then can water wheels run off of water flowing above them, or to the side?  if so then I can run the water down a "pipe" made entirely of water wheels...

[Sphalerite]

The center tile of a water wheel blocks the flow of water.  The two side tiles are transparent to the flow of water.

Water wheels need to be located above flowing water to work.  DF can be very strange about when it decides water is flowing.  Quite frequently it will not agree with you on whether the water under the water wheels is flowing or not.  I'm not sure if the rules have been worked out.  I am fairly certain that your idea about water tagging other water as flowing when it teleports through does not work, however.

[Uristocrat]

Someone a while back made a post where they believed you could get a reservoir to have "permanent flow" (like an aquifer) if it was filled with a pump until it was 7/7 everywhere and it had no exits & wasn't allowed to evaporate.

I don't know if that's true or not (it might also have been from being water on the surface when there's a brook), but it might be something to test.

I do know that massive waterwheel setups often have power problems related to flow.  Good luck.

[Arkenstone]

If by power problems you mean CPU power, that's why I wanted to use water pressure.  The way water pressure works is that water gets "teleported" from one spot to another, so that means very little water is actually moving.

[Quietust]

I've found that if you allow a body of water to start flowing off the edge of the map (e.g. through a fortification drain) while being replenished by a river, it will acquire permanent flow, even if it's several Z-levels below the river. I've had this happen in 2 different fortresses so far, and it's allowed me to "turn off" all of my water reactors and still get 100% power out of them.

[Hans Lemurson]

If by power problems you mean CPU power, that's why I wanted to use water pressure.  The way water pressure works is that water gets "teleported" from one spot to another, so that means very little water is actually moving.

Pressure-teleportation does NOT turn water-wheels.  I found this out the hard way when trying to come up with a new water-reactor design that pumped water around in a loop.

[Uristocrat]

If by power problems you mean CPU power, that's why I wanted to use water pressure.  The way water pressure works is that water gets "teleported" from one spot to another, so that means very little water is actually moving.

The power problems I was talking about were problems related to not having enough flow for giant water-wheel contraptions.  In other words, having them stall under heavy load.

But yes, there are FPS problems too.

[Arkenstone]

So much for that idea then...

Although.....  If I remember correctly isn't any water in contact with a river considered flowing even if full?

Eh, it doesn't matter really...  I think I should start a new physics investigation thread though, I have so many ideas that are untested!

[Kanddak]

To build large power plants your fundamental task is to trick the game into keeping water flagged as "flowing" even when no water is moving anywhere.
My favorite method is to dig a channel in an aquifer, then pond a bucket of water into the channel from a z-level above. The bucket water will disappear into the aquifer and the channel will permanently flow thereafter.