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Author Topic: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms  (Read 1651 times)

HraTaika

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Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« on: July 28, 2012, 04:05:49 am »

A quick question, now that I started my danger room I've drowned three recruits already and was wondering how to prevent this.

Basically I've go a 10L x 3W training room, witht the tiles next to the wall channeled out and filled with 7/7 water.


EDIT: After changing the water dept from 7/7 to 5/7, I've had zero deaths during the course of 6 seasons.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2012, 04:51:44 am by HraTaika »
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celem

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2012, 04:33:16 am »

I've not seen this done with water channels before, im guessing you want to train swimming on your army as they dodge traps?  Very nice idea.

Heres why they drown:
When a dwarf submerges he gets stunned, this means its a little while before he can climb the ramp out.  A creature with 0 swimming whatsoever has a great deal of difficulty moving while submerged, so my guess is your recruits just dont manage in the window after they unstun and before they drown.  This should vanish very quickly, even a novice swimmer should probably make it out all the time if they are just falling onto a 7/7 ramp back up.  (you do have a ramp right?  exiting without one requires a more serious degree of swimming skill).  Experiment in adventure mode as a dwarf with varying levels of swimmer to see what you are happy with them dealing with.

Unfortunatly training swimming without risk of drowning is very hard if the creature is starting from 0.  If you must have swimming military then heres some ways to tweak the game (mod):
Give your dwarves [NO_STUN] - no regen needed, once they hit novice you could take this off again, it also gives dwarves an extra edge in combat.
Give all dwarves Novice swimmer to start with - needs world regen
Look into a custom workshop to train swimming.  I can highly recommend the swimming pool from Deon's Genesis mod, manager profile it to only be used by military and set swim to repeat, when off duty they will do a few laps once in a while and skill up to the point where they can survive your danger room - regen world required (i think, new reactions n all)
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HraTaika

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2012, 04:43:51 am »

I've not seen this done with water channels before, im guessing you want to train swimming on your army as they dodge traps
 

Indeed, that is the planned function. Apparently, from what I gathered from several obscure topics, if my water level is 7/7 the drowning effect is more dangerous, compared to 5/7 for example. Will test this next, hopefully without any furter deaths.
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celem

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2012, 04:46:26 am »

yes, 5/7 is the point at which they swim.  3/7 i believe is what qualifies as dangerous terrain for cancelations.

I was about to warn against mothers with babies incase they drown....but its a danger room, you are dealing with that or about to hit DF learning curve 101

incidentally i love the idea and am stealing it immediately
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zeziba

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2012, 07:24:58 am »

If you are training swiming you have to have 2-z lvls open or it out in te open even in 4/7 they can drown in a 1-z water chamber because they can't "come up" for air!
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Quietust

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2012, 08:07:52 am »

yes, 5/7 is the point at which they swim.  3/7 i believe is what qualifies as dangerous terrain for cancelations.
Incorrect - 4/7 is both the point at the tile is considered dangerous terrain and when they start to swim.
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Triaxx2

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2012, 12:15:49 pm »

And since it's built into a danger room, where it's possible to fall into it, he definitely has an air space above it.
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HraTaika

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2012, 04:51:15 am »

After changing the water dept from 7/7 to 5/7, I've had zero deaths during the course of 6 seasons. It seems that the 7/7 somehow 'too much' for the dwarves when they fall to water.
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greycat

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2012, 01:38:21 pm »

After changing the water dept from 7/7 to 5/7, I've had zero deaths during the course of 6 seasons. It seems that the 7/7 somehow 'too much' for the dwarves when they fall to water.

Correct.
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weenog

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #9 on: July 29, 2012, 03:06:58 pm »

I've not seen this done with water channels before, im guessing you want to train swimming on your army as they dodge traps?  Very nice idea.

Example of one such setup:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The doors do a decent job of keeping unwanted animals out.  Not so much for infants, hence the gore in the pool.
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chronicpayne

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2012, 11:43:35 am »

When creating these swimming chambers, what are some tips on ensuring the correct amount of water ?

 Seems pumps tend to work at very high speeds, making it hard to set the levels i want.


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weenog

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2012, 12:00:45 pm »

When creating these swimming chambers, what are some tips on ensuring the correct amount of water ?

 Seems pumps tend to work at very high speeds, making it hard to set the levels i want.

I got too much with a pump the first time I tried to use pump filling, too.  I just fine tuned the level by making a water source activity zone adjacent to (not over, next to) the swimming area, and a pond activity zone somewhere I didn't mind having waste water, and letting the dwarves bucket fill the pond from the source for a little while.

Remember to remove the activity zones after the water level is where you want it.
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Listen up: making a thing a ‼thing‼ doesn't make it more awesome or extreme.  It simply indicates the thing is on fire.  Get it right or look like a silly poser.

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wuphonsreach

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #12 on: August 13, 2012, 03:13:10 pm »

When creating these swimming chambers, what are some tips on ensuring the correct amount of water ?

 Seems pumps tend to work at very high speeds, making it hard to set the levels i want.

One trick is to fill it to 7/7, then channel out adjacent tiles to spread the water out until it's back down to 5/7.  Which requires a little bit of math to get exactly right.
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Hyndis

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Re: Preventing Drowning in Danger Rooms
« Reply #13 on: August 13, 2012, 03:37:42 pm »

When creating these swimming chambers, what are some tips on ensuring the correct amount of water ?

 Seems pumps tend to work at very high speeds, making it hard to set the levels i want.

One trick is to fill it to 7/7, then channel out adjacent tiles to spread the water out until it's back down to 5/7.  Which requires a little bit of math to get exactly right.

Using a door linked to a lever also works. A door cannot crush items or creatures, but it can crush water and magma (assuming magma safe door and mechanism of course).

You can fill it up to 7/7, then pull the lever to open the door. That will create a space of 0/7, and the water level will drop to fill in equally. You can then pull the lever more to atom smash away more water, eventually even draining the entire area to be completely dry if you atom smash the water to 1/7.
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