I just started the game and have lost my first half-dozen citadels- starvation, dehydration, massive flooding.. You know, the usual issues.
I'm trying to build an underground well (or rather a huge, deep cistern that I can put a well over), and I've run into some problems with floodgates- clearly, I'm doing it wrong.
1) Basically, when I build a choke-point in a tunnel for putting in a floodgate, once I put the floodgate in, I can't get the @#*& miner dwarf to cross the floodgate, and make the connecting tunnel segment. I've tried connecting the (dry) floodgate to a lever, and having someone flip the lever, but this doesn't seem to change the dwarf's ability to get there (so maybe I did that wrong too).
An illustration may help explain my issue:
F=Floodgate, L=Lever, .=Open Space(falls 7 levels), X=Wall, +=Floor, ~=Water
code:
~XXXXXXXX
~XF+++..+ <-- miner comes from here
~XXXXXL++
XXXX
I'd really like to dig out that last wall segment between the floodgate and the river (yes, I know, double-floodgates is much safer, but for the moment, I'm just trying to get the thing working at all!) but regardless of how many times I've flipped the lever, the miner refuses to path to the marked brick. (I've actually got grates over the pit, and verified that he can still reach the tunnel, because he'll go in and mine the sides of it)
I assume I have to put in the floodgate BEFORE I flood the tunnel (I lost a couple of citadels trying that in the other order). I *think* I connected the lever to the floodgate properly. If it matters, this is one level below ground, tapping the bottom of a surface stream.
2) Is there some trick here, which I missed?
[ February 24, 2008: Message edited by: Pearnamer ]