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Author Topic: Fresh Water  (Read 521 times)

Rainseeker

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Fresh Water
« on: February 07, 2008, 04:02:00 pm »
Is fresh water absolutely essential to a successful fort?  I have a small brook in the corner, way far away from my fort, about 12 down, where I would have to mine to get to.  Plus, its surrounded by Antmen and Ratmen who seem to like each other.  But not goats.  The poor goats they kill mercilessly.

Back to water... I have some stagnant pools available; can that be turned into fresh water somehow?

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Sowelu

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Re: Fresh Water
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2008, 04:04:00 pm »
Pools seem to dry up pretty fast, and they don't currently respawn.  Expect them to be gone within a year.

As for fresh water:  If no dwarf is injured, they'll all drink alcohol quite happily and not need water.  Injured dwarves tend to need someone to bring them water for recovery...or at least they did before a bug came in that makes nobody ever bring water for injured dwarves (in some conditions).

It's a good idea to get water to your fortress -some-how, but it's not that vital.  Just don't get hurt.

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Greiger

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Re: Fresh Water
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2008, 04:15:00 pm »
I typically just dig a big underground room at the waters level under my fortress and then just dig straight over to the water source and puncture it from the side.  No need to go anywhere near it on the surface.  And it's only a little bit dangerous. (my miner tends to escape 9/10 times with no swimming skill)

Depending on how far the water needs to travel you'll get water right away.

[ February 07, 2008: Message edited by: Greiger ]

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Skanky

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Re: Fresh Water
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2008, 05:49:00 pm »
Stagnant pools are fine to put into underground storage. The water is there only for emergencies to keep injured dwarves from dying. If they get a minor negative thought from stagnant water, so what? Much better than them getting a less minor negative thought from being dead!
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Forumsdwarf

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Re: Fresh Water
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2008, 10:03:00 pm »
Two advantages to having a constant, renewable water supply are power generators and artificial waterfalls.

The longer your "input channel" the less water your "infinite water supply" will provide, as unpressurized water flows slowly over a level surface.  If the brook is really far away and you want artificial waterfalls you might consider a 2-lane water main.  Active pumping and downward slopes are also options.

In my own fort a 1-lane horizontal water main 46 tiles long takes about 2 months (2/3 of a season) to completely top off from a dry start 2 generator loops, a well reservoir, and the main tank.

It was a dry start, incidentally, for a reason which teaches another lesson.  I drained the system for maintenance over the winter, which was dangerous given the 2 sieges I sustained without a water source.  If you have to perform maintenance or experiment on a water system do it in the spring.  Starting in late autumn I drained and refilled both systems so many times I used up both my reservoir and main tank and had no water for most of the winter.

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Narceh

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Re: Fresh Water
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2008, 05:16:00 am »
It's not overly dangerous to turn a small pool of water into a u-bend, from where you can direct water wherever you need it. I did some experiments with this without any experience with u-bends, and while I did manage to flood a small section of the tunnels used for digging out the system. If I did it again now I could do it without any risk at all.

Basically I have a u-bend connected to a water tank - which is strictly speaking not necessary. It is connected via a floodgate to another water tank. This tank has a floodgate that leads to a vertical shaft going both up and down. Downwards is another floodgate that connects to the underground water reserve of my fortress. This can easily be filled one tank at a time - I can drain the #2 tank, close access to the reserve and refill #2 by opening the floodgate to the u-bend.

Upwards is a windmill operated pump taking the water further to fill my moat. Water generated by u-bend apparently only has enough pressure to rise to the highest point of the u-bend. The floor I have the pump on is perfectly safe even with access open all the way to the u-bend, so when I'm filling the moat I have all floodgates open but the one leading to the water reserve.

I think I'm going to have some fun in the future toying with these... (until, of course, it's fixed, but then I just need a river)

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