Print

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

[ragincajun]

Can you have as many wells as you want in a row into one water source? 


w (wells)
w
w
w
w
o (Open room but no well placed)
w
o
o
o
w
W (water source (3-z levels deep)

I seem to recall seeing an LP with multiple wells in the same shaft.  I'm getting good wells 2-3 levels above the water source...but above that they are reading Dry even though they are in the same shaft...could my floors with no well be affecting that or does the chains/buckets only reach so far?  (I know I've had 20+ levels between a well and a cavern water source before but only tried one well...)

[Mostali]

Yup, it's wells all the way down.  I'd say check to make sure you have channeled holes in every floor in between.  I don't know an actual height limitation, there very well could be one.  But I've stacked at least five vertical wells in a single column.

[ragincajun]

Yup, it's wells all the way down.  I'd say check to make sure you have channeled holes in every floor in between.  I don't know an actual height limitation, there very well could be one.  But I've stacked at least five vertical wells in a single column.

OK, so channelling a floor...but not putting a well...would screw up the upper level wells.  Good to know.

[Mostali]

No - ambiguity of the word "channel" - I meant the verb.  There must be either a hole or a well on every floor of the column.  A floor or anything that behaves as a floor (e.g. up ramp) will block the well.  I don't know how it reacts with stairs, but don't imagine stairs in the column will work either.

[ragincajun]

OK..then I'm at a loss.  I've got "well rooms" dug out for about six levels.  I've got a channel (well hole) dug out in each floor.  I currently have wells on the bottom two levels (living and dining areas and the top area (hospital).  So levels 2, 3 and 4 are open (no wells...but they DO have a hole), yet the hospital well is showing DRY

[PatrikLundell]

Unless it's excessive work, I'd try to install wells in all of the well free areas of the well shaft and see if that resolves the problem and, if not, how high up you get the wells working.
This is pure unsubstantiated speculation, but I wouldn't be totally surprised if build order (probably designation, but possibly finish) matters. For instance, a well might work only if it has unobstructed access to the water when designated/built, but won't reevaluate the situation based on wells placed later.
If you've got nothing better to do (or is sufficiently curious or bloody minded) you might do some !!science!!.

[greycat]

I've never actually done it, but the wiki article says:

It is possible to build wells directly above one another, and they will still function if there is water below. They will not obstruct one another, as they are not impassible structures. Hatches, floor bars and floor grates will block well functionality, if they are between it and the water, but grates and bars will not stop water from flooding out. Grates, bars and hatches will allow functionality again if opened with a lever. It is perfectly reasonable to have multiple well openings drawing from a single water source, as a well only cares about the tile in a straight line below it. Wells cannot function through a stairwell. It is possible to have obstacles beneath a well, with the well continuing to function, if the surface of the water is above the obstacles.

[Panando]

I'd like to point out that dwarves can actually run up and down stairs faster than a well bucket can travel, it's easier and faster to just put a grate over a water tile set it as a water source and let them get water by bucket, running down however many stairs are required. They only get a unhappy thought from not having a well if they are drinking the water directly, if they are merely getting a bucket of water for giving to a sick dwarf or for filling a pond zone they are not bothered at all by the lack of a well, also only one dwarf can use a well at a time (and they even hog it while drinking the water) but infinity dwarves can use a single water tile at a time. And if they are drinking water it's because you've run out of booze and so have much worse problems than the lack of a well.

[Mostali]

That's an interesting point.  I have stopped building well stacks, but for a different reason.  My dwarves used to use them all the time, so multiple wells had functional value.  Now with other distractions available the only things I ever see lurking around a well is the outpost liaison and pets.  So these days I build pretty much the smallest reservoir I can manage and a single well.  I do this in the first six months or so of the fort for safe clean water, then forget about it.

In my current fort, four years in, the only evidence I have that dwarves have used the well at all is three buckets laying about with nine units of water each.