Print

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

[Jazz]

My current Dwarf Fortress project is to push back the ocean using lots and lots of screw pumps powered by DPMT (Dwarven Perpetual Motion Technology  ) and build myself a glass city, since it seems to be the rage these days.

I had planned to have buildings include a certain feature, and I was wondering if the current version's water pressure calculations allow this to be possible.

code:

Water Entrance (Side):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~==========~~~
~~~=XXXXXXXX=~~~
~~~=XXXX=====~~~
~~~=~~~~=====~~~
~~~~~~~~=====~~~
~ denotes water
= denotes a wall
X denotes the building's inside space

Assume that other than a 4x4 square-shaped hole facing downward, the entire building is sealed. I assume that swimmer dwarves in Dwarf Mode won't use them, but if I were to construct something like this, would an Adventurer be able to swim between buildings and have the buildings still be air-tight?

I know that this design is possible in the scope of real-world physics, but I would appreciate it if someone would tell me whether this is possible in-game or not.

[Boksi]

This won't be possible until air pressure is included, I should think.

[Inyssius]

I suspect it may be possible to keep the water out using screw-pumps, like this--

code:

 Water Entrance (Side):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~===========~~~
~~~=XXXXXXXXX=~~~
~~~<%XXXXXXXX=~~~
~~~==X========~~~
~~~~~~========~~~
~~~~~~========~~~
or maybe even
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~=============~~
~~==XXXXXXXXX==~~
~~==XXXXXXXXX==~~
~~==XX=========~~
~~<XX>~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~=========~~
~ denotes water
= denotes a wall
X denotes the building's inside space
<% denotes a leftward-pumping screw-pump

--but that's entirely untested, so it may well result in watery death for whoever tries to build it.

[numerobis]

As described, your design would flood.  However, if you breach the surface of the ocean, then the flood wouldn't reach all the way up.

code:

    xxxxx
    x ___
~~~~x~x
~~~~~~x
~~~~xxx

just make sure not to be off by a level or you might get a dreaded u-bend.

[numerobis]

By the way, if you want a fortress with well over a thousand green glass blocks and a bunch of windows, I can send you mine.  I'm not working on it in the near future, but I'd hate to see my work go to waste.

[Jazz]

Well, I can try both designs. If one fails, I'll either figure out how to pump the water back out, or simply savescum and try a new design.

And as much as I appreciate the offer, the achievement of building an underwater fortress loses something when a lot of the work is done for you.

[numerobis]

Making thousands of glass blocks isn't exactly exciting, but whatever.

Your posted design definitely fails.  The design with a pump also fails, because the pump won't pump (it can't push water into a square with 7/7 water in it).  It also wouldn't work to exhaust the pump water up and out of the fortress, because of the way water pressure works.

[Lalandrathon]

Could you do a water-lock with hatches and a pressure plate set to a certain water level on the z-level below your main operations that closes the hatch?

[Basilisk]

Lalandrathon has a good idea. You can block the pressure without blocking the water itself by using a pump.

code:

Water Entrance (Side):
 WWW
~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~|==========~~~
~~|=XXXXXXXX=~~~
~~*=XXXX=====~~~
~~%>~~~~=====~~~
~~~=----=====~~~
~   Water
=   Wall
-   Hatches or walls
X   Open Space
%>  Pump
*   Gears
|   Axle
WWW Windmill

The power is the trickiest part, I think, since there isn't a good way to have the power source be inside the fort, and also give power to the pump that sticks outside.

This design is kind of like a windmill-powered submarine: completely ridiculous.

[Derakon]

I think he was actually referring to something like the following:

code:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
~~~==========~~~
~~~=XXXXXXXX=~~~
~~~=XXXX=====~~~
~~~==A=======~~~
~~~=\~~/=====~~~
~~~==B=======~~~
~~~~~~~~=====~~~

A and B are hatches, one of which is linked to \ and the other to /, which are both levers. Normally B is open; you can swim in, pull its lever (thereby blocking the pressure from the ocean), and then pull A's lever to gain access to the fort without flooding it.

I don't think pressure plates would work without pumps, as there's no way to un-set the pressure plate unless the water has somewhere to drain to, which it doesn't without pumps. But the above manual solution should work fine.