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[praguepride]

So I've got a fortress on a small 4x4 map. I know it's got an underground river and I know it's in one of the two southeastern squares (I remember it's south of my magma pipe from the embark screen). I've done the standard "dig out the edges of the map every 3rd level") but I still haven't found it. Then I started cross patching it so now in my bottom 15 levels, every 3rd level is a patchwork of 20x20 unmined areas with tunnels all around and I STILL haven't found it.

So that raises some questions:

1) How small can the river be if it doesn't touch an edge? I've heard of underground rivers that start and end without touching a border, but how small can they get?

2) How high up can they be? My map has 50 z-levels, but only 15 are below "ground level" the rest are high up in the mountains. I haven't bothered digging up for the water because above ground level the mountain doesn't touch the borders anymore.

I'm tempted to use reveal as I've been digging for weeks IRL and still haven't found that blasted river!

[ThtblovesDF]

I had one that went straight for 15 titles and then just rushed down a hole for nearly 30 z levels.

[Shades]

pretty small is the answer.

You could have done the trade deport 'trick' but I don't know if you can now you've dug out so much. And that would only give you the local area you'd still have to find it.

Lots of parallel mine shafts should find it, do them one shift (11 squares) apart and you'd be unlucky to miss it. Possible still though as it might be less wide than that.

[Awayfarer]

Well, they can be at least this small...



From an old fort of mine. I spent HOURS digging up the place looking for it, got frustrated and just used reveal. I savescummed after I knew where to find it. I mostly prefer to be surprised as to what's on the map, but this was ridiculous.

I'd suggest the savescum/reveal route.

[Savok]

I would recommend starting with a save WITHOUT severely tunneled ground, building a trade depot, and then searching the underground with D. The black areas are loaded into memory and therefore contain something.

[Musluk]

Well, they can be at least this small...

From an old fort of mine. I spent HOURS digging up the place looking for it, got frustrated and just used reveal. I savescummed after I knew where to find it. I mostly prefer to be surprised as to what's on the map, but this was ridiculous.

I'd suggest the savescum/reveal route.

Agreed. Last few I had were only around 3x10 size, spanning two z-levels, with a chasm going down like, 15 zlevels. First time I got an underground river, I expected to see honeycombs of caves... full with zombie carp and what have you, but eh. Just 3 olmman and a few fish that fell into the chasm.

I would recommend starting with a save WITHOUT severely tunneled ground, building a trade depot, and then searching the underground with D. The black areas are loaded into memory and therefore contain something.

I've never managed that. Then again, if you both have a magma pipe and a water source, the depot kinda borks, I guess.

[Time Kitten]

My last river was two map tiles long and 1 z level, no chasm, waterfall, no outlet, 60 olm men... and I found it by cutting out a waterfall tile as i was making a large ditch around my future mountaintop statue garden.

[praguepride]

My last river was two map tiles long and 1 z level, no chasm, waterfall, no outlet, 60 olm men... and I found it by cutting out a waterfall tile as i was making a large ditch around my future mountaintop statue garden.

C/D that your river was a 2x1 tile? If that's the case how did you ever find it?

[pushy]

My last river was two map tiles long and 1 z level, no chasm, waterfall, no outlet, 60 olm men... and I found it by cutting out a waterfall tile as i was making a large ditch around my future mountaintop statue garden.

C/D that your river was a 2x1 tile? If that's the case how did you ever find it?

By "two map tiles", he's referring to tiles in the region map (y'know when people say they're embarking on a 3x4 map or whatever? Same sort of thing here), not on the location where he's embarked


The pic Awayfarer posted is NEARLY as small as they come. Cut that piddly little thing in half (possibly even smaller than that) and you've got one that I had in one game. The "river" itself was only about 6x5 and then dropped down a 12 z-level chasm.

[Hyndis]

Use reveal to find the river. Then remember where it is, such as jotting down the location on a piece of paper. Then alt-tab and shut down the game without saving. Restart the game, and now with the knowledge of how to get to the river, go ahead and mine.

Its much easier to find when you know the general location of the river, but I have having everything revealed. The screen is just ugly that way. 

[Zaranthan]

More importantly, if you use Reveal, the river never gets "discovered," so you don't get underground plants.