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[quinquan]

Gather round children and let me tell you an epic tale of glory, wonder and.....glory.

In my latest fortress, Iridastesh, more commonly called Rhythmiccudgels, I decided to mine out an exposed bauxite vein visible from the beneath the ocean, but a few z levels above most of my fortress. All was going well until I accidentally mined out the wrong piece of rock without realising. A tiny gap to the ocean was opened without my noticing and seawater rushed in. Finally I started getting messages of cancelled actions due to dangerous terrain and I sprung into action designating a wall to be built to stop the incoming tide and ordering all the accessible bauxite to be brought to safety.

Problem solved I thought, but no after building two of the three pieces of wall to block the corridor, all of my masons (about ten including all the amateur peasant masons in my block making gulag), decided to take a simultaneous break as the water flowed steadily closer and closer to my defenseless fortress. After a few tense moments the inevitable happened, the water reached my unfinished wall, making it unbuildable due to dangerous terrain, my fortress was lost I thought and was ready to give up.

I then realised that my wall however was slowing down the water enough so only a trickle was getting past, and after a few modifications involving an alternate path for the water to flow down and a floodgate for good measure, instead of a watery tomb for my dwarves, through blind luck I had instead created my first mist generator right down my main staircase, making all my dwarves ecstatic, despite the fact that in reality their fort was extremely slowly filling up with seawater.

Now instead of a normal fortress with no real special features which I was on the verge of quitting I have a fortress slowly filling with water (I estimate years until it even fills my bottom level) and a mist generator down my main staircase. Does anyone else have any stories about horrible mistakes that came so close to disaster, but instead had awesome unexpected consequences?

[smigenboger]

if you really wanted to, you may be able to pump the seawater out faster than it comes in, and reclaim part of your fort

[quinquan]

All of my fortress is still safe and above the water level at the moment, the water is coming in so slowly the my fortress is safe. If necessary, I'll carve fortifications into the edge of the map to let the water escape from the edge of my bottom level.

[slink]

Don't try to use the edge-of-map fortifications to drain a fortress with ocean on the map.  Or at least make a backup first.  In my experience, DF thinks maps with oceans on them have water coming in all four sides and you will let water into your fortress instead of out.

[DennyTom]

Once I accidentally dumped a brook right in my dining hall. Almost everyone was unable to escape due to my poor fort design and dangerous terrain. The miner was first one to go as he was trapped in the lowest level and was not fast enough to carve himself stairs up.
If I remember correctly only mason and bookkeeper and lots of dogs managed to get out through prepared canal for dumping the excess water back in the brook. I ordered them to build some workshops in almost empty river bed (is brook bed proper english?). The two guys survived over an year in the brook. When I realised I could save them by tearing down the workshops and building a staircase, it already was not possible due to dangerous terrain.

It was very funny. I had a quite functional mini fort completely closed from outer world and two guys surviving in a brook unable to get out. The elven, human and dwarf caravan came a left, walking right above heads of my two brook guys. Then the water finally reached the top levels and dwarves were drowning. Only two survivors were throwing tantrums, killing dogs and fishes, filling the brook with blood. And then a Baron came. I gave him some time to lure immigrants. The fort was ended with the death of Baron - he was killed by wolf when hunting for vermin.

[quinquan]

Don't try to use the edge-of-map fortifications to drain a fortress with ocean on the map.  Or at least make a backup first.  In my experience, DF thinks maps with oceans on them have water coming in all four sides and you will let water into your fortress instead of out.

I realise this now...unfortunately, my fortress is now filling with water much quicker, should be Fun to see how long I can last. I'm contemplating waiting for migrants then sealing my current doomed fortress with all dwarves inside and rebuilding using only the migrants and the bare essentials which I'm going to transport outside while this fortress slowly succumbs to drowning, starvation and booze depravation, just because, you know...I can.

[Bryan Derksen]

If you've got enough time before the lowest level fills you could build a water-triggered repeater whose sole purpose is to "consume" water via atom-smashing. Heck, even if you don't have time you could use a system like this to drain the fort and reclaim it after it finishes flooding- dig down beside your fort, build the water-eater below the lowest level, then breach the wall. Of course this only works if your repeater is eating water faster than it flows in, so make it large. The slowness of the ocean flow thanks to the partial wall will help you here.

I have long desired an accidental flooding like this, I think it would be awesome fun to reclaim a "lost" fortress by slowly draining it and uncovering its treasures one floor at a time.