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[zecro]

I think I get what you mean. Do this for your lower drain and it will work like you want it to:

Code: [Select]

7777777777▓
▓▓▓7▓7▓7▓7▓
▓▓#▓#▓#▓#▓▓
When the pressure plate on the topmost level is at 7/7, open these four gates, and close the ones that feed your cistern. Then when a plate on the [drain level]+1 is less than 4/7, close the drain, and open the ones that feed your cistern.

This way you'll just have regular flow and not a WTFHAX pressure thing that would kill your FPS more than this would.

edit: Specifically, the diagonals are what make you lose pressure, and you need to lose pressure unless you want everything to drain instantly.

[Jhoosier]

Even if this is possible, should I even bother trying it on an average computer, or will I need a Cray to get a framerate that is two digits?

Once, just for a laugh, I embarked on an oceanside map to check out the new caverns in the new version.  Somehow I got an ocean without an aquifer below it, usually they do.  So I dig down and the first cavern is only 5z below the beach, and I start thinking hmm, wouldn't it be fun if I tunnelled up into the ocean and had it drain away?

Well, I dug up with a series of ramps from the cavern floor right into the ocean.  My computer did a good impression of a person giving birth to an alien that was growing inside their brain.  5 or 6 minutes later, I could see half the first layer of ocean had gone and was filling the cavern extremely rapidly, eventually it filled as much as it could before it was draining from the edges faster than it was going down the hole, and I had a nice healthy 3-4 FPS.

tl;dr: your plan is doomed to hair-pulling frustration and will eventually be turned off.

There's a map someone posted on the forums with an underwater volcano.  Upon embarking, your computer will freeze for a long time as the water and magma react, and the water drains down away somewhere, maybe a pit.  It's a mess.

As for the OP, zecro's comment before me is what I was going to suggest.  Never tried it myself, though I've got a small underground pool in my cavern that would be ideal for something like this (now that I have the major river above feeding into it.

[Shoku]

Water will actually slow down to a trickle that moves so slow it evaporates when you eliminate pressure like that do make sure the floodgates are near the edge or wherever the water is going if you want it to be useful.

If that isn't possible you can sort of reintroduce pressure by just going over a few tiles then dropping one level.


Without pressure 1/7 skitters around on top of however many other sevenths are on that level until it finds a lower number to fall down on. This ends up really slow when the 7/7 has to travel twenty tiles to find a 5/7 to fall onto. However if it just has to move 3 tiles then goes back to having pressure shoot it over to the first available space it will be a lot faster.

Again, you should test this stuff to get a feel for it before a huge project relies on it.