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[GavJ]

Just designed this, and it works pretty well, is foolproof and safe for dwarves, easy to do, doesn't require much setup (if you have an ocean or aquifer or an artificial infinite source already sitting around)

Basically, just build a swimming pool the size you want to hold sufficient dwarves at once.  It can't be tooo big though, since it should be within the immediate "wave influence zone" of a single pump (maybe about 10 blocks max in any direction). Let's say, for example, a 10x7 room.

This is hooked up via a floodgate to a two story reservoir (with a roof one Z level higher than the pool), which is exactly 5/7 the size of the swimming pool in area, so in our example, 50 blocks in area, or perhaps 5x10.  This room is constantly fed by the ocean or an aquifer or something.

The swimming pool then has a little balcony, with a pump on it, that pumps out water in the swimming pool and throws it off of a cliff or something (there won't be very much water).  To train your dwarves:

1) get them in the room with a meeting area, burrow, or military order.
2) lock the door
3) One guy begins to pumps the pump on the balcony manually.
4) Another guy flips the floodgate open, which immediately floods the room to 5/7 depth, and sloshes the dwarves around, giving them swimming training.  After that they stop moving on their own, though.
5) So you close the floodgate.  Now the pump operator sucks them all over to the other side, and they slosh over that way, while the water is still deep enough for more swimming training.
6) Maybe 20 seconds later, the reservoir is recharged, and you can flood them again.   This time it will go up to 6/7 since there is still some water left.  No big deal, they still don't drown.
7) Repeat 2-3 times for "Adequate" swimming skill, and which point they should be perfectly able to not die if they fall in the water.


This is not the machine to use if you wanna make your guys into veritable Navy SEALS.  For that you would want some sort of continuous flow automated dwarf swimming grinder.  That's harder than it sounds, though.  I tried forever, and they kept flowing through my grates (just like sea life does at 7/7) and getting stuck /drowning / not learning... This is for those who would like to give dwarves a fighting chance, but don't want to put in the effort of a crazy swimming grinder.

[miauw62]

Nice, but could you give some screenshots, or some ASCII art?

[GavJ]

My screenshots are horribly confusing, because I have this thing woven in and around a bunch of other complicated gears and water devices doing unrelated things.

hmm, ASCII...

                                              ________
<-[pump]                               [              ] <--fed with aquifer, etc. from above
               [_._._._._._._] <F> [_._._._._]

F = floodgate.
The bigger, shallower room is the pool.
NOTE: I don't know how to show it in ASCII art, but the pump should not be opposite.  It should be on a wall 90 degrees or something from the reservoir.  Otherwise you don't slosh them back and fort in different directions.




Actually, I personally have ANOTHER (optional) room in between the reservoir and the aquifer.  It is 3 stories tall and the size of a football field.  It routes to all kinds of things and is big enough that I can instantly fill the swimming pool reservoir over and over again without having to wait for it to recharge.  As well as insta-filling plenty of other machines.  Then it fills up whenever I'm doing non-water related things, so I pretty much never have to wait for water to slowly do stuff.

Pressure mechanics cause the entire top floor of the reservoir (right side) to empty instantaneously into the pool to exactly the desired depth, which makes this pretty quick to turn back and forth..

[Azure]

I just stationed them on a retracting bridge above a loooooooooong tunnel of 6/7 and 7/7 water and let nature run. The 7/7 stunned them and made them swim longer and since it was only around 1/5 of the total volume nobody was in 7/7 long enough to drown. Took a bit but they got trained eventually.

[NonconsensualSurgery]

Is there a way to make dwarves free themselves if the path length to dry land is longer than 20 tiles? I've built several automated dwarf washers but this puts an inconvenient limit on how fast they can train swimming.

[SuicideJunkie]

Why not have the pump slosh the water around to somewhere else in the pool so it doesn't run out?
The mist as it splashes back into the pool will generate happy thoughts too!

Here's another possibility that I came across while trying to dig through a multi-level aquifer.
1) Channel a drain tile to the second aquifer level.
2) Dig out a room in the first aquifer to an appropriate size.  (TBD)
3) Designate a construction in the room to be removed.

Dwarves will run in and try to deconstruct the wall, only to be washed away from it.  At that point they lose their work progress and gain swim skills.  I don't think they can cancel the designation, so it should be completely automatic.

[krenshala]

Why not have the pump slosh the water around to somewhere else in the pool so it doesn't run out?
The mist as it splashes back into the pool will generate happy thoughts too!

Here's another possibility that I came across while trying to dig through a multi-level aquifer.
1) Channel a drain tile to the second aquifer level.
2) Dig out a room in the first aquifer to an appropriate size.  (TBD)
3) Designate a construction in the room to be removed.

Dwarves will run in and try to deconstruct the wall, only to be washed away from it.  At that point they lose their work progress and gain swim skills.  I don't think they can cancel the designation, so it should be completely automatic.

They don't lose their work progress.  Once enough ticks have been spent deconstructing/smoothing/building the job is finished, no matter how many dwarves it takes (in series) to get the job done.  This does seem like a good way to do it, however.  My take on your suggestion:

A long hallway with a drain grate at one end, and a water source at the other (preferable at 7/7 where it enters the hallway).  + floor, = floor grate, X floodgate (for safety shutoff ), ~ water.Then give a task at the far end for them to do (station, build, smooth, deconstruct, whatever).

++=++++++++++++++++++++++X~~~

[arzzult]

3x1 channel into aquifer. One pump at the middle. A wall one tile away from the pump output. Nothing to stop the water from washing the pump operator into the channel. The pumper keeps getting washed into the hole then immediately and safely climbing out because the ramps, usually returning to pumping after a moment. Also trains pump operating a bit at the same time and generates many a happy thought from mist of the water falling back into the trench. Make one of these for each swimmer you want trained, turn them on and wait. Quick, simple, safe and mostly automated. Completely un-dwarfy but it works.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Never use fortifications or wall grates to drain swimming pools, as dwarves can get pushed through them. Instead use floor grates.