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[ChairmanPoo]

They seem to span several z levels by default, now (Three so far, at least  ). Has anyone else had bad experiences with aquifers in the new version?

[khearn]

I did my first aquifer embark a couple of weeks ago in 34.0<something>. It had a 2 level deep aquifer and I had only minor problems breaching it with the "two-slit" method. That method will breach any depth of aquifer, even if you don't know how deep it is when you start out. There is a link at the bottom of the aquifer wiki page that goes to a forum thread explaining the method. Give it a try.

[Castamere]

just don't embark on a flat terrain with very deep soil and an aquifer, possibly a big river
That can get up to 12 layers

It's always good to have some cliffs on the map, so that some rock penetrates the surface and you can use it for digging into the mother earth

[KodKod]

When I want an aquifer, which is most of the time, I try have my embark cross into a biome that lacks the aquifer. That way I can simply tunnel under it without any complicated procedures.

Of course sure ideal embark are more difficult to get ahold of if you have a map with less biome variation, so I tend to throw that one up a bit when I'm generating a world.

[Azure]

They seem to span several z levels by default, now (Three so far, at least  ). Has anyone else had bad experiences with aquifers in the new version?

Multiple level aquifers have been in since at least 31.xx.
Enjoy - Aquifers: A Guide on How to Dig Through an Aquifer of Indefinite Levels
        - http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79224.15

[orius]

Yup, I had a map with extensive iron and coal deposits, and said deposits were located within an 8 level deep aquifer that covered the entire map. 

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[Sphalerite]

Yup, I had a map with extensive iron and coal deposits, and said deposits were located within an 8 level deep aquifer that covered the entire map. 

That is what I would call a fascinating challenge.  Time to mass-produce pumps!

[NW_Kohaku]

Oh, wow, that Double Slit Method really wins the dwarven prize for engineering.  I never thought about that...

Anyway, yes, I tend to do what Kodkod does, and embark on slopes with aquifers that don't cover the whole map.

I generally enjoy aquifers for their limitless water and easy repeater potential... just so long as it doesn't cover the whole embark in a way that it makes the exploitation of the soil layers more difficult than they are worth.

[Azure]

Yup, I had a map with extensive iron and coal deposits, and said deposits were located within an 8 level deep aquifer that covered the entire map. 

That is what I would call a fascinating challenge.  Time to mass-produce pumps!

Can you post that save? That is begging for a Mass Aquifer Removal megaproject.

[khearn]

Yup, I had a map with extensive iron and coal deposits, and said deposits were located within an 8 level deep aquifer that covered the entire map. 

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I LOVE it!

This! is! Dwarf! Fortress!

So much wealth, so hard to get to. Actually, it wouldn't be all that hard. Pierce the aquifer using the double slit method, set up adequate drainage a couple of levels below it (into a cavern that drains off map is ideal). Then just dig upward into the aquifer, letting the water flow off through your drains. There is a section on the wiki page giving a little more detail on this method.

Floor grates in the drainage system are a good idea to stop the occasional dwarf that gets flushed down the drain. Trust me on this. It took me a couple of years to recover the bodies in my caverns that resulted when I dug a 3x10 dodge-fall pit. They all fell in the first few tiles of work. Once I had the method figured out it was clear sailing. The miners who didn't get washed into the caverns were all very happy because they were working in a waterfall all the time.

[orius]

Oh, wow, that Double Slit Method really wins the dwarven prize for engineering.  I never thought about that...

Anyway, yes, I tend to do what Kodkod does, and embark on slopes with aquifers that don't cover the whole map.

I generally enjoy aquifers for their limitless water and easy repeater potential... just so long as it doesn't cover the whole embark in a way that it makes the exploitation of the soil layers more difficult than they are worth.

Yeah, completely flat maps seem to have worse aquifers, while having a lot of cliffs gives more rock formation underneath the embark which can avoid serious aquifer problems.  Rivers also seem to have aquifers underneath them a lot too.   I don't want to turn the damn things off completely because they have uses.  First, they're an infinite source of good clean water, and with rivers spontaneously stagnating, they're actually pretty useful ATM.  My current fort has a cistern filled from an aquifer.  Thery're also supposed to be damn good power sources if you need to make a big pump stack or something, but I haven't gotten into lots of serious machinery projects yet. One way to get around them is to carefully position the embark square, see where aquifer first shows up on the embark screen and only have part of the embark square positioned over the aquifer while you have another part of the embark square "dry" for your main habitations.  But that big aquifer I mentioned above was fucking huge, it seemed to cover at least two whole biomes, because it seemed to extend onto neighboring maps on the region map (and not just the local area map.

Yup, I had a map with extensive iron and coal deposits, and said deposits were located within an 8 level deep aquifer that covered the entire map. 

That is what I would call a fascinating challenge.  Time to mass-produce pumps!

Can you post that save? That is begging for a Mass Aquifer Removal megaproject.

There was too much rage for me to save.  I'm pretty sure it was 34.02+, so I'll see if I've got the seed around somewhere, and I'll put it over in the Worldgen Cookbook thread.

EDIT:

Unfortunately, that world appears to be lost.  The world was originally genned in 34.02.  I ditched the world (and game saves I had for it) when 34.05 came out because of the eyelid thing.  But the seeds I have for it aren't working right.  I posted several embarks over in the cookbook thread, but some people told me they weren't working.  I just tried to regen the world right now in 34.06 and it came up with a completely different map.  So I downloaded another copy of 34.02 and I was going to make a save folder, and then mod out the eyelids to see if it would work with 34.06.  But as the worldgen ran I noticed around year 50 something wasn't right, and I paused it.  I checked out the map and it was the same wrong map that was genning in 34.05+. 

Here's the seed for the world if you want it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[WORLD_GEN]
    [TITLE:Olzulsmata]
    [SEED:ZJWCG6gCf28lar1e4mNh]
    [HISTORY_SEED:fbpU2ur0TCtbSsavvfPQ]
    [NAME_SEED:SQHihR9mJyQknecehXtR]
    [CREATURE_SEED:ZRrvttrYvIga28JIavwd]
    [DIM:129:129]
    [EMBARK_POINTS:1274]
    [END_YEAR:100]
    [BEAST_END_YEAR:200:80]
    [REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
    [CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:1]
    [ELEVATION:1:400:401:401]
    [RAINFALL:0:100:200:200]
    [TEMPERATURE:35:65:200:200]
    [DRAINAGE:0:100:200:200]
    [VOLCANISM:0:100:200:200]
    [SAVAGERY:0:100:200:200]
    [ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
    [MINERAL_SCARCITY:500]
    [MEGABEAST_CAP:18]
    [SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:37]
    [TITAN_NUMBER:9]
    [TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
    [DEMON_NUMBER:28]
    [NIGHT_TROLL_NUMBER:14]
    [BOGEYMAN_NUMBER:14]
    [VAMPIRE_NUMBER:14]
    [WEREBEAST_NUMBER:14]
    [SECRET_NUMBER:28]
    [REGIONAL_INTERACTION_NUMBER:28]
    [DISTURBANCE_INTERACTION_NUMBER:28]
    [EVIL_CLOUD_NUMBER:14]
    [EVIL_RAIN_NUMBER:14]
    [GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:25:251:503]
    [EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:25:251:503]
    [PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:12]
    [PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:1]
    [COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
    [VOLCANO_MIN:50]
    [REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:260:1:1]
    [REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:260:1:1]
    [REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:1040:3:3]
    [REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:2080:2:2]
    [REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:2080:1:1]
    [REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
    [REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
    [REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:2080:3:3]
    [REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:2080:3:3]
    [EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
    [RIVER_MINS:100:100]
    [PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:0]
    [OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
    [SUBREGION_MAX:3500]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:65]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:100]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:30]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
    [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
    [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
    [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:5]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:5]
    [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
    [LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
    [CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
    [CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
    [MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:50]
    [NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:50]
    [ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:1]
    [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
    [TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:30]
    [TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:7500]
    [SITE_CAP:1040]
    [PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
    [ELEVATION_RANGES:2080:4160:2080]
    [RAIN_RANGES:2080:4160:2080]
    [DRAINAGE_RANGES:2080:4160:2080]
    [SAVAGERY_RANGES:2080:4160:2080]
    [VOLCANISM_RANGES:2080:4160:2080]

I don't know if that will generate a big aquifer like the one I had, but feel free to try it.  The aquifer underlaid a prairie and desert that were both completely flat, and I believe at least one of the areas was Untamed Wilds.  It was located over on the east side of the map in the temperate region, but the terrain on the map this seed gens is not at all similar. 

[Mitchewawa]

Here's the thing; maps with deep soil or clay and an aquifer tend to be the more ruinous ones. Either embark on areas with shallow soil/clay, mod aquifers out or learn to take them on.

[saurio]

For real aquifer-related dwarfness, embark on a freezing biome with aquifer and proceed to freeze and carve your fortress out of it. It's terribly slow and improductive, just what dwarves love. I gave up after the second werewolf attack left me with no skilled miners, while having barely created a 10x10x4 solid ice room.

[krenshala]

After skimming over the aquifer wiki page (again), I was suddenly struck by the following idea ... water dropping out of the bottom of an aquifer, running along a channel turning water wheels.  Lots and lots of water wheels.  With the last wheel or four powering a pump stack to shunt that water right back up and into the aquifer it came from.

[khearn]

After skimming over the aquifer wiki page (again), I was suddenly struck by the following idea ... water dropping out of the bottom of an aquifer, running along a channel turning water wheels.  Lots and lots of water wheels.  With the last wheel or four powering a pump stack to shunt that water right back up and into the aquifer it came from.

Congratulations, you've just invented a more complicated version of the Dwarven Water Reactor. I say "more complicated" because the aquifer isn't needed at all.

Or, you can just let the water flow off the map via a cavern or map-edge fortification. You don't need to return it to the aquifer. DF aquifers are infinite sources of water.