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[slink]

My current fortress and the one before it have waterfalls going down through the 3-tile hallways that access the bedrooms.  That way everyone had to walk through them.  They are fed by a one tile opening at the top and drain through five tiles on each floor, arranged like this.

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At the bottom of the waterfall in my current fortress, there is a 7x7 cistern that drains through a 5-tile corridor leading off the map though fortifications.  In my previous fortress I had the !!bright!! idea of drainng the waterfall into the caverns.  Nooooooooo.....  don't do that.  The lag, oh the lag ...

My biomes do not freeze, so I can take a feed straight from the brook.  In my current fortress I am actually using the well cistern as the source, because it is filtered though floor grates to remove carp and aquatic building destroyers.  Because the well cistern is one level too low, I have a single pump run by Dwarf-power to lift the water to the level of the top of the waterfall.  I have all of my haulers set also as pump operators so the waterfall never stops for very long, if at all.  When the system is filling, there is some minor flooding for some reason on the level just above the cistern.  After the cistern is full, the flooding stops.  I don't know why this happens.

[weenog]

Aren't you concerned about gunk rinsed off the dwarves getting into your water supply?

[slink]

Aren't you concerned about gunk rinsed off the dwarves getting into your water supply?

No, because the water from the waterfall drains off the map.  It is an open system fed by the brook via the well cistern, rather than a closed loop recycled from the waterfall cistern.

[Dorfimedes]

...
If your fort is above ground, and it freezes in the winter

Oh dear, I just realised how bad my idea would be in a biome that freezes...

You shittin' me? A freezing water fall is majestic as fuck.

I'm regretting not settling in a temperate biome, now.

[Morpha]

...
If your fort is above ground, and it freezes in the winter

Oh dear, I just realised how bad my idea would be in a biome that freezes...

You shittin' me? A freezing water fall is majestic as fuck.

I'm regretting not settling in a temperate biome, now.

The sad thing is I just remembered having done that once, and why I stopped doing it. It was a single stairway to access the entire fortress, and made my waterfall down the stairs. Was going wonderful until I found out underground water will freeze if it's fed by surface water, was a column of ice going down all the way. Unfortunately it was a busy fortress so there was a fair few dwarves on the staircase. The first sign was all the job cancellations. After I realised what I did, I sat there laughing at myself for a while then made a new fort.

[caddybear]

I regularly use waterfalls on the main stairwell, it's a nice way of keeping everyone happy ( and doesn't hit the FPS too much if you don't need to pump and just let it drain off the map.My current 3 tile one that falls for 12 zlevels only dropped my fps from 100 to 99. Oh and like slink said, it's a great way to have wells for your hospital.

Just make sure you can turn it off, and apply zealous use of floors to prevent mushrooms growing in your channels and grates to prevent wildlife and siegers growing in your, well, main stairway.

[Viking]

The talk of the whole freezing thing makes me realize something. One of my earliest forts had a waterfall in front of the dining hall that was outside and every once in a while the grates would start disappearing and dwarves would fall in and drown. I guess it was being broken by icing as it was temperate... Which really doesn't make too much sense when you think about it. Sewer grates get frozen all the time where I live but never mind that I guess.