Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[zuglar]

Check out this super-efficient drowning chamber design. In a nutshell, its benefits are:
1. Fills near-instantly
2. Drains near-instantly (once requested to)
3. Goblinite doesn't get pushed around or disappeared by water flow
4. Safe to operate (you can always leave that part out if you savor the risk of drowning your fort along with the goblins)

The key to success is realizing that water can flow down stairs but doesn't carry items with it when it does. Here it is:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

z=2
###############
#...#......B <--- inlet
#...#......####
#...#......#
############

z=1
############
#RRR#R     #
#RRR#      #
#RRR#      #
############

z=0
#######
#>>> ▲#
#>>>###
#>>>#
#+###

z=-1
############
#   B▼#▼%% --> drain
#   ###    #
#   ########
#+###

This one is 3x3, but it scales to just about any size. The floor of the drowning chamber is dug out all down stairs, with no connecting up stairs below**. A retracting bridge one level above forms the ceiling. A 2z-tall cistern next to the chamber uses a retracting bridge and drawbridge to form a levered airlock, and a final drawbridge underneath opens the drain. Each level of the cistern holds exactly the volume of the drowning chamber and its underfloor; the bottom level must be the same size as the top one.

The chamber starts with the floor bridge extended, the ceiling bridge retracted, the drain closed, and the airlock open to the inlet (allowing the cistern to fill).

To use:

1. Extend the ceiling to trap the victims who have fallen inside.

2. Toggle the airlock. The bottom layer of water will allow every tile of water above it to teleport into the chamber (5-10 ticks at most), but cannot itself leave the cistern because it lacks the pressure to do so***

3. Toggle the airlock again to refill the cistern while you wait for the goblinite to stop twitching.

4. Open the drain. All the water on the drowning floor will teleport away, through the underfloor and past the pump bypass, again in 5-10 ticks. No puddles to worry about, even!

5. If any amphibians swam to the level below, pump it out and send in the military to mop them up. A grate over the pump's inlet keeps them from escaping through the drain. Otherwise, you can leave the water there for next time.

5. Open the service door(s) and collect the goodies (I drew a door only for clarity, they should actually be drawbridges to avoid problems with building destroyers).

** Stairs turn out to be really nice. Flowing water doesn't wash items past them, and they're absurdly easy to dig out compared with building bridges or grates. Plus, they're immune to everything, even building destroyers and dragonfire, and they can't grow trees. They're effectively impassable to pedestrians. Fliers can traverse them while dry, but would have nowhere to go with the drain closed. Amphibians can traverse them when flooded, but they're still trapped by the pump's grate, and you can always pump out the bottom level to get at them.

*** this chamber cannot flood even if you forgot to close the ceiling. Good thing, because I've forgotten before...

I haven't had a chance to try it on real goblinite yet, but "dry runs" using random items I dumped in there are very promising.

[Di]

So it's something like this, right?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

free image hosting

[zuglar]

So it's something like this, right?
-snip-

You're right. I should add "needlessly complex" to the list of advantages.

[Hurize]

why dont you just make the floor out of grates with a bridge under that, a whole lot more effecient....

Also when both are open you get a nice waterfall/shower hallway for your dorfs

[Loud Whispers]

why dont you just make the floor out of grates with a bridge under that, a whole lot more effecient....

Building.

Destroyers.

:|

[Replica]

why dont you just make the floor out of grates with a bridge under that, a whole lot more effecient....

Building.

Destroyers.

:|

Really?
Floor grates count as destroyable buildings?
That kinda sucks.

But wait, what if you trap a building destroyer in a room built over deep pit that has all its floor tiles replaced by grates? Or bridges?
Will it just destroy the grates it stands on and fall to its death?

[Hurize]

why dont you just make the floor out of grates with a bridge under that, a whole lot more effecient....

Building.

Destroyers.

:|

Really?
Floor grates count as destroyable buildings?
That kinda sucks.

But wait, what if you trap a building destroyer in a room built over deep pit that has all its floor tiles replaced by grates? Or bridges?
Will it just destroy the grates it stands on and fall to its death?

Thats the whole point, it even stops building destroyers by them suiciding into a water filled pit getting sucked off the map...

[Oaktree]

Limited width using grates.  They don't support other structures.

[Fnear]

why dont you just make the floor out of grates with a bridge under that, a whole lot more effecient....

Building.

Destroyers.

:|

You could probably switch it so the bridge is on top, the grates underneath.  That would also allow you to reset it before you've collected everything.

[zuglar]

Ugh. I just learned that creatures and items fall though stairs if they come from a z-level above, so stairs aren't a suitable "floor" for a pit. So much for that bright idea...

[Sutremaine]

Ugh. I just learned that creatures and items fall though stairs if they come from a z-level above, so stairs aren't a suitable "floor" for a pit. So much for that bright idea...

I had this happen when turning a long section of 1x1 stair into a drop shaft. A dwarf was standing on the channelled tile just as the digging was finished, and he fell about 15 levels, bouncing every three or four levels and leaving spatters of blood most of the way down. He did not survive, though he probably would have done if the RNG had spared his spine.

[Triaxx2]

I like to grate bomb. Flush a building destroyer into a 1z deep pit, floored by a single grate. Below the pit is a water drain, 10-20z down. The building destroyer will smash the grate and plummet. Since the grates exist farther down, there won't be water to cushion the fall. Fun.

[Hyndis]

Remember that building destroyers cannot harm buildings from below. This means if they are below a grate they cannot hurt the grate.

You can use remotely powered pumps along with grates to drain the bottom of a drowning chamber safely.

Alternatively if you happen to have an artifact grate you can use that. Artifacts cannot be damaged. Building destroyers will attack it forever, but also fail to damage it forever. Artifact furniture works great for bait for building destroyers, including demon hordes.

[Kibstable]

Building destroyers don't destroy artifacts but they can remove them.   I had trolls get through my artifact floodgate, it was simply cast aside as the entered.

[Loud Whispers]

Building destroyers don't destroy artifacts but they can remove them.   I had trolls get through my artifact floodgate, it was simply cast aside as the entered.

Portals > Floodgates
(Though Kobolds will still make it through).