Print

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

[Eneverforgets]

I've created a cistern fed from a brook that's about 5 z-levels deep in a pyramidal shape.  Water flows in at the highest z-level, and pressure is pretty good.  I then created another tunnel at the second highest z-level that leads outside, where the water basically washes down the mountainside and (I think) off of the map.  My question is: will this ever overflow, causing fun in my fortress?  At the moment, it's making a mess outside, but it doesn't look like it's going to overflow into the fortress...

[i2amroy]

As best as I can understand it, no, that design will never overflow, and would have never overflowed even if you had of only had the top entrance into the cistern (assuming the top level of the cistern and the brook are on the same level). I would like to point out that by having water flowing out and down the mountainside you will take a huge FPS hit, as flowing water (not 7/7) is one of the largest FPS drains in the game short of pathing.

[Eneverforgets]

Thanks, that's helpful.  The top z-level is on the level of the brook with 7/7 water depth, so I assumed that it would overflow into my fortress until the fort was all 7/7. 

I put the outflow onto a convenient part of the map where I was lucky enough that it basically sluices out of the mountain and off of the map (assuming that the edge of the map will endlessly accept water) with only a small amount of room to flow and fill.  Nevertheless, I put a floodgate in the exit in case the FPS hit was too much.  I made that FPS mistake early on when I would flood maps for no reason other than it was a fun way to fish. 

[Avo]

Make sure you have some sort of system to prevent aquatic creatures climbing out of your well though. The last thing you want is an uninvited guest springing up in your meeting hall.

[Eneverforgets]

Will they come out of the brook and into the cistern?  The only thing I've had in there is fish, which I thought was fine.

[i2amroy]

Will they come out of the brook and into the cistern?  The only thing I've had in there is fish, which I thought was fine.

No. If it was a river you might have problems, but nothing above vermin size lives in brooks.

[Cozmopolit]

Will they come out of the brook and into the cistern?  The only thing I've had in there is fish, which I thought was fine.

The way I understand it nobody will go through a brook tile on z-level down into the 7/7 water. But it is very easy to make a mistake somewhere - mine was simply that I had the last tile between my water system and the brook channeled and forgot to roof over it - so of course the next Titan uses that tile to enter my waterworks, go for the next construction (a flood gate on z-2 or -3) and floods the whole thing.

Nowadays I try to set up everything so that I can fill cisterns from somewhere and later wall off the source. Dwarfs don't actually use a lot of water, watermills can operate in closed systems, security solution, it's a FPS win, and if you make a mistake later chances are you only flood your fortress with a cistern worth of water instead of an endless supply. Feels a bit like cheating