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Author Topic: Basic Mist Generator Questions.  (Read 4861 times)

Mohawk_Bravo

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Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« on: December 12, 2012, 07:16:29 pm »

Okay, so I have built a city fortress, cared for all their supplies, and built a sizable army. Now I'm thinking of building a statue garden with a mist generator. So I'm thinking of using AncientEnemy's basic design (with the screw pumps and the statues. Firstly, the level with the statues (labelled Z-0 in the diagram) is the level where the mist will appear, correct? Also, about how far will this spread mist?

Perhaps more importantly, I would like to know what sort of power supply I will need. I want to use windmills (as there is no running water) and am curious as to how many i will need. It will be about four or five levels down vertically. Will I need a windmill for each screw pump?

Alright, that's all I've got so far. Thanks in advance for the answers guys.
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flameaway

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2012, 07:29:44 pm »

One mist generator uses

Four pumps at 10 power each

The two horizontal axles use 1 power each

The gear assembly uses 5

47 power.

A windmill:

"Generates 40, 20, or 0 power, depending on wind level"

Which I actually didn't know but got from here:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Windmill

The wiki is extremely helpful.  And a windmill alone will not power a mist generator.  Have you considered a Dwarven Power Reactor, DWR?  That's a great way to get a couple hundred units of power.

Look up DWR on the wiki.  Easy to build.

Mist blooms out to approximately double area of the generator. 

Might want to consider adding a z-level in your design so that the mist exits into open space, over your statue garden This can prevent a lot of message spams and job cancellations for entering dangerous territory.
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ChuckWeiss

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2012, 07:40:49 pm »

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Waterfall

Read the very bottom part, or reference this picture directly:

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/File:Simple_waterfall.jpg

 It uses 20 power, plus the power train. This means you could plop a windmill directly onto the top pump, and it'll work as long as your map has wind.

This mist generator is the most efficient, and most stable, of all the designs I've seen. If it suddenly loses power you won't spill water anywhere, meaning you can turn it on and off without any need to re-fill it. It only needs a floor grate to keep dwarves safe, it has a footprint of only 6x3 tiles, and is only 4 tiles high if you power it from above. On top of all that, it only requires about 1/8 the materials as the 4 pump merry-go-round, and it can be built much faster.
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i2amroy

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2012, 08:05:53 pm »

It uses 20 power, plus the power train. This means you could plop a windmill directly onto the top pump, and it'll work as long as your map has wind.

This mist generator is the most efficient, and most stable, of all the designs I've seen. If it suddenly loses power you won't spill water anywhere, meaning you can turn it on and off without any need to re-fill it. It only needs a floor grate to keep dwarves safe, it has a footprint of only 6x3 tiles, and is only 4 tiles high if you power it from above. On top of all that, it only requires about 1/8 the materials as the 4 pump merry-go-round, and it can be built much faster.
It does, however, only generate 1/4 the amount of mist, meaning it's power:mist ratio is actually lower then that of a 4 square generator. Also keep in mind that a 4 square generator can easily be moved up a level (so that the pumps are on z+2, the water on z+1, and the dwarves on z-0) to allow for production of mist over the middle of a large room (such as a dining hall or statue garden). The linked waterfall design can't. So they both have their benefits, it just depends if you want a small & compact design that yields a small amount of mist, or a slightly larger design that yields more.

Also for turning off a four square generator I've found the best way is to have another pump (which is normally off) taking from one of your four corners and pumping into a holding area. When you want to turn the four square off then just turn that pump on and wait, and it should eventually manage to grab the water tile out and put it into the holding area, where it can be either disposed of or later manipulated to refill the generator.
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Sutremaine

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2012, 08:20:15 pm »

Also for turning off a four square generator I've found the best way is to have another pump (which is normally off) taking from one of your four corners and pumping into a holding area. When you want to turn the four square off then just turn that pump on and wait, and it should eventually manage to grab the water tile out and put it into the holding area
If you moved the holding pump up a level, wouldn't it grab the water straight out of one pump instead of having to fight another pump for the water?

Quick question about mist -- does it cover dwarves in water and wash off contaminants? If so, it'd be a great hospital feature.
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ChuckWeiss

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2012, 12:47:05 pm »

It does, however, only generate 1/4 the amount of mist, meaning it's power:mist ratio is actually lower then that of a 4 square generator.

True; my one one problem with the four square method has always been its tendency to spill when turned off or interupted, but I have not heard of the solution you mentioned before now.
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Oaktree

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 09:19:28 pm »

Quick question about mist -- does it cover dwarves in water and wash off contaminants? If so, it'd be a great hospital feature.

Yes I think it does.  Mine is generating cleaning jobs and the occasional "dangerous terrain" spam message from a dwarf trying to clean on a spot directly under the pumps.
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i2amroy

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2012, 12:49:57 am »

Quick question about mist -- does it cover dwarves in water and wash off contaminants? If so, it'd be a great hospital feature.
It previously did and I believe that it still does. A more recent study shows that it's possible it might just "cover up" contaminants that later can re-appear, but nobody has done any conclusive studies recently.
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Sutremaine

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2012, 01:18:54 pm »

Yes I think it does.  Mine is generating cleaning jobs and the occasional "dangerous terrain" spam message from a dwarf trying to clean on a spot directly under the pumps.
That sounds more like the water itself covering the dwarf...

Well, guess I'll have a go at doing that. I could make a combined hospital / dining room / sunroom / happiness generator.
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killerx243

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2012, 06:17:29 am »

Quick question about mist -- does it cover dwarves in water and wash off contaminants? If so, it'd be a great hospital feature.

Yes I think it does.  Mine is generating cleaning jobs and the occasional "dangerous terrain" spam message from a dwarf trying to clean on a spot directly under the pumps.

Reduce the amount of water the pumps are moving to 3. Basically the water falls to the Z level below the pumps  and freaks everyone out before almost instantaneously being vacuumed up by the next pump. You do not need to block where the water would land if the water the pumps are moving is 3. Since dwarves think water 3 and below to be safe (most of the time it's even more dangerous then 7 deep water).

Few embarks ago built my first DWR, thing needed to be fed water constantly from evaporation and spewing water all over the floor of the reactor room. Everything was fine until winter hit and froze my technically outside mist generator (I dug my dining hall out to prevent cave adaptation).
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Sutremaine

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Re: Basic Mist Generator Questions.
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2012, 02:47:25 pm »

Few embarks ago built my first DWR, thing needed to be fed water constantly from evaporation and spewing water all over the floor of the reactor room.
If it was spewing water, you built it wrong.

I've found that a reactor filled just to the point where it works will slowly lose water to evaporation, but if you keep pouring buckets of water into the reactor the tiles will all end up at a fixed non-1/7 water depth.
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I am trying to make chickens lay bees as eggs. So far it only produces a single "Tame Small Creature" when a hen lays bees.
Honestly at the time, I didn't see what could go wrong with crowding 80 military Dwarves into a small room with a necromancer for the purpose of making bacon.