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[Palpatine]

Is it possible to build a standard bridge, or a bridge made of floor tiles, through a river waterfall?  And if so, will dwarves and animals be able to safely walk through the vertical flow of the waterfall, or will they be swept aside to their doom?

[King Mir]

They would be swept off. You might have better luck with floor grates/bars but those too may not work as they should.

[EvilBob22]

I'm guessing you want to take advantage of the happy mist thoughts.  I haven't tried, but you can probably build a floor directly under the waterfall, then grates/bars for the water to fall through, then the walking bridge.

~#++...
~#++...
~#++...
~#++...

~ = where the waterfall crashes down on a constructed floor
# = floor grates/bars
+ = bridge/constructed floors
. = open space

In theory, the mist from the crashing water would travel out two or three squares creating the happy thoughts.  And the grates would keep it safe.  Of course, you could just have open spaces there and not worry about the grates (it may even be safer as no one would try to walk on the grates).

[Drazinononda]

Having read plenty of stories of waterfalls and never having attempted to build on one (it hurts my FPS just to think about it) I'd advise making as much of the floor out of grates as possible and walling in any open sides of the bridge. You may have some water spill off the ends of the bridge into your fort, but it's better than having dwarves spill off the sides of your bridge to a watery doom. You can always install more drainage to keep your fort nice, but you can't put the body parts together to get your Legendary Gem Setter back if he missteps.

[slothen]

Having read plenty of stories of waterfalls and never having attempted to build on one (it hurts my FPS just to think about it) I'd advise making as much of the floor out of grates as possible and walling in any open sides of the bridge. You may have some water spill off the ends of the bridge into your fort, but it's better than having dwarves spill off the sides of your bridge to a watery doom. You can always install more drainage to keep your fort nice, but you can't put the body parts together to get your Legendary Gem Setter back if he missteps.

Basically this.  And you also have to make the water come out slowly, a falling 7/7 block of water will interrupt pathfinding and cause problems no matter what you do (just like it would in real life).

[Hurkyl]

If you want mist thoughts, then they don't have to walk through the waterfall. Mist spreads out a little, so your dwarves merely have to walk near it.

[Centigrade]

Split up your water.

Start with a single tile, several z-levels above where you want your happy thoughts to be. This will probably put it above your dining hall.

Channel out a path that splits orthogonally from your single tile, and drops down one or more z-levels. Do this again to split it further. You will end up with a diluted flow across a large area of many waterfalls.

I will try to illustrate: h=channel; w=wall


z-1:

Code: [Select]

wwwww
wwwww
wwhww
wwwww
wwwww
z-2:

Code: [Select]

wwhww
wwhww
hhhhh
wwhww
wwhww
z-3:

Code: [Select]

wwhww
wwwww
hwwwh
wwwww
wwhww

[Tiruin]

Alright, waterfall decorator in the area now.

See, good thoughts with waterfalls talk about the mist generated by falling water. This means any water tile which falls a z-level generates mist. Any mist in contact with a dwarf gives a happy thought--even if it means for a single second only.

Guess what? The water doesn't need to touch the dwarf, just the mist!

Code: [Select]

# # # # #
. . ~ . .
- - - - -

Code: [Select]

# # # # #
. . . . .
- - @ - -

Code: [Select]

# # # # #
. . . . .
- - - - -Given this context and the # = wall/any immovable or unpassable area; . denoting empty space and - equaling floor or whatnot, @ = dwarf, this will generate mist.

Now if you're talking about waterfall and continuous mist...just do it like the above, with the bridge a row/column 1 tile away from the fall of water.

Win-win, sir.

Edit: Figures.

Code: [Select]

#~~~#
#~~~#
.....
.....


Code: [Select]

#####
#####
-...-
-----

Code: [Select]

#####
#####
-...-
-----Ad nauseum. You don't need to block the free-fall of water to do anything, you just need water to fall naturally (or artificially using screw-pumps.) to generate mist.

There is one method used normally utilizing screw-pumps.

Top-ish floor

Code: [Select]

######
-.==.-==
#=##=#
#=##=#
#.==.#
######

Code: [Select]

######
#S..S#
#....#
#....#
#S..S#
##DD##Where == is a screwpump. D is a door, S is a statue...

The screw pumps are ordered in either a counterclockwise or clockwise rectangular direction, and the - at the top floor designates an area where a dwarf could easily throw a bucket of water which denotes 1/7 water onto a hole (which I bet the pumps are activated via mechanical power/lever-mechanism switch) which can easily make a mist-room, turned off or on easily. The upper pump equals an exit, and the leftmost - denotes an entryway. Of course, all customizable.

EditII: Centigrade and the rest carry great ideas. Just note that mist usually spreads until ~2 at least, and from my observations, ~4 at most.

[Marceline]

Does mist pass through vertical bars/grates? If so, that may be a good way to prevent dwarves from drowning/falling, while still getting happy thoughts.

[Mr S]

Or fortificatioons?

[joeclark77]

What I have done on a couple forts is dig my main staircase just inside the waterfall, carving fortifications in the wall between the stairs and the water.  Optionally you can put a 1-tile-wide raising drawbridge outside the fortifications, as protection from goblin elite archers.

[Xinael]

There is one method used normally utilizing screw-pumps.

Top-ish floor

Code: [Select]

######
-.==.-==
#=##=#
#=##=#
#.==.#
######

Code: [Select]

######
#S..S#
#....#
#....#
#S..S#
##DD##Where == is a screwpump. D is a door, S is a statue...

The screw pumps are ordered in either a counterclockwise or clockwise rectangular direction, and the - at the top floor designates an area where a dwarf could easily throw a bucket of water which denotes 1/7 water onto a hole (which I bet the pumps are activated via mechanical power/lever-mechanism switch) which can easily make a mist-room, turned off or on easily. The upper pump equals an exit, and the leftmost - denotes an entryway. Of course, all customizable.

EditII: Centigrade and the rest carry great ideas. Just note that mist usually spreads until ~2 at least, and from my observations, ~4 at most.

This is way simpler than waterfalls, though you might not find it quite as awesome. I personally think it's even better because you actually don't need any of the walls or doors on the lower level, so you can just put the statues right in the middle of your dining room with open space all around and generate a billion happy thoughts very easily. Though with the statues in the open, to prime the generator you need to build a wall round one of them and then use a pond zone to fill the tank you just made - once it's running you can deconstruct the walls and the water will keep going round. Technically you don't even need the statues just to make some mist, but you'll get cancellation spam and the potential for trees growing.

Also there's a slightly more efficient way to wire up the power that only uses one gear.

[Shinziril]

Actually, you don't need to wall in a spot to prime the mist generator.  The first dwarf to throw a bucket down will leave 1/7 water on the statue, which doesn't spread, and once the second dwarf throws a bucket down (making it 2/7) it will instantly be picked up by the screw pumps if they're already running.  Screw pumps will pick up water on their intake tile in ~1 tick, which is why the generator works in the first place (the instant the block of water touches the ground, it gets picked up again before it can spread out). 

The 2/7 block of water is enough, but if you want more you can keep toggling the pond zone so 1/7 blobs of water get left on a statue and picked up when they make contact with the primary blob.  For that matter, if you just leave the pond zone up so you end up with 2 or more blocks of water of varying levels, the time it takes for each block to fall down and get picked up by the next screw pump is a bit erratic, so they'll usually merge after a bit.  Just remember to turn the pond zone off before more than 7/7 water ends up in the loop, or it'll start spreading it around. 

[Tiruin]

Does mist pass through vertical bars/grates? If so, that may be a good way to prevent dwarves from drowning/falling, while still getting happy thoughts.

Yes.

Or fortificatioons?

Yep.

...Mist acts just like how you'd think mist would IRL. The thing is, in DF is shows the area of effect of Mist's happiness.

[Palpatine]

Thanks for the replies.  I origionally wanted my main entrance to require walking through the waterfall.  But now, I'm going to go with the suggestions of the waterfall hitting a floor.  So I'll create an overhang with floodgates at the end when the river freezes, with the gates being used to prevent the water form falling onto the bridge.  Then use floors at entrance level to create a step layer for the waterfall, with a gap inbetween from the overhang part of the now modified waterfall.  This should allow a floor tile bridge to cross a chasm and be the main means of underground entrance, mist thoughts, and allowing everyone to path properly and remain relatively safe and dry.  As an added bonus, I should be able to link up the floodgates and allow the water to be dumped onto the bridge to sweep some invaders off when I want.