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[edgefigaro]

Main Question: How do I build a drawbridge on a waterbearing map edge?

I have a project I am having trouble with. I built a large cistern just above the magma sea.
It is more than capable of containing all the water in the third layer of the cavern, it goes up 7 zlvls.

There is no small amount of water in the third layer of the cavern. Two floors.



I have walled off all the land based edges of the cavern.


My problem is the water edges. I want to raising drawbridge them. I am going to need a lot of water for an attempt at defeating the magma sea but I am going to need to open and close them at the edge. I can't obsidian cast, because if I cast obsidian at the edge I'd never be able to mine it out, and I need the water supply.

This is the problem area


I can't figure out how to get rid of the water off of the edge tiles fast enough to build bridges. I haven't even been able to drop em below 5 yet. Just down the way on the next zlvl down I have this drain connected to the cistern. When I open it up, it is unable to drain the edge faster then the edge replenishes.


I don't know what to do.

[smjjames]

Maybe use stragetically placed cave ins of however many z levels of rock pillars/walls? There are plenty of chokepoints where you can drop a solid wall of rock down and you can just channel the wall away when you are done.

You could also use the wall drop method to drop a chunk down and mine it out as a spot to place the bridges. If you only need to do the whole installation once, then that method works, but if you need to do it repeatedly, it doesn't work quite that well.

Would dropping a constructed wall down work or do they simply deconstruct? I believe they deconstruct, but I forget exactly for sure.

[edgefigaro]

You can't cave in the edge.

[DS]

I would recommend cave-ins, definitely, or obsidianization which you already mentioned. I would point out that both methods are by no means a permanent barrier to refilling water: after you've drained the area within the barriers, you can freely place constructions on the dry interior of the wall, and mine holes in the wall afterwards to reopen the water supply.

Ninja'd: don't cave-in the very edge. Cave in a little further into the map, at choice places where it is convenient to use cave-ins.

[edgefigaro]

Perhaps I am being unclear.

I want to build raising drawbridges on the waterbearing map edge. Not one tile in, or two, or ten. On the map edge.

[DS]

So my question is, why do you want to build the constructions on the edge of the map?

[AutomataKittay]

I've ran into similar issues with rivers and streams, I've not found solution that allow me to put it right to the edge, either. Closest I could get is around a tile or two away from the edge where water's coming in, and that involves a lot of pumping.

Well, maybe a line of pump at the edge running off whatever power you can cram into it? It'd not be too efficient and still full of construction delays, but it should get the job done somewhat and drag enough water out of the way. Well, you could combine it with smashing cistern if you're worried about flooding the rest of cavern or overflows.

I've not found a cave-in into evaporation or smashing cistern to work very well when dealing with active flow like cave lakes connected to edge or river/stream. It works if you need to build in middle of it or in a pinch, but it's pretty useless if you're trying to seal up the source or get close to it.

Best of luck to your effort!

[edgefigaro]

So my question is, why do you want to build the constructions on the edge of the map?

Because eventually I'm going to be caving in everything else.

[smjjames]

You can't cave in the edge.

I don't mean the edge, just cave in near the edge as you can get it and seal it off however you want. Or even make the falling chunk of wall enough z levels in height that it also seals the hole you dropped it through. Create the hole in the cavern lake for the wall to fall through if you have to.

[acetech09]

To prevent cave creatures from coming in, most likely.


But I've never seen any cavern monster spawn in water, come to think of it. There aren't any fully-aquatic cave creatures, so they might all spawn on land. I'm not sure there's a threat when leaving the water border of a cavern open.

[acetech09]

But if there is an issue with cave creatures, you could always just cave in the edge, build a large area of spike traps between the drawbridges and the water's edge, and then channel out the caved-in edge again. I'm pretty sure that absolutely everything in the game except sponges can be stopped with a sufficient number of 10-steel-spear spike traps on repeat.

[AutomataKittay]

To prevent cave creatures from coming in, most likely.


But I've never seen any cavern monster spawn in water, come to think of it. There aren't any fully-aquatic cave creatures, so they might all spawn on land. I'm not sure there's a threat when leaving the water border of a cavern open.

Forgotten beasts does. I've seen few other critters never come out of water, but I don't pays attention to them outside of forgotten beasts.

[DS]

So my question is, why do you want to build the constructions on the edge of the map?

Because eventually I'm going to be caving in everything else.

Well, that certainly does make things a little more complicated.

So, regarding that specifically: my gut instinct tells me that there is probably some ingenious way of doing it. I don't know what it is. Cave-ins have achieved for me in the past everything that you described in the OP, but not at the edge, obviously. 2 tiles away at the closest.

Then again, I can certainly empathize with not wanting to compromise on another aspect of a larger project. So, best of luck.

[greenwatering]

most of my fortresses I seal off the caverns by cave in. I would suggest tweaking the world gen parameters for open caves and xtra z-lvls above the caverns in case you need to drop a huge wall of stone.

[CaptainArchmage]

If you absolutely must build a drawbridge on the map edge, get some pumps built to drain the edges and form a reasonably dry area. After that, build the drawbridge and link it up to a lever. It sounds like a normal aquifer-busting procedure, just with more water.