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[MIKE6792]

I have a very nice fort going, the only problem is that my sole water source is on the opposite side of the map. I can easily get the MATERIALS to build a well, but I have no idea what else I need to build it (i.e. a water source). So I would like to know how I could get a water source inside my fortress with as little dwarfiness as possible (I am a newb).

[vjek]

Dwarves prefer booze, so a well isn't strictly speaking necessary to keep them alive.

However, a water source is nice for cleaning and happy thoughts.  A few items of note, though..

The well should be more than one Z level deep.  That is, if it's built right on top of a water source, without a Z level in between the well and the water, it apparently generates unhappy thoughts.

Aquifers make the best water sources for wells.  They are inherently secure, and trivial to channel from the aquifer into wherever you want it to be in your fort.  If you do it right, you don't have to drain it off the map, no matter where it comes from.

So, my initial reaction is... find your aquifer, channel from it to your fort, put in a diagonal pressure reducer if necessary, and voila, there's your water source.  If the water is on Z 98, build your well on Z 100. (two up) and you're golden.  Also, if you can use all masterwork parts of the well, with a mechanism/block made of native gold rock or native platinum rock, a well can be a great source of value as well as happy thoughts.

Finally, it's not necessary to designate the well a water source, nor make it a meeting place, nor any of that.  Dwarves will know instantly that it's a water source. YMMV, but those are my comments on the subject.

[blue sam3]

Assuming your water source is a river or otherwise infinite:

Go somewhere 2 tiles away from the water source (so there's one solid tile left between them), dig a shaft down to a couple of layers below the level at which you want your well. Dig down through the well spot to that same level. Join the two up, putting a diagonal step in the path, so it goes something like this:

Code: [Select]

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
__________WWWWWWWWWW
WWWWWWWWWW__________
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Where "W" is wall and "_" is where you've dug out. The important bit is that the water needs to flow through the diagonal thing: this resets water pressure and will stop your fortress from ending up flooded.

As the last step, once you've made sure there's nobody in the pipework, channel (not dig) out that last wall space, and the water will flow through.


This is a bare minimum method: it's probably also a good idea to put in some reliable way of blocking the pipe, just in case you end up with something that can swim attacking you, and maybe put a big-ish room at the bottom, so you've got a larger amount of safe, sealable water there to use in an emergency. The end where the well is has to be an actual hole (channel down then remove ramps), but the other end can be left as a staircase, so your miners can get out there.


As an alternative, there are usually other, ... less obvious, water sources that you may be able to make use of.

[vjmdhzgr]

I've made a lot of wells, all of which didn't have an extra z level between the well and the water and I never got any bad thoughts from it. This was all from the last version, but there was nothing relating to that added in this update so I'm sure it's fine.

[Scaed]

I think what was meant by a well needing to be more than 1z deep is that the water level that your well draws from should be deeper than 1 z-level. The water level itself can be right up to the bottom of the well but there should be water on the level above the floor wherever you're drawing from. Otherwise you get mud in the water and it causes a bad thought if drunk and is less sanitary(higher chance of infection) when used to clean wounds.

[vjek]

I think what was meant by a well needing to be more than 1z deep is that the water level that your well draws from should be deeper than 1 z-level. The water level itself can be right up to the bottom of the well but there should be water on the level above the floor wherever you're drawing from. Otherwise you get mud in the water and it causes a bad thought if drunk and is less sanitary(higher chance of infection) when used to clean wounds.

Yep, and this:

I personally recommend against building a well. Instead just place a grate over the water source.

When drinking water, dwarves always get an unhappy thought about drinking water, if they don't use a well, they get an additional unhappy thought about the lack of a well. (I don't think dwarves get unhappy thoughts if they drink water when incapacitated or if they drink from a waterskin - it's only when they drink at a well or water source)

When filling buckets dwarves never get unhappy thoughts, regardless of whether they use a well or scoop water from an open tile.

Using a well is slow, it's extremely slow if multiple z-levels above the water, dwarves run up/down stairs faster than buckets traverse z-levels. Only one dwarf can use a well at a time. If they use the well to drink water, they block the well for the duration of their drink.
If a well is built on water, it's still slower to get water than 'scooping' (scooping is instantaneous), and while the well is blocked (for example, by a drinker), other dwarves will happily 'scoop' water from around it, and get an unhappy thought about the lack of a well if drinking. A well built on water *does not* stop nasty things coming up from below nor stop things falling in. A grate (or floor bars) built on a water tile still allows water to be scooped, and offers total protection against creatures coming up from below, and stops creatures falling in. Technically the well can be built above a grate which is on a lower z-level, providing a barrier against creatures.

If you want to run an efficient hospital and use pond zones, then do not build a well, as it will simply slow things down. If for some bizarre and elfish reason you want to force dwarves to drink water and want to mitigate the unhappy thought about the lack of a well, then you need to have the wells at least 1-z above the water to stop 'direct drinking', and build quite a few wells to deal with the well-hogging by drinkers. But bear this in mind, if you always have booze on hand you will never see the unhappy thought about the lack of a well, and if you build a well it will just pointlessly slow down getting buckets of water, with how badly it pointlessly slows down getting water depending on whether it's build on water (allowing the well to be bypassed), or above water.

[greycat]

Dwarves prefer booze, so a well isn't strictly speaking necessary to keep them alive.

You do need a water source of some kind for injured dwarves (unless they are patched up before they can dehydrate, which is rare, given the snail's pace of dwarven medicine).

[MeMyselfAndI]

On a related note:

My suggested well reservoir design is three+ levels. Your bottom two levels are 1x1, with any level above it being as large as you want.

Generally I just use 3x3, and three levels total, for a fairly minimal well.

One interesting twist I tend to do: I tend to have the inlet one z-level above where the top of the reservoir is, with a diagonal and then a pipe down into the reservoir. As water pressurized by gravity will only flow to *lower* levels, this is still safe, and refills the top z-level of the well a lot faster.

That way you have the largest possible usable water before bad thoughts due to mud / total water ratio (In the "minimal" design, 70/77 units, and only gets better as more water is added.).

Something like this:

Code: [Select]

~XX  | XXXXX |      |         
X~X  | X~~~X |      |     
XXX  | X~~~X |  XXX |  XXX
   o | X~~~X |  X~X |  X~X
     | XXXXX |  XXX |  XXX

[Urist McVoyager]

I've only built a few wells myself, and only a couple reservoirs. I did a direct tap into the river, and used flood gates to control the flow. I'd dug the inlet into the top of the reservoir but I think next time I'll put it in the bottom for security reasons. So I can use a retracting bridge for security and have more time to block the way.

[Codyo]

You don't need to get fancy at all with reducing pressure all you have to do is make a screw pump

Here's visualization FROM THE SIDE, not from the top.

XX is the screw pump facing left.
 Underscore _ is the floor
^^^ carrots will be water
[] brackets are walls

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]^^
__XX  [][][][][]] ^^^^^^^^^^^^
[][][]^^^^^^^^^[][][][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
So with this design. You have water coming from the surface or a reservoir above the area you want water to be sent to. It goes down to the foot of the screw pump. Then you have water that will stay at the z level below the screw pump. The screw pump is facing left, so it will take water from the pool of water behind it and put it in front of it.

This way the pump will stop any water rising from pressure and you can control the amount that comes in. So on the left side of the diagram you can carve out a multi-level reservoir to store a bunch of water. You will need to put some doors next to the pump though, to allow your dwarves access to use it.


So here's a dwarf on a screw pump that is taking water from the lower z-level behind it. Not being flooded or anything, he's safe. To his left is a wall and a door for access.

If you get water from a river or anything that will allow creatures to swim into your fortress. You will want to place a fortification in the path of water, which will allow water to flow through it but is an indestructible wall. Preventing creatures to go past.

I disagree with not using wells. They provide a clean water source as they instantly filter any stagnant or salty water into something drinkable. If you don't have a well, that will give your dwarves an unhappy thought. They should always prefer drinking booze over water so that shouldn't be a problem either. You neeeeeeeeed clean water in your fort so your injured dwarves won't die of dehydration. Since injured dwarves only drink water or will die otherwise.

[Urist McVoyager]

That depends on water depth. At 7/7, creatures can swim right through fortifications.

[Loci]

You don't need to get fancy at all with reducing pressure all you have to do is make a screw pump

Here's visualization FROM THE SIDE, not from the top.

XX is the screw pump facing left.
 Underscore _ is the floor
^^^ carrots will be water
[] brackets are walls

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]^^
__XX  [][][][][][] ^^^^^^^^^^^^
[][][]^^^^^^^^^[][][][][][][][][][]
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
So with this design. You have water coming from the surface or a reservoir above the area you want water to be sent to. It goes down to the foot of the screw pump. Then you have water that will stay at the z level below the screw pump. The screw pump is facing left, so it will take water from the pool of water behind it and put it in front of it.

I really doubt that design will work as shown. The water shown in red above would teleport via pressure to the operator's tile of your pump, rendering it unusable. Pressurized water does *not* stay at the z-level below the screw pump. If you powered the pump externally, or regulated the pressure in the supply tunnel using a diagonal passage, then it would work as you intended.

[Codyo]

You're right it has to be powered

[King Mir]

It seems grates in the path of the well bucket don't work in this version; when the grate was placed, my well showed as dry. Same with bars.