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[94dima94]

I'm planning a new fort, and I'm trying a particular defense for the main entrance:

I' m on a mountain, with a waterfall just next to my entrance.
I want to create a system of floodgates/bridges to move water through the hallway and down the canyon, sealing off the entrance and the exit and trapping enemies in the corridor.

Will this work? Or will the enemies just swim away and leave from the river?

Also: do I need to completely block the river and deviate it through the hallway, or is the channel enough even with the river still flowing?

[Agent_Irons]

Relying on water to push invaders around rarely works well in my forts (everyone is pretty determined to path through whitewater), but if you pressurize it properly you could build a flash-flood chamber. Pressure plates that slam doors closed and open a hatch in the ceiling that is at the bottom of a tall cistern filled with river water. It'll nearly instantly fill with water, depending on pressure and size of drowning chamber etc etc etc. Remember to build drainage! Double remember to test it before you rely on it.

[martinuzz]

Does not work on invaders that have [NO_BREATHING] or whatever the tag's called nowadays.

[Agent_Irons]

Does not work on invaders that have [NO_BREATHING] or whatever the tag's called nowadays.

Ooh, a fair point. Necromancers don't breathe, do they? Either way their zombies do not. And titans definitely do not need to breathe.

Tame a dragon(oh sure 'just tame a dragon') and chain it behind some fortifications so you can choose drowning in water or dragonfire? That would be neat.

Have a backup marksdwarf gallery overlooking the Murder Zone (TM). You may need to chain a bait animal inside the MZ, and several warning animals further out so you have time to react.

Double bonus points for using some kind of aquatic creature you have caught in a spring-loaded chain to fight undrownable intruders. Do you have an ocean or big fish in your river? War orcas. War carp.

[i2amroy]

Important note, but make sure to seal off your drowning area with bridges, not with floodgates/doors. I've had my day ruined before when a troll managed to batter down the inside floodgate before the room filled, leading to mass flooding of my fortress as well as the invaders getting in.

[martinuzz]

Water does not kill non-breathers.
Magma does not kill fire immune creatures.
magma + water, however, kills everything.

[Nikow]

Meybe water doesn't kill non-breathers, but presurized water is pushing back enemies very well, they even can slam sometime into walls. I had small, 3 wide, water pusher... it works awesome,when your drainage point is a 2x3 hole to 3rd cavern. Flyers survive, but why you have these traps with weapons from defeted goblins?

[Agent_Irons]

It would be neat if we could build nether-cap floors to make freezing traps anywhere. Maybe like a big 9x9 of them would freeze the middle sometimes.

[Z1000000m]

magma + water, however, kills everything.

Especially fps.

[Orange Wizard]

Water does not kill non-breathers.
Magma does not kill fire immune creatures.
magma + water, however, kills everything.

Ahem, zombie dragon, ahem.

Also clowns. They usually are magma immune and non-breathing.

magma + water, however, kills everything.

Especially fps.

+1

[ICBM pilot]

Water does not kill non-breathers.
Magma does not kill fire immune creatures.
magma + water, however, kills everything.

Ahem, zombie dragon, ahem.

Also clowns. They usually are magma immune and non-breathing.

magma + water, however, kills everything.

Especially fps.

+1

Wouldn't they get encased in obsidian?

[Agent_Irons]

Magma immune and nonbreathing, sure. Immune to the obsidian straitjacket? never.

[martinuzz]

Wouldn't they get encased in obsidian?

That's exactly what I meant. No mentionable FPS drain when done right.

[Hamiltonz]

Water + Magma can sometimes trip out and produce random holes in your obsidian layer.

The one and only time I went to the circus, I made the clowns swim upstream while I drained about 100 levels of volcano into their tent.  I set several layers above alternating water and magma.  Getting the timing right was difficult, but in the end I had multiple layers of obsidian and all the clowns carbonized.

Next time I plan to use pressure plates to automatically drop several layers of water/magma in a carefully timed series.  I'll also remember to give my corpse haulers gloves....

[94dima94]

My idea is not to kill creatures with water: I want to push them around with it, throwing them down the canyon making them fall 10 Z-levels into a river. I need to know if that will work ( if it is necessary, I can easily build a pressurized chamber).