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[Visible]

Anybody else do this? Makes for easy first winters. For people too lazy to click the link, the general idea is to dig a channel from the exterior river into the cliff face, while quickly making floodgate/doors with outdoor workshops.

[Fieari]

I don't, but that's because I do herbalism + still + kitchen for the first three years or so, which provides enough food to feed an army, leaving me free to think about aesthetics when it comes to fortress design, and a farm out front like that just isn't aesthetic enough for me.

I used to though, before learning the herbalism trick.  It is nice and fast.

[Aribar Hunter]

.

[AlanL]

Channeling uphill like that is a bug exploit.

[Visible]

quote:Originally posted by AlanL:
<STRONG>Channeling uphill like that is a bug exploit.</STRONG>

It just depends on how imaginative you are with spacial relationships. Who's to say what's really "uphill" in this crazy, mixed up, two dimensional world we live in?  <.<;

[JT]

Many people don't do that, for sake of it violating realism.  It's been discussed before.  I did it once before I decided I just didn't like the idea behind it.

People can always make excuses, of course.  Perhaps there are implied locks and spillways to allow the water to pump itself uphill.  Dwarves are, after all, engineering experts, considerably superior to human engineers of the time.  They haven't invented machines or steam engines in the game world yet, but as far as their technological developments go, I imagine that it would be within the next century for the dwarves, and at least several centuries (possibly even a whole millenium) for the humans.

Incidentally, isn't that farm exceedingly dangerous?  Not only does it have the possibility of backwashing right out of the mountain past the floodgate, but if you forget to lock the control room with the dwarf still inside, the dwarf pulling the lever is as good as dead and the map will permanently flood. =)

It's always better to build a disjoint control room that doesn't connect to the farm in any way.  That way, even if the farm begins to flood where it shouldn't, the dwarf who pulled the lever can be quickly ordered to pull it again before the water manages to source itself with a river.

[ February 13, 2007: Message edited by: JT ]

[Visible]

It is exceedingly dangerous.  

[Capntastic]

quote:Originally posted by AlanL:
<STRONG>Channeling uphill like that is a bug exploit.</STRONG>

Actually it's emergent gameplay which is totally different  

[Slartibartfast]

I used to use the external river for farming.
I stopped when I saw that the dead miner just wasn't worth it.

[Wood Gnome]

quote: Channeling uphill like that is a bug exploit.

there's a hill???   :roll:

[Gakidou]

See, I just don't have a sense of the proper z-layout of a fortress. Is it something like this?

code:

      |####################
      |#########          *
      |#           /~~\   *
          /~~\   ###~~## &*
      /####~~##  #######& *
--~~--#########  ####### &*
##\/###########  #######& *
###############  ####### &*

The / \ around the magma and cave river represent the thin shell of rock that apparently holds back the pressure of a nigh-infinite volume of liquid death.

[Aribar Hunter]

.

[Slartibartfast]

quote:Originally posted by Aribar Hunter:
<STRONG>

How'd you lose a miner to channeling? I've had mine get in the water for the final bit of channel, yeah, but I've never come close to losing one I think..</STRONG>

Don't ask me, as the damn miner that got it into his head that swimming towards a raging river is a good idea.

[Eiba]

First, the danger of losing a miner to sheer idiocy (swimming off into the river or just back and forth) is quite real... I always save my game right before I connect to the river, and don't feel bad about force quitting and reloading, because... a miner dying in a shallow trench he just dug is... silly...

Anyway, I think the z-axis theoretically slopes up towards the cliff face, and then the dwarves start mining slightly downward.

That said, I personally have no realism issues with outside river irrigation- consider the following:
The initial situation is like this:

code:

            ##############
            ##############
            ############## 
          ################ 
###~~~####################
##########################

Most people assume the dwarves are doing something preposterous like this:

code:

            ##############
            #      #######
            _~~~~~~####### 
          __############## 
###~~~____################
##########################

Of course the fact is, the z axis hasn't been implemented at all yet, so what's to say the dwarves aren't actually doing this?

code:

            ##############
            ##############
            ############## 
          ..#      ####### 
###~~~_______~~~~~~#######
##########################

To clarify, the periods represent land in the background- the dwarves have basically just built a very deep channel here.

My point is that the interior of your fortress does not necessarily have to be at the same level as the surface. It would be a simple matter for dwarves to build some steps downward near their entrance, or next to the farms- that's obviously not represented yet ingame, but conceptually it's no great leap of imagination...

[JT]

quote:Originally posted by Eiba:
<STRONG>First, the danger of losing a miner to sheer idiocy (swimming off into the river or just back and forth) is quite real... I always save my game right before I connect to the river, and don't feel bad about force quitting and reloading, because... a miner dying in a shallow trench he just dug is... silly...</STRONG>

Boy, that brings back fond memories of Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

The movie, not the men.

quote:<STRONG>To clarify, the periods represent land in the background- the dwarves have basically just built a very deep channel here.</STRONG>

Yeah, this is the reasoning that I use when I build a moat which comes out from the mountainside, curves around, then goes back into the mountainside.  I just assume the moat is slightly deeper as it nears the cliff face.