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[Pranz]

So, I have a fort that's more than 2 years in now, with a bustling population of 60 dwarves yet I haven't found a way to breach the aquifier. There seems to be only one biome, desert and I already cut down all the trees and used them for construction cause I didn't really think things through. I have no access to stone, the traders seem really low on wood too, and traders don't bring stone, right?

The aquifier is just 3 levels into the black sand, tried caving in as best as I could but no luck. So far the fort is going pretty well despite stone, but the lack of barrels, coffins and slabs is really starting to hurt. Any ideas?

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Traders will bring whatever you want if you ask. 
But the dwarves tend to have both stone and blocks anyway. 
And you should look into green glass production. Buy charcoal, lignite, bitcoal (does DF have anthracite?).

[Starver]

I'm sure traders do bring stone (I'll have always ignored it), but they certainly metals (for mechanisms that you may be aching for one or other pumping-out solution) and that's be my own first and foremost idea on how to get past this issue.

(edit: Ninjaed by the above!)

But you probably still want traders to bring you that and anything else you need.


If you have at least two (might need more, I'd check the past descriptions of how to do it) undisturbed dry layers of sand/other-soil above the aquifer then it's possible you could carefully cave in rings of the stuff into prepared aquifer-level channels to isolate an area, that then you can bucket the water out of and gain access to the level below that. Which might be either dry (yay!) or another layer of aquifer and hopefully you have made the first ring large enough to drop a smaller inner-ring down into the latter, to access the next level below that, hopefully dry but otherwise requiring yet another ring to be planned from the start.

I have rarely done this, and not recently, so I'm definitely not the expert and may be remembering it wrong. Full instructions should be on the Wiki, though, if you check for Aquifers on there. Together with other variously inspiring ideas on how to procede.

[Pranz]

And you should look into green glass production. Buy charcoal, lignite, bitcoal (does DF have anthracite?).

For walling off or using as cave ins? Never dealt with an aquifier before, sorry if this is a stupid question :p

If you have at least two (might need more, I'd check the past descriptions of how to do it) undisturbed dry layers of sand/other-soil above the aquifer then it's possible you could carefully cave in rings of the stuff...

Yeah, this was my attempt, but seems I was victim to this bug now when I took a look at the wiki again.Collapsed a 3x3x2 ring onto a 5x5x1 aquifier hole, which filled it up 3x3x1 but when I dug into the middle of it it got filled with water.

Thanks for the trader suggestions, blocks they do bring but not enough. Guess I gotta prioritize blocks and mechanisms more and/or save up.

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

Green glass/wood for double-slit breaching.

[rhavviepoodle]

Yeah, I would also suggest the double-slit method for breaching aquifers. I've used it many times and it works like a charm--I'd highly recommend it. The diagrams on the wiki are confusing at first, but once you've done it a few times it becomes fairly simple. I also highly recommend using the aquifer layer to supply a subterranean water cistern at some point.

[martinuzz]

From year 3 onwards, new trees will start to mature. Now that will probably just be a few suguaros in the desert, and if you're lucky some featherwoods, but they will regrow.

[PatrikLundell]

The double-slit method is the way to go. You can easily get wood for your work by tearing down your constructions, as I assume you haven't been stupid enough to make blocks out of it (since you get one block per log, it IS stupid). You can the use 3 logs to make a screw pump (where you actually need a (wooden) block... only useful use of wooden blocks I know of), and then you use further recovered logs to shore up the walls. Note that the double slit method results in a lot of cancellations due to the water.
Because of that, I only have building enabled on my two miners, who also have mining and pump operating skills. This means one pumps and the other digs/builds, and you don't have to wait for someone half across the map to get to the building site because the bugger picked up the job before the miner did when the miner was interrupted.
You need 1 log for the carpentry shop, 3 for the screw pump, and 10 for each soil aquifer level (max 2 levels). Below that you'll have stone (if you're unlucky enough to have aquifer bearing rock you can switch to the smoothing method to block the aquifer, which is a lot faster, easier, and less subjected to cancellations.
If you've somehow used up all your logs on crafting, you'll have to wait or resort to the cave-in method.

For the double-slit method, read the instructions, follow them closely, reread,.... Once you think you've got the hang of it you'll probably screw up (at least I did). Also, when you realize that you've screwed up by forgetting to leave a sink on the 3:rd pass on the lowest level, don't panic, as it can be recovered, although at the cost of additional cancellation spam: Since you probably realized it when pumping out of the 4:th pass fills the other slit, stop pumping, turn the pump around, empty the filled slit and remove a wall segment to create a sink. Turn the pump around, process the 4:th pass as if it was the 3:rd, i.e. leave a sink. Turn the pump around again and plug the hole you made in the wall.
You can also use the Deployable Drain method to recover.

martinuzz is almost correct: a desert with a rainfall of less than, I think, 4 will have no saplings spawn, and less than 2 (I think, again) will have no shrubs spawn.

[anewaname]

Traders will bring some logs if you have a shortage (none on the map or have not been cutting them), I have seen this many times.

If you are experiencing "not enough barrels", lower your food/booze production so you can reuse the containers you have. Typically a player will experience food/booze shortages in their first fort, then hoard food/booze in later forts. If your barrels are jammed with plants that cannot be eaten raw, process them into thread or booze or dump them. You can always buy more seeds later. If you need something to sell, butcher some animals and make bone crafts and totems (forbid a couple of small stacks of bone in case a dwarf moods). You can make food stockpiles that do not use barrels. They will be big and attract flies in the hot weather, but most of the food will stay edible.

[martinuzz]

martinuzz is almost correct: a desert with a rainfall of less than, I think, 4 will have no saplings spawn, and less than 2 (I think, again) will have no shrubs spawn.

But then it wouldn't have had some trees to cut down in the first place, or can initial mapgen still spawn trees below rainfall 4?

[PatrikLundell]

martinuzz is almost correct: a desert with a rainfall of less than, I think, 4 will have no saplings spawn, and less than 2 (I think, again) will have no shrubs spawn.

But then it wouldn't have had some trees to cut down in the first place, or can initial mapgen still spawn trees below rainfall 4?

It can spawn trees even if no new ones will appear.
And, while deserts do not grow grass on the surface, grass does grow if you channel down one level (even with 0 rainfall), so you can still support "surface" grazing.

[vanatteveldt]

This used to work a couple versions back if you had enough soil above the aquifer and if the aquifer is not too deep:

Using 3 wood only (aka, your initial wagon wood)
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=131263.0

Using no supplies at all, but using a 'chicken run' where an experienced miner digs a hole before the aquifer fills it in:
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=129994.msg4620472#msg4620472

[PatrikLundell]

The cave-in method works, but the traditional chicken run method was broken with the jobs rewrite (around 0.40.18 or so). Fleeting Frames recently found an alternative chicken run method. It was posted on the forums fairly recently.