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[Warlord255]

Earlier, in a cleaning suggestion thread, some people mentioned some of the workarounds - having dwarves walk through a waterfall being one of them. As dwarvenly as indoor waterfalls are, drenching everyone repeatedly seems inelegant. After some pondering, I came across a more selective, much more engineering-heavy solution - the Shower Tower!

Bottom Level:

Code: [Select]

XXX  XXX
 X~X  X~X
 X%X  X%X
==%====%==
=~~====~~=
=~~=##=~~=
=~~X##X~~=
=~~=##=~~=
=~~====~~=
==========
Top Level:

Code: [Select]

===  ===
=~=  =~=
=%=  =%=
=%====%=
X=XXXX=X
X==hh==X
XXXhhXXX
  XhhX
  XXXX
       
X  -  Wall
= - Floor
~ - Water
# - Grate
% - Screw Pump (currently manual-powered)
h - Floor Hatch (connected to lever)

While it requires some scaffolding to construct, the process is relatively simple.

1. Construct the bottom floor over a pond or river.
2. Build floor over the exposed water on the bottom floor to catch dropped scaffolding.
3. Build scaffolding as necessary.
4. Build top floor, excluding screw pumps; add top floor access as desired.
5. Rig floor hatches to a lever.
6. Build top floor screw pumps.
7. Remove scaffolding. Ta-da!

Operation is, thankfully, easier;

1. Run pumps until cistern is full.
2. Position dwarves/items on grates.
3. Pull the lever!

The water is dropped onto your dwarves, and should go through the grates to refill your pond, making this design applicable even for desert climates! The mist also ought to give your beleaguered dwarves a happy thought, and the design can be expanded to handle a larger quantity of dwarves at one time. The grates allow your fisherdwarves to have a safe workspace if you're in a carp-filled river, and the water-cleaning pumps allow it to be adapted to an existing drinking reservoir!

Best of all, if you build it out of magma-safe materials, this contraption could make a great execution device - particularly for immigrants, if you don't want to have to sort through all their socks* but want to keep their metal items. It's also got great potential as a hallway trap!

*Clothing incineration not guaranteed. I haven't tried dropping magma on anyone yet, still need more stone.

It's a dwarven washing machine with no flooding and deadly side use. Do I get a cookie now?

*EDIT: Apparently the cleaning application of this delightful device is completely useless. Stick with the weapon application.

[Cheeetar]

I like it, though it would require a little micromanagement to get the dwarves to go their every so often to be cleaned. Yes, you do get a cookie.

[Warlord255]

I like it, though it would require a little micromanagement to get the dwarves to go their every so often to be cleaned. Yes, you do get a cookie.

I LOVE COOKIES

*devours*

Also, if and when blood pooling ever comes back, you could make a "reverse" shower tower with a butchery one floor above the reservoir...

[arghy]

You could automate it and put the food stock piles on the other side hehe NO DINNER UNTIL YOU WASH YOUR HANDS!

[Warlord255]

...Well, this is just bugger-all annoying. Very much so, if I do say so myself. In fact, I would catalogue this as downright frustrating.

Upon drenching my much-bloodied, sixty-three-kill axedwarf, his clothes and armor are not clean.

However, I'm going to try depositing the items on the grates... DAMMIT THAT DIDN'T WORK EITHER. I feel like a loser now.

'Least the weapon application is still valid.

[Earthquake Damage]

In a past lake shore fortress, I learned that dwarves will happily swim through water if it shortens their path.  Presumably, they will also path across water if it's the only path.  I assume (but haven't verified) that swimming will clean off any filth.  So, in one of your high traffic areas, channel out a section of hallway into a pool.  Your dwarves will clean themselves, learn to swim, and be delightfully aquatic.

If surface swimming doesn't clean effectively, place a wall over the middle of the pool so your dwarves have to swim underwater to reach the other side.  If the pool is very short (e.g. 3 tiles long) and has ramps at either end, drowning should only happen rarely (e.g. passing out due to severe injuries).

The only major issue I foresee with such an arrangement is the accumulation of garbage in the pool.  I don't think dwarves will grab any submerged object at present.  You should probably have a drainage and refill system in place for periodic maintenance.

[Alabaster]

For earthquake's dip pool, what depth of water is reccommended to gain swimming skill safely, yet not so high that dwarfs refuse to cross it?

I want to build something like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

its a side view, dwarves walk thru the middle, down the ramp, swim thru the shallow water and out the other side.

bonus points if you can figure how to pump just enough water to keep the waterfall constantly on, the water depth at just the right level with the drain open.  would that require a pump moving to pump water out at the same speed water is pumped in?

[Derakon]

At depth 3, dwarves will walk through water. At depth 4, they start swimming, but I believe they also will regard depth 4 as impassible to walking - i.e. they have to be hit by a depth-4 "wave" to start swimming, and this causes them to cancel tasks due to dangerous terrain.

I could be wrong, though.

I just stuck a pond in my barracks with ramps on the side, so my soldiers get swimming training every time they dodge into open air.

[Earthquake Damage]

For earthquake's dip pool, what depth of water is reccommended to gain swimming skill safely, yet not so high that dwarfs refuse to cross it?

I don't yet know if dwarves will freely cross water if the only path to reach their destination is across said water.  I do know that in my lake shore fortress my haulers happily swam across the lake to grab logs and haul them to the fort.  Surface water in a lake is at 7/7.  I've also noticed that dwarves like to path around murky pools.  I think the key is that shorelines have ramps while pools do not.  So long as your swimming pool has ramps at the ends, I don't think you'll have any problem getting dwarves to use it.

Furthermore, as I said, my dwarves happily swam across 7/7 water (several tiles deep in places) and were completely unharmed.  It's possible that swimming dwarves will eventually tire (never noticed it;  never did a lot of swimming in Adventure mode either), and I don't know if tired dwarves will sink or swim.

I recommend making your pool no more than 1 level deep (that is, one tile of 7/7 water with a solid floor beneath it) to prevent drowning.  Drowning dwarves can still reach the shore AFAIK, so a 3x[hallway width]x1 pool should be harmless provided nobody passes out in the middle of it (due to injury, falling, etc).

Hmm.  I suppose it's possible that dwarves will sink and/or drown if they lie down in water, so high traffic may cause a problem.  That needs to be tested.  Go ahead and try using a pool, but make sure it has a drain system in place.  You'll need the drain anyway to periodically clear out the miscellaneous crap that eventually collects in it since, as I said, I'm pretty sure dwarves ignore submerged objects.

At depth 3, dwarves will walk through water. At depth 4, they start swimming, but I believe they also will regard depth 4 as impassible to walking - i.e. they have to be hit by a depth-4 "wave" to start swimming, and this causes them to cancel tasks due to dangerous terrain.

Actually, that dangerous terrain cancellation may be related to the wave, not the depth itself.
It also may only happen if the ceiling is low (i.e. the water reaches depth >3 in the a ceilinged tile).  It's possible that dwarves only complain if there isn't at least one tile on top of the water to give them some breathing room.

I just know that outdoors along a (ramped) shoreline, the water didn't impede my dwarves at all.

[Refar]

Upon drenching my much-bloodied, sixty-three-kill axedwarf, his clothes and armor are not clean.

So it does not clean his stuff... But did at least the dwarf himself get cleaned ?

I am willing to grant my dwarves a new set of clothes and even armor once in a while... But it's useless if they still have vomit all overt the body

[Eater of Vermin]

Aside from the swimming issue, it's pretty easy to regulate the inflow & outflow so that there's no flooding.  I like to build small waterfalls on each side of my Dining Hall entry at the same time I build my well, so that even when the Hall isn't up to Legendary status my Dwarves still become ecstatic with the help of the happy thought from the mist.

My setups generally go something like this... (Code spoilered 'cos it's pretty large...)  It works, so I don't change it much.  It doesn't double as an incinerator though... somehow I don't think raining hot rock on guests is the best way to break up parties  in the Dining Hall. 

Levels Z, Z-1 & Z-2:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Z:    Z-1:       z-2:
 
        Well Entrance        +-> to water source
      |        |
...........   |    ...X=X...       ...........
...........   |    ...X=X.....       ...........
.XXXXXXX...   |    .XXX=XXX...       .XXXXXXX...
.X=====X...   |    .X_____X...       .X_____X...
.X=====XXXX   |    .X_____X...       .X_____X...
.X==O====== <-+    .X_____X...       .X_____X...
.X=====XXXX    .X_____X...       .X_____X...
.X=====X...    .X_____X...       .X_____X...
.XXXXXXX...    .XX=XXXX...       .XXXXXXX...
...........    ..X_X......       ..X_X......
...........    ..XXX......       ..XXX......
.......XXX.    .......XXX.       ..XXXXXXXX.
.......X_X.<-+    .......X_X.<-+       ..X====<%X.
.......XXX.  |    .......XXX.  |       ..X=XXXXXX.
...........  |    ...........  |       ..X#X......
...........  |    ...........  |       ..XXX......
...........  |    ...........  |       ..X#X......
.......XXX.  |    .......XXX.  |       ..X=XXXXXX.
.......X_X.<-+    .......X_X.<-+       ..X====<%X.
.......XXX.  |    .......XXX.  |       ..XXXXXXXX.
     |         |
        shafts for            shafts for
      vertical axles          vertical axles

Levels Z-3 & Z-4:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

Z-3:    Z-4:
        Corridor to
Dining Hall
     |
...........  |    ...........    X - walls
...........  |    ...........    = - Floors
.XXXXXXX...  |    .XXXXXXX...    _ - Channels
.X_____X...  |    .X=====X...    # - Grates
.X_____X...  |    .X=====X...    O - Well
.X_____X...  |    .X=====X...
.X_____X...  |    .X=====X...    %> and <% - screw pumps
.X_____X...  |    .X=====X...
.XXXXXXX...  |    .XXXXXXX...
..X_X......  |    ..X=X......
..XXX......  |    ..X=X......
.....XXXXX.  |    .XX=XXX....
.....X%>=X.  |    .X====X....
..XXXXXXXX.  |    .X===XX....
XXX_XXXXXXX  |    .X===X.....
===========<-+    .X===X.....
XXX_XXXXXXX    .X===X.....
..XXXXXXXX.    .X===XX....
..X_XX%>=X.    .X====X....
..X=XXXXXX.    .XXXXXX....
..X=X......
..X=X......
   |
   V
 water overflow.  (ie. goes to chasm, river, etc.)

At Level Z you can see the main Well area and a couple of vertical channels to take shafts to power the pumps.  What I use to power the pumps depends on what else is happening, so I won't cover that here.  I usually add stairs to down to the bottom of the cisterns to cater for clumsy dwarves, but I didn't include 'em in this for simplicities sake.

Z-1 is where the water feeds into the cistern.  There is an overflow at the same height on the opposite side of the cistern, so that when the cistern is full it'll overflow and feed a second cistern that feeds my pumps.  In this example the input channel is only one tile wide so the outflow is only one tile wide.  If the input is 2 wide for faster filling, the overflow needs to be two wide.  Simple, right?

OK, the overflow drops vertically down through Z-2 & Z-3 to fill the pump sump on Z-4.

You should notice that on Z-3 there's another overflow.  This goes to a chasm, or other pumps to raise it back to the surface or whatever.  Again, this needs to be as many tiles wide as the original channel bringing water in.  In this case only 1 tile wide.

So it will always get rid of any excess water as fast as it comes in.  (There is an exception, but i'll get to that.)

OK, there are pumps on Z3 which lift from the sump to pumps on Z-2 which lift it to channels that feed floor grates above and to either side of the corridor that leads to my Dining Hall.  These are my shower heads.    I have the waterfall on each side of the corridor but not in the corridor because as you've already discovered, getting dwarves soaked doesn't do really anything, mist on each side is enough for happy thoughts and it means a simpler build. 

After reading the other posts though, I'm thinking that I could try ramping the corridor down on each side of the waterfalls, so that dwarves need to wade through a tile of water in the sump before continuing up the other side.  The problem is keeping the water level at 3/7 or 4/7.  Hmm... maybe if I moved the pump over a square?  (I wonder if dwarves can get sucked into pumps?   )


You'll probably notice that I don't put grates on either side of the corridor, instead they're just channels.  I've found that grates tend to make water splash onto the nearby floor and I hate mud being tracked through my Dining Hall.  And being only one tile wide, I don't want Towercaps sprouting there!  (I normally have another corridor setup like this on the opposite end of the Dining Hall too, but that's beside the point.) 

Oh... and I usually put access stairs in the pump sump too, for the dwarves that fall (get pushed, usually) down the channels when going to or from  munchies.

And that exception I mentioned before?  Because I have a continuous flow of water at all times, even when the pumps are running continuously, the pump sump will eventually fill.  This means that if the pumps are suddenly shut off for some reason, not only will the normal flow of water from the well exit the overflow but all of the water pumped overhead will try to get out too.   This makes a temporary backlog and is why I have the overflow from the well drop down 3 or 4 levels to the pumps...

...if they were on the same level then the only place for this temporary backlog to go would be out the top of the well!  (Trust me on this.  I hate muddy floors in my well, too. )

[Eater of Vermin]

Ahhh... shit.  I screwed up.  (Again)

After writing all that, I sat back and thought "that doesn't look right."     It took a while, but then I realised there's only 2 levels of pumps.  There should be another level in there, Z-4 should actually be Z-5 and the overflow on Z-3 should be on Z-4...

...otherwise any backlog from shutting down the pumps is gonna come up through the channels in the Dining hall corridor.

Geeze, it's much easier to actually build the damned thing in DF than to describe here! [sigh]

[Warlord255]

Upon drenching my much-bloodied, sixty-three-kill axedwarf, his clothes and armor are not clean.

So it does not clean his stuff... But did at least the dwarf himself get cleaned ?

I am willing to grant my dwarves a new set of clothes and even armor once in a while... But it's useless if they still have vomit all overt the body

Forgot to check that! Let's find out.

NOPE!

[MetBoy]

Ahhh... shit.  I screwed up.  (Again)

After writing all that, I sat back and thought "that doesn't look right."     It took a while, but then I realised there's only 2 levels of pumps.  There should be another level in there, Z-4 should actually be Z-5 and the overflow on Z-3 should be on Z-4...

...otherwise any backlog from shutting down the pumps is gonna come up through the channels in the Dining hall corridor.

Geeze, it's much easier to actually build the damned thing in DF than to describe here! [sigh]

As I was looking over your design I noticed that error... BUT! This looks incredibly like something I've been trying to do myself, and I do have a question/issue with the design as shown; the pumps.

Issue 1 is that screw pumps need at least 4 spaces in a line to function; one for the hole to pump from, one for the operator square, one for the block of the pump, and one for the output.

Issue 2 is power; I was under the impression that power could only be connected to the back square of the pump, not the front. Wait... *checks wiki... finds pictures that indicate...* Ugh. How the pumps relate to power is less than clear.

[R1ck]

I can confirm that with underground, flat ground at least dwarves regard 4/7 water or higher 'dangerous terrain' and will immediately try
to path out of there. If they can't, they just sit there gaining swimming skill but getting hungry, thirsty and drowsy.
I believe I will test to see if ramps make the water safe, or being outside, or just with no roof over the water. I suspect
it's the last one. This could lead to the return of my dwarven aquatic defensive system!