Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Canaris]

In order to plant underground, naturally, I have to muddy the stone tiles.

I can achieve this by fooding the room desired, and I've devised a fairly complex system that floods a an entire chamber once, and with the throwing of a few levers, is turned off and drained into a room below it. With another lever, it runs off and into my prepared cistern. This makes two chambers, one over the other, ready for a farm plot - or as many as I want.

Above, the canal simply goes around the top-most chamber, and with a fourth or fifth lever, is released to feed the cistern (which is about 6 z-levels deep) so that it's 7/7; this will one eventually become a well. At any time I can cut off water at the river, and drain the excess into a chasm for maintenance/extension as my fortress grows.

The system works but can take alot of time and effort to implement.

How does everyone else muddy their stone and feed their wells?

[Ozymandias]

I've yet to be in a situation requiring mud, so it's just a question of getting water, in which case I also don't use wells. The reservoir is usually just accessible directly, with a water duct controlled by levered doors feeding into it from a river.

[Canaris]

I've yet to be in a situation requiring mud, so it's just a question of getting water, in which case I also don't use wells. The reservoir is usually just accessible directly, with a water duct controlled by levered doors feeding into it from a river.

I always have to make mud to plant farms - except outside. But I don't find having farms outside very effcient.

[Grumman]

My underground farm plots are each connected to one of two small pump-filled reservoirs by floodgates, so that I can muddy any of them as required. When not being used for irrigation, the reservoirs empty into a water-filled tunnel running through the center of my fortress. My wells and indoor fishery draw water directly from this tunnel, while the dining room waterfall has its own reservoir that can have water added or removed as necessary. Since I don't have a chasm or any magma to drain the tunnel into, I installed a floodgate at the end of the tunnel, right in the middle of my fortress, that I will open once I have extended the tunnel downwards. Once I have done that, I shall use hatches and floodgates to deliver water to whatever levels require it.

[sdu]

I almost always build the same design for my underground farms.

First i find the area closest to water that is pure rock, usually 1-2 z levels below a lake, then dig out my farm area like so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

(Water will flow from the left, a few z lvls higher is the lake).

Key

.  = dug out square
# = floodgate/door (connected to lever)
/  = Door (opens/shuts as normal)
* = Lever
E = Exit to rest of fortress.

      . . .
   .  . . .
.#.#. . . / . . E
   .  . . .   *
      . . .   *

Basically, I have a resevoir of 3 tiles, controlled by the first 2 floodgates/doors. Then I open the middle floodgate/door and the 15 tile space is muddied. Most of the tiles will be one square of water max so there is no wait for evaporation before I can start my farms. I've never needed any more space than this for farms.

[Canaris]

Here's my overly-complicated version.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

            .........                         . - Floor
            .       .                         > - Source
            . ..... .                         G - Floodgate
...         . ..... .                         O - Hatch
...G.........G..O..G...............>          D - Door
...           .....                           X - Stairs
              .....
                D
                .
                X


The source directly feeds a 25-tile room. The floodgates to this room are tied to one lever, the one linked to the 9-tile room on the left is on a seperate lever. This is my cistern for the well. The hatch in the middle is also linked to a lever, and under that hatch is another 25-tile room which acts as a drain. There's usually a drain in that room, and a room under that, to facilitate evaporation. I end up with a minimum of 3 or 4 25-tile farms should I ever need them. The cistern also has a chamber or two for drainage in case I need to shut it down and get in there.

If there is one, I'll just change the operation so if/when the time comes to completely empty the system (for additions or maintenance), I can dump it right into a chasm.

[slink]

Due to Toady's model for water, there is an exploit which makes wells a lot easier to create than I thought.  I wish I had known this before I abandoned one of my fortresses due to what I thought was an insurmountable thirst problem right on the verge of success.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Because Toady's water won't flow in half-levels, this construction can be left open to the river or brook without flowing back up through the well and staircase.  The floodgate turns out not to be needed at all.

Code: [Select]


Upper level, connected to river water layer.  The unnecessary floodgate is shown in place.

=======
=~~~~~=
=~...~=o
X~...~+
=~...~=>
=~~~~~=
=======

Lower level

=========
=~~~~~~~=
=~~~~~~~=
=~~~~~~~+
=~~~~~~<=
=~~~~~~~=
=========


[Overdose]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

[_Acorn_]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

TYVM.  Last I tried, the water would evaporate faster than the one dwarf could fill it.

[Canaris]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

How does I bucket brigade?

[sonerohi]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

I did that right after I got my well set up. I channeled and dug out a water-dump spot on the z-level up, and had my farm room on the same z-level as the well. 5 dwarves at a constant, running the water up and coming right back down for round 2. Was glorious up until I realised I had doors installed there and the water level had gotten up to 7 in the farm room.

[Techhead]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

TYVM.  Last I tried, the water would evaporate faster than the one dwarf could fill it.

It depends on the ambient temperature.

[Agent_Irons]

I use an old fashioned bucket brigade system

edit: Protip - don't use a singular tile or zone for filling ponds. If you make an opening multiple tiles in size, and make each tile a different zone all designated to fill, you end up with a bunch of dwarves hauling water instead of 1 at a time.

I did that right after I got my well set up. I channeled and dug out a water-dump spot on the z-level up, and had my farm room on the same z-level as the well. 5 dwarves at a constant, running the water up and coming right back down for round 2. Was glorious up until I realised I had doors installed there and the water level had gotten up to 7 in the farm room.

I have killed a dwarf this way. I had an emergency pump-operated drain for my obsidian farm, but what I hadn't counted on is that the reservoir filled up, backed up, and trapped the pumper in there. I thought, okay, dig a new entrance. But he'd flooded the only access hallway, and it was designed in such a way as to make digging a new way in flood the rest of the fort. Skills.

[sdu]

My system seems so much easier ><