Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Help with pumps  (Read 593 times)

SpiralHero

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Help with pumps
« on: December 19, 2008, 10:45:46 pm »
Ok, my current project is a dwarvern sky city made of green glass. My first step is building a 15 z level tower as the base, and then expanding from there. However, I intend to make a hollow wall on each level that I can pump water through until I get to the top, where I intend to release it to make a giant waterfall down the sides of my tower. My building plan was a bit like this

XXXXXXXXX
X             X
X XXXXXX X
X X       X X
X X       X X
X X       X X
X XXXXXX X
X             X
XXXXXXXXX

I was going to layer screw pumps in the same spot on each level to pump the water up, then have gaps on the top level for the water to spill out of.

Now, wold this be a very large drain on power? Should I use windmills, or try to rig up a water wheel system instead? if I plant pumps on top of each other, does each pump require power, or just the first? etc

Any help would be greatly appreciated  :D
Logged

Agent_Irons

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Help with pumps
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2008, 02:38:15 am »
You'll need to make the tower bigger, but it's not impossible to set it up so that that entire contraption powers itself. I've done some experimenting, and perpetual motion machines work quite well.

I recommend 4-long sides, but you'd need more space in the middle or on the outside for gears.
one as output to the next level, a waterwheel, and then input from the previous level. Maybe 5 long sides. It'd require a lot of careful planning. Remember the water can't spill out!
Logged

Sinergistic

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Help with pumps
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2008, 03:40:31 am »
You're basically building an oversized water tower.

Each pump will require power. One pump = a drain of 10 power. 5 pumps = a drain of 50 power.

For an example of what you are looking to do, I would check out this map...
http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-4275-4waterchannel
That is the top of the 'water tower'. If you move down through the z-levels (from 34 to 33 and so on) you will see that they have simply stacked pumps one on top of the other, with a power source at the very bottom. If you use this method, you can keep the hollow part of your tower very small, thus minimizing the amount of work that needs to go into it, and getting the maximum amount of space inside as possible.

More on the stacked pumps can be found in the wiki: http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Screw_pump#Stacked_pumps
Logged