Print

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

[Mook]

I'm currently building a fort on an ocean coastline, which necessitates that I punch through the aquifer to reach the delicious stone underneath.  My central stairwell is currently a 7x7 affair, with up/down stairwells at each corner, as such:
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
|x             x|
|                |
|     ooo      |
|     ooo      |
|     ooo      |
|                |
|x             x|
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
The o's are the central channeled area, which works as a nice light shaft/suicide pit.  I'm wondering how many screw pumps I would need to keep this size area water-free while I build walls to block the aquifer, or if it is even possible to maintain such an aesthetic design on an aquifer map.  I would prefer my suicide shaft go all the way to the bottom without stops.

SECONDARY QUESTION:  I've set up a cistern with fully granite walls/floors, a door in case a dorf falls in, and an obsidian roof.  I want to know if there is any way to check whether water is fresh or not after I pump it in, as I haven't been able to find that info so far and just assume all water on the map is salt water.

Thanks in advance.

[SolarShado]

not sure about the aquifer bit, but i believe pumps will desalinate water, but you can't let that water mix with salt water, for obvious reasons

[woose1]

Quote: "Enourmous Steel corkscrew"

Kinky. 

[Pilsu]

You can't check whether water is fresh. You can however forbid all the booze and find out if the dwarves will drink out of your cistern

[SolarShado]

You can't check whether water is fresh. You can however forbid all the booze and find out if the dwarves will drink out of your cistern

Actually, i believe if you attempt to designate a drinking area, you can find out if the water is drinkable.

[woose1]

You can't check whether water is fresh. You can however forbid all the booze and find out if the dwarves will drink out of your cistern

Thats also kinky... 

[SolarShado]

Quote: "Enourmous Steel corkscrew"

Kinky. 

You can't check whether water is fresh. You can however forbid all the booze and find out if the dwarves will drink out of your cistern

Thats also kinky... 

You have a dirty mind...

[woose1]

Quote: "Enourmous Steel corkscrew"

Kinky. 

You can't check whether water is fresh. You can however forbid all the booze and find out if the dwarves will drink out of your cistern

Thats also kinky... 

You have a dirty mind...

Sorry, just watched "Shootemup".

[G-Flex]

Yeah, if you try to designate a water zone and it isn't valid, the water is salty. Quick and easy!

To desalinate water, remember this: It MUST be pumped into an area where it NEVER touches natural terrain. In other words, build a big wooden holding tank or something. As long as it's pumped directly into a completely-artificial structure, it should be "fresh".

[numerobis]

If you have great patience, you can get away with just one pump.  I usually use a half-dozen if dwarf-powered, or about 30 if I have a good power plant (which is easy to build if you build a pump and a few waterwheels, then a channel back to the aquifer, though you might get uncomfortable about so blatantly abusing perpetual motion).

[Majorlag]

To desalinate water, remember this: It MUST be pumped into an area where it NEVER touches natural terrain.

This is false. My current fort is near a volcano on an island with salt-water aquifers and my well's reservoir is simply dug out, not constructed.

[G-Flex]

Odd; that hasn't been my experience. I ran a test near a volcano on a beach, and found that an artificial basin was required.

Maybe natural terrain works only in certain situations or on certain terrain types/near certain features?

[Mook]

Thanks for the responses.  As soon as I remove enough of the cistern ceiling to keep my mechanic from spraying water everywhere except INSIDE of the artificial well I'll give it a test run to see if it's fresh.

The aquifer problem sort of reached a solution, as my miner almost fell into the magma pipe directly underneath the aquifer layer while digging out more of the central stairwell.  The bad news is that this effectively prevents my central shaft from being a direct 20 z-level drop.  The good news is that a magma drop saves me the trouble of making coffins. 

NEW QUESTION:  If I pour aquifer water directly onto the magma pipe, will it harden into an obsidian layer on that level (assuming it's connected to a wall) or will it just harden tiles individually, causing a plethora of cave-in messages?

[numerobis]

The basic physics are: if you drop water on a tile of magma, you get a tile of obsidian wall.  A wall that isn't supported will cave-in. 

[TettyNullus]

don't pour it ONTO the magma, flow it instead, from the surrounding. Much much less chance of cave-in that way (though I still get a bit of spam on it sometimes  )