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[Lymojo]

Is there ANY reason to use a floodgate rather than a drawbridge?

A 4x1 drawbridge, as far as I can tell, behaves EXACTLY the same as 4 floodgates side by side.
However, the bridge requires about 1/4 the stone to build, and 1/4 the mechanisms and 1/4 the time to link to a lever.
Furthermore, a floodgate will disassemble if something is standing on it when it closes, while a drawbridge is God's hammer.

Seriously, what's the point of building floodgates when we have drawbridges?

[Captain Xenon]

you can get magma-proof floodgates. bridges i dont know.

[ein]

Hmm... you make an excellent point. I never really thought about that. I always use a floodgate for reservoirs and such and bridges for crossing gaps and rivers.

And you can get magma-proof bridges. Just use bauxite (unless you have molten rocks mod).

[piesquared]

As far as I know, the only real difference is that for bridges the default state is "water can pass" while for floodgates it's "water can't pass."

Could be useful if you're rigging one switch to several things.

[ein]

I usually hook up whatever I want to be in the opposite position and pull the lever before hooking up everything else.

[Martin]

Floodgates act as a floor when raised, which is useful for certain kinds of traffic patterns.

[Time Kitten]

Bridges act as a floor when lowered, which is useful for certain kinds of traffic patterns.

Also, floodgates don't crush your champions and legendary armourers.


*Editified: Fixxerooed.

[Martin]

Bridges act as a floor when lowered, which is useful for certain kinds of traffic patterns.

I wasn't debating that, but the OP asked if there was any useful difference between the two, and there is.

Also, floodgates crush your champions and legendary armourers.

I don't think they do. I think the floodgate gets deconstructed in that situation. Bridges definitely crush your dwarves, however.

[Neruz]

Mainly to set multiple things on the same lever; if you have something you want to open and something you want to close at the same time, you set one up as a bridge and one up as a floodgate.


An example being the drowning system i built for my Elf Traders; i can divert the water from filling the system up to making a pwetty waterfall with a single flick of a lever.

[Lav]

Bridges definitely crush your dwarves, however.

Yet another reason to go for bridges. :-)

[Albedo]

You can make a magma-proof drawbridge from... (what am I going to say?)... bauxite.  Or any other magma-proof material. Works just fine.

Most players prefer doors or drawbridges, as they respond immediately. The only differences (arguable "advantages") of floodgates are their states (open/closed, vs closed/open for drawbridges), and that they do not have to have walls adjacent to be built (as opposed to doors, which do.)  Also some players make use of the delay they have in opening/closing - doors/drawbridges are "immediate" when the lever is thrown.

[Noble Digger]

Floodgates do not crush anyone, and do not get deconstructed if they are blocked. If anything, including a butterfly corpse, blocks a floodgate, it simply doesn't close when triggered until it is cleared. Once cleared, it will close (unless the lever has been triggered more than once, in which case you may have to flip it a few times to fix the gate). For this reason alone, I consider floodgates unsafe for blocking flows. Why? If an aquatic or magmatic creature comes running toward your fort or if crap such as bones or chunks are caught in the liquid, it could jam the floodgate open.

A 1x2 drawbridge (meaning it raises in a direction rather than retracts) acts exactly like a floodgate when raised, forming a tight, liquid-restricting barrier. When lowered it acts as a floor. Beware of accidentally crushing things, I like to put a wall grate or vertical bars to restrict access to the gate.

A drawbridge made of magma-safe materials is magma-safe, as long as the mechanism which is attaching it to its lever is also magma-safe. What do I mean? Press "t" and look at the bridge. If the mechanism listed as "inside" it is magma-safe, you're good. The lever and the mechanism "inside" the lever DO NOT have to be magma-safe as long as they never come into direct contact with magma.

Magma-safe mechanisms must be made from Bauxite or Raw Adamantine, nothing else will work I like to mod in a smelter reaction to cast iron and steel mechanisms. It looks like this:

Code: [Select]

[REACTION:IRON_MECHANISMS]
[NAME:cast iron mechanisms]
[SMELTER]
[REAGENT:3:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:IRON]
[PRODUCT:100:1:TRAPPARTS:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:IRON]
[FUEL]

[REACTION:STEEL_MECHANISMS]
[NAME:cast steel mechanisms]
[SMELTER]
[REAGENT:3:BAR:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:STEEL]
[PRODUCT:100:1:TRAPPARTS:NO_SUBTYPE:METAL:STEEL]
[FUEL]
As for making the floodgate\bridge, you can use Iron, Steel, Nickel, Bauxite, and a couple other materials. I usually choose Nickel because it's magma-proof and otherwise useless. Save your bauxite for mechanisms

Someone earlier mentioned that, attached to the same switch, a drawbridge is closed when a floodgate is open. This is very useful for computing, failsafes, traps, and other creative contraptions.

[peterix]

doors/drawbridges are "immediate" when the lever is thrown.

Not so in my experience. Bridges have the same delay as floodgates. It's even used in one of the repeater designs and in my obsidian factory for dropping water.

[Lymojo]

Floodgates do not... get deconstructed if they are blocked. If anything, including a butterfly corpse, blocks a floodgate, it simply doesn't close when triggered until it is cleared.

Oh, sorry about that. I hadn't tested that, I was just going off of what somebody else said. Now that I think about it I believe the creature in question was a modded to have whatever tag it is that makes a creature immune to drawbridges.

Could it be that floodgates don't destroy liquids when they close, whereas drawbridges do, making them better suited for closed-circuit waterworks? I haven't tested that, mind you, I'm really just grasping for straws to put up some sort of rationalization for using a floodgate. Otherwise I can't think of anything.

[ZeroGravitas]

doors/drawbridges are "immediate" when the lever is thrown.

Not so in my experience. Bridges have the same delay as floodgates. It's even used in one of the repeater designs and in my obsidian factory for dropping water.

This is true. Bridges do have a delay.