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[Shiv]

I know you can slow it down with the diagonal wall trick, but can you speed it up? 

I was wondering how to fill up a cistern I built and then noticed that, by chance, the tunnel I dug was perfectly over one of my corridors and since I build all my walk ways the same, I could go straight down with it, creating a nice water fall through my base (which I've heard adds bonus moods?).  Quite the project for me.  May try it with magma eventually.


Anyhow, cistern.  So I decided the best way was just to channel part of the brook down and do the waterfall thing, flow through an abandoned exploratory mine, and into a cistern that would rest below my living quarters.  It works, and it's neat and all, but it's very slow.  The water fall falls at least 10 z levels so I figured it'd gain speed and fill up the cistern quickly (and push a bunch of rocks out of the way too; unfortunately it didn't do that so I get an eye sore now).

So is there a way to speed it up?  I suppose I could just add more pumps...

Would making more channels into the top of the waterfall 'basin' help out?  Or do I just have to be patient whenever I refill it?

I envisioned a mighty force of nature and got a mighty trickle instead.

[Volatar]

Though I want to answer to this myself, I believe that pressure is probably your answer.

Searched quickly and found a wiki article on the subject: http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Pressure

I can help you with the rocks. k-h with hide the rocks from view, removing the eyesore. (though they are still there)

[Hyndis]

Water pressure is your friend. Also, pumps. An aqueduct 3-4 tiles wide, with 3-4 pumps hooked up to a windmill can move very large amounts of water very fast.

Water pressure can be a bit dangerous for a waterfall though, unless its for the drainage system. You want the input water to be somewhat slow as you do not need a lot of water to create mist, but the output system should be as fast as possible so you don't get flooding.

Rocks are also too heavy to push around with water. Magma can push them around before it melts the rocks, but water can't.

[Sevrun]

cool, I didn't realize you could use magma as a broom

[Albedo]

There's supposed to be a way to make water drain faster using staircases adjacent to the source - it's in the wiki somewhere, talking about how to fill an artificial lake or cistern or something - can't find it atm.  But that's only down levels, not "across" the same level.

[durt101]

There's supposed to be a way to make water drain faster using staircases adjacent to the source - it's in the wiki somewhere, talking about how to fill an artificial lake or cistern or something - can't find it atm.  But that's only down levels, not "across" the same level.

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Lake

[Shiv]

cool, I didn't realize you could use magma as a broom  

I've often thought of making a system of magma that would go straight down through every level (on the outside of the area you built though) and after digging out every area, you could open the floodgates to burn through that area, then drain it all out at the other end.

But considering how slow magma flows, that'd take entirely too long.  Shame too, because, yah you can hide the rocks, but they're still there, and that still bothers me lol.  Guess I'm OCD in that regard.