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[LemmingKing]

After searching for sometime I still can not find out how to make a waterfall and the wiki did not seem clear enough with it's explanation, can anyone post a guide in a sense of how to make a waterfall or even post a link to a good guide? I was also thinking of it being connecting from a brook outside of my fort (which is mined into the cliffs) running through the cliffs through probably 3 levels down where it will probably get pumped out somehow, but I still have no idea how to use the pump properly.

EDIT: I was also thinking of having it fall and then maybe trail off in a river form and then fall again and from there pump it out for building a well for a fresh drinking supply.

[silhouette]

o.O

um...

well depends where the water is.
if its like above ground.

Have it like this

z1.
~~~~~~ . .  .
~~~~~~~~~
. . .~~~~~~~
 . . . . .  - - . .
 . . . . . _ _ . .

Ok. The ~ is water
the . is normal land around the river
the _ are channels
the - are channels that will be dug out later..

z2

========
========
========
=== . . ==
=== _ _ ==

= is rock
  . is ground underneath the tiles that will be channeled out later.
_ is channels

z3.
A place to collect the water or making it so it goes FURTHER down.

=========
=========
=========
=== _ _ ==

that one is to make it go further down

But if  you dont want it to just like... build an area underneath it with the channeled tiles connecting up to it...


Now for the explaination.

Water falls have to have water going down more than 1 z level without ground touching it.
Meaning that the water wont go down, hit land and flow then go down again, it will flow through the channeled spaces which are directly above each other.

Now i dont know what to do with pumps since i usually just have it as a basin for my wells.

Youll know you have a water fall correctly when mist appears.

[dragon0421]

Building the actual waterfall is pretty intuitive. Just dig a cliff face and channel the water to it.

The nuances can be as complicated (dwarfy) as you want. I like to build multiple shut-offs with bridge floodgates. Instead of having a central control room, I put color coordinated control levers near where they function to help me remember what they do. My current fort has a large waterfall flowing into the kings throne room, which also has an open view of the great hall. It falls through floor grates and into a hidden channel (plumbing). Water has a tendency to splash and can flood an area unless you use plenty of grates. I have this configuration:

Code: [Select]

ccccccc
gwwwwwg
ggggggg
c=cliff face/wall
w=grates where the water directly falls
g=extra grates for splash

The water 10 squares before the waterfall powers waterwheels, which are routed with gears to power a pump tower. I could pump it back to the waterfall (making a perpetual motion machine), but instead I'm putting it back into the underground river. This is all after it runs throughout my fortress to power the magmafalls, fill the moat, and fill the well. It's hard to put into words accurately. The wiki has instructions on pumps, but I didn't really get it either until I played around with them. No guides that I know of really do the job well for pumps.

[Derakon]

Read the wiki article on screw pumps; it gives a good overview of how they work.

I suggest an alternate approach to your brook method. Make a cistern (an enclosed room filled with water). Pump water up out of the cistern with pumps, then let it fall back down into the cistern. This will create mist, which is what the dwarves like to see, and it doesn't require any inflow or outflow except to fill the cistern. Moreover, since it's working with a limited fluid supply, even if you do screw up, you're unlikely to flood your fortress.

[LemmingKing]

Thanks guys, from reading over this I think the best idea would be the cistern from Derakon, where its a pool of water being pumped up to the top then letting it flow down again, but I do not know how to get the water there in the first place.

[evanvolker]

EDIT: IMO the easiest/best way is to channel the water from the river, drop it through wherever you want it, dig out a tunnel to the edge of the map, smooth it, then carve a fortification on it. This will allow the water to drain off the map. (Sometimes water will come pouring into your map from this, it depends on your sea level.

[CognitiveDissonance]

As described above, a 'waterfall' is defined by mist, which you can identify by examining the square (Mist appears in pink text). Mist is created when water falls multiple Z levels.

A screw pump allows you to control the flow of water, as you can control pumps via manual labour, or power (preferred) - remember you should have at least one gear assembly in the source-to-target chain, which you can attach to a lever.

Things that will help you:
- Screw pumps lift water one level up; channels bring water one level down.
--> A screw pump will take water from the square next to it (you can define the source direction), 1-Z level down. So if you have water at level Z=0 and a pump at level Z1, when active the pump will lift it to it's level, (1 up) and deliver it in front of it.
----> That means that several pumps can bring the water multiple levels up

- Water will flow, so water has to drain. My personal preference is to use another pump to deliver it back into the river, one level above, so it spills inside easily. An easier solution is to have the "target" area mined out so the water eventually reenters the river.

- Water in a river, a brook, or from a pump has pressure, meaning it can overflow upwards.

- If you're using a brook, you actually have to 'channel' (b-h) it's top tiles to have access to the water, whether it's pumping out or pour in.
EDIT: This is not necessarily true, actually. A brook top acts like a floor grate, letting water pass in and out over top. I'd still do it...

The idea behind a self-reliant waterfall is a closed system that drops the water, then brings it back up with pumps. You open the system to pour water in, close it with a floodgate attached to a remote lever when you have enough, and let the water circulate.

[Reese]

- If you're using a brook, you actually have to 'channel' (b-h) it's top tiles to have access to the water, whether it's pumping out or pour in.

you only need to channel a brook if you want to use it to power a water wheel, pumps can pump out a brook fine, and water will drain in to it.

[CognitiveDissonance]

- If you're using a brook, you actually have to 'channel' (b-h) it's top tiles to have access to the water, whether it's pumping out or pour in.

you only need to channel a brook if you want to use it to power a water wheel, pumps can pump out a brook fine, and water will drain in to it.

Are you certain? Wiki says that the tiles will muddy instead, actually becoming farmeable
Link: http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Brook

Ah, you are correct. Water will "fall" through brook tiles. Yet they still become muddy. maybe water goes through slowly?

I would still recommend channeling them, to ensure that all water goes in properly.

[HideousBeing]

If you just want to generate mist you can make a waterfall easily without channelling it in from somewhere.

Dig a 1 tile channel and fill it up with buckets by making it into a pond. Stack 2 pumps on top of each other so it just pulls it out and drops it back where it started.

from a side view: the => are pumps
|  => |
|_<=  |
       ~

Don't know if that's understandable, but it's an easy way to generate mist.

[CognitiveDissonance]

If you just want to generate mist you can make a waterfall easily without channelling it in from somewhere.

Dig a 1 tile channel and fill it up with buckets by making it into a pond. Stack 2 pumps on top of each other so it just pulls it out and drops it back where it started.

from a side view: the => are pumps
|  => |
|_<=  |
       ~

Don't know if that's understandable, but it's an easy way to generate mist.

Yes, but that is incredibly easy, safe, quick, and therefore highly undwarfish.
Shame. 

[slink]

The top of a brook is a walkable surface.  Water dropped on that surface makes it muddy, and acts like any other water on a surface.  That is, it spreads slowly and evaporates at the edges where it is only 1/7 deep.  If you ever have a brook with a waterfall, you will be able to observe this because the water falling does not land inside the lower section.  Instead, it falls on top and makes a muddy surface and, in some cases, a minor amount of flooding on either side.  I believe that the lower section actually generates its own water flow, somehow.

[Kanddak]

The top of a brook is a walkable surface.  Water dropped on that surface makes it muddy, and acts like any other water on a surface.  That is, it spreads slowly and evaporates at the edges where it is only 1/7 deep.  If you ever have a brook with a waterfall, you will be able to observe this because the water falling does not land inside the lower section.  Instead, it falls on top and makes a muddy surface and, in some cases, a minor amount of flooding on either side.  I believe that the lower section actually generates its own water flow, somehow.

This is absolutely wrong.
Brook surface tiles are natural analogues to floor grates; yes they can be walked on, but fluids pass through them. I have directly observed water passing through them unimpeded on several occasions. I have also observed the lower portions of brooks with waterfalls drying up when the brook was dammed upstream of the waterfall.
If you observe water sitting on top of a brook, it's because the brook is completely full and the water has nowhere in the brook to go. Do note that water only leaves across map edges by diffusion, and can't just pressure-pathfind off a map edge to disappear; therefore, brooks can be filled faster than they drain.

[Syff]

A demonstrative movie of water falling through brook tiles:  http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-1850-brooktest

[slink]

The top of a brook is a walkable surface.  Water dropped on that surface makes it muddy, and acts like any other water on a surface.  That is, it spreads slowly and evaporates at the edges where it is only 1/7 deep.  If you ever have a brook with a waterfall, you will be able to observe this because the water falling does not land inside the lower section.  Instead, it falls on top and makes a muddy surface and, in some cases, a minor amount of flooding on either side.  I believe that the lower section actually generates its own water flow, somehow.

This is absolutely wrong.
Brook surface tiles are natural analogues to floor grates; yes they can be walked on, but fluids pass through them. I have directly observed water passing through them unimpeded on several occasions. I have also observed the lower portions of brooks with waterfalls drying up when the brook was dammed upstream of the waterfall.
If you observe water sitting on top of a brook, it's because the brook is completely full and the water has nowhere in the brook to go. Do note that water only leaves across map edges by diffusion, and can't just pressure-pathfind off a map edge to disappear; therefore, brooks can be filled faster than they drain.

I am right this moment looking at a map with the upper level of the stream blocked off from falling onto the lower level, and the lower level merrily running at 7/7.  The only change has been that there is no longer water running onto the top of the lower level from the upper level, and the flooded areas on either side of the lower level are drying up.

Putting a layer of gratings and flooring into the path of the water falling from a brook which has a natural waterfall does not result in the degree of flooding which can be observed at the bottom.  Whatever the properties are of the surface of a brook, it does not act the same as a surface with constructed gratings.  A surface made purely of gratings should drain at least as fast as one made of floor and gratings combined.

I don't consider any study carried out which involves pumps to be proof of how a natural brook behaves.  The pressure-pathfinding of which you make mention comes into play when pumps are involved.