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[Fist_Of_Armok]

So I'm working away on my fortress, Girdertyphoons, when I note that a canyon about fifty squares from my fortress' entrance would form a perfect lake if I were to fill it in.

Thing is, the brook runs right through the center-cutting a nice, deep canyon of its own.

Now, that's easily enough walled off, and I've done so, but all that remains is the most difficult part-damming the brook itself. It doesn't freeze, and I have no way of knowing if my intended plan-dropping a wall into it by way of Build Then Destroy Support-will work.

Can I get some suggestions?

If requested, I can post pictures of said canyon and the current fortifications.

This will also be useful to get at a few gem clusters, if my plan will work.

[Echelon3]

The dropped wall will work as a dam ONLY if it's carved out of living rock - Constructed walls will disintegrate on collapse.

If that's not an option, all I can think of is:

- Divert the brook using massed screw pumps
- Divert a lava flow onto the brook; on contact with the water it will form a solid Obsidian wall.

[Fist_Of_Armok]

The dropped wall will work as a dam ONLY if it's carved out of living rock - Constructed walls will disintegrate on collapse.

If that's not an option, all I can think of is diverting the brook using massed screw pumps.

Well crap.

Is there a way I can move a wall of stone of the appropriate size where I want it?

Also, how much of a problem will I have with backflow?

[blue emu]

Well crap.

Is there a way I can move a wall of stone of the appropriate size where I want it?

Also, how much of a problem will I have with backflow?

You can't move an existing natural-stone wall, no.

Echelon3 is correct... you'll need to cast your wall out of obsidian if you want to drop it in the path of the brook without seeing it disassemble.

I don't think you can dam it to flood higher than the level at which it enters the map... so if there is no waterfall upstream, a dam won't raise the level of the brook.

[Fist_Of_Armok]

Well crap.

Is there a way I can move a wall of stone of the appropriate size where I want it?

Also, how much of a problem will I have with backflow?

You can't move an existing natural-stone wall, no.

Echelon3 is correct... you'll need to cast your wall out of obsidian if you want to drop it in the path of the brook without seeing it disassemble.

I don't think you can dam it to flood higher than the level at which it enters the map... so if there is no waterfall upstream, a dam won't raise the level of the brook.

Just a waterfall downstream. Damnation.

Oh well. I'm going to give it a try anyway. Losing is fun!

[Kanddak]

I like to dig a tunnel underneath the brook leading to map-edge fortifications, install a lever-linked door in it, then collapse some constructed floors to break through the bottom of the brook (make sure you channel out the brook walls, though). This will allow water to drain so I can build dams, and I can pull the lever and close the door when I'm ready to turn the water back on.

[Hagadorn]

I've down what you were planning on doing before, it was hard, and very... very... very annoying.

First, yes, build your wall sealing off your canyon.

Now, build a line of screw pumps along the brook further up the brook inside the canyon, build a line of walls o either side to stop the water from just spilling back into the brook. Connect them to a lever to turn them off when you need too.

Now, Seal off the brook, this is the annoying part because you'll still have the old 1/7 2/7 water stuffing up your dwarves.

Once thats done, remove the screw pumps and the walls.

Now, build a tower of screw pumps that alternate pumping directions all the way to the top of your canyon. if your dedicated enough, build 2.

Turn them on. In about 10 hours (realtime) you should have a full canyon depending on the size.

Oh, and a FYI. Its even harder to fill a canyon if doesn't have a waterfall going INTO it. Then you need to seal off both ends of the brook and pump the water in from the OUTSIDE...

[Fist_Of_Armok]

It doesn't have a waterfall going into it, no, but it's conveniently high enough that I could use it for my eventual plans to create a ball-shaped dining-room complex with waterfalls running down it.

...Actually, I just had an idea. If I build four floodgates on top of a constructed floor, then deconstruct the two floors holding 'em in place, will the floodgates block the water, or will "furniture" floodgate do no good, as opposed to "building" floodgate?

Because I think that might work. Maybe. And if it doesn't, it needs to go in the devlog for something to be fixed, eventually.

[Quietust]

It is possible to build "floating" floodgates by placing them on top of a constructed wall and then subsequently removing the constructed wall from beneath it. This also works with doors and raising bridges, but probably not other types of furniture (definitely not floor grates).

[Fist_Of_Armok]

It is possible to build "floating" floodgates by placing them on top of a constructed wall and then subsequently removing the constructed wall from beneath it. This also works with doors and raising bridges, but probably not other types of furniture (definitely not floor grates).

I don't think so, as floodgates not in use-"up"-seem to vanish.

Which is a shame, because being able to drop a floodgate into the middle of a river the easy way would have been very nice.

[gtmattz]

Tunneling under the brook to a fortification drain and using a cavein to punch out the bottom of the brook is, imo, the easiest way to do it. 

Just remember a few things: 

#1 Don't forget to put in some means of stopping the diversion. I like to use raising bridges but you can use floodgates and doors if you prefer.

#2 Make the hole wide enough to take the full flow.  It has been my experience that a 1 wide tunnel is not sufficient to take both the flow from the brook and the rest of the brook back-draining and send it off the map.  I like to make my hole 5 tiles wide so as to make backup a non-issue, but I think 3 is probably sufficient.

#3 Don't forget to channel out the brook tiles!  If you fail to do so you end up with a strange floor which drains water and magma to nowhere and is a pain to fix.

[loser]

You can dam a brook or river anywhere you want in this way.

First, carve out a cavern under the stream.  Carve it so that it is directly under the stream itself, with no un-hollowed z-levels separating it from the bottom of the stream.

This cavern should run from the stream to the edge of the map and be half-again or twice as wide as the stream.  Block the cavern off before it gets to the map edge with a line of floodgates and hook those to a lever you'll be able to get to, later.  Smooth the edge of the map where the cavern meets it and carve fortifications.  This will allow the water  from the stream to exit the map.

If you're dealing with a brook, you're going to have to channel it's surface to get rid of the funky brook material.  Channel it out where it goes over the cavern.

Now build a structure over the stream where the stream goes over the cavern.  Make this constructed bit so that you can collapse it, preferably with a support so dwarves can be far away from the collapse.

When the structure caves-in on the stream it punches through into the cavern.  The water is now unable to get past this hole you've made and instead flows down into the cavern and off the map.

Now you can dam up or otherwise manipulate the stream however you'd like, downstream from the hole you've punched. 

When you want the stream to flow past the hole again, just pull the lever to close those floodgates.  The cavern will fill up and the water will flow downstream, where it will interact with your dam or whatever.

[denito]

Oh wow, y'all are sooo off base!     A couple days ago I discovered a much simpler, totally reliable way of damming a brook that doesn't involve cave-ins, obsidian, or anything.  In fact it allows you to turn the brook on and off like a faucet - you don't even need to put down floodgates!  (What?  Simple and reliable, you say?  Well before you accuse me of being un-dwarven let me just say that it does involve:  1.  Heavy machinery  2.  Making a mockery of the laws of physics!)

I'll tell you what the method is in a few minutes; I don't want to spoil the main announcement I'm about to make and I want to post the video of it in action to the map archive first.

[silhouette]

BREAKING NEWS!

Just do it like this...

Code: [Select]

...~~~~..
....~~~~.
.....~~~~
....~~~~.
..^^^^...
..SSSS...
.~~~~....

You can do this two ways, with machinery or with dwarf powa!
S is the pump
^ is also the pump but which direction it pumps to (north in this pic).
This pumps water upwatrs ( water is flowing downwards) and basically pushes back the water.
While this is going quickly go undernearth the brook tiles and build floodgates..

[denito]

That's close to what I did.  Just put drawbridges around it to direct it back at the river source tiles, and you can stop the river entirely!  See this thread:  http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=46385.0