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[TKGP]

While setting up an overly-complicated power generator today, I noticed something strange.

Here's the bottom, which is just a dammed brook:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The middle, where water is pumped out of the brook into two channels, and then drops back into the brook on the other side of the dam:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The top, where the waterwheels are located:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since I was trying to move one brook's worth of water into what amounts to two brook's worth of space, the water level got too low for the wheels to work. So, I retrofitted those two floodgates into it, in order to let the channels fill up before I let the water drain back into the brook. I presumed that when the channels were full, the pumps would serve only to hold the water in, and they did, running, but not taking in any water, as there's no space for it to go, allowing the brook before the dam to fill up as well. However, upon checking the wheels, they were generating the full 1000 power, even with no flow. So presumably, you could set up a ton of reservoirs being pumped into from a river, then when they were full, the river would continue as normal but you would still generate lots of power. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Fossaman]

Very interesting. I might have to test this out sometime. I've been meaning to do a study on non-circulating power schemes.

[Sutremaine]

The water is still considered to be flowing (this can be checked if you change the init file to stop showing fluid levels), even if in this case it probably shouldn't be. Getting it that way in the first place is the tricky part. I've been fooling around with channeling out areas around and between murky pools and sourced water, and once it gets underground it seems that the flow is very easy to kill.

[TKGP]

I can upload the save if you'd like. I think the only requirement is pumps constantly running into a closed and filled environment. The real strength is that you only ever need as much water as it takes to fill the tank, plus something for the pumps to attempt to draw from.

[Retro]

I can upload the save if you'd like. I think the only requirement is pumps constantly running into a closed and filled environment. The real strength is that you only ever need as much water as it takes to fill the tank, plus something for the pumps to attempt to draw from.

Then the next things to test would be:

1. What happens if the water source of the pump is dry yet the reservoir is full?

If the flow remains despite no water in the source, the next question:

2. If you build a reservoir with one pump being directed into it, then fill it from somewhere else, then turn on that pump, will the fact that a pump that is active and connecting to it alone generate flow?

[Urist Imiknorris]

Ice traps will become incredibly easy and fun if this is true of magma as well.