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[KiTA]

Just a suggestion, but I wouldn't mind seeing dwarves use various tricks to gain water in maps that it is scarce.  My initial thoughts were rain barrels, for example, or to allow pits to fill in with water in rainy environments.

This would add a certain flare to tropical environments -- imagine dwarves having to set up bucket brigades to bail out sections of the fortress that have flooded with rainwater.

In my mind, the way to do that would be to keep track of "soaking wet" sections of the map (or start using decimal points to keep track of smaller amounts of water), and maybe use the flow code to find lower sections.  The idea being that the dwarves could make a pit outside and let water naturally fill it over time.

In addition, in humid environments (swamps, rainy days, etc) water simply shouldn't evaporate away, even if it's only a small, "1 unit" amount of water.

This would also allow lakes to refill over time, and even for for "flash floods" to occur (when a natural lake overflows, for example).

Rain Barrels would use a similar system -- you'd place them like a building, and when they are rained on they would slowly fill with water.  You could accelerate the process by putting them next to a wall or building (the game would presume that the dwarves have set up rain gutters) or even a floor grate system overhead.

I picture dwarves setting up an underground reservoir and filling it with rainwater collected with barrels at random.

In other environments, dwarves could use other tricks to get water.  For example, in a desert environment, they could use leather and a barrel to make water traps in the sand -- mostly bury the barrel, put the leather on top of the pit, then a stone on top of the leather.  The sand "sweats" over time, slowly filling the barrel.  Farmer workshops could process water from plants, such as cacti or certain fruit.  In a glacier, dwarves could burn wood to melt ice -- I picture a "magma ice smelter" (or even a standard magma smelter) being used to make barrels of water for dwarven use.

Thordain Oakenleg cancels Smelt Ice, needs empty barrel.

[ November 24, 2007: Message edited by: KiTA ]

[penguinofhonor]

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[Grek]

Wouldn't a better way to do it be to spawn 1 deep peices of water on random tiles while it rains?

[Wahnsinniger]

Well, I imagine eventually rain will fill things up with water. Right now, when you start a map, you may have ponds around the landscape, but they'll dry out and never refill because nothing actually makes them refill.

I like the Fortress filling with water idea, as it wouldn't actually be a big problem, and with a little planning, would probably be completely avoided anyway (since currently I have yet to use a grate.)

[BurnedToast]

I seem to recall one of the Dev posts saying Toady was considering adding desalination at the still, which I think is a very good idea for ocean water.

It should probably use fuel (maybe 1 fuel = 25 water?) to balance it out though, otherwise ocean maps are just the same as regular maps really.

[mickel]

I so want to see dwarves bailing the fortress. Rain should definitely add water somehow...

[Alfador]

My vote is for rain barrels and "process cactus to water barrel".

[LeoLeonardoIII]

I heard eventually booze production will require water, but if you had certain plants like cacti you might not need water to produce booze from them.

IRL miners have to use pumps to get water out of mines because it seeps in through the walls and such. This would be an excellent reason to use power for pumping just to keep the mines dry.





As you can see (stolen blatantly from the wikipedia article on the water table), even without an aquifer your water table exists at the same elevation that your river does, and possibly one level higher if you're farther away from it. The game could legitimately spawn 1/7 water using the vermin spawn code, restricted to z-levels at or below the brook level.

[Glutton]

I agree. The water should play some bigger role during planning the fortress.
The rain should definetly add the water (the amount depents on the rainfall and soaking that is generated during world-gen). So if you make entrance to your fortress like the downstars at the bottoms of small hollow... you should have water flowing there during rain. There are easy ways how to prevent this to happen... so it will not ruin gameplay or make it really defficult. It will just feel more realistic.

And when speking about realism with water... please make somethink with stone dumping. It is really wery odd when stones digged from even the biggest fortress (big multilevel halls,...) can be placed (dumped) to one square. This should be limited somehow.
When digging the undergroung fortress, the produced stones SHOULD be one of the problems that should be considered during digging.

[Alfador]

Realistic water is very difficult to deal with when carving out an underground fortress... so it would be easier for dwarves to settle in rocky, mountainous areas with no aquifer. (Big surprise there.) The problem, then, becomes GETTING water--if you need more than a tiny brook provides, you need to import it.

Hence, we need the ability to trade for valuable commodities such as water and sand easily, with recurring caravans able to be negotiated for. :3

[Draco18s]

As you can see (stolen blatantly from the wikipedia article on the water table), even without an aquifer your water table exists at the same elevation that your river does, and possibly one level higher if you're farther away from it.

To be more correct, a water table mimics the elevations of the land, but to a lesser degree.  As the land gets higher, the water table gets higher, just not as quickly.  Exceptions are things like aquitudes, climate (deserts DO HAVE an aquifer!  It's just really far down!  If it weren't for that the Nile wouldn't exist (though admittedly it is one of very few rivers that have less water at the bottom than the top)), and what not.

As much as I'd like to see more accurate water tables, this is a bloat, and I could live happily without it.

[1138]

In other environments, dwarves could use other tricks to get water.  For example, in a desert environment, they could use leather and a barrel to make water traps in the sand -- mostly bury the barrel, put the leather on top of the pit, then a stone on top of the leather.  The sand "sweats" over time, slowly filling the barrel.

This+burrowing creatures+ability to create custom worlds=Dwarven Arrakis. WANT.

[Osmosis Jones]

Hasn't toady said somewhere that he's making/made murky pools refill after rains for the next release? Hmmm using this you could make your own underground river that floods every winter.

e.g.

Code: [Select]

XXXXXX
X....XXXXXX          . Murky pool tile
X....,,,,,X          X Wall tile
XXXXXXXXX,XXXXXX     , Dug tile
XXXXXXXXX,,,,,VX     V Ramp to fake river
XXXXXXXXX,XXXXXX
X.........X
X.........X
XXXXXXXXXXX