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[Organum]

Currently, I have the means to flood my depot and block the flood off from the rest of my fortress. My current issue is drainage. How should I get rid of the water once the caravan is dead?
Here is what my depot looks like:

Code: [Select]

                      XXXXXXXX
                      XO    OXXX 
                    XXX      FRX
                    X<F      FRX
                    XXX      FRX
                      XO    OXXX
                      XXXXXXXX

X=Wall
O=Depot corner
F=Floodgate
<=Up staircase
R=Ramp


The ramps go up to my fort. The up staircase is where the water feeds in. The single floodgate and the three floodgate wall are activated by separate levers.

This might be difficult since none of you know the terrain of my little area. With that in mind, general drainage tips or how you do this yourself would be much appreciated.

Also, this is my first time doing any controlled plumbing.

[LordSlowpoke]

Lever-controlled floor grates. They work that way don't they?

[shadowclasper]

Well assuming you use the right drainage you might not even need that. You could just put in floor hatches, open the flood gates, and that ONE room would flood and constantly drain away, but water would fill faster than it could drain for as long as the water remained.

But, why flood it? Dealing with Elves?

[BigD145]

It's slow, but you can just put pumps in the z-level above to suck out the water. A measured cistern with the pumps inside works fairly well.

[Mewchu11]

If you have the space you can just link a Hatch Cover to a large empty channeled area under the trade depot and let evaporation do the rest.

Or for more a "proactive" version construct your set up over the mouth of a lava pipe.

[Organum]

Why flood it? Because I can. Also I just kind of assume no fortress is complete without the ability to kill the people who come to you through zombie fire imp infested lands just to trade with you.

I have no lava, sadly. I think I may have to use a pump stack.

[Blargityblarg]

Floor grates will toggle between letting fluids through and letting everything through. Perhaps a 2-tile alcove on either side, with a door (toggleable) and some floor grates (not toggleable)? That'd work. Alternatively, 3-wide fortifications in the sides of the chamber, with a 3X1 atom smasher behind those, with a lever toggling off/on. Set to repeat 'til drained.

If your fort is of a suitably high elevation, yo can drain the water out of the map itself using the fortification bug, otherwise you can either have an evaporation chamber or an atomsmasher on repeat.

FAKEEDIT: Dealing with regulating water flow is tricksy, in my experience. Probably much easier to go with an absolute method.

FAKEEDIT2:Pumps could also work, but as BigD said, they can be slow.

FAKEEDIT3: Dammit, you people post a *lot*. The lava pipe idea would result in either the capping of your pipe, a ton of cavein pauses, or both, and I'm pretty sure your depot isn't already on top of a pipe.

FAKEEDIT4: FFFUUUUU-

[Hyndis]

I prefer just regular dwarf powered pumps. They're pumped in and out from the top, using grates. Use a drawbridge to seal them up and pump in the doom. The area is very small so filling up or draining the room only takes a few moments.

As a bonus you can switch water for magma, though this will melt things like lead bars or other useful metal from the caravans.

[Organum]

You are all very helpful people but I don't really get some of this.
Big, I get.
Mew makes some sense. Would the Hatch be above the channeled out bits and leading to the surface, which would make the tile below it Outside Light Above Ground and thus subject to evaporation stuff?
Shadow: Where do the hatches go? A tunnel?
Blargity: Do you mean two tiles deep on either side, a door in the first tile, and grates on the inner one? Also, can atom smashers smash liquids?
Hyndis: At the depths I'm in, I'd need a pump stack or connecting tunnel/grate thingums. It would probably work.

[Shinziril]

Just use lever-operated floor hatches for drainage.  The room they drain into needs to either be large enough to allow for evaporation, or contain a Dwarven Atomsmasher linked to the same lever as the hatches to remove the water.

[EliDupree]

Atom smashers can smash everything - water, magma, items, people. I use them for magma-smashing in my current fort - in fact, I bet you can even use a non-magma-safe drawbridge to smash magma if you do it right -

but anyhow, the simplest solution is to channel some of the surrounding walls, dig a tunnel on the Z-level below leading to the edge of the map and draining through fortifications, cover the channels with hatches or retracting bridges, and link all the hatches/bridges to one lever. Pull the lever to drain. With that size room, a few hatches will drain it very quickly. The only catch is that items will flood down the hatches, too - which you could solve various ways, like by putting floor grates on the depot level and hatches the level below.

[Hyndis]

Hyndis: At the depths I'm in, I'd need a pump stack or connecting tunnel/grate thingums. It would probably work.

Use a powered pump stack to get a reservoir of water or magma up to a useful level, and then the last step have it done by dwarf power, so you can very accurately fill it up or drain it. Its a small amount of liquid either way so even a dabbling dwarf should be able to do it within seconds.

[Hyndis]

Just use lever-operated floor hatches for drainage.  The room they drain into needs to either be large enough to allow for evaporation, or contain a Dwarven Atomsmasher linked to the same lever as the hatches to remove the water.

You might flush things away using that method.

At the very least you need floor grates to prevent the loot from being washed away.

[BigD145]

Would the Hatch be above the channeled out bits and leading to the surface, which would make the tile below it Outside Light Above Ground and thus subject to evaporation stuff?

I don't think you understand evaporation as it is now. You do not need to put water outdoors to evaporate. All you need to do is get the water level on ANY single tile down to 1/7 or 2/7 depth to trigger evaporation.

[Blargityblarg]

I mean grate-door-depot-door-grate. The doors open with the level, water drains out, any items carried by the flow are caught by grates.

I'm fairly sure that atom smashers will destroy water and magma; I haven't tried it myself, but I've seen it suggested in threads repeatedly, and nobody called them on it, so it seems fairly legit.

don't forget the fortification bug; if you carve fortifications in the sde of the map, above sea level, they will absorb water. If they're below sea level, however, they will produce it, so beware.

Fakeedit: 4 new replies FFFFFUUUU.

All sound advice, except the pump stack thing, which I'm not sure as to the purpose of, and the evaporation at 2/7 water thing. That's false. It's 1/7 or bust, but if you have a mix of 1/7 and 2/7, the 1/7s will sometimes evaporate anyway.