My first large-scale project! (And also my first post on the forums!) Draining a portion of the cavern water to produce arable land for my dwarfs.
In my first attempt I simply dug a channel into another cavern layer and attempted to drain the water into the lower cavern. It failed because cavern water flows in from the edge, producing an infinite supply of water.
My second attempt involved creating a dam! Two options were available, both using magma. The first was to create a dam with a series of floor hatches (or floodgates) to release the magma. The second was to create a channel that would direct magma to where it was needed, without the need for hatches. I went with the 2nd option.
STEP ONE: Create the outline of the dam using constructed floors. The create the walls that would serve to direct the flow of magma. This was done simply enough. Next, each floor tile was de-constructed, a painful task, as each had to be deconstructed one at a time, to avoid trapping the dwarfs:
STEP TWO: Create a pump system to direct magma, and let the fun begin! As magma flows, it is channeled by the Walls into the Open Space tiles, where it falls into the water, slowly creating a wall of obsidian on the level of the water:
RESULT: The dam allowed me to drain the water, revealing...
Not what I expected. A massive underground forest! Here's a view from the fort-level. You can see the magma-dam, and the yellow and white specks of the trees at a distance.
Endless wood supply? Nearly!
Here's a link to my fortress
before releasing the magma and
after releasing the magma.
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Topic: DF2010: Treasures of the Deep - The Dam of Sinkfurnace! (Read 5450 times)