Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Antalia]

In 40d, I thought I was the aquifer queen.  After the first time I read about aquifers and embarked on one, I never stopped.  I've built a good seven or eight fortresses on single, double, and triple aquifers, and one on a quadruple.  I've used every method I've heard of to get through them except for ice: tunneling down the side of a volcano; finding a path through ore; adding magma; creating a plug with a cave-in or series of cave-ins; pumping with manpower; pumping with wind power.  My favorite method is definitely the cave-in; it's nice and neat, works nearly anywhere, and takes little dwarven effort.

But in 0.31.03, I am really embarrassed to admit that I'm getting stumped by a really easy, single layer aquifer.  It's in nearly the simplest situation imaginable: it exists in a layer of rock, below some layers of sand, on a flat, single-biome map.  I had been running (or...trying to run) a test fort on this plain map to learn the new stuff, and proof out methods for building something grander later.  Since I'd read some information that had sent up potential red flags about using cave-ins in the new version, and since I'll be darned if I can find magma or a volcano above the aquifer level--I decided I'd better proof the aquifer cave-in plug before planning to build anything seriously relying on it.

So I hollowed out the area around a large black sand block, and caved it into my channeled-out aquifer in its layer of rock, which works just fine in 40d and ends in a plug and cheering--but instead I ended up with apparent failure:  The aquifer is still gushing out water as necessary to fill the channeled-out layer, and, disturbingly, the only evidence remaining of the cave-in (besides the hollow ceiling) is a pile of dusty sand on each should-be-sand tile at the bottom.  The piles of dusty sand weren't there before.

(Here is a basic picture of what I did, which worked fine for me in 40d: http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/File:Aquifier_cavein_1level.jpg.  However, the last two illustrations in the series aren't happening.)

Did my chunk of caved-in black sand become several piles of dusty sand when it hit bottom, and accomplish precisely nothing else?  It does seem to be what would happen in real life when collapsing several cubic yards of sand into an underground lake, lol.  I've searched this forum, the wiki, and the web for the problem I am having, and I've come up with nothing that seems useful or relevant.  Have I run into a bug, or a feature, or have I missed an important new step for aquifer plugging in the new version?  Am I disallowed from having my fun with sand now? ><

[Shades]

Am I disallowed from having my fun with sand now? ><

I think this is the case as I've not had any luck maintaining solid caved-in soil layers on the new version, rock layers seem to stay together still though.

[Grumman]

A sand block worked for me. Try using a multi-level block instead of just one z-level, see if that helps.

[Antalia]

Woot!  The double layer worked.  A two Z-level block with one layer of black sand and one of sandy loam plugged my aquifer.

I don't know how to explain it, but that's progress!

[Shades]

Woot!  The double layer worked.  A two Z-level block with one layer of black sand and one of sandy loam plugged my aquifer.

I don't know how to explain it, but that's progress!

Out of interest did it leave two layers dropped of sand or just one? I never thought to try multiple layers.. fail :/

[AncientEnemy]

is it possible that the first time you accidentally dropped only a sand -floor- and not a full block (natural walls) into the channels? i've plugged multiple aquifers using sand layers in the current version without issue.

[Shades]

-delete-

[Antalia]

Out of interest did it leave two layers dropped of sand or just one?

It left two solid layers.

[Antalia]

is it possible that the first time you accidentally dropped only a sand -floor- and not a full block (natural walls) into the channels?

I have plenty of space, and so I repeated a single-layer cave-in just now.  It plugged the aquifer this time.

I don't think that I messed it up by dropping a sand floor instead of a solid block of sand the first time, because I've done this so many times--but there's not enough evidence remaining to be certain.  (The caved-in areas look identically void in the upper parts.)  I could have made a mistake.