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[AndrewC]

I started a fortress in an area which I thought had a stream but didn't, just large ponds all over the place. I sited my entrance so there were 3 of them close to it and set the nearest one as a Water Source. everything went OK for about a year, but just after my 1st migration, and trade caravan I started getting messages about dwarfs not being able to find water and cancelling drinking because of it. And to top it off I didn't have enough things to make beer!

 All the dwarfs were sitting in the dining room except one who was mining. As far as I could see nothing was blocking the stairs up to the entrance with fresh water just outside. They could certainly haul dead bodies outside.

My dwarfs started dying of thirst. I lost 6 to thirst and one to a temper tantrum. As far as I can tell He head-butted a table and died of massive head trauma and bleeding (broke a very nice stone table too). 

Anyway, how can I manage my water better on a riverless map so this sort of thing doesn't happen?

[Joishi]

The way to manage your water at this point in your DF career is to understand that Dwarves DO NOT DRINK WATER.  Unless they HAVE to.  You were inadvertently punishing them.  *nod*  But in seriousness - they might not have been drinking water because maybe you didn't have any buckets?  (I think dwarves only drink water out of buckets - that they get from any water source, but if you designate a water source like you did, they'll go there first ... but you don't have to)

The only REAL use for water at this point for you is making a muddy area underground for farming plants to turn into beer at a still (b->w->l) .. that and fishing.

[existent]

Yeah, Dwarves drink beer. For a dwarf, drinking water is like us drinking piss. You're only gonna do it if you're absolutely, POSITIVELY going to die of thirst.

Or if you just like the taste, but that's a different thread.

To designate a water source, you also have to include at least one tile of ground (for the dorf to stand on, ya see?), but that shouldn't be necessary. If there's water, they should drink it automatically. Still, though, just make some booze.

[Lishedir]

You should have built a well, that definitely works. And dwarfs won't be too unhappy if the well is good, like made of solid gold parts.

[AndrewC]

Yeah, I thought I made enough booze, but I didn't realise how much dwarfs drink, and then I ran out of stuff to make booze from, couldn't gather enough plants fast enough, no mud inside for farms and my outside farms weren't very productive. I had plenty of buckets and barrels.

So if I run a channel and tunnel to a room in the fort and build a well on that the dwarfs won't grumble too much about the water? Won't that drain the pond, though? There is no aquifer here, either as far as I can tell. Can I encrust the well with threatening spikes and gems?

At least my Herbalist head-butting a table in a fit of sobriety-induced rage, breaking it and his skull and bleeding to death was funny

[Tyrius]

At least my Herbalist head-butting a table in a fit of sobriety-induced rage, breaking it and his skull and bleeding to death was funny

so sigged

[drayath]

Have found the following the quickest way to get an early well with the least effort.

Code: [Select]


-- level below pool --
 <
 .
  F>

-- pool level --
 >
.W   MMM
   <CMMM

W = Well
M = murky pool
C = Channel this square out from the surface as the last thing you do
F = Build fortification to prevent anything that falls in the pool from crawling up your well. May need to rebuild a couple of times to ensure builder dwarf not trapped on wrong side of it.
. = Mined tunnel
< = ramp up, > = ramp down. One next to well to allow dwarfs that fall down well to get out.
Note the diagonal next to the fortification, this is to reduce the water pressure, without it you will end up flooding your fortress with the contents of the pool.
As long as the pool is larger than 7 squares (+1 for each extra square in the underground water tunnel) you will not empty the pool, so when it rains (or freezes/thaws) the pool will refill.

[languard]

Also keep in mind that surface farms don't need to be muddied, though you do have to be careful that every single square in a given farm plot is on grass.  One of the things I do early on is set all 7 starters to gather plants, then make booze, then plant the seeds.  Of course this assumes that you have a biom that has plants, but with the number of ponds you're talking about, I would guess that you do have plants on your embark.

[AndrewC]

Thanks for the advice. I think I need to study a few more tutorials too. I definately had my dwarfs trying to do too much to fast, with not enough booze.

[Double A]

Yeah, I thought I made enough booze, but I didn't realise how much dwarfs drink, and then I ran out of stuff to make booze from, couldn't gather enough plants fast enough, no mud inside for farms and my outside farms weren't very productive. I had plenty of buckets and barrels.

So if I run a channel and tunnel to a room in the fort and build a well on that the dwarfs won't grumble too much about the water? Won't that drain the pond, though? There is no aquifer here, either as far as I can tell. Can I encrust the well with threatening spikes and gems?

At least my Herbalist head-butting a table in a fit of sobriety-induced rage, breaking it and his skull and bleeding to death was funny

Dwarves drink somewhere between 10 and 20 booze in a year.

And if you dig down deep enough, you get to a cavern, which usually has water. You can pump this water up to a well.

[s20dan]

For a dwarf, drinking water is like us drinking piss.

 I know people to whom this statement applies

OP:

For a decent sized fort I would have 2 farms set up both about 5x5, one would be exposed to the surface to grow strawberries ect.
 You can also set up 2 food stockpiles, one for only drink and one for all the rest. The one with all the rest of the food should be set to only take a handful of barrels. that way when a barrel of booze is emptied, instead of being filled with plants it will be put aside and saved for booze.

 I think the only thing water is used for is injured dwarves in the hospital and cleaning things.
 In my current fort I didn't have a well or access to clean water for about 10 years. My dwarves ended up all covered in stone dust, sand and blood and were spreading it everywhere

[Dearnen]

I only started playing a few weeks ago, but I've already discovered that booze is an absolute necessity.  One of the embark dwarves should be a proficient brewer and a still needs to be built as quick as possible, with the carpenter making lots of barrels.  The purpose of the first couple of farms is more for producing the berries you need for for drinks than for food, it seems.

[Psieye]

Proficient Brewer isn't actually necessary, as all that does is speed up how fast the job is completed. Provided you manage your dwarves so when you need booze, that's the only labour switched on for them to make it ASAP, you don't need any skill at brewing. It's why 80% of my dwarves in a semi-mature fort have Brewing switched on.

At the start though, first thing to do is get a farm up. Whether that's above ground or underground is your choice, but a farm should be up within first season. Irrigation isn't hard unless you're trying to make it fancy - breach a pool, let the water into some room below, close up the pool afterwards. If the room is large enough, it'll spread out and you can build while the water is still 1/7 deep.