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[daishi5]

I am trying to build a very epic dining hall, but I can't seem to get the waterfalls right.  My waterfalls are flooding my dining room even though the cistern they should be emptying into is only about half full.

I think the design I am using is very basic, but it might be a bit too basic.  I was aiming to have a hallway of waterfalls leading into the main area of the dining room.

The plan is for 8 waterfalls, but they are all independant, and even my first one is causing flooding by itself.  The top floor above the dining room has a screw pump and a single tile wide hallway leading to a single tile hole for the water to fall through.  Below the hole is a hole in the floor of the dining room covered by a grate.  Below that is a very large cistern.  It is all powered by a waterwheel above the top floor.

When I run it, the waterfall slowly drains water into my dining hall, I think if I turn all 8 on I will have an aquarium, instead of a dining hall.  How does everyone else add waterfalls, or lavafalls, without turning the place into a muddy, or fun, mess?

[decius]

Are you sure your hole covered by a grate is directly below the inlet hole? How far down is your cistern (directly below, or more than 1 z level)? Do you have a diagonal corner between your pump and your dining room?

If you pump only from the cistern into which you drain, any flooding is limited by the capacity of that cistern. While you might run dry, you can't fill the fort. Something to consider.

[NecroRebel]

Are you neutralizing the screw pump's pressure with a diagonal baffle? If not, the water will go through so quickly that it will tend to flood. A baffle is simple an arrangement of walls such that water can only travel through on a diagonal, which greatly slows down the flow of water as pressure is not modeled diagonally.

Also, you said you had one grate as your drain? That's often not enough; usually, you want the waterfall to fall onto a single tile of floor that is surrounded by 8 grates. When the water hits the floor, it provides extra mist, spreading it around further, and so floods much less. Remember that grates don't provide support for the floor, so you'll need a pillar below (or above) holding it up.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Are you neutralizing the screw pump's pressure with a diagonal baffle? If not, the water will go through so quickly that it will tend to flood.

This. Also, you don't need a permanent water source to make a waterfall. Just pond-fill a channel with water, then pump it directly above the channel, letting it fall down to repeat the entire process.

[Shoku]

The water will spill over a bit and muddy up your floors if there is water directly below the grate. You have to give it another z level drop before it hits water if you want it to drain perfectly.

Dropping a rather immense volume of water can cause some flooding if your cistern were tall enough- well, the water would make a pyramid shape until the dining room floor was a closer spot to go. I don't think eight pumps would be enough and you probably don't actually even have that much water but maybe.

[Rastaan]

Spare a thought for the effect eight grand waterfalls will have on your FPS, too. It is likely to be carnage.

[FleshForge]

TBH it really isn't that bad to have multiple waterfalls once everything fills up and reaches equilibrium, most of the calculation stops.