Print

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

[Drakeero]

What's a floodgate for the floor that dumps water/magma vertically rather then lets it flow horizontally?  Hook up with lever and all that.

[Xenos]

Floor hatches.  These also have the benefit of no delay.  You have been warned.

[Drakeero]

Floor hatches.  These also have the benefit of no delay.  You have been warned.

Thank you for the warning.  Unfortunately I don't think the goblin hordes will get that particular memo....

[Xenos]

Floor hatches.  These also have the benefit of no delay.  You have been warned.

Thank you for the warning.  Unfortunately I don't think the goblin hordes will get that particular memo....

Ah...making a toilet trap now are you?    Have fun with that. 

[NecroRebel]

You can also use bridges (retracting or draw) if you want the delay for whatever reason, such as if you want to syncronize horizontal and vertical blockages opening.

Unfortunately, there's no vertical equivalent to the drawbridge's horizontal use (as in, a valve that closes when floodgates open and vice versa), so you have to use another drawbridge on the floor below the desired valve. That can cause trouble on its own, since it means you need a line of floors on that level, which interrupts longer vertical shafts and necessitates fluid loss in such systems.

[Xenos]

You can also use bridges (retracting or draw) if you want the delay for whatever reason, such as if you want to syncronize horizontal and vertical blockages opening.

Unfortunately, there's no vertical equivalent to the drawbridge's horizontal use (as in, a valve that closes when floodgates open and vice versa), so you have to use another drawbridge on the floor below the desired valve. That can cause trouble on its own, since it means you need a line of floors on that level, which interrupts longer vertical shafts and necessitates fluid loss in such systems.

IIRC doors should open when floodgates close and vice versa.

[NecroRebel]

No, doors open when a switch-on signal is sent by a lever or pressure plate, and floodgates open when a switch-on signal is sent by a lever or pressure plate. Floodgates just have a 100-step delay, while doors don't.

A drawbridge raises, forming a psuedo-wall, when a lever or pressure plate sends a switch-on signal, so with a drawbridge and a floodgate in a horizontal passage, both hooked to one lever, you can get an airlock system that is physically incapable of being open at both ends simultaneously.

There's just no real equivalent to that for a vertical passage, however; hatches and bridges both "open" when a switch-on signal is sent to them. Floodgates can sort-of-not-really be used if you use a certain exploit that lets you remove the floor beneath them after they're built, but that takes a hell of a lot of effort and doesn't work on areas larger than 2 tiles wide since the floodgates still need an adjacent wall or floor for support. The alternative is a drawbridge, which, when raised, acts as a wall, so you can block fluids from falling into a square with one, but that causes an obstruction no matter what.

[Xenos]

the same thing could work for a vertical passageway with some creative planning I think...
Xenos cancels finish post.  Interrupted by strange mood.

That was fast.

Code: [Select]

input closed
WWWWWW
WW X..
WW WWW
W _WWW
W WWWW

input open
WWWWWW
WW x..
WW WWW
W BWWW
W WWWW
x is an open floodgate, X is a closed floodgate.  _ is a down bridge B is an up bridge.  This design could be made more compact but it serves the point.

[KaguroDraven]

Why DO floodgates have that delay anyway?

[NecroRebel]

Pretty much, but you still have fluid loss if that's what it's used for, and it's not completely vertical. If there was a working completely-vertical airlock system possible, you could have completely-safe downwards elevators for creatures, too.

I'd like, for instance, to be able to build this:

=1=
=2=
=1=
=2=

When a single lever (or repeater!) triggers, the 1s disappear and the 2s appear, causing any creature on them to fall exactly one z-level. When the lever untriggers, the 2s disappear and the 1s appear, again, causing any creature to fall exactly one z-level. Repeat lots of times to get creatures safely an arbitrary number of z-levels down, without needing to have accessible staircases or vulnerabilities to rogue beasts coming up the wrong way.

There's also been some flood-trap and obsidian-farm designs that I've had to abandon because I couldn't work them without offset vertical valve-buildings; mostly fill-from-the-bottom stuff that isn't strictly necessary, but in some of my space-tight forts they would've been quite useful. Nothing that can't be worked around, but in games like this, you start to notice anything, no matter how useless, that you just can't do.

[Drakeero]

Ah, well.  I'm not megaprojecting anything big with floor hatches.  I'm just doing the gate to my massive wall and since I'm already going to have a magma channel through the wall I'm going to use two bridges to be able to quickly isolate the interior of the gate [the wall is thick enough to actually form a small room inbetween the two sides of the gate] and dump magma on whatever I don't like.

Makes me wonder.... can upright weapon traps in the lowered position survive magma?

[Shoku]

Why DO floodgates have that delay anyway?

Well how do you picture a floodgate? Is it just a sheet of paper that's held down by a paperclip or a giant slab of stone that slides away from the opening that water will flow through? Have you ever seen a drumgate?

[Xenos]

Ah, well.  I'm not megaprojecting anything big with floor hatches.  I'm just doing the gate to my massive wall and since I'm already going to have a magma channel through the wall I'm going to use two bridges to be able to quickly isolate the interior of the gate [the wall is thick enough to actually form a small room inbetween the two sides of the gate] and dump magma on whatever I don't like.

Makes me wonder.... can upright weapon traps in the lowered position survive magma?

Upright weapon traps can survive magma in any position as long as everything used in their construction is magma safe IIRC.  Use steel spikes and iron mechanisms just to be safe. 

[Drakeero]

Ah, well.  I'm not megaprojecting anything big with floor hatches.  I'm just doing the gate to my massive wall and since I'm already going to have a magma channel through the wall I'm going to use two bridges to be able to quickly isolate the interior of the gate [the wall is thick enough to actually form a small room inbetween the two sides of the gate] and dump magma on whatever I don't like.

Makes me wonder.... can upright weapon traps in the lowered position survive magma?

Upright weapon traps can survive magma in any position as long as everything used in their construction is magma safe IIRC.  Use steel spikes and iron mechanisms just to be safe. 

Ah, I will finally be able to rid myself of unwanted elves, humans, goblins, megabeasts, kobolds, and Jehovah's Witnesses.