Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?  (Read 487 times)

MetalGear

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« on: January 18, 2011, 09:19:51 pm »
Title. I want to have an irrigation system which would have a cistern one Z-level above my farm and it would have a bunch of hatches in the floor. When needed, I would open the hatches and let it rain. Can hatches be opened by a level like a floodgate? Also, is it possible to have one level hooked up to multiple hatches?
Thanks in advance.
Logged

ext0l

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2011, 09:25:51 pm »
Yes, yes and lever.

Also, if you should use a bridge if you want to cover a larger area.
Logged

Hans Lemurson

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2011, 10:16:24 pm »
What he said.  Bridges means you can cover a greater area and only have to deal with one mechanical connection.

Bridges and floodgates though have a 100 step (2 seconds at 50FPS) delay between lever-pull and action.  Hatches and doors respond instantaneously.

When you build a lever and look at the option "Link lever to existing mechanism" you'll get a list of ALL possible things that levers can link to.
Logged
Foolprooof way to penetrate aquifers of unlimited depth.  (Make sure to import at least 10 stones for mechanisms)
Toughen Dwarves by dropping stuff on them.  (Nothing too heavy though, and make sure to wear armor.)
Quote
"Urist had a little lamb
whose feet tracked blighted soot.
And into every face he saw
his sooty foot he put."

QuantumMenace

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2011, 05:47:49 pm »
Tiles under a bridge/hatch are considered "inside", even if the bridge/hatch is open. The rain might not be able to fill the cistern because of this.
Logged

tolkafox

  • Bay Watcher
  • Capitalism, ho!
    • View Profile
    • Phantasm
Re: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2011, 06:07:29 pm »
He's putting the hatchcovers on the floor of the cistern to drain it into his farm.
Just make sure you don't put the hatchcovers on the tile that spawns water, once you remove that tile I believe you can't ever get it back.
Logged
It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

Nameless Archon

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Can hatches be opened/closed with level?
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2011, 10:19:45 am »
If I understand you, you're trying to drain muddy ponds into a cistern and use them to irrigate as needed.

A couple of things to watch out for:

1. Murky pool tiles can never be replaced once destroyed, and they are what collects water from rain. Avoid destroying these if you plan to use natural rain collection.

2. Water tiles exposed to air (above) will evaporate. To minimize evaporation, make your tunnel from pool to cistern short, and underground.

3. Yes, hatches can be used, and I originally did this myself as an irrigation method before switching to a pumped floodgate system. Rigging the "water level" for a topside irrigation (on the scale I use) took more work (mechanisms, travel time) than I liked, though it DID have the advantage of dumping water instantly onto the area below, for style points.

4. Don't forget to include a means to keep things OUT of your cistern. Grates, fortifications and so forth - things that let water in but keep big bad critters out.
Logged