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[Girlinhat]

Ok, I wanna do a water project.  Primarily, I want to set up an area for my soldiers to grind on screw pumps, but there's a bit of a river in the way.  I attempted to drop walls by causing a cave-in, but they deconstructed, so no luck there.  The current plan is to set up pumps (likely waterwheel powered) upriver and attempt to push back the water faster than it approaches so that I can achieve the Moses Affect.

Is there a simpler way to do this?

[Girlinhat]

Alternatively, will soldiers on a dry pump still raise their stats?

[NecroRebel]

I don't think pumping improves stats as much as it did prior to the April 2010 attribute system change. Prior to that time, there were only 3 attributes, and they were improved by total experience in all skills, so improving any skill was as good as any other. Now, though, all skills have a linked attribute or attributes, and only improve those particular stats. Pump Operator is linked to Willpower, but I'm not sure what, if any, physical stats it is linked to.

Regardless, pumping air works as well for improving the Pump Operator skill as pumping water or magma.

[DStecks]

If you're in a temperate to cold climate, the river will freeze in the winter, then dig out the ice and divert the river. If the river never freezes, you might be in trouble.

[Girlinhat]

Pump time then.  I'm prepping the windmills and pumps now.  Current idea is to push the river OVER my building zone.  Pump stacks will push water up 3-5 z's, and a constructed channel will take it above my project and deposit the water back into the river.

First, gonna try a basic pump line, which is 4 (the river's width) pumps pushing water back upstream to try and hold off the flow.

[Zrk2]

Use magma  to obsidianify the river!

It had to be said...

[Girlinhat]

Granted, it DID need to be said, and I would if I had any magma handy.  Diverting a river is much less dwarfy than diverting a magma flow in order to destroy a river.

[Girlinhat]

Update: I built 4 pumps, attached to 6 windmills, and was able to get the river to 3/7, but the pumps would put the water onto the shore, and then it would empty back into the river.  I'm going to attempt to raise the pump stack to 12, making it 3 high and able to throw water back upstream.  Will return with results!

[blue emu]

Build an aqueduct over part of the river. Use a 4-wide pump stack to lift the water up out of the river and into the aqueduct. Dump it at the map edge. Build a dam (or floodgates) in the now-dry river-bed.

[Girlinhat]

Strangely, I don't even need it blocked that long!  I'm just going to dig out a big room that will subsequently be flooded by the river, as a place to train my soldiers as pump operators and swimmers.  If I can push the river back long enough to dig, then that'll be enough.

I've run into trouble, as my windmills decided "ok, now we're Hanging, kthnxbai!"

[Girlinhat]

Ok, windmills are kicking my ass...

I built a 5x5 platform, with an empty square in the center.  On the level immediately below this, I had a Gear Assembly, and from there connected to the main axle system.  This promptly stopped working after the first use, as the Windmills marked as "hanging".

I decided I could go horizontal, and connect my windmills to a short axle that connected to a pillar of gear assemblies, so that I wouldn't use any vertical axles and simply make a tight pack of windmills.  It appears that windmills do not transfer power horizontally though.

So, they can't go horizontal, and they break when vertical.  WTF do I do?

[blue emu]

Did you connect your on/off lever directly to the gear underneath the Windmill? Don't. Connect it to the next component... one that is firmly supported by the ground underneath it.

If two components are both "hanging", and one gets turned off by a directly-connected lever, the other one will deconstruct. Always connect your lever-controls to non-hanging components.

[Girlinhat]

My lever is not on a direct connection.  I've basically got two rows of windmills, with a long shaft running between them, with the required axles and gear assemblies to make it all hook up, and the last gear in front of my pump stack is the lever one.

I've now deconstructed it all, and built a gear assembly on the ground, with a windmill above it.  It allowed me to construct the windmill as normal, since it has dolomite floor around it and a gear assembly in the center, directly underneath.  As soon as it was constructed, it shut off and claimed "Hanging" once more.

[Girlinhat]

a windmill cannot have a roof over it...

[blue emu]

A screen-shot might help us visualize your set-up.