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[ral]

Someone told me it was possible for dwarves to strength-train by operating pumps. The idea here being that for only three easy payments of 1999 dwarfbucks you can build a bunch of otherwise pointless pumps, have all of your soldiers enable pump operation, then have them pump their way to a massive physique. What I'm wondering is:

1) Does this work at all?
2) How long does it take?
3) Does it have any useful impact on combat or any other performance?

[PwndJa]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Attribute

As for the rate of increase, I'm not sure.

[Lamphare]

very very slowly
but i think i've seen some a couple of hualers gain increase on strenghth after hualing all the native gold nuggets from far side of the map to central mineral stockhouse.
well, in 31.18 at least.

havent done much observation on pump operators really.

[bobhayes]

Someone told me it was possible for dwarves to strength-train by operating pumps. The idea here being that for only three easy payments of 1999 dwarfbucks you can build a bunch of otherwise pointless pumps, have all of your soldiers enable pump operation, then have them pump their way to a massive physique. What I'm wondering is:

1) Does this work at all?
2) How long does it take?
3) Does it have any useful impact on combat or any other performance?

Yes, it works. It doesn't take very long; I think it takes about a year to become a legendary pump operator. I believe that pump operating levels will add to strength and durability, and that does make a difference in combat.

Note that the pumps don't have to move water to work. You can build a pump over empty air and they'll happily pump away at nothing.

[casthewiz]

Yes, it works, but so do non-stop danger rooms. Ultimately, it's up to you as to whether want to go through the hassle of setting up the pumps then using manager; I find that by the time my dwarves achieve legendary weapon skills via danger-room most of them are usually "very muscular" or "indefatigable".

[Encased in burning magma]

I remember trying it in old DF2010 versions, and it doing zilch.
On older versions it was a very good way to gain insane attributes.

[Girlinhat]

Many players avoid danger rooms as they see it as an exploit.  If they're going to avoid pumps as well, they're just being masochistic and finicky.  Just be sure to get your soldiers on the pumps before training, because once they hit Hero status, they get bad thoughts when put on civilian jobs.

As for value, I've noted a marked change in performance.  Agility, for instance, will let a dwarf move ~2x faster than a lowest-level agility dwarf.  My indefatigable soldier was able to go a few months being wailed on by a blind cave ogre, which was harmless thanks to steel armor, and the ogre was exhausted first!  In the end, I'd say it's not a crucial thing, and that combat skills outweigh attributes, but if you have a few spare pipe sections and a year or two, then it's definitely worth it.  As a bonus, all of your soldiers become pump operators, so in the unit list they're all grouped together in nice orange blocks, instead of spread out between their various low-skill wood burning and lye making jobs they immigrated with.

[ral]

Thanks for the wiki article and all the info. I did set up a danger room and it seems to be remarkably effective, though so far I have a bunch of legendary fighters who aren't legendary in anything else except shield use. Maybe I should take away their shields so they'll get better at dodging?

I was going to do the pump workout room in addition to the danger room but it sounds like this probably isn't necessary.

Now I just need to figure out how to set up a repeater to operate the spikes so I can stop hitting buttons....

[Girlinhat]

Pull the Lever /R

EDIT: Or place a pressure plate at the doorway of your dining hall!

[bobhayes]

Pull the Lever /R

This is an excellent use for that artifact mechanism, btw. Everyone loves yanking on an artifact.

That sounds dirty.

[Girlinhat]

More-so if you place said mechanism in your dining hall (like at the doorway) so that everyone will pass by and admire the artifact, and you'll get insta-legendary dining hall.  Pressure plate works for this as well, except you can't cancel a pressure plate so it'll always be running.

[Uristocrat]

Pull the Lever /R

EDIT: Or place a pressure plate at the doorway of your dining hall!

It takes like 10x as long to set up, but I use the repeater setup on the wiki for my spikes.  Basically, you dig right next to a river/stream, put a fortification right next to the tile you will later channel to connect it to the river, then put a floodgate (connected to the on/off lever for the repeater), next comes a bridge, 7/7 water resetting pressure plate and finally another floodgate.  That second floodgate and the bridge both get linked to the plate.  The spikes ALSO get linked to that pressure plate.  Then wall the whole thing in, channel the tile to flood the assembly with water, and floor over the hole you made (to keep critters out).

Once you pull the off/on lever, you'll see that water floods until it gets full, then the plate activates your spikes, the bridge crushes some water, and the floodgate opens to drain water off of the plate (dropping it below 7/7 pretty quickly).  That causes it to open up again and the cycle repeats until you drop your off/on floodgate.

I don't like staring at upright spikes, so I waste even more time to create a manual control lever hooked to all the spikes that can make them go down, but this is totally unnecessary.

[Encased in burning magma]

Pull the Lever /R

EDIT: Or place a pressure plate at the doorway of your dining hall!

It takes like 10x as long to set up, but I use the repeater setup on the wiki for my spikes.  Basically, you dig right next to a river/stream, put a fortification right next to the tile you will later channel to connect it to the river, then put a floodgate (connected to the on/off lever for the repeater), next comes a bridge, 7/7 water resetting pressure plate and finally another floodgate.  That second floodgate and the bridge both get linked to the plate.  The spikes ALSO get linked to that pressure plate.  Then wall the whole thing in, channel the tile to flood the assembly with water, and floor over the hole you made (to keep critters out).

Once you pull the off/on lever, you'll see that water floods until it gets full, then the plate activates your spikes, the bridge crushes some water, and the floodgate opens to drain water off of the plate (dropping it below 7/7 pretty quickly).  That causes it to open up again and the cycle repeats until you drop your off/on floodgate.

I don't like staring at upright spikes, so I waste even more time to create a manual control lever hooked to all the spikes that can make them go down, but this is totally unnecessary.

Simple water repeaters are way slow .

[Girlinhat]

Yeah, Lever /R does it way fast.  You'd be surprised how quick it is if you watch a spike working.  Don't put any military on it and watch the spike repeat, see for yourself.

[CinnibarMan]

MAKE IRON PUMPS!

HAVE YER DWARFS PUMP IRON TO GET BUFF!

HOOOOOYAH!