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[myrkul]

Yeah, if I could design the perfect embark, it would look something like this:

Code: [Select]

^nnn
nnnn
||||
||||

Where ^ is a volcano, n is mountain biome (preferably with wide veins of iron, and layer upon layer of flux), and | is forest on a sandy aquifer. Everything you need.

[Duntada Man]

I generated 12 worlds in a row that did not have a single 3X3 embark point that didn't have an aquifer in it. I guess it's time to figure these things out. Once I do I'm sure they will be a huge boon to the fortress though.

[AdirianSoan]

What a single-layer aquifer pumping system might look like, for those who've never done it:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Key:
W is a wall, A is up-down stairs, F is floor, X is channeled aquifer, underlined X is channeled with a constructed floor on top.

You don't -need- walls enclosing the aquifer consuming the water, but it helps reduce backwash flooding.  And the end result of this design is actually pretty attractive.  (More so even after the addition of grasses, which turned my aquifer-piercing level into a garden level.)

W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W
W	W	W	W	X	X	X	X	W	W	W	W
W	W	F	F	F	F	F	F	F	F	W	W
W	W	F	F	F	F	F	F	F	F	W	W
W	X	F	F	X	X	X	X	F	F	X	W
W	X	F	F	X	A	A	X	F	F	X	W
W	X	F	F	X	A	A	X	F	F	X	W
W	X	F	F	X	X	X	X	F	F	X	W
W	W	F	F	p	p	p	F	F	F	W	W
W	W	F	F	P	P	P	F	F	F	W	W
W	W	W	W	X	X	X	X	W	W	W	W
W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W

Build the walls inside the aquifer in a -single direction-.  Do not skip tiles.  You can carve out the tiles underneath the stairs in advance (make sure to carve them out as up-down stairs) or when you're getting ready to wall up the last tile (as your dwarf needs a place to stand), either way works just fine with enough pumps running.

When I need to pierce two layers it looks exactly the same, except significantly larger (essentially my second aquifer operation uses that design, so my first aquifer walled in area needs to be large enough to hold all of that).

[Mickey Blue]

First successful piercing of a dual layer aquifer (it wasn't pretty, but it worked).  Built a ring and a plug supported by different supports linked to levers, dropped the first, pumped the water then dropped in the plug.  Gonna try a few more runs of it to see how it goes before using it in a proper fort (for science I've turned up the FPS and made everybody a miner and one guy a lumberjack).

It leaves a big hole in my land but that isn't really the end of the world (I just build a floor over it), I may try out the pump method just to see which feels easiest/fastest.

-MB

[AdirianSoan]

The ring plug method is -much- faster.  But once you've done the pump approach a few dozen times it's not slow, either.  Figure on ten minutes for a single aquifer, thirty for a double.

[Mickey Blue]

Thirty minutes is far too long for me to wait to get through.. Heck even ten is.. I'll take the slight scarring of the landscape

I think I have the ring method down, theoretically I should be able to breach any amount of layers with this but beyond two.. Maybe three.. It would be pretty impractical and take forever.

The only real downside now is because there is no sure fire way to tell how many layers you have with the new version you can either gamble and breach it fast (but if its more then one layer you are screwed) or assume there are two (or more) and build to suit that..

Still, glad I mastered the ring method so I have the option now.

Long live aquifers!

-MB

[Rimbecano]

Back on 40d, when volcanoes weren't bugged (now they have smooth sides and you only ever find as many as you specified in "minimum number of volcanoes", rather than the number being somewhat random), I would search for sites with a volcano and an aquifer. The volcano would have a dry area around it, and you'd get the "easily accessible water" benefit from the aquifer.

[AdirianSoan]

A volcano is still good for that.  Build a magma aquaduct and dump magma into an open-pit aquifer; presto, instant walls.  Dig em out, rinse, repeat, as necessary.

Granted, that might be more work than pumping the water out, but significantly dwarfier.

[Encased in burning magma]

I usually sacrifice the first embark on a multilayer aquifer map to pierce it (they tend to fall or get crushed or drown or freeze with depressing frequency).

[myrkul]

A volcano is still good for that.  Build a magma aquaduct and dump magma into an open-pit aquifer; presto, instant walls.  Dig em out, rinse, repeat, as necessary.

Granted, that might be more work than pumping the water out, but significantly dwarfier.

Plus, your entryway is now made of Obsidian. Very Dwarfy.

[Tanelorn]

I posted a long time ago a guide on how to dig though aquifer (including multiple z-levels ones). If you do a search for "Tanelorn guide" in the Gameplay forum, it will come up.

And you'll have guessed it: I love aquifers. It is rare for me to embark on a map that doesn't have one.

[Niseg]

If I can find the topic where I posted some screenshots of the process I will link it.

very good thread . May have saved me 20 minutes of video I've found on youtube on how to do it  . (posted it recently) I tried pumping and then I got to the second aquifer level  .

It helps alot to know exactly how many layers of aquifer you need to poke through beforehand so I suggest cheating a tiny bit and using dfreveal to find out how many layers there are (and maybe have a peek at what lies below while you are at it  ), just make sure not to unpause while revealed and to un-reveal when you are done scouting things.

Having found multiple aquifers made on my embark made use dfreveal for the first time . I generally wouldn't recommend it  because cheating isn't fun and it can be addictive. Finding a good embark in 19 is frustrating and due to the fact it's a 2-3 week version  I'd rather cheat and experience the new features than spend hours finding an embark and breaching aquifer all day ( well at least this version forced me to learn how to do it).

using dfreveal I've found  something about multi layer Aquifers ( This  a real spoiler and you'll have to highlight it to read.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The inner layer seem to be localized to certain stone types. Due to the way stones are distributed you may islands of aquifers  in dry stone or other way around. This was well known in the past that drilling into ore layer helps breach aquifer (this isn't full proof anymore).

.

It's rather unfortunate we can't know the stone layers now or what we are expected to find ( I did notice a few things related to what to look for when embarking). It also stinks that most of the "good" embarks are "under the sea"  .

[Mickey Blue]

Well I was able to pierce a double aquifer with one untrained miner in under 30 min (and I'm still new to them) while at the same time moving forward on other areas of my fortress..  In the future I will work to bring two or ideally three miners to speed it up (somehow it didn't occur to me), still, good to have a baseline.

-MB

[Flare]

How many seasons is 30 minutes a start of the game FPS levels?

[Girlinhat]

Roughly?  Assuming 100 FPS, that's 180,000 steps in 30 minutes, that's ~.44 years, or 5.3 months.  So, just shy of two seasons, finished at the start of autumn.