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Yes, almost everytime

9 (10.3%)

Yes, when I am looking for a challenge

16 (18.4%)

I embark with them, but reduce them anyways.

10 (11.5%)

Only when I have to

26 (29.9%)

Never

24 (27.6%)

Other (please post)

2 (2.3%)

Total Members Voted: 87

[IT 000]

So gentlemen, a quick question that I've wondered for a while. Do you enjoy the challenge and embark with aquifers? Or to you tend to stay away from them? I have been considering the idea of reducing (or eliminating) aquifers in my upcoming mod, especially at their current .20/.21 frequency. This poll will also come in handy for other future major mods who may also be struggling with the same question.

Yes, almost every time - This suggests that you like aquifers and their current frequency. Or you do not mind them at all.
Yes, when I am looking for a challenge - Suggests that you enjoy aquifers occasionally, but not every time.
I embark with them, but reduce them anyways - Despite falling into one of the first two categories. You think it's a little much.
Only when I have to - You have the perfect place! Flux, clay, sand, skeletal whales iron, there is an aquifer. But you embark anyway.
Never - No matter if the layer below the aquifer was solid gold. You still wouldn't embark there.
Other - A hybrid of the two opinions? Vote this and tell.

*at any time you can change your vote.

[Aramco]

I actually modded out aquifers-- as I have never been able to pierce one. Not even once! And I've had aquifer worlds maybe 10, 15 times. I just can not manage with them. (Once I even had to build an above-ground city made of wood. Only Elves use wood!)

[arkhometha]

I talked about this another day. I like to have a challenge a time or two, but .21 put so MANY aquifers, that I removed them entirely. So I want to embark in a plain, goddamn, sometimes I don't want a aquifer in my plain, desert or every other location that isn't a mountain.

[malroth]

Don't care either way, if a site is good with an aquifer i'll pick it,  piercing it means i'll either succeed or have !!fun!!   backing away from good ore because of a little water is much elfier than living above ground in the bones of slain trees.

[orbcontrolled]

Mod them out. I can breach them if I have to, but I don't enjoy it, so out they go.

[Patchy]

Yes, Almost everytime.

I have rejected numerous sites cause of lack of an aquifer. Certainly I do avoid the really nasty double soil+rock aquifers, but they are playable if I find a site good enough for it.

Also, there really isn't any more aquifers in the newer versions than there was in the older ones, it's mostly in peoples minds, since they hate them so much. I still find big annoying tracks of aquiferless land. The recent updates even added a new layer of clay which doesn't have aquifers, so thats one new layer that can possibly land on your embark and take up a spot that could have been covered by an aquiferous soil layer. So if anything aquifers should be just ever so slightly less frequent.

[Aramco]

Well, after reading this post, I tried it out. It was so simple and easy, that I just re-enabled aquifers! I finally defeated them! Success!

[Raufgar]

I'd like to confirm that with versions before .19, I have only encountered at most 3-level aquifers, but when I started an embark in .19, there were SIX LEVELS. I think 4 of them were stone layers too. Might be something to do with me embarking on a 5x4 instead of the usual 4x4.

Well, after reading this post, I tried it out. It was so simple and easy, that I just re-enabled aquifers! I finally defeated them! Success!

I'd like to try out the methods highlighted here too, once I find a nice embark with 2-level aquifers.

[Greep]

Never embarked with them unless I was playng above ground or something.  It's just busy work to deal with them not interesting.  Although seeing as there are now easier ways of dealing with them developed, I may take a look at them and try em out.

[Duntada Man]

I actually have grown to like aquifers once I got over the learning process (which has resulted in the deaths of 30 dwarves to date.) It makes farming so much easier. Just build your farms directly above the aquifer and pump however much water you need to them without having to deal withe the danger and mess of the subterranean levels, and it gives me a safe place to dump an unlimited amount of water should I want to run a dwarven perpetual motion machine for some reason.

I think they might be a little too common right now though, as I have 3 worlds in which I can not find a 3x3 embark that don't have aquifers.

[Girlinhat]

I may start liking aquifers if I dedicate myself to it.  The water supply is nice, it means very good healthcare, tigermen/etc upkeep, lesser dependence on booze if worse comes to worse, and much easier manipulation of water projects and drowning fun.

[obeliab]

To me, they play out more like an inconvenience than a challenge.  I always gen my worlds with aquifers, as an invitation to try working with them, but almost always mod them out.  It's pretty cool that they're there, and how they work, though.

[Megaman]

I cleared one out once, but to me it was just tedium with no sufficiently awesome reward, so I don't do aquifer embarks.

[Hans Lemurson]

I pierced a 6 level thick aquifer when I was still learning the game; my 3rd fortress.  Granted all the aquifer was in stone and so could be smoothed, but since then I've always wondered why people have such a problem with them.

In this thread, I finally got around to describing my new advanced mechanical technique for piercing aquifers of any depth, soil or stone: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=79224.0
There is also a non-powered method on the 2nd page of it which was linked to by Aramco earlier in this thread.

[Newbunkle]

I went from avoiding aquifers, to trying them out, to avoiding them again. I'm glad I learned how to pierce them, but since I don't do anything fancy with them I'd rather not waste time dealing with them. At least I know I can handle them if I have to, but otherwise it just delays my digging (or scars the terrain).