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[GreatWyrmGold]

Is there ever any reason to use floodgates instead of raised drawbridges? For...anything?

[Sphalerite]

Floodgates default to closed.  Raising drawbridges default to open.  This can be important building repeaters and certain water logic applications.

[JmzLost]

Floodgates can be built ahead of time, and can be installed much faster than a bridge can be designed and built.

JMZ

[CapnUrist]

To me, it's just a proper way of doing things. If you want to control a river, you use a floodgate. If you want to provide and restrict access across a chasm, you use a bridge.

To be honest, there's no structural difference between floodgates and doors once they're hooked up to a control device (except maybe the activation delay, not sure), so they could be seen as interchangeable as well.

[Khift]

Sure there are.

- Raised drawbridges are impassable when toggled and passable when not toggled, the opposite of floodgates. In certain mechanical setups this is a vital distinction.

- Drawbridges are dangerous to be around; a dwarf or item that gets caught in a drawbridge when it's raising dies. If the spot in question is anywhere near where dwarves work or move, you don't want that risk.

- Drawbridges take more time to make. Quite a bit. It also requires an uncommon skill.



A better question, however, is why use floodgates instead of doors? Mechanically attached doors open and shut instantly, unlike floodgates and bridges. Doors are a commonly used item in a fortress, unlike floodgates, so it's common to have some laying around and you rarely have to worry about overproducing them. A dwarf who places a door on the wrong side can simply walk through it, unlike with a floodgate (won't help the mechanic if he connects it to the lever from the wrong side, though). The only real reason to use floodgates instead of doors is if you want to block of a 3 tile or greater passageway, but I have to ask why you have passageways that large in your plumbing system because you really don't need them (the pressure system makes water flow just as fast through one tile as through 5).

[bobhayes]

The only real reason to use floodgates instead of doors is if you want to block of a 3 tile or greater passageway, but I have to ask why you have passageways that large in your plumbing system because you really don't need them (the pressure system makes water flow just as fast through one tile as through 5).

Floodgates with lever controls aren't taken by goblin thieves, while doors can be. I lost a fortress to the assumption that I'd be able to lock a door if an invasion occurred, only to find out that a thief had taken that door and I could not lock it. With a lever/floodgate, I'd have been able to secure it.

[Sphalerite]

I don't think that doors controlled by levers can be picked, which makes floodgates no better than doors if you're using a lever to control it.

[Nidokoenig]

You could protect yourself from all but amphibious building destroyers by having a drawbridge which would hold back water when raised or cover downward staircases when lowered, which would cover it in wate. Floodgates couldn't do this quite as simply. Obviously it would make sense to put hatch covers on a lower level in case the bridge was destroyed.

[bobhayes]

I don't think that doors controlled by levers can be picked, which makes floodgates no better than doors if you're using a lever to control it.

Will floodgates close even if there's a small object on the square?

[Lagslayer]

I don't think that doors controlled by levers can be picked, which makes floodgates no better than doors if you're using a lever to control it.

Will floodgates close even if there's a small object on the square?

No, they won't close if there is an item blocking it. However, they will atom smash any liquid on the tile when they raise.

[BuGGaTon]

raising drawbridges will atom smash lots though! 

[Khift]

The only real reason to use floodgates instead of doors is if you want to block of a 3 tile or greater passageway, but I have to ask why you have passageways that large in your plumbing system because you really don't need them (the pressure system makes water flow just as fast through one tile as through 5).

Floodgates with lever controls aren't taken by goblin thieves, while doors can be. I lost a fortress to the assumption that I'd be able to lock a door if an invasion occurred, only to find out that a thief had taken that door and I could not lock it. With a lever/floodgate, I'd have been able to secure it.

Lever controlled doors can't be claimed just like floodgates. They also close instantly instead of after 100 tick. In a defense scenario, I'd much rather have the doors.

[Guedez]

btw you can lock the door so that the engnier don't link it from the wrong side

[DrKillPatient]

Always floodgates for water, although that's sort of a habit. I use floodgates instead of doors only if I want a delay, trap-wise. Sometimes that's needed if I want enemies to trap themselves, although drawbridges that raise away from the entrance with pressure plates on the outside are my favorite door-related device: death by incredibly gradual self-inflicted fall damage for enemies, safe passage for dwarves.

[gtmattz]

When I want something to work opposite of a raising bridge (like for an airlock), that is the only time I use floodgates.