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[krescent]

Hello all,

I'm pretty new to the game but thanks to the wiki and especially the complete and utter newb guide - http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/ - i'm coming along just fine.

Anyway, I'd like to build an auto-filling reservoir for a well in my fortress. I did a search but didn't find too many threads on how this should work, also they were a bit dated. So I have a couple questions....

rr|                     |               |
rr=F=T======F reservoir D               
rr|                     |               |
rr|                     |               |



this is my basic top-down layout, r being the brook, | being walls, F being floodgates, T being fortifications and D being a door.  The first floodgate will be connected to a lever, for the initial opening, and the second will be connected to a pressure plate AND a lever just in case.
here are my questions:

1. The pressure plate goes at the bottom of the reservoir, correct?
2. What's a good setting for it? (I've read 0min 5max, resetting)
3. From a thread, I read I'm supposed to attach the pressure plate while the gate is closed, then attach a lever to it,
4. When knocking out the last wall between the river and the tunnel, what's to prevent my miner from being swept away? or should I wait till the river is frozen over
5. Does the pressure plate method work for deep (multiple z-level) reservoirs, or only single-floor? (for example, can the weight/pressure of multi-level water above it cause it to trigger?)
6. will flooding be an issue with this setup?


I know its a lot of questions but I really want to save all the fun for the invasions that are bound to happen soon with my nearby terrifying wilderness.

I'f i'm going about this completely wrong, please give me some input and/or re-work it completely (diagrams help!)

thank you!

[ext0l]

1. The pressure plate goes at the bottom of the reservoir, correct?
2. What's a good setting for it? (I've read 0min 5max, resetting)
3. From a thread, I read I'm supposed to attach the pressure plate while the gate is closed, then attach a lever to it,
4. When knocking out the last wall between the river and the tunnel, what's to prevent my miner from being swept away? or should I wait till the river is frozen over
5. Does the pressure plate method work for deep (multiple z-level) reservoirs, or only single-floor? (for example, can the weight/pressure of multi-level water above it cause it to trigger?)
6. will flooding be an issue with this setup?

1. Yes. put the pressure plate away from the river
2. I would go 5-7 resetting. Also, note that there is a 100 step delay between the plate trigger and the floodgate actually closing.
3. Build the floodgate (make sure your dwarf doesn't wall himself in), build the pressure plate, then link the plate and gate.
4. Nothing. He should be able to make it back though. Make sure you build the floodgates BEFORE breaking the wall between the river and tunnel.
5. The pressure plate will only register the fluid on its square, not on the square above. But any water on top of other water will fall and add.
6. As long as the river and resevoir are on the same level, no.

There's a bug where creatures can swim through fortifications though so watch out for that.

[blue emu]

4. When knocking out the last wall between the river and the tunnel, what's to prevent my miner from being swept away? or should I wait till the river is frozen over
5. Does the pressure plate method work for deep (multiple z-level) reservoirs, or only single-floor? (for example, can the weight/pressure of multi-level water above it cause it to trigger?)
6. will flooding be an issue with this setup?

4. Channel it out from the level above, then floor over the hole.
5. No. In that case, you would install the pressure plate on top of a wall, so that it records the pressure of the upper level of the reservoir.
6. Flooding is always an issue. Especially with Magma.

[krenshala]

Heh, I just set one of these up a couple days ago.

Code: [Select]

777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX___X
777+...F......F..^___X
777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX___X
777XXXXXXXXX\/XXXXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXX....XXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXX
7 is water, + is fortification, F is floodgate, ^ is pressure plate, \ and / are switchs, _ is channeled space

Left switch controls the left floodgate, so I can seal that part off if I need to.  Right switch either seals the right floodgate (lever off), or allows the pressure plate to control it (lever on).  The pressure plate is at the top of the cistern, and set to trigger when water level is 0 - 4.  When the right lever is on, the right floodgate opens if the pressure plate registers less than 5/7 water, which refills the cistern if it drops below the level of the plate.  Due to activation delays on the floodgate the water level in my 5x5 (x10) cistern is at 6/7 and 7/7 when the plate causes the gates to finally close.

[krescent]

thanks for all of the replies!

Heh, I just set one of these up a couple days ago.

Code: [Select]

777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX___X
777+...F......F..^___X
777XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX___X
777XXXXXXXXX\/XXXXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXX....XXXXXX
777XXXXXXXXXXXX.XXXXXX
7 is water, + is fortification, F is floodgate, ^ is pressure plate, \ and / are switchs, _ is channeled space

Left switch controls the left floodgate, so I can seal that part off if I need to.  Right switch either seals the right floodgate (lever off), or allows the pressure plate to control it (lever on).  The pressure plate is at the top of the cistern, and set to trigger when water level is 0 - 4.  When the right lever is on, the right floodgate opens if the pressure plate registers less than 5/7 water, which refills the cistern if it drops below the level of the plate.  Due to activation delays on the floodgate the water level in my 5x5 (x10) cistern is at 6/7 and 7/7 when the plate causes the gates to finally close.

this seems like exactly what I want to do. One question:

how do I make it so the "lever on" allows the pressure plate to control the gate, and lever off to seal it?
anything special I need to do or does it apply this automatically when setting both of them to control the gate?
(i havent actually built any levers/plates yet...)

[krescent]

nevermind, think i got it working!!

[wuphonsreach]

The non-dwarf part of me wonders how you manage to make a well cistern run dry unless it's too small (like 2x2x1)?

(My cisterns are generally 3x4x2 up to 5x10x5 and never run dry even with 150-200 dwarves.  So I generally just fill them and then seal them back up.  Once I had a small 2x1x1 dry up, but that was a temporary well and I wanted to fill a 3x2 bath.)

[krescent]

you know, my well is about 10 levels deep, and after the water on the TOP level got down to about 3/7 my dwarves were cancelling their drink orders because the 'well is dry'.

not sure what's up with that, anyone know?

[Darkweave]

Not sure about that, the wiki says they should be able to use the well so long as water beneath it somewhere is deep enough.

For an auto-refilling cistern I use the fluid repeater from the wiki, basically a bridge and a floodgate separated by a pressure-plate set to 7/7 in the intake tunnel. This keeps the top level of the cistern at a constant depth of 3-4.

[Thatdude]

What I'm thinking here is, why do you even need a pressure plate? Or floodgates in fact? Why not have it constantly open just with a few fortifications to stop any pesky aquatic creatures from ruining your dwarves drink.
I guess it being needlessly complicated is a dwarven necessity but...

[Darkweave]

I've had a Titan swim through a fortification that had 7/7 water over it and butcher most of my medical dwarves, that's why. 

Also, my method is one way of preventing flooding from water pressure.

[wuphonsreach]

you know, my well is about 10 levels deep, and after the water on the TOP level got down to about 3/7 my dwarves were cancelling their drink orders because the 'well is dry'.

not sure what's up with that, anyone know?

I can think of a few possibilities:

- the well was not actually over the deepest part of the cistern

- the well was situated "outside" and the water tile directly below the well froze during winter

My cisterns are usually at least 2Z deep and the top level of water is sometimes as thin as 2/7 if I don't fill the cistern up to the brim.

[krescent]

i think i know what's wrong....


i never actually cleared the levels of the cistern, just built a bunch of staircases downwards---could that be it? it's still full of water, but maybe since the level under the first is a stairway instead of open space, the well doesn't register it...

[Dorf3000]

i think i know what's wrong....


i never actually cleared the levels of the cistern, just built a bunch of staircases downwards---could that be it? it's still full of water, but maybe since the level under the first is a stairway instead of open space, the well doesn't register it...

This is exactly what's wrong.  A bucket on a rope isn't going to navigate down an underwater staircase.  I sure hope you remembered to install a draining system...

[schussel]

in any dire situations ..never fear to use the wiki btw

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010_Talk:Well

it's your friend