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[bucketsofbuckets]

Hi everybody. I guess I'll start by saying I don't expect answers to every question. I just don't want to leave any not asked.


1. Fresh water access and application

I have read that keeping the water from going over a muddy square will do it, but I don't see how that's possible. If I mine out a diversion from a flowing source, won't it be impossible to construct walls and a floor for the square where I tap the water, allowing that square to get muddy?

Assuming my understand above is somehow wrong, I've read that I can use a flowing loop to keep water fresh. If I create a loop of flowing water, and keep the pump and reservoir system disconnected with a bridge, will this prevent stagnation, assuming that aside from the tap points, water only touches constructed walls and floors?

Towards this end, are wood floors and walls as good as stone? Stone is scarce in my fortress, while wood is abundant.

If I need water to go down a few levels, before coming back up, will I need to install a floor on the level above, so that I may have a constructed ceiling, or does the ceiling material not matter?

Does water flow just fine down through stairs?

2. Color coding

Is there a stone and wood key or legend around, so that I can more easily pre-plan important areas to be in specific colors?


3. POWER

Does anyone have a link to a working water reactor room? One that is actually powering something, so that I can get a better handle on it, before I start designing away.


4. Floors and plants

I've read of some plants growing too much, and all over. If I floor over most of my fortress, will this prevent wild plant growth on the floored areas?


5. Extra cavernous space

Under my embark site, which is clay for four more layers down, I am carving out odd spaces all over, around underground water sources, and have no NEED for them, aside from mining them out for the stone. However, I would hate to waste them. Can anyone give me some ideas on what I could use them for, aside from drowning traps?

6. Invert signals. Assuming I will have a pump stack keeping a reservoir above my highest used fortress level full (fun waiting to happen, I know), what is generally the best/easiest/most-efficient setup to quickly and effectively invert the signal from a lever or plate, which could be made to automatically reset after use? IE: Lever/plate -> -> plate -> device that needs its operation inverted.

7. Labeling. I'm sure this will be a palmface, if it is answered, but is there an easy to way to label a construct, or an arbitrary square, so that I won't have to remember every lever's use?

[NecroRebel]

1. I'm pretty sure that the stagnant water thought comes from drinking out of murky pools. If you make a cistern, it won't give the bad water thought. Mud in the water doesn't seem to matter, especially given that water produces mud on its own. Also, a well, no matter its source, will avoid the unhappy thought from bad water.

2. There's this table, which shows all the colors for every stone, ore, and metals, with woods all just shunted into the "other" category. Still, should be helpful.

3. The water wheel page sort of has some designs, but you might find them unclear.

4. Plants underground grow only on muddied tiles or soil floors, so if you floor over any soil and avoid muddying stuff, you won't get plant growth. Alternatively, you could just avoid having soil floors in your fort...

5. Flood them and let trees grow in them for a safe wood source. Flood them and let moss grow in them to make safe pastures for your grazing animals. Use them as stockpiles. Make grand bedrooms in them. Wall them off and leave them empty. You don't have to use space you dig out, after all.

6. Some things are easily inverted. Gear assemblies, for instance, do it automatically. 1-tile drawbridges are essentially inverse floodgates. Other things... Well, I know I've seen good inverter designs somewhere, but I don't know where now.

7. (N)otes.

[bucketsofbuckets]

TY for your reply. That table is just what I was looking for, thanks. My searches kept giving me rock and wood properties, but not color. Good ideas for the otherwise waste underground, too.

On the water reactor, it's the rest of the workings that I'm a little unclear on. I've only only had one fortress so far with power, up to this point, and that was just a few windmills.

Non-soil floor levels: But, but, but, gravity-powered water traps that can drain outside with no pumps! This embark site just begs for useful and useless waterworks, with a hillside that can support 14 levels of indoor fortress above ground level, and an outdoor river/stream. Common sense can go somewhere else.

n, for note, huh? I knew it had to be about that easy, since searching was not giving me good results.

[wuphonsreach]

I don't think moss will currently grow on muddied stone.  You can carve out big underground rooms out of rock, flood them for a tree farm, but you can't use those rooms to pasture animals.

(Last tried in 31.18.)

[NecroRebel]

I don't think moss will currently grow on muddied stone.  You can carve out big underground rooms out of rock, flood them for a tree farm, but you can't use those rooms to pasture animals.

(Last tried in 31.18.)

Given that pasture zones and cave moss were introduced in 31.19, I'm not surprised that pasturing animals on cave grass didn't work in 31.18. Y'know, given that such things don't exist in that version. Things not existing tends to make it difficult to use them.

n, for note, huh? I knew it had to be about that easy, since searching was not giving me good results.

It's specifically a capital N, but yes, it is just about that easy.

[Greiger]

In the case of the well, I'm pretty sure that water coming out of a well can still be stagnant, it just doesn't create the unhappy thought from drinking it if it comes from a well.  In my own experience however, well water coming from a stagnant well STILL increases the chance of infection, the water is still stagnant and still disease ridden.

I have had wells that always were fed by a cistern and always ended up with a 50% infection rate in medical.  Then I managed to make a well over a running river.  And never had a single infection in that fortress, despite an active melee military, and 10 year fort lifetime.  This time I built another cistern, but made it two 2-levels deep and made the water get pumped in a loop.(technically the outflow just goes back to the river the inflow comes from, but same difference)  And again, so far, no infections.  Also although I'm not sure it would show, in this case, 't' ing over the well and examining the bucket shows water with no contaminants.

[Cromage]

You can skip the pumping; just make sure the cistern is 2 z-levels deep.

[bucketsofbuckets]

Alright, here's one: how can I cure multiple dwarves having no job? All have all hauling enabled, and there are easily 100+ items to be moved into stockpile and the dump, and items to be made at more than one workshop. Yet, it seems some number of them consistently have no job.

[ancistrus]

Check if the dwarves are premitted to collect garbage from above ground in the "o" menu.

[Triaxx2]

d>b>c

Designate everything on the surface as claimed. That should solve the problem.

[bucketsofbuckets]

d-b-c worked, TY.

[Azated]

Towards this end, are wood floors and walls as good as stone? Stone is scarce in my fortress, while wood is abundant.

When building a structure, the only effect materials have is the value. In terms of strength, an obsidian bridge is the same as a bridge made from cardboard. Walls and upright bridges can't be destroyed by Building destroyers however, but constructed floors can.

[Sphalerite]

Walls and upright bridges can't be destroyed by Building destroyers however, but constructed floors can.

No, constructed floors cannot be destroyed by building destroyers.  Nothing built with the 'c'onstruction menu can.  Roads and other buildings can be destroyed by building destroyers though.

[bucketsofbuckets]

OK, here's another one: I have a 5x5 space, walled off except for a 3x1 ramp, and set a trade depot to be built there. I've tried rebuilding it from other materials, setting every dwarf as an architect, to no avail. A dwarf will go there, then cancel, saying it cannot reach the site. Does a trade depot, or a building in general, require 'flat' tiles adjacent?

[NecroRebel]

OK, here's another one: I have a 5x5 space, walled off except for a 3x1 ramp, and set a trade depot to be built there. I've tried rebuilding it from other materials, setting every dwarf as an architect, to no avail. A dwarf will go there, then cancel, saying it cannot reach the site. Does a trade depot, or a building in general, require 'flat' tiles adjacent?

Sort of. If there are items that aren't set to be used to build something in the space it will occupy, those items must be moved out of that space beforehand. They can be moved only to spaces that are orthogonally connected to the queued structure on the same z-level that are not occupied by another queued structure.

I take it that those ramps are down ramps on the level the depot itself is being built, as if they were up ramps the stuff in the way could be moved onto them. To fix this, try dumping everything that's in the way of the depot. If there's no items blocking the site, it won't be a problem, assuming this is what the problem actually is.