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[Russell.s]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this wonderful game and I've already flooded my fort with magma and water, died to an albino croc and suffered an unfortunate incident involving a lack of booze... we don't talk about that though...

At the moment I'm planning a lovely fort and was wanting to included some waterfalls plummeting down the centre of the 6 main stair wells. At the moment the waterfall will be a cross shape, 3 tiles across, with the stairs at each point of the cross, making a cross that is 5 tiles across. These are all gravity fed from a brook, falling down about 20 z-levels until they reach a cavern.

X is the up/down stair, ~ is the waterfall. This is a top-down view, repeated over many levels. I hope this is clear?
   
    X
    ~
X~~~X
    ~
    X

So here are my questions, oh wise dwarf fort masters:

Is one brook enough to feed 6 waterfalls, or will I need a reservoir above each one and only run them sometimes?
Will the stairs be filled with mist on all levels as I am hoping?
If the water falls the full height, will the water splash out and make the stairs wet, or will it plummet straight down?
And should I have grates on every level to prevent falls, or will that not be a problem?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

[JoshBrickstien]

I can only answer two questions, and those are:

Yes, the brook will be enough, but the problem will be getting the water out fast enough. Use pumps, and a water reactor.
I don't THINK water splashes.
Not sure about mist, or the grates.

[Aeon Blue]

The water will splash the tiles surrounding the waterfall and generate mist on every level. You need grates or fortifications (to separate your dwarves from the waterfall) or they will be washed away. In my experience, one grate is not enough, because the overflow will flood the area. How are you planning on feeding that waterfall? Keep in mind that water will fall straight down when it comes to an open space, so to create that cross shape you'd have to be feeding it from six separate streams from directly above. I don't know if one brook would be enough or not.

[andyman564]

1) not sure as to how many waterfalls a brook can feed reliably, needs some !!SCIENCE!!

2) yes, water creates mist on every z level that it falls through

3) The water will plummet straight down. (in my experience) liquids don't spread while falling.


also here's a more efficient design for your stairwell waterfalls


XXX
X~X
XXX


this way dwarves can pass each other on the stairs, leading to fewer traffic jams and you can use less water to acheive the same effect.

[Aeon Blue]

I could swear that waterfalls I've made that went straight down and were surrounded by one tile of rock ended up muddy and growing fungus, I assume from the mist. I could be wrong!

[DrKillPatient]

Andy, are you sure that the water won't knock dwarves around? I'm fairly sure it'll splash to the sides sometimes.

[andyman564]

i'm fairly certain that if water is dropped straight down, it won't splash to the sides until it hits the bottom. if you're worried about dwarves falling in, you can always put grates in the middle.*


*memory is a bit fuzzy if stairs support grates or not.

[Russell.s]

Ah, all excellent information. Thank you everyone! Although I like the look of my cross waterfall better than the single tile, it does not seem to be so practical, so I will change that. The middle part of the cross would be wasted anyway.

I think at the moment that putting plenty of grates will be a good idea, but if the stairs are unable to support grates I could have 3 stairs on each side with a pillar either side of the waterfall.

X[]X
X~X
X[]X

[] is a pillar.

As for splashing, on the bottom level there will be little to no dwarf traffic as it will be emptying into a cavern. Can a cavern take as much water as I put in? Or does that only work if the cavern's water source is connected to the edge of the map?

[andyman564]

since all caverns are connected to the map edge, water will eventually drain out / evaporate.

PROTIP: make sure to have a hatch linked to a lever to shut off your waterfall. just in case...

[acetech09]

Make sure you securely grate the exit to the bottom of the waterfall - one of my first fortresses used the cavern as a drainage for my reservoir when I wanted to do some maintenance on it.

15 minutes, 5 giant cave swallows, and 26 dead dwarves later, I realized that giant cave swallows could wade through 3/7 water like anything else.

[Russell.s]

Yes, I plan to add a lot of grates everywhere. Since things are still in the planning stage, I intend to dig out all but the part connecting to the brook and the cavern until I'm ready.

I have come across a problem though... Since water will flow down the first hole it comes to, how is it best to ensure 1 brook feeds 6 separate waterfalls? Or am I going to have to make do with 1 waterfall?

[Qwernt]

Dwarfy Approach:  6 pumpslines feed 6 different ditches each leading to different part of the waterfall.  Note, the center may have to be at a differet altitude than the rest.

[outofpractice]

Just make sure if you aren't going to grate the waterfall at each level to have a reservoir at the bottom for any dwarves that fall to land in. Also a way for them to get out of it once they fall. It might not happen, but sometimes you get lucky like this. Makes it easier to collect bodies if you plan all this before hand.

I generally build a waterfall fed via pumpstacks running back into the same reservoir in my forts. Easier happiness points for not much work. Its self filling via pressure plates. My general design is:

###
#~#
#+#

~=floor grate where water falls
#= floor grate
+= floor
This is for each level the waterfall goes down. The water only falls down thru the centre grate and will generally wet the surrounding 9 tiles randomly.

[Russell.s]

I am planning on grating each level for safety.

Since I have a brook on my map I'm trying to avoid using pumps and have the whole thing gravity fed. Do you think it matters that I have stairs surrounding a waterfall, or will the random wetting not matter?

[outofpractice]

Dont think the random wetting will matter.