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[dmurray]

I'm attempting again to learn to play the game and I've got the basics down but the aquifiers get me everytime... I know, I can just embark on a place without them but I'd really rather just disable them with the LNP.

[Samoorai]

I vote yes, but then I turn the economy off. Once it works properly I'll turn it back on. Maybe.

[Ieb]

Well it's not like there's a Holy Rulebook of Dwarf Fortress that we're sworn to follow down to the last letter. It's just up to you as the player to decide what you want. It's a freely moddable game after all.

And the economy isn't even present in the current version.
Assuming that you do play that and aren't talking about 40d. If you are, then nevermind.

[qoou]

It's only cheating if you decide it is. Dwarf Fortress is cool like that.

[dmurray]

Nah it's not that I'm having a moral crisis or anything. I'm just wondering since I took up playing a roguelike and long story short, you can pick a race and just wait several thousand turns to escape a negative side effect and I didn't know if it was akin to save scumming or in otherwords, cheating.

I just thought I'd ask, anyhow. See what the general opinion is.

My reasoning was, they suck when you're still learning how to train a damn military so it's easier to just make do with them switched off.

[Mimidormi]

Not cheating at all. Consider that aquifers can be toggled in the init.txt only before generating the world, so it's akin to giving yourself a wider selection of sites if you decided beforehand to not settle your fortress on a place with an aquifer, instead of generating world over world until you find a good site without one. I'm among those that love aquifers, btw.

It's only cheating if you decide it is. Dwarf Fortress is cool like that.

This, too.

[krisslanza]

Personal viewpoints really. To me, turning them off is just so any place on the map is always a good, non-hassle free embark.

With them on, you pretty much like 90% of the map a pain in the butt to embark on - unless you've mastered the art of bypassing aquifiers.

[MrWiggles]

I'd only consider it cheating, if it turned off, and you do a Victory thread, claiming you did something with them on.

[dmurray]

I'd only consider it cheating, if it turned off, and you do a Victory thread, claiming you did something with them on.

That's the thing... it's being left off so I can learn to actually get a better grasp of the game rather than the first 20 minutes of it.

[Eddren]

You'd actually want Mountains for that-Some of the Optimal spots give you access to all the above-ground stuff, plus allowing you to figure out all the metalworking, and your mining techniques.

[JimmyBobJr]

Turned on;

1) Embark
2) Find a Good Fort Entrance
3) Dig out a plug or make a bunch of pump stacks.
4) Wall up Aquifer walls so they stop leaking water
5) Dig a Farm
6) Excetera excetera.

Turned off;

1) Embark
2) Find a Good fort Entrance
3) Dig a farm
4) Excetera excetera.

The only difference i find with aquiferes on compared to off is that it takes longer to start actiualy playing.

Ergo, i turn them off.

[Mechanixm]

I don't embark on them anyway unless I'm playing a "challenge."  It just saves time on having to re-run world gen to find a good spot to embark.

[sirdanilot]

You can turn them off if you're still learning how to play. Personally, I just chose a spot near to a mountain range, so that I did have trees and plants, but also stone and metal early on. Likewise, when generating your world you'll want to set minerals on 'high'.

Breaching an aquifer is not that hard though. You just need to have two levels above the aquifer. Channel (d-h) out a square of about, say, 8 by 8 tiles on the layer right above the aquifer. Then dig (d-d) out a ring of 8 by 8 right above your channeled-out open space, on all the layers that are above it. Then, channel (d-h) out your dug-out tiles until you get a cave-in. You now have a "plug" to easily dig down below your aquifer. Make sure not to start mining right underneath your aquifer, because sometimes you can get some, uhm, leaks... Just start digging your fortress well underneath.

The wiki has a good article on breaching aquifers.

[lanceleoghauni]

I'll be my usual AQUIFERS ARE AWESOME!!! self, and say that while it's not cheating, you're missing out on a great opportunity.

[ohgoditburns]

Aquifers are good!

They let you...
 
develop drowning traps
build wells
generate power (especially easy with a 2-level aquifer)
muddy farms