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Author Topic: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.  (Read 5691 times)

C4lv1n

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Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« on: January 17, 2012, 10:16:33 pm »

I've been reading the articles on flow and waterwheels from the wiki because I'm trying to set up power to a pump stack. I understand that waterwheels need flow to work but the article on flow focuses on the more pressure related and exploit based ways to get flow.

What I want is much more simple, I plan on redirecting the brook on my map to go under my fortress (built around a volcano). I plan to filter out anything that gets in the river with vertical grates. It will then feed a cistern and pass through another grate and out the other side (ideally the water in the cistern would have flow). Then I would have a whole pile of waterwheels drawing power from the river. Then I want to dump it out the edge of the map using the fortification trick, I think that this would keep the river "flowing" in the waterwheel sense.

I just want to know if this is going to work. Would I have to use other methods of draining the brook off the map? For example sending it back arond to the original exit point, or meerly spliting the brook instead of totally redirecting it.
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Vehudur

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2012, 10:27:12 pm »

Where do you plan to put the water after it's been used for your water wheels?

One useful note: building destroyers may destroy vertical grates.  Instead, use floor grates with the water coming from below:

Code: [Select]
Note:  This must be either 1z below the level of your brook OR your brook must be completely dammed for this to work.

W = water
X = wall
# = floor grate

(vertical view)

Z+0
XXXXXX
W#XWWW (water source this way -->)
XXXXXX

Z-1
XXXXXX
XWWWXX
XXXXXX

(horizontal view)

W#XWWW (water source this way-->).
XWWWXX
XXXXXX
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C4lv1n

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2012, 11:21:52 pm »

Off the edge of the map, via the fortification trick like I said in the original post.
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Vehudur

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2012, 11:24:55 pm »

Off the edge of the map, via the fortification trick like I said in the original post.

I was just getting mixed signals with that - yes it will keep it flowing, also.  You'd just said you didn't like using exploiting methods, so that's why I wasn't clear on it.
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Minnakht

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2012, 11:54:15 pm »

Fortifications on map edge are no exploit. They're just a workaround for not being able to dig those squares out.
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C4lv1n

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2012, 11:57:58 pm »

Besides that I never said that I'm against using exploity methods, the only reason I'm not making a dorfen reactor is because I've yet to make a design that I like.
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doublestrafe

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Re: Redirecting rivers and maintaining flow.
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2012, 12:53:54 am »

Rivers are automatically marked permanently flowing. An artificial river, even (I think) one based on a real river, won't have that, so when it's at 7/7, it won't have flow.

This reply to a question of mine explained to me everything I needed to know about getting artificial flow. It's a pretty awesome explanation. Based on it, I now have a 10 z-level switchback river with a compact stack of water wheels generating up to 2500 power.
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