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[Nan]

I know this isn't something new, but there isn't much information on it, so I decided to play around with it.

When waterwheels are built on natural rivers, they generate power even over 7/7 water. They generate power even if the river is dammed and isn't actually flowing. This is not a special property of natural rivers, it works equally well for completely artificial dwarf-made rivers. Provided that the water ultimately disappears from the map - either into an aquifer, or off the edge of the map - then waterwheels will function even on long stretches of 7/7 water, even if the water flow is dammed.

I did some science to try and figure out the nature of "energetic water". I drained a ZPE reactor and re-filled it, and the waterwheels started spinning again. So it's a persistent property which remains even if the water is drained and evaporates away. I also set up an area of energetic water, made a new body of water next to it, and joined them. Waterwheels in the new section remained motionless, indicating the property is not contagious (unlike saltiness and stagnation). Opening the floodgate to the map edge didn't necessarily cause sections of the connected water to become energetic, so it's also not "flood-filled" from the water sinks. However, sometimes the new sections of still water would become energetic water, even without any actual movement of the nearby water (due to the water sink being far away). I also tested making an ultra-compact water-conserving ZPER (i.e. one which could be powered by a murky pond), I channeled out a row of 4 tiles perpendicular to the map edge, carved a fortification into the map edge, and built a floodgate - so it went VOID:Fortificiation:Floodgate:Floor:Floor:Floor. I then used a pond zone to fill the channel, and once it was full, opened the floodgate, allowing the water to flow off the map. I closed the floodgate and re-filled it using the pond zone. A waterwheel built on top produced power, so there doesn't need to be pressurized water involved, it seems the effect happens any time water disappears from the map.

Furthermore I tested making a Stacked ZPER, that is when the waterwheels are built on top of each other, with the bottom layers fully immersed in the water. I did get this to work, but I had to make the water flow over the first z-layer, channel it out, flow over the next z-layer, channel it out, and so on down. Once I'd done this, the stacked waterwheels worked fine. A ridiculous project because the energy density of a ZPER is already absurd - but it's nice to know you can make vertical reactors if you want to.

In any case. If all you want is a reactor with no moving water to harm framerate, then it's easy. Just have a water chamber connected to the map edge, or to an aquifer sink. At the outlet, build a hatch or floodgate linked to a lever to shut off the flow. Fill the chamber, and once water is disappearing off the map, shut the outlet. The chamber will fill up with 7/7 water and any waterwheels on top will remain outputting maximum power.

[Mitchewawa]

The scientific method is strong within you. Nice find.

[CheatingChicken]

Since i've never heard of this before, could you explain what exactly a Zero Point Energy Reactor is and how to build them?

[Mitchewawa]

Since i've never heard of this before, could you explain what exactly a Zero Point Energy Reactor is and how to build them?

In any case. If all you want is a reactor with no moving water to harm framerate, then it's easy. Just have a water chamber connected to the map edge, or to an aquifer sink. At the outlet, build a hatch or floodgate linked to a lever to shut off the flow. Fill the chamber, and once water is disappearing off the map, shut the outlet. The chamber will fill up with 7/7 water and any waterwheels on top will remain outputting maximum power.

Essentially, water wheels which are powered by non-moving water.

[Oliolli]

So if a body of water is or has been connected to a maps edge, or aquifer, it is energetic? Did I get it right?

[Garath]

I believe it meant it still had to be connected on one side, even if that is the in-flow site, and it no longer flows off the map, or for example from one aquifier into another, also possible

[Urist Da Vinci]

I can't speak for the OP's conclusions above, but what I know on this topic is that non-moving water on the same z-level as a natural river/stream/brook that is also connected to that river/stream/brook retains the "flow" property even though it isn't moving, making large waterwheel "reactors" possible. See for example http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10096-flamegate which has a reactor of this type in the bottom right corner of the map.

[Nan]

So if a body of water is or has been connected to a maps edge, or aquifer, it is energetic? Did I get it right?

That seems to be conclusion of my testing. It is possible to get water which is connected to the map edge, and isn't energetic - for example if it's far away and in a dead end it MIGHT not become energetic... however it's hard to do this, because water likes to turn energetic. Whatever algorithm is used to determine whether water is energetic or not, seems quite aggressive.

I can't speak for the OP's conclusions above, but what I know on this topic is that non-moving water on the same z-level as a natural river/stream/brook that is also connected to that river/stream/brook retains the "flow" property even though it isn't moving, making large waterwheel "reactors" possible. See for example http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10096-flamegate which has a reactor of this type in the bottom right corner of the map.

What I seem to have found quite conclusively is that the flow property is determined procedurally. Previously I had thought that Toady would have just hacked it to set all river tiles to "flowing" on map generation. However it seems that the game determines what is a river on the fly. Including all the fancy stuff required to deal with natural (or artificial) waterfalls and stuff - in other words, it has no problem realizing that water on different z-levels are "connected" for purposes of river flow.

[darkflagrance]

So, if I'm reading this right, just to confirm:

Once a pool of water has acquired the river status by connecting with a map edge, it becomes suitable for ZPER construction even when that connection is broken? Basically, that would mean that I could hook a generator room of water to a river, let it fill, and then break the connection and still have power.

[Niccolo]

So, if I'm reading this right, just to confirm:

Once a pool of water has acquired the river status by connecting with a map edge, it becomes suitable for ZPER construction even when that connection is broken? Basically, that would mean that I could hook a generator room of water to a river, let it fill, and then break the connection and still have power.

That seems to be what the OP is suggesting. He also seems to be suggesting that digging a channel into an aquifer and building waterwheels in/on it will also produce power.

Huh.

[FearfulJesuit]

Well, this'll certainly make dwarfputing slightly easier, because now you can create easy water reactors anywhere you want.


I should build a dwarfputer sometime.

[krenshala]

Since i've never heard of this before, could you explain what exactly a Zero Point Energy Reactor is and how to build them?

Bascially, one of these.

One question.  Does the water actually have to flow into a sink (map edge/aquifer) or can you just have a 1x3 or 1x4 pond with a flood gate at one end, fill the entire thing, open the gate, then shut it before the water completely empties and refill?

[Nan]

I've been playing around with these a bit more. Been contemplating calling them "Flowing water reactors", because they rely on "flowing" water as defined by the game.

Any channel dug into an aquifer can be turned into "flowing" water just by pumping water into it using a screw pump. This makes aquifers into big yummy power sources. Especially if you want to pump water out of them, to fill drowning traps for example.
Also a single wheel reactor is far more convenient for dwarfputting than a windmill.

One question.  Does the water actually have to flow into a sink (map edge/aquifer) or can you just have a 1x3 or 1x4 pond with a flood gate at one end, fill the entire thing, open the gate, then shut it before the water completely empties and refill?

The water definitely has to disappear into a sink in order to get the game to classify it as flowing water. To what extent the water has to do this, I'm not sure. There's definitely no need to completely fill a pond before draining it off the map edge, and there's no need to let it completely empty. For example I dug out a significantly large bucked-brigade filled pond next to the map edge, filled it to something like 5/7, opened the floodgate for just a moment to let some water flow out, then closed it and re-filled it back up to 4/7, and the waterwheels all operated at full power.
And as the "pumping into the aquifer pond" trick demonstrates, there's no need for actual water movement in the pond itself, as long as water is disappearing there, the game classifies it as flowing water. The "flowing" quality can propagate quite far through 7/7 water but I really have no idea what kind of logic the game is using to decide what water is a part of the "flowing body of water", but it certainly has low standards.

[Di]

Great job.
Ironically, wiki somewhat mentions this stuff you just need to know it to notice it 
I'm currently using maybe a particular case of this one: you build waterwheels in aquifer and douse it with water from a pump, whole body of water gets flow even if only few tiles of aquifer had water over them. Pump may be deconstructed after initialization.
The difference from your design, as I get it, is that power is obtained by the body in which water disappeared not the disappearing one.

[Nan]

The wiki mentions this stuff because I put it there .