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Author Topic: Fortress Plumbing  (Read 2092 times)

Fnear

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Fortress Plumbing
« on: March 15, 2012, 05:36:09 pm »

Managing water and magma has killed too many of my dwarves.  They are too slow, they approach from the wrong side, they seal themselves into chambers.  Or I screw up on pressure and flood a bunch of stuff.  Currently I have a fort with multiple biomes and a high aquifer and a low aquifer.  My fort spans about 20 z-levels in between, alongside a volcano.

My solution is to tap the source once (ideally an aquifer at a high z-level), and feed it into a pressurized vertical stack so that I can tap into water on any level of my fort by channeling out a connection to the source stack.  Nearby, I have a drain stack that dumps into (ideally) another aquifer further down.  But you could use any source or drain.

On any given level, I can build a plumbing network, connect it to the source and drain, and have flowing water (pressurized if I want, unpressurized if I tap it so it flows through a diagonal).

This will also be great for magma!  I'll tap the volcano once, and have easy (and safe) to channel magma sources on every level of my fort.  The key is have stubs on each level with rock above them, and a three-level pattern makes that possible across all levels.

Example of plumbing stacks (source and drain):
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Example of plumbing a level with flowing, depressurized water:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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Girlinhat

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2012, 05:45:03 pm »

Different depths aquifers AND a volcano.  Good god man, what glory have you found?

Let the soothing waterfalls and indifferent magmafalls commence!

Ashery

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2012, 06:23:04 pm »

Certainly workable, but I personally favor closed setups for extra insurance. When working with infinite sources as you are, a mistake that stops the drainage may seriously damage your fort. With a closed system, however, there's a finite amount of water that's able to flood your fort.
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rtg593

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #3 on: March 15, 2012, 06:29:24 pm »

Certainly workable, but I personally favor closed setups for extra insurance. When working with infinite sources as you are, a mistake that stops the drainage may seriously damage your fort. With a closed system, however, there's a finite amount of water that's able to flood your fort.

Aw, but what !!FUN!! is that? :p

I have a similar setup in my current embark, gunna borrow your ideas, will let you know if I discover something useful myself :D
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khearn

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2012, 07:05:50 pm »

As long as you have a floodgate (or similar) immediately after your source, hooked to a lever in a location that your dwarves can easily get to and above your source, using an infinite source is not a problem. If something goes wrong, just turn off the master valve. Just be sure not to put the lever someplace that can be flooded.

A master shutoff also makes it easier to tap into the system for new construction. Shut off the master, open the main drain to empty the central stack, then tunnel in wherever you need to, then close the drain and open the master. I also make a shutoff for every connection to the main stack so I can shut off one mistake without shutting off everything else.
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Have them killed. Nothing solves a problem quite as effectively as simply having it killed.

Girlinhat

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2012, 07:58:48 pm »

If you're feeling very smart, you can place fluid-sensitive pressure plates around the fort and link them to the master gate.  Thus, when you experience unwanted flooding, the system will shut itself down.

Obviously, you don't want to put these safety triggers in the dining hall or nobles quarters.  Save them food the booze stockpile and the forge.  Y'know, the important places!

khearn

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Re: Fortress Plumbing
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2012, 08:06:30 pm »

If you're feeling very smart, you can place fluid-sensitive pressure plates around the fort and link them to the master gate.  Thus, when you experience unwanted flooding, the system will shut itself down.

Obviously, you don't want to put these safety triggers in the dining hall or nobles quarters.  Save them food the booze stockpile and the forge.  Y'know, the important places!

Clever, I like this idea.
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Have them killed. Nothing solves a problem quite as effectively as simply having it killed.