Well, today I had my first true encounter with an aquifer. Usually I just ignore them, or go to the top and mine out one square for a well, and that's the extent of it. Today, one of my dwarves breached the aquifer.
This was fine. The single breach only slowly filled up a small area of stairs that led nowhere. It was slow enough that it evaporated before I had to do a thing on the bottom level. Hmm, I thought. Since it's an aquifer, it should theoretically have only a limited amount of water. I will tap it a bit more, flood a WIDE area so it evaporates faster then it comes in until the aquifer is dry.
So I mined the bottom layer abit more, and then made some punctures in the aquifer. It wasn;t coming fast enough for my likes, so I made a few more, a little deeper. "There. Now it's flowing... Hmmm... good, it filled the area to a height of 2. 3... 4..... um... okay, lets dig a bit more on the edges to make room... hurry up guys.... 5.... get out of there!"
"Egads, how much water is in here... okay, maybe it's more then one level. Everyone, grab all available picks and start digging!"
So we mined out the layer above. We did it in a square so the water had to flow in behind us as we mined forward. Then we waited... It reached 3 again, and we began above, just to be safe, minind out HUGE areas all the while. By now, all 7 went from nearly untrained to legendary miners. "The water is still following! One more level up! GO GO GO!!!"
Soon enough, Z-levels -17 to -12 were flooded (the aquifer is on z-levels -2 to -4). We were going to all drown, or at least a large part of the fort would be useless... the part surrounding my magma vent no less. But we didn't give up. It's got to stop some time, I thought... Or does it? I finally decided to check the wiki. Oh, my.... it is infinite. I seem to have made a woopsie...
I had all peasants begin carrying everything including stone up to levels 1 and 2. It was a full scale evacuation, we brought our beds from z-level 5, ect.
My miners were able to keep, at last, a full level above the rising water. They mined out level 12 fully and begin on 11 just before the water started to flood 12. I abandoned 11. I had them go up to the surface as part of an operation to set up pumps to pump water into the river. It was going to take too much time, and I didn't have the infrastructure ready enough, and it would be tough. We needed to stay above the water, so I sent them back to 11 while the operation began above.
And then we hit HIDDEN FUN STUFF. And it dawned on me... But it was a race against the clock. I sent in a drone peasant with a pick to seek the HIDDEN FUN STUFF, sealing the entrance behind him. He made a beeline for the HIDDEN FUN STUFF and finally found it. He managed to seal up the breach before anything happened with a wall.
We went in. Unfortunately, our operation began at -11, but our new operation was much deeper. It was a race: once 11 began to flood, all workers in the area, and all hope of using this advantage, would be gone. -12 was flooded to on average 4. We set up a channel, with some floor grates so we could keep everything low. 3 wide was the cooridor. Down the grated channels, and into HIDDEN FUN STUFF. We set up floodgates in case I ever want to flood my castle again (like for a great underground forest if I find an underground pool). The water is at 6. Connect the floodgates to levers, and lower them. The water is at 7.
The miners run in. The miners tap into HIDDEN FUN STUFF. They book it on up and bar the way behind them by channeling out their staircase. Finally, three drone peasants with picks are brought in. The way back is barred behind them. Level 11 is flooding, the miners have evacuated, and the wall at their backs is all thats keeping water from drowning them... They break the final wall between our makeshift drain and the bottom level of the flood on -17.
WHOOOSH.... My FPS drops insanely low, but it is immediately apparent that it is working! The water level is dropping on levels above around the breach!
The water drained out. My FPS slowly returned to normal as water evaporated. The drones even managed to survive once it was low enough to climb up the stairs. No dwarves lost. One mule drowned because it followed it's owner, the peasant drone who broke the final wall, but couldn't swim. It was quite an adventure for me.
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Topic: Race Against the Aquifer! (Read 1664 times)