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[xpCynic]

BIG AWESOME DIAGRAM

Thanks for this, I'll have to look over it carefully. What you've come up with is similar to what I want to do, but is it possible to do it all with one lever pull? It would also be neat to pressurize the water so the player doesn't have to mash 5 for the water to fill up. Bah, I'm starting to think I should try something else.

[MC Dirty]

Okay, Tibbles hasn't been online since 24-02, so we'll just skip him. It's Hoborobo234's turn, then.

[DanielLC]

xpCynic, The way Mondark did it involved pressure plates, which don't work. You're probably best off to have one lever for fill and one lever for empty and have it right next to the place the water comes from, so it's obvious what it does, and next to a spot where you can see how deep the water is.

By the way, you can use long series' of pumps to move water in faster. Also having a waterfall so the PC can get the hint would be a good idea.

If you do want to have it so you pull levers to specify how many level of water:

Build each layer so they have exactly the same number of tiles.
Build one cistern with that many tiles for each layer.
Make a series of pumps that allows each cistern to take water from the bottom layer and and water to the top layer.
Give each cistern a single lever. If it's pulled one way, the pumps leading to it are on and the ones leading away are off. If it's pulled the other way, it's switched.

By the way, you can turn pumps off by connecting a gear to something that uses too much power. See Mechanical Logic for details. Also, rather than having two sets of pumps for each cistern, you can use one set of pumps and a hatch, so when the hatch is open the water drains one way, and when it's closed, but the pumps are on, it pumps the other way. Finally, if you want to make sure there's no evaporation, build all of the floors out of bars so the water's not just on the floor, and make each cistern two z-levels deep, but only use the top z-level. Since all of the bars have to be connected to walls, you'll have to make sections like this:
(= means bars, O means wall)

Code: [Select]

====O==
==O====
O====O=
===O===
=O====O
====O==
==O====


This is a cool thread, but I'm too much of a noob to join. I am allowed to give ideas though, right?

Have a lever that, when pulled, drops a donut shaped area around the PC to make them fall a z-level. Someone already suggested that part. Make it so this places them in a room with a floodgate and a lever, but no other way out. When they pull that lever it opens the floodgate, leading into a partially drained magma vent, with a bridge over it. It also opens a floodgate on the opposite side of the bridge, opens a cage on the other side of the door, and opens the retracting bridge that was keeping the magma vent from filling. This will leave the PC forced to fight a monster on a bridge over a slowly-filling magma vent.

As an added bonus, if the PC survives, try and distract them after they leave for long enough that the magma vent fills and the lava spills out of the opened floodgate.

[xpCynic]

That's interesting. I thought when they said pressure plates don't work they only meant adventurers couldn't use them but water would still trigger them. It still seems workable though. I tinkered with DFPaint and came up with:

which I think is the same basic idea you're getting at. Lever 1 swaps the floodgates to the left cistern so the top is closed and the bottom is open, likewise with lever 2 and the ones on the right. Lever 0 opens the hatch to a chasm. Not as fancy as, say, Ocarina of Time's Water Temple, but it's way easier than what I tried to draw a couple of weeks ago. Gonna go try to build this on my own before contributing it.

[DanielLC]

Two problems with your idea. First, the hatches on the top and on the bottom both need to be closed when emptying a cistern. Second, I don't think you can rig a lever to open one set of hatches and close another. It's all open or all closed.

Your mistakes cancelled each other out.

This works a lot better than my way.

By the way, how will filling up areas make anything more accessible? Will it be so you have to swim to it?

If you do a water-themed level, you should probably have something somewhere where water moves something. Maybe have the entrance a series of ramps and smooth floors with water going down them acting as a water slide, and have it end dumping you down a z-level into a pool.

By the way, everyone talks about feeding dwarfs to animals in order to make them named so they'd still be there when you adventure. How about having ways to herd the new animals? Say you want a carp-pool. You could have a waterfall empty from a river into the pool, and have the pool go through bars so the carp don't come back out.

Code: [Select]

~~~~~~#
####~~#
    ~~
#~~~~~#
#=#####
 ~
The way water pressure works should keep the water level at 7/7, but keep it from overflowing.

Edit: Fixed a problem in my design. The water entry should be larger than the water exit. Come to think of it, this could be used for the whatchamacallit this comment was started talking about. Just make a hatch on each z-level and a waterfall pouring in. It will fill to the lowest open hatch. This would have the added bonus that you can have floodgates controlling specific parts of z-levels that will fill, and it will still work right.

Code: [Select]

aquifier
#~########
 ~
#~       #
#~~~~~~#¢#
#~~~~#¢#
####¢#~
      ~
    chasm

[Pruvan]

This is a cool thread, but I'm too much of a noob to join.

Are you serious? You're like a, Legendary Mechanic for crying out loud! You should definately join.

[DanielLC]

I'm better at theoretical stuff than practical. I like theoretical stuff more. I'm more likely to do it. I have designed dozens of epic spells, among other things, for D&D, but I've never played the game. Similarly, I can design a few ☼Megastructures☼, but I have yet to build more than a single three year old +Fortress+ (that has been corrupted, unfortunately), and that hand nothing more than a half-built +Megastructure+.

I'm thinking about trying my hand at dwarven machinima (animate Threetoes stories, along with one I made myself), and if that goes well, I might join this.

Edit: Are there utilities I can use on a Mac?

[xpCynic]

Second, I don't think you can rig a lever to open one set of hatches and close another. It's all open or all closed.

I could've sworn I did this once. Link up one hatch, pull lever, link up other hatch. EXPERIMENTATION, ANYONE?

By the way, how will filling up areas make anything more accessible? Will it be so you have to swim to it?

If you do a water-themed level, you should probably have something somewhere where water moves something. Maybe have the entrance a series of ramps and smooth floors with water going down them acting as a water slide, and have it end dumping you down a z-level into a pool.

Swimming in 7/7 water with a ceiling causes drowning. You can alt-step from water to ground one level up (I think). The waterslide idea sounds fun too. Oh, so does the named carp thing.

Edit: Fixed a problem in my design. The water entry should be larger than the water exit. Come to think of it, this could be used for the whatchamacallit this comment was started talking about. Just make a hatch on each z-level and a waterfall pouring in. It will fill to the lowest open hatch. This would have the added bonus that you can have floodgates controlling specific parts of z-levels that will fill, and it will still work right.

Wow. Going to try both that and the cisterns.

Anyway, enough threadhogging for me. Hoborobo, show us your moves fort!

Edit: I just noticed two things.

Not that I'm anxious or anything, but my DF interpretation of the water temple is starting to take shape and needs a medium to be fully realized...

Ooh...I've always wanted to make an evil adventurer's map. I always enjoyed the old Zelda 64 Water Temple and wanted to one-up it in sheer maliciousness. 

Multiple Water Temples? Oh my.

[Skid]

If you attach a drawbridge and a floodgate to a lever in a pair of horizontal passageways I think you might be able to let water through alternately. 

If I'm not wrong, a bridge's open state is marked when it is up, blocking water from flowing over it.  A floodgate's open state is just what it says on the tin, letting water flow through freely.

[Vactor]

Second, I don't think you can rig a lever to open one set of hatches and close another. It's all open or all closed.

I could've sworn I did this once. Link up one hatch, pull lever, link up other hatch. EXPERIMENTATION, ANYONE?

this doesn't work, levers contain the open/closed setting, not the item they are attached to.  All things attached to a lever inherit the same open/closed setting.

[Grishnak]

Does the link on the first page work for anyone? I just tried downloading it to run through, but I get a 404

[Jakkarra]

can i still enter plz?

i have a brilliant idea for some nice stuff i could do with this.

any restrictions?

oh, and ill require magma a brook (or river), and possibly a very large mountain and maybye even an aquifier.... (preferably a volcano)

love, jakkarra

Edit: sooooooooo, can i please have a spot?

[MC Dirty]

Hoborobo234 skipped their turn. Damn good reason, too.
MagicJuggler, do your magic... stuff!

[Cheshire Cat]

Second, I don't think you can rig a lever to open one set of hatches and close another. It's all open or all closed.

I could've sworn I did this once. Link up one hatch, pull lever, link up other hatch. EXPERIMENTATION, ANYONE?

this doesn't work, levers contain the open/closed setting, not the item they are attached to.  All things attached to a lever inherit the same open/closed setting.

i accidentally managed to have two sets of iron bars that were ment to open and close to seal a passage, only in one setting one bar was open, the other closed, and vice versa. this does actually work and it can get damned confusing if you have one lever controlling a tonne of stuff. and this was like, yesterday, playing 40d. it may not work with all lever controlled objects though.

[Micro102]

ok since im probably gonna skip my turn too (my zest for dwarf fortress is being dulled by 1000 other games and the -10 FPS on my uber fort) i want to let you guys know about my project, and if anyone would plz take it i would be very grateful.

dont just make one large attraction, raise hell....literally.....


make dozens of embark sites everythere there is "other stuff" and dig down without doors to "you know what" and leave. then wait a few years and read the world history, and you might need a few extra arms and adamentine warhammers if you plan on playing adventurer