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[Yiab]

I'm looking to play fortress mode with sand, trees, and a river/brook in a temperate climate, but it seems that it's almost impossible for these four things to exist together in the new version without an aquifer. Just to see what I could do about an aquifer, I decided to try piercing one using the cave-in method. I found a good spot which had everything I wanted and showed one bar of aquifer on the embark screen. After piercing three layers of aquifer and hitting a fourth (and having run out of ground above my pierce with which to continue), I gave up and abandoned the fort.

My question, then: Is there any way to generate a world with significantly fewer aquifers?
Alternately, is there any way to get the "find desired location" section of the embark screen to include presence of sand, and to actually require that the entire selected area be aquifer-free, rather than (apparently) ignoring the "no aquifer" specification?

[Altaree]

Lots of pumps and wooden walls?
Hack the raw's removing the aquifer tag?

[Yiab]

Thank you, I didn't know about the aquifer tag in the raws, I was looking the the worldgen file. Removing the tags should do it, assuming the game generation algorithm accepts a world without aquifers.

[Smew]

it does indeed accept that, I do it to every world I create now, aquifers just aren't something I find fun!

[amade]

Go for a cold biome and tunnel your way into ice if you rather not change the raws.

[BigD145]

This game is too hard. Aquifers, waaa.
/snrk

I usually just skirt around the edges of the aquifer and find an alternate route. It's called, "adapting to the situation." When I need to pierce it, I do. There are a few guides to doing it well.

[ohgoditburns]

By far the easiest way is to cause a cave in.

Code: [Select]

▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
HDDDDDH
H▒▒▒▒▒H
HHHHHHH
AAAAAAA

Or if not enough layers, you'll have to go open air.
.......
H▒▒▒▒▒H
HHHHHHH
AAAAAAA

(A is for Aquifer)

Then dig through the caved in rock.

[BigD145]

3+ level aquifers require some major pumping and very creative cave ins if you want to do more than just make a single stairwell.

[Chrissi]

To actually answer the question.... yes, you can render a world with significantly less aquifers (I have done it) by increasing the minimum elevation in the parameters.  Try 20 or 40 or something.  It also reduces oceans, but oceans are what cause aquifers in the first place.

You could just hack the aquifer out of the raws but that feels more like cheating... I guess you can go either way, but I prefer this method.

[profit]

LOL since this is an ALPHA game.. I don't think there is such a thing as cheating.. its all play testing to determine maximum enjoyment... If everyone removes them it is a sign that they need to be tweaked or changed.

[Ilmoran]

Rather than regening without the aquifer tag, you might try removing it in the saves raws.  I'm not sure if that would turn off the water generating properties of aquifers or not, but if it does, it makes it much easier to exploit their infinite wateriness.

[BigD145]

LOL since this is an ALPHA game.. I don't think there is such a thing as cheating.. its all play testing to determine maximum enjoyment... If everyone removes them it is a sign that they need to be tweaked or changed.

"Everyone" is not removing them.

[ohgoditburns]

I also do not remove them. When I first started I looked for regions without them. Now I enjoy having aquifers available. If you embark on a mountainous area, sometimes the aquifer will be on a different level than the nearby plains. You can easily use this to your advantage.

[Foxbyte]

I keep aquifers in my games. It adds a strategic element to making forts around wet areas, and also comes in handy as a cheap, unlimited source of both water and drainage!

[nenjin]

When did this become about people's nerd cred, or lack of it, for not playing over aquifers?