Draining basement

[Peeter]

Hi,
Even after having reading several threads here on draining water I don't get it.
Let me just describe my situation: I built a -2 lvl basement on a swamp island. The basement floor is filled with shallow water. I built clay walls on all sides of the basement and covered the basement with wooden floor. The water is not going anywhere. I even dug a deeper hole in there in the hope, this will change anything. It doesn't. So - is there any way to get this basement dry or none at all?

[rattus]

you would need to dig a channel to lower grounds. and the water should flow away. But since you cant dig on the edge of the map, there has to be a place in the buildable area that is free of water at that lower level. Good luck with that on a swamp map :).

[Peeter]

But will the water disappear, once I also fill the ground with wall elements?

[rattus]

If you fill the "Basement" with soil, the soil becomes invisibly waterlogged, and if you then dig out that soil the water remains - ie reappears.. If you fill the water with wall sections, then you they work just like soil - if you remove them the water reappears. The only way to get rid of the water is to drain it to lower ground. I think. My villagers have been at work for 20 years draining and building moats and I made plenty of stuff ups. If you lower a water tile by digging it it just makes it harder to get rid of the water. But since you can just fill in the holes and the water and build on them it is not really a problem. Unless you like deep basements. Which I do hence the years of backbreaking labour and the many drownings endure by my happy villagers!

[Peeter]

Okay. Does it mean, if I have a swamp map and there is shallow water at the -1 level outside the swamp island and I can build a dry -1 lvl basement on the island, then I should also be able to have a dry -2 level basement, when all the walls and also the floor of it are wall material, stone or clay or brick?

[rattus]

Yes. For example I dug down to the granite in one part of my map (well below the lowest water tiles on my map) and it was dry all the way. But once I used it as a sump I couldn't get rid of the water.

[Peeter]

Somehow I also managed to drain the basement now - I dug some holes in the basement and water just vanished. I even did not have to fill the whole floor with a construction material, it is still dirt. But all the walls are clay. So, whatever did the trick - I now have a dry -2 lvl basement on a swamp island.

[blp]

There are 2 different types of soil in the Swamp.
A type which drops 3 dirt and one, which drops 1 dirt.
If You dig a 3 dirt tile, there is no water and it will soak up water as long as there are enough dry tiles.
That is at least my observation.

[EvilNecroid]

not being able to get rid of water sounds stupid