Im not crazy about the drought system *in its current form*

[Potato League Champion]

I get that if you could eliminate the threat of droughts, the game would become relatively plain. What i dont get, is blocking a lake off immediately to be a supply for your colony during the drought, only for it to dry up completely and evaporate your food source only a couple months in. Late game is pretty eh.

[EleventhStar]

you can eliminate droughts. just make your lake/reservoir bigger/deeper if it evaporates. also make sure it's actual evaporation and not you pumping it dry.

fluid dumps go a long way to irrigate crops. but you can use floodgates to if you prefer.

[H. Guderian]

I only started playing recently, but I think its rather neat. I went Hard Mode on Thousand Islands map. If things dry out there's a few pools, and if I pump water from them now that I have nearly 20 day droughts I get super close to dying entirely and losing 75% of my population.

What it forces me to do is stockpile as much water as possible during the wet seasons so I can sit with the natural pools still providing arable land. I've been enjoying this challenge, as I must use every second of good weather to prepare for what lay ahead.

[Potato League Champion]

I might be doing something wrong here then?
I'm on the lakes map with every single exit point for water gated. As soon as the drought starts im shutting both the exit and entry to my village, and shutting all other exit points for the water. I've got nearly the entire map still full of clean water, and it's separated from my pumps entirely, so there's no way it's the pumps (that I pause for droughts anyway). The entire lake just goes dry.

[H. Guderian]

Originally posted by Potato League Champion:

I might be doing something wrong here then?
I'm on the lakes map with every single exit point for water gated. As soon as the drought starts im shutting both the exit and entry to my village, and shutting all other exit points for the water. I've got nearly the entire map still full of clean water, and it's separated from my pumps entirely, so there's no way it's the pumps (that I pause for droughts anyway). The entire lake just goes dry.

How long is the drought? How deep is the water? I think a 1 level body of water will last 10-15 days if it isn't touched. Maybe 20, but I always pump a little water.

[Tom Målbur]

Originally posted by Potato League Champion:

I might be doing something wrong here then?
I'm on the lakes map with every single exit point for water gated. As soon as the drought starts im shutting both the exit and entry to my village, and shutting all other exit points for the water. I've got nearly the entire map still full of clean water, and it's separated from my pumps entirely, so there's no way it's the pumps (that I pause for droughts anyway). The entire lake just goes dry.

It sounds like you're only damming off the starter river? You can build gigantic reservoirs with levees (elevated above the river). Then, you can use floodgates to slowly drain the reservoir as needed.

[Osmorphic]

Your reservoir needs to be deep enough to survive the drought or bad water. The good news is 4 is deep enough for your reservoir due to evaporation. If it is four deep and you run out of water. Make it bigger. Make a road around the top of the levee to build it.

Set the mechanical pumps filling your reservoir to good water only.

Make a bad water reservoir so you can pump that 24/7 as well.

There is no need to use flood gates that are manual only.

On the 1000 island map use levees to reclaim land. Think of it as New Orleans and build new walls to keep out the water.