Dem Damn dams

[Shredder]

I just don't understand why this dam won't turn on. Is the water system broken?
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423307814

[ohener]

Too tall?

[grapplehoeker]

I don't know why you showed the water overlay.
Anyhow a close up shot at surface level behind the dam would be the best view. Is the water level at the top of the dam where it should be? Looks like that dam is a tad too high.

[Shredder]

I plopped it down when is stated to generate like 400+ mw and now it's being reetarded.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Shrimp Jumbo:

I plopped it down when is stated to generate like 400+ mw and now it's being reetarded.

At first yes, but it has balanced out and broken the river banks, spreading out and so now the water level at the lip of the dam is now too low.

[Shredder]

so it flared out a bit at the dam. The water level is fine. the direction is correct. The dam won't operate even though the water level difference is huge.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Shrimp Jumbo:

so it flared out a bit at the dam. The water level is fine. the direction is correct. The dam won't operate even though the water level difference is huge.

The flaring out is what is preventing the water level to be high enough right behind the dam. It needs to be literally almost at the very top of the dam. The river banks aren't holding the water in place long enough for the level to rise high enough. The river seeps off to the sides and so never reaches the optimum height.

[ohener]

Is this a custom map? open it up in the map editor and check to see if there are any water sources placed in the river. The way water sources work in this game is that if the water level is lower than the source it creates water, if the water level is higher than the source it drains water. Some map makers will put water sources along the river to make it flow more evenly, but this screws up dams.

[Shredder]

It's the islands map so no mod map. I gave up on getting it to work. If the the dam shows green then it should work but CO didn't seem to get it right. When I put the dam down the water flow actually changed to backing out of the left side of the map. Very strange behavior.

[ohener]

Yeah, it looks like your dam is just too tall. Most rivers on vanilla maps don't really have enough slope or flow rate to make decent dams. You can make some pretty dams on the other river of the islands map though. (not the rivers near you the really big river)

[grapplehoeker]

No, if the dam footprint shows green it means it can be built there. It doesn't mean it will work.
Since you haven't provided your original save game to try on, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at it myself.
The southern riverbank is very shallow indeed compared to the higher northern bank, making it a poor location for a dam. Your location was definitely not good so I tried a little further downstream after the bridge. You'll see I built the dam lower into the banks than you did yours, to ensure the water would reach the top even with a little water level reduction due to flooding.

It works with power fluctuating between 48-64MW. It's still not at optimum efficiency due to the river breaking the bank on the lower side. So much so that it is drawing the river current back and away from the dam, which is precisely why the water isn't reaching the top of yours as I explained.
I made a couple of screenshots and even gave you a lil observation cabin ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423348022
and here you can see the river current direction reversing in the direction of the overspill on the lower left bank.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423348192

[Lev]

Originally posted by Shrimp Jumbo:

It's the islands map so no mod map. I gave up on getting it to work. If the the dam shows green then it should work but CO didn't seem to get it right. When I put the dam down the water flow actually changed to backing out of the left side of the map. Very strange behavior.

Haha! i did exactly this. Flooded one of my highway connections. Just save your game before placing the dam, and try a lower dam if the water doesn't reliable overflow the dam.

[Lev]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

No, if the dam footprint shows green it means it can be built there. It doesn't mean it will work.
Since you haven't provided your original save game to try on, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at it myself.
The southern riverbank is very shallow indeed compared to the higher northern bank, making it a poor location for a dam. Your location was definitely not good so I tried a little further downstream after the bridge. You'll see I built the dam lower into the banks than you did yours, to ensure the water would reach the top even with a little water level reduction due to flooding.

It works with power fluctuating between 48-64MW. It's still not at optimum efficiency due to the river breaking the bank on the lower side. So much so that it is drawing the river current back and away from the dam, which is precisely why the water isn't reaching the top of yours as I explained.
I made a couple of screenshots and even gave you a lil observation cabin ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423348022
and here you can see the river current direction reversing in the direction of the overspill on the lower left bank.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423348192

The deep river a couple map tiles over can support a maxed-out dam.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Jabotinsky:

The deep river a couple map tiles over can support a maxed-out dam.

I'll take your word for it, I only loaded this up and bought one tile just to reach the same area the OP tried in. I've got no intention of going any further with it... I got my own maps to get on with lol