Easy way to remove water?

[Thryden]

So I want to build a partially underwater town, kinda like real world Netherlands. But the problem I've come across is that each block of the ocean is it's own individual water. So I can't just remove the top layer or such and let the rest drain away. So I'm wondering if anyone has any helpful tips on how to remove large quantaties of ocean water or is it going to be the tedious work of placing a block on every water block then removing it. Because if that's the case, I may forgo this project altogether. I've already tried excavators and tnt but they can't remove water.

[ThugDragonz]

Originally posted by dsbjki:

So I want to build a partially underwater town, kinda like real world Netherlands. But the problem I've come across is that each block of the ocean is it's own individual water. So I can't just remove the top layer or such and let the rest drain away. So I'm wondering if anyone has any helpful tips on how to remove large quantaties of ocean water or is it going to be the tedious work of placing a block on every water block then removing it. Because if that's the case, I may forgo this project altogether. I've already tried excavators and tnt but they can't remove water.

Throw ice bombs XD

[Thryden]

Did not think of that... THanks!

[J's]

Ice bomb and advanced excavater work well, but if you want a more precise way to do it you can also "overide" the blocks by placing another block instead. Once you remove the blocks that overide the water, the water will be gone unless it connects to more water and the water flow back in.

For example, you could create the exterior shell of your base first, then place blocks in the middle and remove them layer by layer (top to bottom) to clean up the water permanently.

You can also mix and match those techniques for large project where you want to protect the water outside the perimeter of your walls. Making a "buffer" zone at least 4 blocks thick including the walls should do the trick.

[entuland]

Perhaps this doesn't really help for your specific case, but it may help other people stumbling here: for irregular shapes of underwater hollow builds I create the hull outside of the water, where I have all the freedom and safety (read: breathable air) to build it as I please, then I completely fill it with some cheap blocks such as leaves, and BP it.

Then I place the cornerstone underwater and start burst filling (water blocks are weak blocks and will be replaced by the burst fill). The only little nuisance there is that hints will not appear other than in free spaces (but once they are there, water doesn't flow where hints are): so to fill a large section of a specific block simply remove one of the already placed blocks and it will give you a hint that will burst fill all around.

Using the above technique I built pretty much all of the underwater base that can be seen here:
http://sharing.creativersegame.com/w?k=77c9a22cb05611e78b4492f14eb8b66b
(the actual base is one claim south from the driller and its incomplete tunnel, you have to swim / fly to get there).

Once the hulls are in place I remove the leaves and modify / decorate the build.

You also need to know where blocks go, if the hull is very variegated as types of blocks you may need to override it with whatever block (shift-clicking) and then removing such block to see what hint appears there in case you can't remember that particular position.

[TrinityCarnage]

One other way is to cover your entire surface area with say dirt then remove the middle and drop down a row until you get as far down as you wanted. Alternatively if you have a diamond mining cell or better then ice bombs would be somewhat more efficient. You may still need some sort of retaining wall to stop the ocean from refilling itself.

[spared_life]

Can you make a blueprint say 10x10 or whatever and drop it on the first layer of water?

[testedsubject]

not very precise but fire bombs will disappear water...

[entuland]

Originally posted by testedsubject:

not very precise but fire bombs will disappear water...

That can be done but it's pretty tricky, and dangerous if you want to keep the sand: fire bombs and fire skulls will completely ignore water and will go all the way down to the sand, converting it into salt. The only way to do that with fire bombs is to place blocks floating in the middle of the water, at the appropriate positions, and bomb them. The placement needs to take in account for the 7x7x7 cube evaporated by such bombs. And if one doesn't want to convert sand it needs to be collected beforehand.

[Rider of Dark]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318431813

The sand blocks and the beeswax are aligned. If you look down at the outer edges of the beeswax, you'll also the the outer edges of the upper-most layer of submerged sand blocks.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318431841

Surround the beeswax with a single round of blocks, that's the buffer zone. Remove the beeswax, place one layer down, as pictured there.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318431865

I forgot to take a picture after I'd removed the second layer of beeswax, sorry. Still, What was done with the first layer, repeat.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318431885
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318435652
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318431917

Always place blocks from top to bottom. Otherwise, water has a reasonable chance of spilling over as pictured. It's messy to clean up.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1318435676

The final product with the "final" beeswax layer sitting on top of the sand. Keeping the blocks is unnecessary as they don't auto-fill on each other, so that leaves a nice wall of water just sitting there.

[TrinityCarnage]

Still thinking ice bombs and a retaining wall while more tedious than fire bombs, you won't convert sand to salt if you happened to make a mistake.

[Asheira]

Note that all natural Ocean biome blocks are Source Blocks.
Also: Have the 2 top layers of Water Source Blocks and you will not see any water flow on the surface.

Use blueprints of 1 layer height if you need to repair water bodies.
In this case, start from bottom to top =)

Other than that, go for what Entuland suggested, to have a clean install of your underwater structure.
It will leave all Ocean water blocks as is (no noise from flowing water later on, either)

HF

[Thryden]

Thanks for your help everyone! While Entuland's suggestion is a good one, it doesn't really apply to me becaue my city is not completely submerged. The floor will be six or so layers deep with walls to protect it from flooding. RIder of Dark's idea would work, but it would be very time consuming, as I can't remove the blocks very quickly. Right now, I have a 40x40x6 area I"m trying to remove water from... a total of 9,600 blocks. I removed one layer of water that way, and even using a blueprint to quickly fill in the blocks, it took longer than I'd like. And I plan to make my city a lot bigger than 40x40. The fire bomb idea sounds really good, I like the sound of that. I don't care what happens to the sand, because I won't be able to see it because of the city floor. As entuland said, they sink, which would cause water underneath the city to be removed, which I don't really want. But if I placed a block on the first layer of water, and aimed at that, the firebomb would hit it and removed the water around it, as long as I aimed correctly. :) Thanks again for the help!

[entuland]

You're welcome, dsbjki.

The best approach with bombs would be to place one block on the surface, then dive down and place three blocks under it, then bomb the side of the lowest block, to optimize the fireing (if you bomb the top of a block on the surface you'll evaporate about 3 blocks deep, 4 if you bomb its side, bombing 4 blocks down you should be able to evaporate a full 7x7x7 cube of water).

Do not discard the Advanced Excavator option, though, it gives you the same result and faster, full control over the placement without the risk of bombs glitching through blocks. Advanced Excavators are able to remove normal Water.

[Thryden]

Originally posted by entuland:

You're welcome, dsbjki.

The best approach with bombs would be to place one block on the surface, then dive down and place three blocks under it, then bomb the side of the lowest block, to optimize the fireing (if you bomb the top of a block on the surface you'll evaporate about 3 blocks deep, 4 if you bomb its side, bombing 4 blocks down you should be able to evaporate a full 7x7x7 cube of water).

Do not discard the Advanced Excavator option, though, it gives you the same result and faster, full control over the placement without the risk of bombs glitching through blocks. Advanced Excavators are able to remove normal Water.

Did not know Advanced Excavator's could remove water. I tried regular ones and thought the rest wouldn't work. Thanks! That sounds like a much better option.

[entuland]

Originally posted by dsbjki:

Did not know Advanced Excavator's could remove water. I tried regular ones and thought the rest wouldn't work. Thanks! That sounds like a much better option.

My pleasure :) The nice thing is that they're even cheaper than regular Excavators :P