Water supply with wells only?

[ubreitfeld]

I am thinking about how I could optimise my water supply. Has anyone ever tried to solve the water supply with wells only? They always work and have no problems with radioactivity or dry periods. I can distribute them throughout the settlement so that every settler can get water quickly. Water carriers are also not needed. So why have water reservoirs if the water supply can be precisely controlled at any time?

[andrew.ch.]

Yes you can. The game even has a scenario when there is a drought all the time. I definitely like the scenarios in this game, but I don't want to go through them multiple times, when it has already passed 1 time.

We need water carriers !!! Wells can store a small amount of water, unlike Cistern.

[Noobi]

Its as he said you end up using alot of settler to suply the amoun needed
But its possible =D

[andrew.ch.]

Originally posted by Noobi:

Its as he said you end up using alot of settler to suply the amoun needed
But its possible =D

Didn't you complete the "Flower in the Desert" scenario achievement?)))

[Noobi]

Originally posted by andrew.ch.:

Originally posted by Noobi:

Its as he said you end up using alot of settler to suply the amoun needed
But its possible =D

Didn't you complete the "Flower in the Desert" scenario achievement?)))

yes I did but I did in the time it was just well without upgrades and witth range limits, gonna need alot of wells and some cisterns to do the job ,thats why I did say gonna use alot of settlers just for the water

[Cypeq]

done that, it's really simple and you actually don't need that many wells to make it work. I actually stopped using radioactive water storage entirely, just throwing in couple more wells instead, makes for really low radiation levels and no need to build weather station ever, instigators with pure water remove radiation after all.
This game has many quirks but you are right, you generally don't need water towers.
Since I learned this lesson I have one for 'emergency' to have some leeway in spreading the wells around.

[Gamer1357]

I scatter wells through my settlement and when i can clump Electric wells together.. I use water points for the most part due to their smaller footprint.

Agree building more wells when planning new area of town. Electricity is easy access and maintain once you able to done the research. Then you can upgrade wells to electric wells pumping 24 hours. Need denser wells in high populated area (city centre, market or residence) if you want the wells have accumulation in stored water. Electric wells takes same footprint as normal wells, and free up one colonist as well.

Don't suggest using rain collectors for now, they can't use charcoal for de-radiation, could easily contaminated whole society (from soil to food/from water to meals). Accumulated radiation among colonists could only (correct me if i am wrong) remove by iodine tablets (which don't come easily early game) while whole society is infertile before you could find enough iodine tablets. Death trap for early game colony in my opinion.

[Gamer1357]

Originally posted by ubreitfeld:

I am thinking about how I could optimise my water supply. Has anyone ever tried to solve the water supply with wells only? They always work and have no problems with radioactivity or dry periods. I can distribute them throughout the settlement so that every settler can get water quickly. Water carriers are also not needed. So why have water reservoirs if the water supply can be precisely controlled at any time?

Some possible shortcoming:
1) If you over extend your city and overload your electric grid, wells may blackout and no longer pumps
2) Wells pump rate may not be able come up with rate of consumption in high dense area; where water point could employ logicians to carry water from less demand water source to high dense area with smaller building footprint and I supposed a higher replenish rate (according to my experience comparing nearby electric pump and water stop, both in city center)

[DarkHorse]

Interesting thread... I initially tried to do this from the beginning of my town but I found that my wells were never filling up and neither was my tower. I wondered if my town was using more water than my what the well could produce. You still need water carrier to move well water to cistern/tower. I ended up needing to build a few more jetty just to keep up with water in the tanks. Don't you still need a weather station to know when to cover your orchard/field from contaminated rain? Anyway .. I don't have a problem with water but it seems like I could easily have a problem with water if I didn't have a good sized citizen base to keep moving water. But I am trying to get away from water carriers to move them into militia / vice versa when I am attacked.

[Gamer1357]

Originally posted by DarkHorse:

Don't you still need a weather station to know when to cover your orchard/field from contaminated rain?

I always put my fields in area of irrigation plants, which have two benefits:
1) Fields would not dry at least, and even grow faster if you put irrigation on highest setting
2) Usually the area within irrigation plant (on medium setting), soil have no radiation as irrigation would "wash away" soil radiation

Under such set up, I just cover my field whenever there is any contaminated rain as you would not use less water in your irrigation plants anyway, whether you cover your field or not

[Gamer1357]

Originally posted by DarkHorse:

...but I found that my wells were never filling up and neither was my tower. I wondered if my town was using more water than my what the well could produce.

I have observed that as well, especially in highly populated area. Hence I either would have to build wells more densely or water point is need to carry water from less water demand area.

[Gamer1357]

Originally posted by andrew.ch.:

Originally posted by Noobi:

Its as he said you end up using alot of settler to suply the amoun needed
But its possible =D

Didn't you complete the "Flower in the Desert" scenario achievement?)))

Actually before starting this scenario (my 1st scenario), I thought with enough moist soil and trees, I could bring back rain clouds and rainfall.... If soil moisture and tress on map would have relations with amount and frequency of rainfall, that would really encourage me to cover the desert with numerous amount of irrigation plant just for trying to bring back rainfall... (Echos well with developers' theme of the importance of environment protection and planting trees as well) Of course that is just my thoughts, and it may require a lot of coding and may put heavier demand on game engine

[Cypeq]

I think there should be a shrine to build with people dancing around the tree to bring back rainfall on flower in the desert mission /s
I actually used that mission to learn how irrigation plant supplements growth of stuff. It's quite hard to learn differences between water levels on normal map.

[Gamer1357]

Actually that mission is easier on water management since you always keep a keen eye on your water level. Unlike normal mission where I always forget drought is coming to town, or allowing population expand while the lake is not dried and suddenly find out there is water deficit once drought hit.

[Fabiaville]

i was enlightened to the wonders of the well when i tried desert flower ever since then i've tried to place as much wells as i could around my residential district. the long summer scenario was a complete joke after i played desert flower.
rainwater collectors are really unreliable, though it's automatic, you need rain and need to cleanse the damn radiation.
it seems also that a jetty is just slow compared to the well.

also the factory expedition is great cuz it can contain the pipe system technology so you can place as many wells as you like. i always try to go there first for the tech.

[Cypeq]

@fabiaville, jetty is very good, don't discredit it, make sure it and a watter tower are closest to each other, in this mode and with few wells around I can make do for every scenario. With water carrier counts as low as 1 per 20 settlers. Jetty should be only source enabled for water carriers outside of draught.