No water on map workaround?

[Rapier]

I didn't realize that there wouldn't be any body of water on the map I was settling, so my dwarves are dying of dehydration one by one.

I've searched on google for workarounds, but between being lucky enough about digging deep and finding water while they die one by one or hacking the game so barrels of blood become barrels of water, I think they don't exactly help my case.

I remember someone said dwarves don't die from dehydration as long as they have drinks, although they need plants to harvest liquid and turn into alcoholic beverage. If that's the case, then I guess I'll leave this map for when I'm more experienced in the game and can work around having enough plants or seeds to keep drink numbers steady.

(Although I'll still need water for medical treatment, so the issue persists)

Is there any other way I can work around this? Thanks.

[Tarithel]

ok you can dig down to the first cavern and set up a well there. If you have an aquifer in can create enough water for a well also

[Rapier]

Originally posted by Tarithel:

ok you can dig down to the first cavern and set up a well there. If you have an aquifer in can create enough water for a well also

I started high in a mountain (like 7 floors above the ground). I dug down 7 or 8 floors, made corridors in them hoping I could find a body of water, but still nothing.

Do you mean I could just build a well in any random cavernous tile below surface level and it'd detect water, or do I need to find a body of water first?

[kheftel]

Keep digging til you get the message "you have discovered an expansive cavern deep underground" or similar

[The Trashman]

Originally posted by Rapier:

Originally posted by Tarithel:

ok you can dig down to the first cavern and set up a well there. If you have an aquifer in can create enough water for a well also

I started high in a mountain (like 7 floors above the ground). I dug down 7 or 8 floors, made corridors in them hoping I could find a body of water, but still nothing.

Do you mean I could just build a well in any random cavernous tile below surface level and it'd detect water, or do I need to find a body of water first?

Are there plants above ground? You can collect them and brew them, if so. It's quite quick if you get it set up. Otherwise, a cavern is your best bet, but they're dozens of layers down and not every cavern has water

[Teemo]

dwarves want alcohol not water, however the best solution for water is to dig down to the caverns as they often have water.

[Lingerie Goat]

You dont need water, your dwarves do not want to drink water anyway, they hate it. Even if you had water theyll still die of dehydration because theyll avoid drinking it. You need to farm one of the mushrooms and brew those, and it does not require mushrooms, it just requires soil, which you will find on the top layers of your map where the trees grow unless you also started in an all-rock area, but you would have been warned about this in the new UI. If thats the case, then yes, start over on a more suitable map that shows it has all the general resources you need on the embark screen (Soil layer, clay/sand, vegetation, etc).

Setting up a simple farm for plump helmets is one of the first things you need to do in any fort, so unless you picked a rock-only area, you are not on an "advanced" map. Water on the map actually makes the map more advanced because of all the problems it causes.

The only thing you actually need water for is injury treatment and fishing. There is almost guaranteed be water somewhere underground eventually in the caves, so by the time you find you actually need some water, you will likely have found it. And if you dont dig down that far ever, you probably will never end up actually needing it.

[Rapier]

Originally posted by 🔯 Lingerie Goat 🔯:

You dont need water, your dwarves do not want to drink water anyway, they hate it. Even if you had water theyll still die of dehydration because theyll avoid drinking it. You need to farm one of the mushrooms and brew those, and it does not require mushrooms, it just requires soil, which you will find on the top layers of your map where the trees grow unless you also started in an all-rock area, but you would have been warned about this in the new UI. If thats the case, then yes, start over on a more suitable map that shows it has all the general resources you need on the embark screen (Soil layer, clay/sand, vegetation, etc).

Setting up a simple farm for plump helmets is one of the first things you need to do in any fort, so unless you picked a rock-only area, you are not on an "advanced" map. Water on the map actually makes the map more advanced because of all the problems it causes.

The only thing you actually need water for is injury treatment and fishing. There is almost guaranteed be water somewhere underground eventually in the caves, so by the time you find you actually need some water, you will likely have found it. And if you dont dig down that far ever, you probably will never end up actually needing it.

The map in question has a mountain that takes up 80% of the map's space, then the rest is evenly distributed between red sand, clay and soil. I could set up some farms but I couldn't find that specific soil in caverns that allows you to plant there.

So what I did was set up some farms outside, alternating which seeds are used in each season (one uses the seeds in 1-2-3-4 order, the other uses 2-3-4-1, the other uses 3-4-1-2 and so on). I don't get enough seeds from gathering (I have two gatherers and I just selected the entire soil part outside as the gathering zone, and it still isn't enough). All cavern seeds are just sitting there without use since I haven't found any soil that accepts them.

I regret not having bought more seeds from the caravan (they just left, it's the first year's autumn).

[Drax]

You get seeds from brewing and/or processing plants more so than gathering them. And you mainly want to be focusing on plump helmets. (Grow fast, can be eaten, can grow pretty much everywhere and all year round, AND are used in Dwarven Wine). If you don't have soil to plant anything on, you don't want to drink the water but use it for irrigation. Water can be used to make farmable soil even underground in rock rooms. If you find yourself lacking seeds, it's usually because you haven't turned the finish plant into seeds. So, turn on your still and make alcohol ASAP so you can get more seeds.

Caverns usually possess some water, and there are multiple to dig into. So, if you're desperate for water then I'd recommend focusing on digging as deep as possible, as fast as possible, so you can collect water and use it to manually irrigate a couple of farm plots back at your fortress. You can also collect water from an aquifer but I assume there is none on your map.

[EvanR]

I'm on a mountain too and it's been pretty harsh. I get the impression that trying to survive on the surface like a human is "hard mode". Strike the earth!