How do I manage digging downward stairwells without hitting aquifers?

[OUUGH]

I have like 8 stairwells that failed because they always end up hitting water, what's the best method to prevent/fix this?

[0xbaadf00d]

It's an aquifer. The walls around the stairwell are generating water, you need to block it.


2 ways around it.


1. (I didn't test this one) Smooth the stone, this apparently stops water from coming.

2. Dig a bigger hole and rebuild walls, your own built walls don't generate water and stop any from coming through.

[OUUGH]

Originally posted by 0xbaadf00d:

It's an aquifer. The walls around the stairwell are generating water, you need to block it.


2 ways around it.


1. (I didn't test this one) Smooth the stone, this apparently stops water from coming.

2. Dig a bigger hole and rebuild walls, your own built walls don't generate water and stop any from coming through.

Perhaps I'm using the incorrect definition, I just keep hitting pools of water whilst trying to dig down to my base. I still don't have a good consistent stairway for everyone to go through.

[Noeat]

you can embark on place WITHOUT aquifers... and then you will not have this issue...

[ian.whitchurch]

The dwarf heirachy of needs is booze, sleep and not embarking on *spit* aquifers.

Dig a big room, about 10x10.

The channel a slit down. Smooth all of it on the level down. There might be some 1- or 2- depth spilled water by the time you finish it.

Then widen the slit. continuing to smooth it.

When it is good and wide, make a second slit channel, smoothing it.

Repeat till you're past the *spit* aquifer.

If the first level is dirt, then *spit*.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

if it's a light aquifer just keep going; if it's a heavy one then your stair shaft is shafted as the amount of work required to get through one can vary from "simple" to outright nightmarish, a situation where the fortress should be abandoned.

[[ua.marik] BOND-IT]

Just went to steam page and this is my very first topic I saw :D DF never changes

[Emily Mewens]

If youre in heavy aquifer territory, youll want a stockpile of blocks/logs/rock nearby (blocks preferred as they dont slow down a dwarfs movement speed). Dig out about a 10x10 room and construct block walls to block out the water. You want to be *fast* because heavy aquifer will fill the room very quickly. Channel down the next 10x10 room, maybe wider, and do it again, and repeat until youre through the aquifer.

Light aquifers you can just dig and replace the walls around the stairs. Theyre slow and very very easily manageable.

[Emily Mewens]

Originally posted by ua.marik BOND-IT:

Just went to steam page and this is my very first topic I saw :D DF never changes

DF.....
DF never changes....

It was year 250 in Nir Osed. The elves have just declared war on all dwarven kind, blaming them for the senseless bloodshed of trees.. Many have already marched on the Forgotten Tables lands, making sure to burn even the wooden chairs as they pass. Many refugees have already started to retreat towards the south, only to be attacked persistently by the goblins, who are led only by the most fearsome demonlord ScrapedBucket. Many perish in this ordeal, but few survive.

Few like yourself.. In the first week of Granite, a band of 7 dwarves have just passed the barrier of no return. With the goblins behind them, and a quaint little land with a permanently frozen river before them, they find a sort of humbling peace. There are trees as far as the eye can see, perfect for hiding from the 3 Rocs flying overhead, and plenty of materials within the mountains to start a small colony, perhaps even a fort.. or daringly the beginnings of a mountainhome.

But of coarse the trials for these dwarves never end. In the first month of the year 250, these dwarves, who brought only 50 cats and a pickaxe and an axe, have started digging downwards, desperate for the caverns beneath as the freezing temperatures only seem to get colder.. Only to be stopped dead in their tracks by damp soil. In a frantic attempt to test fate, these dwarves continued to dig down, only to quickly learn the folly of their ways as more and more water spill from every wall...
This is where you begin. You are the small band of humble dwarves of The Forgotten Tables. And this is your hell.

Because Df...
Df never changes.

[OUUGH]

Originally posted by POWER WITHIN USER:

if it's a light aquifer just keep going; if it's a heavy one then your stair shaft is shafted as the amount of work required to get through one can vary from "simple" to outright nightmarish, a situation where the fortress should be abandoned.

How do I discern the difference between light and heavy? I believe I settled on light

[OUUGH]

Originally posted by Noeat:

you can embark on place WITHOUT aquifers... and then you will not have this issue...

I looked for quite a while and didn't seem to find any, but now that I'm here, and knowing that I will eventually want to overcome this obstacle, it's worth doing now.

[Emily Mewens]

Originally posted by Kyubey:

Originally posted by POWER WITHIN USER:

if it's a light aquifer just keep going; if it's a heavy one then your stair shaft is shafted as the amount of work required to get through one can vary from "simple" to outright nightmarish, a situation where the fortress should be abandoned.

How do I discern the difference between light and heavy? I believe I settled on light

Light aquifers release water very very slowly. Heavy aquifers release water very very quickly.
Otherwise the only way to tell is on the Embark screen, which only see *before* you embark.

Originally posted by Kyubey:

Originally posted by Noeat:

you can embark on place WITHOUT aquifers... and then you will not have this issue...

I looked for quite a while and didn't seem to find any, but now that I'm here, and knowing that I will eventually want to overcome this obstacle, it's worth doing now.

In the embark screen you can Search for an embark location by clicking said button in the bottom right corner. In there is a setting to filter out aquifers entirely, or set it so you only see light aquifers, or heavy aquifers, or both.

[vakapad777]

Originally posted by Emily Mewens:

If youre in heavy aquifer territory, youll want a stockpile of blocks/logs/rock nearby (blocks preferred as they dont slow down a dwarfs movement speed). Dig out about a 10x10 room and construct block walls to block out the water. You want to be *fast* because heavy aquifer will fill the room very quickly. Channel down the next 10x10 room, maybe wider, and do it again, and repeat until youre through the aquifer.

Light aquifers you can just dig and replace the walls around the stairs. Theyre slow and very very easily manageable.

In addendum to this, if you cant get stone to carve blocks, you can make clay blocks at a kiln.

[Emily Mewens]

Originally posted by vakapad777:

Originally posted by Emily Mewens:

If youre in heavy aquifer territory, youll want a stockpile of blocks/logs/rock nearby (blocks preferred as they dont slow down a dwarfs movement speed). Dig out about a 10x10 room and construct block walls to block out the water. You want to be *fast* because heavy aquifer will fill the room very quickly. Channel down the next 10x10 room, maybe wider, and do it again, and repeat until youre through the aquifer.

Light aquifers you can just dig and replace the walls around the stairs. Theyre slow and very very easily manageable.

In addendum to this, if you cant get stone to carve blocks, you can make clay blocks at a kiln.

You can make wooden blocks now too, should you have trees. These are made at the Carpenters Workbench

[Basterbane]

Do wood logs covert to more than one wood block now? Without stone I just use wood logs to wall aquifer.
I haven't had embarks with heavy aquifer in old classic for a while now. The labor to breach them was sometimes too great to keep the fort going xD

Light aquifer is a nice way to bring water deeper into your fortress, to fill cistern for well or to cover stone floor with mud for planting crops. Heavy works too, but you need to be extra careful.

[Emily Mewens]

Originally posted by Basterbane:

Do wood logs covert to more than one wood block now?

Yes! I was surprised by this too actually. Pretty much my entire fishing village is made up of wooden blocks. And the conversion rating is the same as stone. 1 log to 4 blocks that function identically to stone blocks.