Dwarves Dying of Dehydration in the Hospital

[Falken Coldshore]

Even though i have around 2k drinks, dwarves keep dying of thirst on the hospital. Help?

[artayd2]

Water?

[Darkside99x]

Wounded dwarves need water rather than booze, Ideally a well installed nearby or failing that a river etc marked as a water source and buckets to carry the water.

[LaChouette]

Dwarves in a hospital need clean water, which is brought to them in buckets.

[Zukabazuka]

They need water, so you would have to build a well, easiest would be routing a water source close to the hospital. Place some wells above it and dwarfs will deal with giving them water. Believe Stagnant water is bad for drinking so get water from a river or far below in the caves. The well can get water really far down too.

[Falken Coldshore]

welp, no water on the map. I better start digging down to the caves

[The Hat]

Its common to have some water source, like a well, near your hospital. The are many many ways to do this, I channel a river into a reservoir multiple levels deep near the hospital and put wells on top, with levers connected to bridges to stop the flow (Very important you set this up with ways to turn it off!). But for quick results to solve your immediate problem you can just designate dwarves to fill a small two-level hole with water using buckets, this will get dirty quickly. Make sure its at least 2 levels deep so it doesn't stagnate (I think that's still the case?).

There is no right way to do this, just your preference. You can get really intricate with mist showers, self-cleaning baths, pump systems, some players have a dedicated plumbing level, or I personally use levers to flush the reservoir as contaminants get in the water, down to the cavern lakes, and replace it with clean water from a river. Incidentally, that's another quite quick, but more dangerous way of getting water, just dig stairs down to the cavern lakes, wall off an area, and put a well on one of the levels above it.

Be aware some nasty creatures can swim whatever you dig, so you need ways of stopping them reaching your fort, bridges/doors/floodgates/military etc.

Youtube has some nice tutorials on wells, and there are quite a few guides on showers and baths for example.

[The Hat]

Originally posted by Falken Coldshore:

welp, no water on the map. I better start digging down to the caves

Just read this, you posted as I did. Yes the caverns will be the quickest way, just remember what I said about some monsters also going up the water, and so put things like hatches on the stairs connected to levers to stop them.

[Falken Coldshore]

Originally posted by The Hat:

Its common to have some water source, like a well, near your hospital. The are many many ways to do this, I channel a river into a reservoir multiple levels deep near the hospital and put wells on top, with levers connected to bridges to stop the flow (Very important you set this up with ways to turn it off!). But for quick results to solve your immediate problem you can just designate dwarves to fill a small two-level hole with water using buckets, this will get dirty quickly. Make sure its at least 2 levels deep so it doesn't stagnate (I think that's still the case?).

There is no right way to do this, just your preference. You can get really intricate with mist showers, self-cleaning baths, pump systems, some players have a dedicated plumbing level, or I personally use levers to flush the reservoir as contaminants get in the water, down to the cavern lakes, and replace it with clean water from a river. Incidentally, that's another quite quick, but more dangerous way of getting water, just dig stairs down to the cavern lakes, wall off an area, and put a well on one of the levels above it.

Be aware some nasty creatures can swim whatever you dig, so you need ways of stopping them reaching your fort, bridges/doors/floodgates/military etc.

Youtube has some nice tutorials on wells, and there are quite a few guides on showers and baths for example.

The only problem is... I don't know exactly a quick way to dig holes... I'm diging ramps going down and removing them

[AlP]

Originally posted by The Hat:

But for quick results to solve your immediate problem you can just designate dwarves to fill a small two-level hole with water using buckets, this will get dirty quickly. Make sure its at least 2 levels deep so it doesn't stagnate (I think that's still the case?).

You need a non-stagnant water source for your bucket brigade, or the hole will become permanently stagnant as well.

[Gosera]

Originally posted by Falken Coldshore:

Originally posted by The Hat:

Its common to have some water source, like a well, near your hospital. The are many many ways to do this, I channel a river into a reservoir multiple levels deep near the hospital and put wells on top, with levers connected to bridges to stop the flow (Very important you set this up with ways to turn it off!). But for quick results to solve your immediate problem you can just designate dwarves to fill a small two-level hole with water using buckets, this will get dirty quickly. Make sure its at least 2 levels deep so it doesn't stagnate (I think that's still the case?).

There is no right way to do this, just your preference. You can get really intricate with mist showers, self-cleaning baths, pump systems, some players have a dedicated plumbing level, or I personally use levers to flush the reservoir as contaminants get in the water, down to the cavern lakes, and replace it with clean water from a river. Incidentally, that's another quite quick, but more dangerous way of getting water, just dig stairs down to the cavern lakes, wall off an area, and put a well on one of the levels above it.

Be aware some nasty creatures can swim whatever you dig, so you need ways of stopping them reaching your fort, bridges/doors/floodgates/military etc.

Youtube has some nice tutorials on wells, and there are quite a few guides on showers and baths for example.

The only problem is... I don't know exactly a quick way to dig holes... I'm diging ramps going down and removing them

My solution to this is after the first channel, dig a 2x1 where one is a staircase all the way down and next to it is just channel to the same depth, also dont forget to make a exit tunnel that you can seal to let your dwarfs out

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Falken Coldshore:

The only problem is... I don't know exactly a quick way to dig holes... I'm diging ramps going down and removing them

Just mine out rooms below where you want the well, each one above/below the other. Then, on the level you want the well, cut in a ramp going down right where you're placing the well. Exactly below that, in the lower room you made, cut in another ramp, making a hole, to the room you made below. Rinse repeat for as many levels as you mined the rooms that will make up your cistern.

Wall up the access to the rooms you mined, maybe smoothing them before doing so if you wish or if you have some with only one block of thickness. Each tile touching the water in your cistern will eventually be just like a Light Aquaduct tile.

For safety's sake:

Don't make too many cuts into the floor if the space below it is empty - That will cause a cave-in. All you need is one tile, all the way down, that is clear. The water will fill up through the levels just through those single tiles with no issue.

It's a good idea to make an additional cut around each room that makes up your cistern in order to prevent you from accidentally "auto-mining" and re-exposing light aquaduct tiles. It won't matter that much, but I do it because it makes me nervous. :)

If you divert a stream to feed into your cistern, use a lever and a bridge to act as a valve and place a wall grate in the feed channel to block nasty swimming beasts from getting in.

An overflow plan is nice to have in case you forget to pull the leaver to turn the valve back off. But, if your well is above the water-source level, you're fine.


At first, you may see "heavy mud" or similar in your well. That should clear up unless your whole cistern is mud/dirt, IIRC. If it starts out as lightly muddy water or similar, it's certain to be fine by the time it settles. (Check the wiki, there.)

A well can be a good distance from the water level of the cistern. (7 tiles+ at least?)