40d Talk:Ocean

Has anybody had any luck getting dwarves to use an artificial fishing pier? I tried building walls in a straight line out into the ocean as far as I could, and then building floors off of that, but I don't think the dwarves can catch any larger fish (probably no whaling). --DDouble 00:50, 12 November 2007 (EST)

You can just make a bridge out and that works fine as well as a pier. But the dwarves use the closest square in the zone to fish, keep mind of that.

Water Source

Is all water considered saltwater when I set my fortress near an Ocean? How can I find freshwater? The aquifer seems to be undrinkable. – unsigned comment by KazUser

Please remember to sign your talk page comments with --~~~~. Also, all water (except water coverings) is saltwater when you're near an ocean. --GreyMario 14:16, 26 April 2008 (EDT)

Waves

What exactly does an ocean wave do? can dwarves drown in it? anything else i should know about it? --Wizjany 16:33, 13 October 2008 (EDT)

If it goes downwards (i.e. Ramp/Stairs) it will flood your fort! Apart from that it does not do anything to your dorfs --Pure W 11:57, 23 December 2008 (EST)

Water Pump Exploit

Someone slapped the 'verify' tag put on my claim that pumps turning saltwater into freshwater is an exploit without putting anything in the talk page. --Corona688

For verification I refer you to the very definition of exploit: "An exploit is a quirk of a game that allows players to gain what other players may consider an unfair advantage, usually by making use of a feature that is not working properly or which defies logic."

Maybe just tweaking the wording to "this might be considered an exploit" would address the issue. That would switch the meaning to "this might be a cheat" from "this might be logic-defying", which, clearly it is.--Maximus 21:57, 2 November 2008 (EST)

Done. Let's see if they think it's enough. --Corona688 23:28, 2 November 2008 (EST)

I did it because I seriously doubted its possibility. Simply reverting it would have been good enough for me. --GreyMaria 21:49, 19 November 2008 (EST)

Water pump purifier and snow.

I embarked on a snowy ocean side where there was quite a few blizzards.
It seems like any tile snow has fallen onto water will return to salt, so build a roof over any tile where water will be before you build the floor or you have to tear up the floor and redo it to get rid of the snow.
Just a heads up to anyone wanting to move into a snowy ocean. --Katieness 16:30, 16 February 2009 (EST)

That has the makings of an epic fortress Revan 16:53, 16 February 2009 (EST)

Dwarven desalination pump info needs retesting?

Has anybody tested the information about saltwater-->freshwater cisterns needing to be totally "artificial" in the newest version (40d)? I just played around with it on an oceanside map, and pumped into a reservoir with constructed walls and a constructed roof, but a "natural" white sand floor. Built a well through the top of the roof, and lo and behold it's drinkable. The only thing I can think of is that I did use a small handful of green glass floor tiles right where the water comes out of the pump. But the vast majority of the cistern is floored with natural sand tiles, and the wellhead is over top of one of those. RedKing 20:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

My well worked perfectly with just a simple tunnel that was filled from ocean with pump and emptied back to the beach, no constructions besides pump and windmill. Fordus

Notably, you can't use an existing lake (or dry lakebed?) as your reservoir; if it starts salty it stays salty. --Jellyfishgreen 21:34, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

My suspicion is that the "artificial cistern" idea was just a case of false positives. To construct a well above z-level 100 on an oceanside map you usually need to construct your own walls, whereas you can make one below ground without smoothed walls or floors. Any body of water with at least one square at or below z-level 100 (at least I think it is the case at 100 itself) will be salty in an ocean biome. That, as far as I can tell, is the only precondition on saltiness. 121.210.120.234

Draining

It seems that even 1 tile dug into an aquifer is enough to completely drain an entire ocean down to its lowest Z-level in an instant, at least from the game's point of view - from the player's perspective, it can take anywhere from minutes to hours for all of the water to move, depending on the size of the region being drained. --Quietust 20:31, 13 August 2009 (UTC)