40d Talk:Floodgate

... but only stone and metal will hold back magma.

Is this true? In the last version only steel was strong enough to contain magma. --Mizipzor 15:29, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

Well, my dolomite floodgates were enough to hold magma. So stone floodgates are capable of holding magma. Dunnoe about wooden ones though. Noctis 15:59, 1 November 2007 (EDT)

Not true. I used stone floodgates all the time with magma in the last version. --RedKing 00:52, 2 November 2007 (EDT)

Perhaps the confusion comes from the fact that you needed steel to bridge over magma --Moller 02:11, 2 November 2007 (EDT)

Alright, the dolomite floodgates that I've mentioned earlier seem to have disappeared, presumably melted away. Thus I'm led to belive that only steel(or better) floodgates are capable of holding magma now. Noctis 09:29, 3 November 2007 (EDT)

From what I've seen stone floodgates are, at the moment, one use like the steel ones listed in the article...but for different reasons. A closed stone floodgate will hold back magma indefinitely (probably for the same reason that the normal stone walls hold magma as they do), but once you link and open it the magma enters the same tile and turns any stone into it's molten counterpart. This means both your stone floodgate and stone mechanism are turned to slag and eventually lost to the magma forever. I would bet that the steel floodgates are still there, but forever locked in their open state since your mechanism just got turned to goo and you can no longer select the flood gate from the lever's link menu^[Verify]. Perhaps Bauxite might be able to survive the magma ^[Verify], but I need to find some first in order to test that theory.^{v0.27.169.33b} --TheUbie 04:28, 19 November 2007 (EST)

Interesting note, floodgates seem to take approximately 100 steps to open after activation, from my experimentation. Maybe this could be used in the article somehow? NullAshton 23:51, 1 January 2008 (EST)

opening and closing

do I have to use a lever to open and close a floodgate? Early on - I have a room next to a river - I want to put a floodgate in the corridor and "bucket fill" a "pond" from the outside.

will this plan work or do I need a lever?GarrieIrons 01:55, 5 January 2008 (EST)

You need some kind of machine to trigger it, yes. Pressure plates work as well. --Edward 06:20, 5 January 2008 (EST)

Construction

All right... I have a 1-wide--Edward 09:30, 5 February 2008 (EST) channel, with a floodgate "placed" not "built" somewhere along it. Access is from a stair to the right. No matter if I put the build command closer to the stair, or further away from the stair, the dwarves seem to build the floodgate so that it cuts off their exit! WTF is one to do here? I keep ordering the dwarf that just built the floodgate to remove it so they can get out again.GarrieIrons 23:34, 2 February 2008 (EST)

Hook it to a mechanism and open it. --Ikkonoishi 00:59, 3 February 2008 (EST)

Yeah well when I get a mechanic that is the general plan ;) but right now it's sitting in the middle of a channel while I prey for more immigrants before all of my dwarves die of thirst!GarrieIrons 01:48, 3 February 2008 (EST)

All right, I have opening and closing floodgates now.GarrieIrons 07:45, 5 February 2008 (EST)

River crossings

I can dam/divert a river with floodgates I hope. If I dig a channel 1 z-level down, then build a wall, the top is a floor I can walk across. Why isn't the top of a floodgate a floor? it is silly that I have to build a floodgate then a bridge as well, and connect them to the same lever, if I want a floodgate I can walk over. (in real life even a simple drop-board weir - which is pretty mcuh a timber floodgate - can be walked over so that you can put the boards in and out).GarrieIrons 07:45, 5 February 2008 (EST)

PS. I am diverting my brook by digging a channel through it while it is frozen then building a series of floodgates in the resulting channel. I guess this will work (here's for trying) but how would one divert a river?GarrieIrons 07:47, 5 February 2008 (EST)

Non-freezing? Very difficult to get to work properly, dependent on the terrain of course. Basically, you'd have to dig quite a large pond/lake for the river to fill while scrambling like mad to get those dwarves to install all the floodgates or build the walls before the flow into the lake slows enough for construction-blocking waterlevels to start flowing again. Definitely suggest a stockpile immediately adjacent to the closest entry point to the downstream side of the dam to hopefully avoid a waste of time if only one or two dwarves get their lazy butts over to the work that needs to be done! As for freezing; well, that's always been child's play, and I always wonder why people bother asking someone "if the map they're on freezes," anytime someone says they need help trying to dam a flow. ;) --Edward 09:30, 5 February 2008 (EST)