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40d:Lake
In general, there are two types of lakes.
Surface Lakes
Freshwater lakes can be found covering vast areas of land on certain world maps.
These lakes have slopes leading into the water, making them ideal for learning how to swim.
Lakes are similar to oceans except that they are freshwater, not saltwater.
(These are not to be confused with the much smaller murky pools, which have sheer sides and often evaporate in hot weather.)
Underground Lakes
Underground lakes (also known as underground pools) can be found buried in mountains. They are about the size of a magma chamber but only two or three levels deep. This is a finite water source. If the water is drained or pumped out, it will not be replaced.
Finding an underground lake (or an underground river) is required for farming tower-caps for wood, but that water need not provide the irrigation for those tower-caps.
Underground lakes typically provide a habitat for various dangerous creatures, including:
Creating A Large Artificial Lake
- Note: You must have a source of water on your map.
There are two ways of creating an artificial lake. The easiest way to make one is to channel into an aquifer. However, this is dangerous and only one layer deep. The second requires specific circumstances.
"Requirements for a Lake"
- A large, cut off area (e.g: an area over the edge of a cliff, which has no path available to get there).
- A brook (or larger) that is the same height as the lowest "wall" of this area.
- 1 Miner.
Build a 3x3 Downwards Staircase 1 tile away from your brook. Build staircases downwards at least two stories, then start to build a 3x3 channel towards your intended lake. Four tiles away from the site, build a 3x3 Upwards Staircase, and a Downwards Staircase on the z-level above (this should not come into contact with your cliff edge or the square behind the cliff face). Mine out a 3x3 passage out of the cliff face, then, when your dwarves are out of the reservoir, channel over the gap between the brook and the first stairs. This will create a huge flood that can fill a 8-9 story area (the test lake made was 10 stories high, 891 tiles large, and filled in about 10 - 15 minutes). The reason that this works is because (instead of a normal reservoir with no steps, going directly over the cliff face) the water is replenished every time a 7/7 tile flows out of the stairs, rather than a 1/7, so the water is forced out 7 times more efficiently.
Worlds | |
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Badlands · Desert · Flatland · Forest · Glacier · Lake · Marsh · Mountain · Murky pool · Ocean · River · Rocky wasteland · Sand desert · Swamp · Tundra |