Editing 23a:Well

{{quality|Exceptional|23:54, 13 August 2010 (UTC)}}{{av}}

'''Wells''' are used by dwarves as a source of water for drinking. Dwarves will use the [[cave river|cave]] or outside [[river]]s for water if no well is available, although they will be happier if one is available. Dwarves will drink [[alcohol]] in preference to water: if you [[brewer|brew]] alcohol faster than your dwarves can drink it, you will never need to build a well.

Dwarves bringing water to others (injured or imprisoned) will '''not''' use a well - instead, they will use a bucket and gather water directly from the cave river. This is likely also the case for filling [[channel]]s.

==Building and destroying wells==

Building a well requires a gray stone [[block]] and a [[bucket]]. It must first be designed by a [[building designer]], then dug and assembled by a [[miner]].

Wells can be removed, but they will leave a [[channel]] behind.

A well built adjacent to a channel will become a channel for whatever fluid is in the aforementioned channel - if you fill a channel full of lava next to your well, the well will be full of lava as well.

==Using wells==

Up to four dwarves at a time can drink from a well by standing above, below, to the left, and to the right of the well. Dwarves can not drink from the well diagonally. If the well is located adjacent to a wall, statue, or other non-passable object, the number of dwarves who can drink from the well at one time may be reduced.

Wells can be assigned as a [[meeting hall]] using the {{K|q}} button. Dwarves (mostly peasants and children) will throw [[party|parties]] at the meeting area.

==Disadvantages==
Cave [[creature]]s emerge from wells and can ambush dwarves as they arrive for a drink. Wells built near the river can have [[frogman|frogmen]] and [[lizardman|lizardmen]] emerge from them, while wells located near or past the [[chasm]] can spawn attacks from ornery chasm creatures. The raids can constitute groups of 3-5 creatures that crawl out of your well(s) to ambush and murder your hapless dwarves.

Since wells can invite these unwanted guests, take care in placing and protecting your well. One strategy is to put them in separate 3x3 rooms with a few stonefall [[trap]]s in the only exit to the room. Falling rocks usually kill monsters with one hit, so these raids are pretty easy to deal with. Putting a trap on each side of the well offers additional protection to any dwarves who happen to be drinking at the time of a raid. Later, you may wish to upgrade to cage traps in order to capture any animals and put them to better use.

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As stated above, brewing your own alcohol will greatly reduce attacks from wells.

Due to a bug, dwarves build wells directly beneath themselves, causing them to get stuck. The same problem occurs with [[statue]]s and [[window]]s, but while those can be potentially fixed by removing and replacing the building, removing a well will result in a [[channel]] blocking any further construction in that spot. For the greatest success, save before making any well and to make sure your miner has a job to do immediately after making the well. The easier and still fairly good way to free them is to activate the dwarf into the military ({{K|v}}-{{K|p}}-{{K|A}}). Then, from the main interface, hit {{K|x}} to bring up the squad list, use {{K|+}} and {{K|-}} to navigate to the squad, move your cursor a few squares away from the statue and hit {{K|s}} to station the squad there. Once the dwarf moves away, you can deactivate the squad with the same keys as described above to activate it. However, this does not work all the time.

Alternatively, the following patch for version 0.23.130.23a can be applied to fix this problem for wells, [[statue]]s, and [[window]]s:
{{spoil small|<nowiki>0x0F64D7 : 12 0F 84 52 01 -> 0F 0F 8C 12 00
0x0F64EB : 84 -> 8E
0x0F7E9F : 12 0F 84 41 01 -> 0F 0F 8C 12 00
0x0F7EB3 : 84 -> 8E</nowiki>|Binary Patch Enclosed}}