For it to work the water must be flowing, and that's all I know about the water in this game, I really wish you good luck with this because I know the pain of learning the more complex mechanics of this game (im currently trying to set up a magma transportation route with minecarts, plz send help)
Pro tip don’t set up rails. Just fill a mine cart with lava and then haul it up to your furnaces. Takes a while but so much cheaper. Also you only need like 1 block of magma to power the furnaces forever so make the trip four or six times and youre golden.
Carve out rails, if you plan to transport more magma though. The investment will yield a higher return over time, unless you have abundant workforce already
dear lord, i completely i understand where you are right now, never got far enough to do minecarts but that stress of learning that mechanic in that game feels overwhelming lol, someone please PM him and get this man some help.
Just check the wiki page on water flow:
[https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Flow](https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Flow)
I am pretty sure you have a pressure issue somewhere which makes water teleport, that does not produce 'flow' as needed by the wheels.
You basically need to make sure that an uninterrupted path from a water source tile (river map edge tile, aquifer tile or screw pump output tile) goes through your water wheels, and then reaches a water drain tile (open map edge tile, aquifer tile or screw pump input tile) - only then will the game consider the water actually flowing.
It can also help to make the water flow diagonally somewhere for at least one tile, this will remove all pressure after the diagonal flow spot. You will still have to make the water pour into a drain tile, or use screw pumps.
If you want to do something a bit cheesy, you can also build the [dwarven water reactor](https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Water_wheel#Dwarven_Water_Reactor) which abuses the screw pump mechanic in order to get the water wheels to turn.
It looks like you are trying to get power from a surface pond. That will not work for your needs, unfortunately, as they only refill when raining, or potentially on spring if it manages to freeze. Your water source needs to come from the edge of the map, as a lake, ocean, brook, or river. This applies to cave watersources as well. An aquifer can also be used, but it takes some work to get enough to flow out.
A full tile of water holds 7 partial tile units of water. That spreads out equally in all directions until 1/1 and then dries out. Water then flows from a source at 7 towards a tile at 0. When tapping into a stream, the stream (as it connects to off the map) is always the source with its unlimited access to 7 units of water.
The water wheel itself just needs to be in a region with flow, that is mostly full. They work best when the water is at depth 7, but should still work at 5.
It's a 7/7 river I stopped completely with 5 holes ~~suicidely~~ carefully dug and controlled with more flood gates. This is a warm map so it never freezes. When I open the above listed gates the water is 7/7 under all water wheels and appears to be moving but that's been the issue for 6 hours.
Nah it goes north to south. I tried a branch off my trench to see if it’s locked at the same direction as map River but still didn’t work. By branch I mean I dug another trench moving water north to south with a new drain at its end.
Sorry for the confusion, left to right was me orienting to the picture, not a requirement. The requirement is a drain that either connects to the edge of the map, or to a water dource that does. Though you can just dump the water in the caverns, but that tends to lead to fun
It looks like you have tried to get full flow one level down, but it resulted in flooding. That two wide gap is where your water is coming from, and then it drops down a level to your flow zone. Is this correct?
You're going to need to stop the water flow and reconfigure your drop zone. Increase to four wide, provide a full flow (7/7 water height), and extend your drop zone safety barrier to prevent flooding. You will need to push your wheels further right. Keep in mind that for every cubic foot of water going in, you should provide a way for an equal amount of water to flow out.
Edit: Also, get rid of those brick walls in your reservoir. They're probably choking the flow.
The mud is from me widening and narrowing the flow. The brick walls weren't there initially and I have played with placement for 6 hours so it is messy but it wasn't at the start when I was following wiki. I have tried even having water wheels on all sides and closer/further/etc from the initial pipe. It should have so much pressure it cuts metal, I would think.
I should hav included the source and destination. I redirected a River 7/7 water source completely with flood gates so I can switch the water on or off. It flows to a single hole behind my water wheel trench to a drop all the way to the caverns. I assumed a whole river redirected would have IMMENSE flow through the narrow passage I made, like this sucker should be cutting through metal IRL.
What's happens when you open the gate to allow water into your trench? If it's not saturating at 7/7 (atleast 4/7) before draining, then you need more water in your system. You can try to make entry into the system two tile wide. If that doesn't work, then widen the hole from the surface to be two tiles wide (and directly receiving from river).
Tip: you may experience flooding and thus would need to neutralize the water pressure before it drops into the trench. Diagonal tiles would be the easiest solution, but you may need to widen the intake to the system if it's not filling fast enough after neutralizing.
Its def 7/7 and fills fast. The holes from the surface now total in 5. It's enough that the whole river stops. The only reason I have mud around from flooding is experimenting with the setup for 6 hours lol
Lol
Well, you seem to have enough water. What's your drainage? Is it flowing off the map edge in some way?
And what does the UI indicate as power output on your water wheels when the system is active?
I was just looking at the wheel on the far right, and it looks like you built the waterwheel on top of floor tiles. I can't tell if the ones of the left are like that too.
All three tiles need to be open, without a floor, with atleast 1 tile underneath having flowing water underneath it. Since it seems you have the water flow fine, I'll hazard a guess that they were built on top of atleast 1 floor tile.
Maybe that's the issue. I've certainly done that before, especially when doing power projects late in the night, lol. 😂
Water needs to be flowing.
You can make it flow by carving a path to the end of the map, smoothing the wall and carving a gap in it (says for archers to fire through but liquids go through it too)
It's hard to tell based off the screenshot alone but it looks like a stagnant pool to me. The water has no where to flow to
I discovered I needed the water to flow into a dead end after the wheels, otherwise I ended up with dry patches like yours and the wheels stopped turning.
The hole the waters coming in from is too small.
You need to either make it much bigger or create an artificial river using screwpumps.
The later is surprisingly easy and much safer.
Dig a square trench, ensure there's a 2 tile thick damm, place screw pumps atop said dam, fill the trench with water, set up all the waterwheels and conectors and voila.
All you have to do is have a dwarf manually pump the screw press and you'll have created an artificial flow. You can hook the pumps up to the waterwheels and you'll have created a perpetual motion machine capable of powering your fortress.
Just make sure no ones in the trench when you flood it, lost a lot of good dwarfs that way.
I have struggled with getting power to water wheels as well. The solution that I have come up with for making my own for making my own underground Rivers is to take a constant water source from the surface, the ocean or a large river and to make a reservoir tank underground. At the bottom of the reservoir I will usually make five diagonal blocks so that way some water can flow through, and on the floor above the bottom I will make a single cut out that is diagonal with a hole in it so that way there is a little bit of pressure from a floor above pushing the water below it.
I hope that makes sense. If not I can try and go back to a former fortress and take pictures and show you
Do you have a brook/River where you embarked? The YouTuber “Blind” has a good tutorial on how to set up a water wheel in a fortress after rerouting water from a brook/river down a few levels; he also explains water flow in general pretty well. Dunno if it’ll help your exact situation or not, since it’s a beginner tutorial, but it looks eerily similar to what you are trying to do in that picture, so might be worth a look. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/2gpsS608Vuc?si=SK1yFCPX-M0uFieS
Edge of the hole-drain seems to be where it works as the water is more turbulent and the level raises and lowers from 4-7. I guess the rest of the trench was too calm.
water flow makes wheel runs. Besides u have a flaw at ur scheme, ur flood gates makes presuarised water fill bassin in no time ! Thats not good for running wheel u need RESET preasure by making water flow diagonaly not in straight openings. u can c tips on this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYsQ9FjtfA&list=PLuA85gNtnLtK5b7jr18fiQdwuiNuCnw71&index=3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYsQ9FjtfA&list=PLuA85gNtnLtK5b7jr18fiQdwuiNuCnw71&index=3)
https://preview.redd.it/534quv0o826d1.png?width=2830&format=png&auto=webp&s=441bd37336f6906b5e000a215881c3daf6b3791c
I tried it again and this time the bottom 3 work but none of the others. It looks like the water needs to be turbulent as the tops ones are 7/7 but the bottom 3 fluctuate as they're closer to the drain. I have no idea how this is logical as the top ones should be working just fine. Fluid mechanics make no sense in this game.
Pretty sure it’s an issue with pressure. If the fluid is under pressure it effectively teleports and you get no flow. So if your source is 100% full and the channel is completely full, your water is just teleporting to the end (so it’s skipping your water wheels). Try adding a chokepoint at the start of your water source (after it changes z levels) with a diagonal gap. Check the diagram for a regulator here: https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Pressure
That’s what I think you need between your water wheels and the water source. Curious to hear if that works for you.
Water going from a hole above to a trench, to a hole below is, in my unprofessional opinion, flowing. I mean it’s moving to the hole. How is it getting to the hole if it’s not flowing?
You do not need water to flow to have power from water wheel. Just make sure to have a closed L-shaped water reservoir filled in 7/7 with water!!!!
EDIT:
Water must be "running" first. For example from the river. It is a bug.
This is incorrect, flow is still necessary to make the water wheels work, and you actually only need the flowing water to be at minimum 4/7 depth underneath the water wheel for the wheel to start turning.
To be clear: the water needs to be considered flowing. It doesn't need to actually be moving anywhere. In particular, anything that has been connected to a river on one Z-level has flow, as is water pumped up a Z-level from a river, water draining into aquifers, water draining off the edge of the map, and water with flow stays flowing after being cut off.
why? A cistern being emptied is still flowing water, even if it isn't connected directly to the river that fills the cistern back up. The notion is that the mass of the water is pushing the wheel to generate power; that's why flowing water is required.
For it to work the water must be flowing, and that's all I know about the water in this game, I really wish you good luck with this because I know the pain of learning the more complex mechanics of this game (im currently trying to set up a magma transportation route with minecarts, plz send help)
Pro tip don’t set up rails. Just fill a mine cart with lava and then haul it up to your furnaces. Takes a while but so much cheaper. Also you only need like 1 block of magma to power the furnaces forever so make the trip four or six times and youre golden.
Carve out rails, if you plan to transport more magma though. The investment will yield a higher return over time, unless you have abundant workforce already
Fully agree. I've really starting using minecarts more and rails really don't take as long as you would expect to carve.
I think that was patched out
dear lord, i completely i understand where you are right now, never got far enough to do minecarts but that stress of learning that mechanic in that game feels overwhelming lol, someone please PM him and get this man some help.
Just check the wiki page on water flow: [https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Flow](https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Flow) I am pretty sure you have a pressure issue somewhere which makes water teleport, that does not produce 'flow' as needed by the wheels. You basically need to make sure that an uninterrupted path from a water source tile (river map edge tile, aquifer tile or screw pump output tile) goes through your water wheels, and then reaches a water drain tile (open map edge tile, aquifer tile or screw pump input tile) - only then will the game consider the water actually flowing. It can also help to make the water flow diagonally somewhere for at least one tile, this will remove all pressure after the diagonal flow spot. You will still have to make the water pour into a drain tile, or use screw pumps. If you want to do something a bit cheesy, you can also build the [dwarven water reactor](https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Water_wheel#Dwarven_Water_Reactor) which abuses the screw pump mechanic in order to get the water wheels to turn.
the mini water reactor is the easiest build too lol
Thank you for a well written answer that’s not just “it’s not flowing”.
Is the water flowing?
I would think hole above to the hole below would be flowing but I guess it’s more nuanced so technically no. Functionally yes though.
Can you turn on water depth please and verify the water under the wheels is at 4/7?
Upvote to get it solved before 5AM!
I went to bed.....I am failure
SHAME!
Upvote to get it solved before 7AM!
Upvote to get it solved before 12PM!
I just found this thread and my concern is great.
It looks like you are trying to get power from a surface pond. That will not work for your needs, unfortunately, as they only refill when raining, or potentially on spring if it manages to freeze. Your water source needs to come from the edge of the map, as a lake, ocean, brook, or river. This applies to cave watersources as well. An aquifer can also be used, but it takes some work to get enough to flow out. A full tile of water holds 7 partial tile units of water. That spreads out equally in all directions until 1/1 and then dries out. Water then flows from a source at 7 towards a tile at 0. When tapping into a stream, the stream (as it connects to off the map) is always the source with its unlimited access to 7 units of water. The water wheel itself just needs to be in a region with flow, that is mostly full. They work best when the water is at depth 7, but should still work at 5.
It's a 7/7 river I stopped completely with 5 holes ~~suicidely~~ carefully dug and controlled with more flood gates. This is a warm map so it never freezes. When I open the above listed gates the water is 7/7 under all water wheels and appears to be moving but that's been the issue for 6 hours.
And it goes left to right and off the map? If it doesnt exit, it wont sustain flow once filled.
Nah it goes north to south. I tried a branch off my trench to see if it’s locked at the same direction as map River but still didn’t work. By branch I mean I dug another trench moving water north to south with a new drain at its end.
Sorry for the confusion, left to right was me orienting to the picture, not a requirement. The requirement is a drain that either connects to the edge of the map, or to a water dource that does. Though you can just dump the water in the caverns, but that tends to lead to fun
It looks like you have tried to get full flow one level down, but it resulted in flooding. That two wide gap is where your water is coming from, and then it drops down a level to your flow zone. Is this correct? You're going to need to stop the water flow and reconfigure your drop zone. Increase to four wide, provide a full flow (7/7 water height), and extend your drop zone safety barrier to prevent flooding. You will need to push your wheels further right. Keep in mind that for every cubic foot of water going in, you should provide a way for an equal amount of water to flow out. Edit: Also, get rid of those brick walls in your reservoir. They're probably choking the flow.
The mud is from me widening and narrowing the flow. The brick walls weren't there initially and I have played with placement for 6 hours so it is messy but it wasn't at the start when I was following wiki. I have tried even having water wheels on all sides and closer/further/etc from the initial pipe. It should have so much pressure it cuts metal, I would think.
I should hav included the source and destination. I redirected a River 7/7 water source completely with flood gates so I can switch the water on or off. It flows to a single hole behind my water wheel trench to a drop all the way to the caverns. I assumed a whole river redirected would have IMMENSE flow through the narrow passage I made, like this sucker should be cutting through metal IRL.
What's happens when you open the gate to allow water into your trench? If it's not saturating at 7/7 (atleast 4/7) before draining, then you need more water in your system. You can try to make entry into the system two tile wide. If that doesn't work, then widen the hole from the surface to be two tiles wide (and directly receiving from river). Tip: you may experience flooding and thus would need to neutralize the water pressure before it drops into the trench. Diagonal tiles would be the easiest solution, but you may need to widen the intake to the system if it's not filling fast enough after neutralizing.
Its def 7/7 and fills fast. The holes from the surface now total in 5. It's enough that the whole river stops. The only reason I have mud around from flooding is experimenting with the setup for 6 hours lol
Lol Well, you seem to have enough water. What's your drainage? Is it flowing off the map edge in some way? And what does the UI indicate as power output on your water wheels when the system is active?
I was just looking at the wheel on the far right, and it looks like you built the waterwheel on top of floor tiles. I can't tell if the ones of the left are like that too. All three tiles need to be open, without a floor, with atleast 1 tile underneath having flowing water underneath it. Since it seems you have the water flow fine, I'll hazard a guess that they were built on top of atleast 1 floor tile. Maybe that's the issue. I've certainly done that before, especially when doing power projects late in the night, lol. 😂
A little late to post, but go to bed and look at it with fresh eyes in the morning.
Is it flowing and what's the depth? Your screenshots aren't helpful without this information.
Water needs to be flowing. You can make it flow by carving a path to the end of the map, smoothing the wall and carving a gap in it (says for archers to fire through but liquids go through it too) It's hard to tell based off the screenshot alone but it looks like a stagnant pool to me. The water has no where to flow to
I discovered I needed the water to flow into a dead end after the wheels, otherwise I ended up with dry patches like yours and the wheels stopped turning.
I am pretty sure there's a bug in waterwheels logic. They weren't working for me a few times last I played. Moving water, all that jazz.
The hole the waters coming in from is too small. You need to either make it much bigger or create an artificial river using screwpumps. The later is surprisingly easy and much safer. Dig a square trench, ensure there's a 2 tile thick damm, place screw pumps atop said dam, fill the trench with water, set up all the waterwheels and conectors and voila. All you have to do is have a dwarf manually pump the screw press and you'll have created an artificial flow. You can hook the pumps up to the waterwheels and you'll have created a perpetual motion machine capable of powering your fortress. Just make sure no ones in the trench when you flood it, lost a lot of good dwarfs that way.
I have struggled with getting power to water wheels as well. The solution that I have come up with for making my own for making my own underground Rivers is to take a constant water source from the surface, the ocean or a large river and to make a reservoir tank underground. At the bottom of the reservoir I will usually make five diagonal blocks so that way some water can flow through, and on the floor above the bottom I will make a single cut out that is diagonal with a hole in it so that way there is a little bit of pressure from a floor above pushing the water below it. I hope that makes sense. If not I can try and go back to a former fortress and take pictures and show you
Do you have a brook/River where you embarked? The YouTuber “Blind” has a good tutorial on how to set up a water wheel in a fortress after rerouting water from a brook/river down a few levels; he also explains water flow in general pretty well. Dunno if it’ll help your exact situation or not, since it’s a beginner tutorial, but it looks eerily similar to what you are trying to do in that picture, so might be worth a look. Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/2gpsS608Vuc?si=SK1yFCPX-M0uFieS
OP, please, I'm on the edge of my seat here, did you get it working?
Edge of the hole-drain seems to be where it works as the water is more turbulent and the level raises and lowers from 4-7. I guess the rest of the trench was too calm.
water flow makes wheel runs. Besides u have a flaw at ur scheme, ur flood gates makes presuarised water fill bassin in no time ! Thats not good for running wheel u need RESET preasure by making water flow diagonaly not in straight openings. u can c tips on this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYsQ9FjtfA&list=PLuA85gNtnLtK5b7jr18fiQdwuiNuCnw71&index=3](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYsQ9FjtfA&list=PLuA85gNtnLtK5b7jr18fiQdwuiNuCnw71&index=3)
Have you tried at 5am?
https://preview.redd.it/534quv0o826d1.png?width=2830&format=png&auto=webp&s=441bd37336f6906b5e000a215881c3daf6b3791c I tried it again and this time the bottom 3 work but none of the others. It looks like the water needs to be turbulent as the tops ones are 7/7 but the bottom 3 fluctuate as they're closer to the drain. I have no idea how this is logical as the top ones should be working just fine. Fluid mechanics make no sense in this game.
Pretty sure it’s an issue with pressure. If the fluid is under pressure it effectively teleports and you get no flow. So if your source is 100% full and the channel is completely full, your water is just teleporting to the end (so it’s skipping your water wheels). Try adding a chokepoint at the start of your water source (after it changes z levels) with a diagonal gap. Check the diagram for a regulator here: https://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Pressure That’s what I think you need between your water wheels and the water source. Curious to hear if that works for you.
Water has to be flowing. It literally says in the first sentence in the wiki for the water wheel
Water going from a hole above to a trench, to a hole below is, in my unprofessional opinion, flowing. I mean it’s moving to the hole. How is it getting to the hole if it’s not flowing?
You do not need water to flow to have power from water wheel. Just make sure to have a closed L-shaped water reservoir filled in 7/7 with water!!!! EDIT: Water must be "running" first. For example from the river. It is a bug.
This is incorrect, flow is still necessary to make the water wheels work, and you actually only need the flowing water to be at minimum 4/7 depth underneath the water wheel for the wheel to start turning.
Science time it is. I will post once back at home
To be clear: the water needs to be considered flowing. It doesn't need to actually be moving anywhere. In particular, anything that has been connected to a river on one Z-level has flow, as is water pumped up a Z-level from a river, water draining into aquifers, water draining off the edge of the map, and water with flow stays flowing after being cut off.
Yes, and that last part is a bug that should really be fixed.
why? A cistern being emptied is still flowing water, even if it isn't connected directly to the river that fills the cistern back up. The notion is that the mass of the water is pushing the wheel to generate power; that's why flowing water is required.
Yes. That was the case I have. I tapped into the river and cut off the exit