Dwarf Fortress - Quick Tutorial - Waterwheels and Pump Stacks. 

I think the biggest thing missing from these tutorials is "why" you'd want to do all these things, but that's just me. There's so much you can do in this game, but how much of it is mandatory/niche/for fun/just nice to have/cosmetic/etc

6:45 you can use traffic assignments to essentially have them completely avoid the area, it's what I use to lava tap valcanos without the dwarf getting vaporized

Loving the short, targeted tutorials. You are doing a great job of condensing this stuff down into "need to know" for the task at hand and its great. That said, for the regular video run times on DF, id say you could go 10 mins easy and still be a short video without worrying. Especially when feeling its 'too long' and still at a digestible amount of time, instead of having to rush through.

Damn, you're pumping out those tutorials one after another, and i really need 'em. Thank you! Keep up the good work.

for brooks, just channel them away...important is, that there is at least 4/7 water beneath the water wheel...brook is just a fancy floor, beneath is normally 7/7 water

Many people are asking, why bother with waterwheels and pumpstaks. For me it's a strange question. I'd like to have a reservoir full of water nearby. Just imagine those nice drowning chambers for goblin siedges: lure them into room, close exits and open floodgates. Also, dwarves like waterfalls, having one in your fortress will improve their mood. And last (but not the least): you can pump magma up to your smithing district (just use magma-proof materials), so your metalworkers will not have to travel 100 levels downstairs to their magma forges every working shift. And magma drowning chambers are even more fun for goblins (burning their bodies and clothes, so you will not have to deal with them)!

Awww. I really wanted to know the specific purpose for the example. Linking new info together with "this is why you'd might do this" is always a good idea as it can help the brain retain it better.

the visual aid along with the actual building was perfect. if you could show it from a 3d model that would be best but new players like me need to start visualizing 2d dwarf fortress in 3d for ourselves eventually. great vid

I personally love the fast paced videos. give me just enough to figure it out without telling me "why" so I can come up with my own reasons to use it. like getting a proper hospital set up for once.

Was waiting for this one! Thanks for the awesome tutorials. It's really helped me get back into this game!

This is really well explained. These mini tutorials are excellent. Would live to see more complex ones like this. Thanks

It went a bit faster than I preferred but it was completely understandable. The only thing I struggle with this one is - why would I do this? Only thing I can think of is you ran into a pool of water on a lower Z level and you want to empty it out so you can use the space for something else

The old hand drawn illustration is so good with the new pump graphics. You can see the block on the output side and that's the water tight side. So you can't have your stairway near it because that would be a diagonal path for water. That almost impossible to explain without playing a fort with the wiki open next to you. Also you can put wheel on a brook but you need to channel the brook floor out. Brooks have almost a solid floor, that's why they don't train swimming.

I think the quick tutorial should be able to go longer than 8min, I love them. hopefully 12bay add theses tutorial to the game, they are not enough to figure the basic, the reason i came to your channel is because my dwarves were dying to dehydration & i didn't know why

This is the best video on this complicated topic, I think it is hard in general to explain the concept in general but I think you did a good job, I'll return to this video as a reference point later.

This was excellent. For real. Clear concise and informative! And now I’ll give my head a moment to think about it and watch it again … and again. Like 42 times then I’ll get it.

You are doing the Lord's work with all these videos breaking things down in small sections for new players to be able to digest. I wish I had someone to show me this stuff when I started lol.

Every time I run into an issue you seem to have released a video about it an hour before I had it 😂 I tried to get water from the river down to a well with some cheeky channelling. Didn't account for water pressure and it shot out of the well at full speed and flood a third of my fortress before I could wall it off. One of my dwarves fell in to the channel and his corpse is just stuck at the bottom of the well now 😂 hopefully this'll help dry him out a bit so I can bury him

Cool video, I think it was clear enough, though it's complicated to explain I don't think you could have condensed it more. I understand the steps to do it, and I think actually doing it would take it from this kinda makes sense to actual understanding. Second point, seen a lot of comments on "but why?" which I think is a fair point, but I think quick tips is more a how, not why. But rather than keep hashing that here, how about a different idea: what if you did a problems/solutions video series? Like, this embark has zero/little wood, what can I do? And you work through as many options for how to get around it(like, make normal wood stuff of metal or rock, trade for it, cavern trees, etc) something to show off the different systems of the game and how to use them, and while there might be an easy option, I'd love to see weird ways to do a thing. Questions like: what do I do if there's a vampire? How can I defend against titans? What do I do if my fort triples in size overnight? (This one, please, went from 17 to 53 dwarves in a pair of migrant waves after getting none for a year and a half) Either way, love what you're doing and looking forward to whatever cool things you do next.

I slowed it down a bit and that did the trick. Thanks for putting these together, Blind!

Very well explained. Thanks a lot for your quick tutorials. I always learn New things

Wow, that is rather advanced (impressed by the dev) and it is a very Dwarvish thing to do :P

I think anything under 15 minutes is a good length - some concepts just need more time to be properly discussed! This tutorial went a little faster than I would have liked, but it was overall very helpful. (I just wish you'd gone a tiny bit slower with the pump placement. I wound up watching it several times and eventually got my head wrapped around it, lol. I'm so not used to thinking in z-levels)

I DID IT! Using this pump stack method and a quickfort aquifer tap into a MASSIVE cave lake, I managed to create a stable plumbing system by taking water through the tap, and then pumping it back into the water source from the top of the cave system to avoid depletion. It powers itself by using an artificial stream ran directly from the tap. Cistern pools are stable and power streams are always running. So, uh, thank you ^^

Blind thank you - more tutorials please. excellent work. this one was a bit longer but the content matter was complex. Your presentation was on point.

Hey Blind! I came back to this video after finding it impossible to grasp at first (and having watched your whole quick tutorial series so far). As I said, due to not only the advanced mechanics but the loads of visual information, it feels very much overwhelming. Yet it got me thinking: why not another split series of "advanced techniques" alongside the "quick tutorials"? Anyways, since you asked for feedback during the video, here it is. Thanks for all the videos, they're pretty good GG

Covers the basic principles, showed tile layout, and common problems. Perfect video for someone who is just starting Dwarf fortress and am looking to drown my first fortress. This will take a lot of the guess work out of my design.

These tutorials are tremendously helpful! I admit though that this water stuff is a bit beyond me. I’ll have a play with it in-game, with your video as reference and see if I can figure it out.

I really like that I can quickly get an answer/solution to an obstacle in DF with your videos! To me, there is nothing worse than finding a video with a problem/feature-specific title that is 2 hours long and somewhere hopefully that person touches on it. They are more like "Watch me play and ramble" videos... =-(

@BlindiRL ... would love to see you do a quick tutorial on hunting / fishing! TY for these awesome videos! SUPER helpful!!

I think that you did a good job with explaining. It was fast but if you are familiar with the ui at all it’s not a problem. I guess I just didn’t play with pumps enough! I would display a list of what is required at the beginning of the video. Other than that it was great.

i cant believe you didnt spend a bit of time showing the pay-off of all your hard work! still an amazing tutorial, thanks

Awesome video, super helpful!

So... I have a brook outside of my fort that I can't use water wheels in because it's too shallow. But if I made an underground pathway (2-3 wide, 2 deep) with water wheels and then connect that to the brook above, would the wheels work and generate energy while the water from the brook washed down from the above z levels? I don't mean the water falling onto the wheels like a waterfalls, but running down the pathway, eventually hitting the wheels

Maybe break it down into smaller topics? I think "How Manual Pump Works", "How to upgrade the pump with a mechanism", and "how lever works" would be useful in isolation, because my current struggle is just getting a single pump to desalinate/filter for a well. Still, great job keeping them short and targeted! Most other tutorials are damn near an hour.

"It's impossible to place them without the mechanisms-" OH THAT'S WHAT I WAS MISSING

It's good you're thinking about how to keep these as short as you can, but not everything can be explained in less than 8m, so no worries if it needs to be this long. Thanks!

If you feel the tutorial is too long you can always add chapters to help people find the piece they're struggling with. I'd take a 10-20 min tutorial over no tutorial any day :P I can skip around to find what I need.

Ah, nice to know the pumps can power each other. I designed a stack that is powered via a central vertical axle. Haven't built it yet though.

Is there a possibility that dwarfs can be attached to certain items? I made a crown for sale, but then several times I saw it laying on the floor near my expedition leader's office or laying on the throne in the office. I like to imagin, that leader got cocky and wear that crown everywhere, but I don't know how I can proof it or where I can read about that

I do have a question. As you pump up the water (or lava in my case), will it cap out at the pump's level or is it possible to... Flood upwards, if you pull enough? I did plan on attempting a pump stack of some lava a bunch of levels higher so my magma smelters are closer to where my other stuff is, and was planning on making a huge pump stack for it, but i've also had flooding incident with a well I tried to build using channels (pulling water from a surface brook down using channels and a floodgate) so i'm a wee bit wary.

this was perfect, thanks!

what's the most efficient pattern to create a wall that's wider than 3 squares on the surface that's multiple Z levels high? I always find there are holes in my walls unless I painstakingly place each vertical one by one. I was trying to make like a Helm's Deep entrance to my fort. Also how high should my walls be to prevent werebeasts and other things from just jumping over them/climbing

You should do a tutorial on burrows! I’m so confused when it comes to making them work properly

I can't seem to place the pumps over each other if there is a channel ramp beneath it like you do. Why is that?

It took me really long time to understand how one pump drives the next one. That was a bit short in the video. But in the end I managed to build a pool underground in my tavern. It is a very popular place among my dwarfes.

Ok this might be a dumb question but what if I only have one tiny pool on my map, no aquifers?

Since you asked for feedback, I would prefer it if you slowed down, the information is a little fast. The diagram you drew was helpful, but it wasn't always easy to keep track of how what you were talking about connected to the footage. Thank you for your work though.

Really cool. Thanks man. I had 7 water wheels at least in an underground river I had to build and fortify off the map but haven't played in like five years. Honestly can't remember why I even needed so much power. Was it to power the magma pump stack for use at furnaces? Was it to just to get water to be closer to my fort? Pretty sure I needed 700 plus power for the magma pump stack. Can't wait to strike the earth again in Steam! P. S. :) Like I said, it's been a long time but if I was making my magma pump stack I think I remember having to put a couple of magma proof bars under the bottom pump to prevent critters getting in. It's been too long, can't remember! :)

2 Q - 1. Does the "Double Wheel" Double Power ? 2. Can you Pump more than a River have "in flow" or do the Game equalise the Amount of Incoming to outgoing... Or else - can you Pump a entire River Upstair and empty the natural Riverbed ?

On the bright side, i'm about to finish my pump stack to get lava from the lava sea up to my fort - the not so bright side is; it's 120z levels and i went with a double stack like in your video... rip 500+ iron hehe

Any reason to make it 2 wide? I assume it was for more waterflow. Would a 1-wide stack work fine?

I'm gonna make an entire artificial river with this.

It wasn't clear to me how the pumps were powering each other; do they act as mechanisms so that they automatically power above themselves?

Thanks, just what I needed.

This was very helpful.

Just commenting to say once again that your short tutorials and your tutorial lets play are super useful! The only feedback I have is 1. can you add a link to the little drawing you made? I would like to be able to see it for myself and make it a bit bigger 2. while I understand the mechanic you're explaining, I'm not sure why I would need to make this? So maybe mentioning one or two examples of where you've used this kind of thing in your own games would be helpful :) (for reference this is the first time I've had this with your tutorials. they're great!) P.S. edited to add that for a game like DF I feel you could go up to 10-15 mins and they would still be 'short' videos lol

Very useful ty

How are your rock types so uniform? I find that every map I embark on is a clusterfuck of diffferent strata.

Are moats in this game a thing? Can you fill/drain a moat at the flick of a switch? Could the drained moat flood another chamber? So many questions

thanks for these vids, gonna try this and hope I don't flood my fortress lol

For one of your next ones, could you make one on how to handle caverns? I just hit my first cavern and it’s kinda throwing me off guard what exactly do do with it

How would you power it if you don't have a convenient river to run water wheels?

How did you find such a good looking map? I like that underground river, does that happen randomly?

Does anyone know of a tutorial when it comes to disposal? Specifically, my fort has thousands of used socks... Any smart way to get rid if this? or set it up so they get disposed of?

This is so cool

so the basic dig does not remove the layer between two layers but shovel will? Do to dig a bit you would use shovel? 🤔 weird how I take that from this video

Is there a short tutorial on how to create the "river" necessary for the water wheels? Mine simply never turn....

Would be the same for magma right? (except you'd need to use magma safe materials)

I learned something that you didn't even mention in the video just from watching it; I did not know you could stack up mining orders on multiple floors just by switching layers while actively choosing the area to mine. I guess I should've put two and two together that you can do it for stairs why can't you do it for normal mining

It could be interesting explaining the reason of doing this, like, why do I need this, or what do I need it for

I don't have an access to any river. Can I operate this pump stack with dwarves only?

The visual aid made me immediately understand

These tutorials are great, may I suggest doing one on basic settings including population, fps, de-inverting the mouse wheel and creating more intuitive zoom keys.

Good video!

perfect vid man but how do i get my drink up by using water i am just making beer and wells and im at 300 pop now so its alot of wells

Love ur tutorials but this one was really quick if u could maybe explain it a bit slower :) . I had to rewatch the axel/mechanism and other stuff couple times but maybe im just a slow learner ^^

My biggest issue with learning the more advanced stuff is i just cant seem to get how channels work. Imma play around with it more but for the life of me i cant grasp it

I get it all. And i never ever played game (yet). So thats ok. But a little short too

Can you do a management tutorial and how to use it so you can select certain mats or like jewel crafting how to select certain furniture/goods?

Elevation 47 pumps work with the power of watermills. So how do other pumps work, with what power?

5:15 Guides are good but I think when it gets that complicated you need to slow down. That bit was so rushed it was difficult to follow.

nice, short and sweet. people are asking for why's, who cares about the why, its the how. hes not trying to inspire you on what to do in your fortress, hes telling you how to accomplish a task that you will eventually need, and believe me you WILL eventually need this. sure you might not know why right now, but there will come a time when you are thinking hmmmm, id like to bring this magma closer to my forges, closer to the surface and make it safe, or move this water over here etc.. and you will search, how to move water, or pump water or pump stack, and find this short how to video, mixed in with all the bloated 30 minute videos of people going on and on about why's, and i would prefer this short version so i can go back to playing and figure out my own why's!

The diagram really helped

love these tutorials, but could you do one about wateer? I have difficulties understanding how to build a water reservoir along with waterfalls and mist generators

The only think I would ask for is a video on the “Other way” to pump water that isn’t a pump stack. Because this one does seem to be a bit area intensive. Otherwise, this is great.

Seems like theres some crucial information missing? How are the ones not connected to the water wheels being powered

quick feedback, i think u should start these with a section on what is this for :D

How did you get an underground river like that, tho?

anyone notice this video is out of date. you can no longer place a pump over the trench. it must be placed on two squares of solid ground.

The one thing I don't understand is why you have two 2x1 holes on each level. What's the point of the one covered by the pumps?

So if you power the bottom pump in a stack it makes connections all the way up? Huh, I figured you'd need a vertical drive shaft for the whole thing, this makes this way easier!

So, wait, you can just place ALL the pumpstacks down at once now? DF41 you used to have to do them one at a time because otherwise they'd build them out of order and the whole stack of them would fall apart.

can I have a long version. Also how'd you make the creek

I'd love some more "why"s of what you're doing. For example, you said that the water wheel setup you did was overkill; what is a reasonable setup? How can you tell if it's overkill? Really helpful videos for figuring out this game; thanks!

I believe DF players have an attention span that hasn't been destroyed by TikTok. 8 minutes is pretty short.

This videos are awesome! Please make soap ropes and bags video later! Why would I need a waterwheel or water in my fort?

why build extra pumps ?

This may seem dumb, but can you do a tutorial on how to build a moat or something like that creek you made in this video? I've been struggling and I'm sure I'm missing something very obvious

now i can make artificial waterfalls