Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

Chapter 27 -- Virtualizing the Imagined: Underground River Games
From the on-line discussion regarding Slaves to Armok: God
of Blood,
What causes an underground river to flood/back up?
This underground river is a feature of a fantasy world in which
the laws of physics need not apply, but by the gamers'
responses, we're impressed by the correspondence to reality.
A couple of years after carving fortifications in the "dry" part
of one stretch of river so I could shoot the beasties within,
the river suddenly overflowed and flooded every mining
shaft I had below the highest level of river. The fortress
itself, thankfully, remains untouched. I'm currently trying to
find ways to drain the river of its excess so that I can
reclaim the silver I dug out.
The only time I have had an underground river "flood" is
when I dammed the outflow and the source was higher
than the dam.
You probably made the fortification on the same level the
water is on, thus letting it flow in; as of right now, cave
rivers never flood on their own. The only case I've had
where a cave river "flooded" is when an aquifer was
pumping in more water then what could drain off, or the
lower portion was sealed partially or totally in some way.
I dug my fortress near, above and around an underground
river. Eventually I dug extension tunnels across the river
and down to access it its lower parts, trying to make an
underground cave fishing pond. The river eventually rose
and flooded up into my extension tunnels. I realized it was
because the river was filling to the z-level of the highest
river point. Later I used the flood waters to irrigate another
chunk of underground forest.
The "waterfall from nowhere" tiles which source
underground rivers produce water far more quickly than it
can drain off the edge of a map -- if your embark region
contains the underground river source but does not contain
the ending chasm, it is guaranteed to flood up to the
source's level.
Games need not be just for those who follow the
rules. Sploder is a web platform for those who
invent their own. From the website,
Choose one of the free Flash game creators
from the list at top to create and edit your
games. With Sploder you can create free
platformer flash games, 3d space adventure
games, and our class shooter games.
Save the Underground River is such a game.
DRAFT 1122//66//22001122
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