Exactly.
On the one hand, it’s annoying having to walk out to build each zipline tower / station. On the other hand, the stupid things only have a range of 30 tiles, so it’s not like you have to go far.
The towers aren’t all that much cheaper, so it makes sense to only build stations. Especially when you factor in having to walk out to build it. If you have to walk 60 tiles because you chose to put a tower in the middle, you’re significantly increasing your build time for only a modest savings in materials.
The worst part is that each tower / station can only have two connections. That makes it problematic to come up with efficient layouts. I’m guessing tubes can connect however many times you please, like paths.
Ha! Overengineered indeed. Apparently I went three levels higher than was strictly required. If I were doing it over I’d probably still build one level above the sluices.
Yep. Another nice advantage to them. On my Folktails run I made a kind of big loop with the ziplines, but it meant the beavers sometimes had to go far out of their way to get somewhere. The tubes are faster and more direct.
Part of the cost though is that if you don’t want the network to interfere with other stuff, you have to elevate it (like the power transmission). So it takes even longer to build.
Well, that’ll come in handy if you flood the downstream area for more water storage. I’ve got something like a 7-deep lake in my Iron Teeth run. Part of that is natural outflow but I need a pump to get to the rest of it. I could reduce the need for the pump if I did a bit more invasive landscaping, but it works well for now.
Is there pressure? The top left water source on the first map (lakes) is in a tunnel. If I just walled it off, what would happen? Would it explode from the pressure? Crumble the surrounding earth?
I’m wondering if this tunnel I’m digging out – a massive PITA when you want the tunnel to be multiple levels high – is actually pointless, and I could just fully wall off the entrance with a layer of sluices then levees on top. It’s only two high.
Never tried walling off a source completely. I’ve never seen any notion of pressure otherwise (i.e., from depth). Maybe the game just doesn’t let you wall off a source completely? Not sure.
There is the dome thing you can build for badwater sources specifically. Makes me think you can’t just wall off a source, since otherwise its existence is pointless.
Tested with water: Walling off a water source completely fully plugs it up. I can’t imagine badtides would be any different. I won’t do this because it feels wrong, but I will take advantage of that fact to allow using just a single tunnel lane for drainage.
I know bees sting you vertically, just like wellness buffs apply vertically. My question: If I have a zipline over bee-boosted cropland, will the zipliners get stung? Same question for tunnels and tubeways below, I suppose.
Reddit consensus is that yes, zipliners are exposed to all environmental effects as if they were walking on paths, including bee stings.
However, they seem to indicate that tunnels and tubeways are safe.