Channelling/digging under a bridge
I had a fortress going, and built a retracting bridge before I got a chance to channel below it. Is there any way to remove the ground below the bridge.
I have already mined under the bridge, currently only the ground is there.
Diagram:
Should be like this:
(x)= ground
(h)=channeled out space
(-)= bridge
xxxx-----xxxxx [z 1]
xxhhhhhhhxxx [z-2]
xxhhhhhhhxxx [z-3]
xxhhhhhhhxxx [z-4]
But instead when I use a lever to retract the bridge, there is still a ground that can be walked on to get around my moat. How do I remove this? Work around this? Or should I just reload a save?
Best Answer
"Channeling" only works from above: It looks like you didn't channel out the top layer of h'es, you dug them.
Open the bridge, and then have the dorfs channel down from where the bridge was. But use caution! When channeling through a z-membrane to empty space, they can create cave-ins if they leave part of the z-membrane unsupported. So, you need to channel it out gradually: only designate a set of tiles that, no matter what order they are channelled in, no tiles will be unsupported and collapse.
If that doesn't work (I can't remember if there is something that prevents you from digging underneath a retracted/raised drawbridge), then deconstructing the bridge, channeling out the last squares, then reconstructing the bridge should work.
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