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I was thinking water should be collected like solar panels collect power, there would be a rain catch that fills a tank that is used over time.
Alternately a little water could be collected from cacti

Pools of standing water should be super rare

Workers should consume water daily and more so when they work

Fires should cost water to put out quickly or you can pat them out slowly.

If a worker is thirsty and water is low they should stop working at full tilt to conserve water.

If water is fully out they should risk death.

...almost forgot water should be used for sanitation, with low water stores workers should also be at risk of disease.  (Think toilets, hand washing, bathing)

I like that idea as well, but I'm not against water bodies. However, water from rivers and lakes would have to be pumped and carried to the base, which adds to its vulnerability, much like the geothermal station is for power right now.

I like rivers and lakes too, I was trying to keep the desert theme

If he adds other random biomes I definitely want Lakes and rivers, maybe swamps.
I have no idea how that would work in a top down single layer game, what stops it from spreading out and what does it look like empty?

I suppose a new land type would work, river/lake bed.  It would be like dirt or sand, you can't mine it.   Water could be added/removed from it and placing water to form a man made lake/river would auto spawn lake/river bed underneath.

Water would stay confined to beds unless placed elsewhere.

I should have added crops to my first post as another water use.

Or if we can't have in game rivers/lakes etc. maybe have a building such as atmospheric condenser. That way you could have tiered buildings that provide water and have other building have a draw.

Such as showers/baths/drink production etc. all having certain amounts of water use. Then as you get more colonists you need better/more atmospheric condensers to provide water.

Got the idea from Peter F Hamiltons books, think it was the Commonwealth series where there are buildings that can directly condense water from the atmosphere for a clean water supply.

Quote from: Sobel on October 07, 2013, 11:15:33 AM
Or if we can't have in game rivers/lakes etc. maybe have a building such as atmospheric condenser. That way you could have tiered buildings that provide water and have other building have a draw.

Really liking this idea if a water system isn't introduced; or at the very least as a placeholder to test the water-system-dependent construction before actual water terrain is added.

Managing your water supply is a feature i would like to see implemented in the game.

Maybe (I know this suggestion may kill Ty, but whatever, suggestion time !) having the possibility to have running bodies of water that you can divert to get nearer to your base, and the possibility to have bridges over these bodies of water in order to make the crossing faster than just going through shoals (thanks google translation ^^').

Quote from: Zeiph on October 07, 2013, 12:46:48 PM
Maybe (I know this suggestion may kill Ty, but whatever, suggestion time !) having the possibility to have running bodies of water that you can divert to get nearer to your base, and the possibility to have bridges over these bodies of water in order to make the crossing faster than just going through shoals (thanks google translation ^^').

Yes for bridges, but redirecting streams might be a bit extreme (and probably too easy as well, in comparison to building canalizations).

Would definitely be a nice feature. Maybe having the water sources be unpure and require filtration? Colonists would get unhappy thoughts from drinking straight from the 'well', then happier thoughts with filtration.

Also the added bathroom fixtures could be a boost to happiness in their rooms, personal bathroom? Win! Communal? Can't believe how bad Oaf's dump smelled! Haha!

I could have sworn I posted in this thread last night, I must have accidentally closed the the tab.  My thoughts were that water as a rarity should come in to affect if the Biomes module gets in the game.  In the typical biome we have seen, it rains and is foggy a lot.  These are conditions that would indicate water supply is not something to worry about.  (Despite cacti and the like around the map)

But if you are on a marsh or jungle world, perhaps water filtration has to be implemented to keep the water from spreading disease.  On a desert world, water has to be rationed, and you have to build wind traps (Yay Dune) to capture condensation in the air to keep the population watered.

Water as a resource would definitely be interesting, but I think it would be more interesting in some biomes, and less so in others.

I agree that having water in addition to food would be a nice bit of added complexity which wouldn't be obtuse because of how intuitive it is (people need to drink to live). That gives another layer of depth to the game, without making it too complicated for new players.

If water is going to be included as a resource, it would need to have uses and sources. salt1219 did a good job of pointing some of these out in the opening post. I think the most important use for water would be requiring colonists to drink to live. As a consumable, players would have motivation to secure or create sources of water, which can lead to interesting stories.

As for sources of water, I think having scarce natural sources and a constructed artificial source would be a good idea. This gives players a choice between which ones to pursue. Natural sources could be bodies of water, or vegetation like cacti. Artificial sources could be any modern or futuristic technology for producing water, like the atmospheric condenser Sobel mentioned or anything else.

In order to make the decision between relying on natural sources or artificial sources of water meaningful for the player, each should have their own advantages and disadvantages. This is where the purification system several people have mentioned could come into play. Artificial sources could provide small amounts of purified water, while natural sources could provide more water but it would have to be purified before consumption or else the colonist suffer some negative effect.

There have been a number of good ideas posted in the thread already, and I'm just echoing the ones to make a simple system. When adding a new resource like this I think it's good to start small, and then as development continues the intricacies of the water system could be expanded.

I just couldn´t sleep right tonight and got an Idea, that came up already some times in the Forum. I would recommend Water as additional Main-Ressource, here as a little Concept:

AI Storyteller / Gameplay

• On the current Moon/Biome its quite rocky, would completely fit into the Place
  
• Water as a short term need (2x a day for a full Need fullfillment) therefore the growth & need of Food (long term need) could be slowed down
  
• Water as hard requirment for Hydroponics (wont work without) with high demand and optional for Potato-Fields (-50% Yield without Water)
  
• AI-Storyteller "Ice-Pirates"*: The whole Universe has only very low Water Ressource, Water is an immensely valuable substance and there are Pirates that steal as much Water as possible. Your crew crashlanded on a unknown world with rich Ice Ressources at both poles.
  
• Water collection-Missions for the exploration Module
  
• for personal hygiene of Colonists
  
• requirement for animal husbandry
  
• For cooking
  
• For Chemicals & Medicines  - Infusions, cough syrup, etc.
  
  Weather
  
• Very dry month´s and monsoos for diffrent demand/Supply situations
  
  Objects & Buildings
  
• Water out of underground/surface Ice-Mines as a rich & easy finite-deposit, and groundwater pumps or through "Rain-Collectors" as (slow/expensive) renewable-deposite, also possible as spin-off product from the Geothermal-Powerplant (Steam from geysr =Water = Less Power Production because of additional)
  
• Water Storage, wich could be infected by Raiders / Insane Colonists / felt in dead Squirrels / NanoBot-Virus
  
• Would need additional Water-Pipes for Supply of far out Ice Ressources, i.e. @ the edge of the Map
  
• Water treatment & recycling as new building
  
• Food procution per Fish-Farms/Aquacutlure with immense demands.
  
• Radiators & whole heating installations
  
• ceiling Fire extinguishers
  
• Barn for domesticated Muffalo
  
• TOILETS  ;)
  
• ... SHOWERS!
  
  
  
  
  * like in the "Ice Pirates"-Movie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Pirates

@FlyingDwerli
all of that is essentially what i thought should be/ could be done with water if it was implemented.
i think the hardest thing to do would be striking a good balance between the survivor sim elements and combat.  i don't think having to micromanage too many things is fun, but i do love the idea of adding water.

i would like to hear what tynan thinks about all this.

Just want to say that, rain collectors shouldn't really be EXPENSIVE... in real life they are actually very cheap. Ingame they would be incredibly unreliable though (you need rain) and they would clog up real-estate.   I think water would be fine being cheap to get this way if water was also cheap to buy / sell, but wasn't always available to buy (so you cant make a huge money farm selling water, and that getting water isn't super expensive to buy, but comes down to if you CAN buy it or not)

On the whole though..water could be interesting, so long as the effects of not having it weren't crippling.

I support this! :)

I like the water idea, but I got to thinking. This is water on an alien planet.  You have no idea what's in it. Not only could it have disease and parasites in it, but it could be incredibly toxic from metal contamination.

I like the idea of atmospheric condensers. It could open up new challenges on, say, a desert planet biome. 

Quote from: Reaver00 on October 21, 2013, 05:11:17 AM
I like the water idea, but I got to thinking. This is water on an alien planet.  You have no idea what's in it. Not only could it have disease and parasites in it, but it could be incredibly toxic from metal contamination.

Nothing a few filters can't solve.

Quote from: British on October 21, 2013, 05:36:32 AM

Quote from: Reaver00 on October 21, 2013, 05:11:17 AM
I like the water idea, but I got to thinking. This is water on an alien planet.  You have no idea what's in it. Not only could it have disease and parasites in it, but it could be incredibly toxic from metal contamination.

Nothing a few filters can't solve.

Or distillation. Solar stills are pretty much low-tech.

I really like this idea of water as a resource. I'm not asking for dwarf fortress like fluid mechanics or stuff like that, I was thinking more along the lines of simple things like fire extinguishers or fire sprinklers which we can build throughout the base that would require water to run.

After more then a few play-throughs, one of the best things that can probably happen to you is the weather turns to rain when your turrets catch fire during a firefight.

Quote from: British on October 21, 2013, 05:36:32 AM

Quote from: Reaver00 on October 21, 2013, 05:11:17 AM
I like the water idea, but I got to thinking. This is water on an alien planet.  You have no idea what's in it. Not only could it have disease and parasites in it, but it could be incredibly toxic from metal contamination.

Nothing a few filters can't solve.

If that were true, then water contamination in areas like West Virginia where they do fracking wouldn't be an issue. Instead, people have filtered water coming through the tap that is flammable.

You might have been mistaking RimWorld with some kind of real-life simulator...

We're talking about a world where people that might have no technical knowledge whatsoever are able to construct walls, power generators, turrets, beds... all of this out of mere scrapped metal.
So please don't expect believability too be too high.

Quote from: British on October 23, 2013, 03:34:34 AM
You might have been mistaking RimWorld with some kind of real-life simulator...

We're talking about a world where people that might have no technical knowledge whatsoever are able to construct walls, power generators, turrets, beds... all of this out of mere scrapped metal.
So please don't expect believability too be too high.

Oh, I wasn't suggesting a super realistic mechanic. I was just suggesting that perhaps water shouldn't always be readily clean or available through a well or something.  World generation could include different types of water sources and each one would present different challenges to the survival of your colonists.  There is a realistic precedent for water to need to be processed before being able to safely drink it.

I envision that having moisture farms could work in the beginning, taking water from the moisture in the air, but as your colony grows, your water needs surpass the capabilities of the moisture farms.  Therefore, you will need find larger water sources, presenting the challenges I mentioned. 

Here some ideas towards this topic I´ve come up with.
Some were already present in this topic, so if some ideas are already present here, consider those supported by me ;-)

1) Have colonists need water (like food now) to be able to survive.
2) Have several ways of aquiring water with different effects
2.a.) Collect rainwater (only works outside, can suffer from long periods without rain (droughts))
2.b.) "Recycled" water (think of the opening scene of the movie "Waterworld" ;-) ) Needs energy and gives a huge minus on loyality (nutrient paste and "recycled" water can lead to tantrums, especially if the colonists get different characters (A pirate should be fine with these rations, but a medival lord, living from P&P (Paste and Piss) should go berserk soon)
2.c.) Watering holes, used by wildlife... "Sure you can drink from the pond, just take care of the 2-Headed-Shark" ;-)
3) Have to use Water for agriculture. Just like the indoor-plants dieing when you switch off the sunlamps have them wither when the farmers dont water them enough.
4) Have some "loyality" influence based on "waterobjects" / hygiene. "Enjoyed a long bath", "Took a shower recently", "Dropped the soap in the men´s shower :-(" (From positive to negative effects).
5) Maybe re-route rivers for moats as a defensive measure? (And fill this moat with 2-headed sharks!)

maybe, how about underground caves filled with water?
they could do two things: a) if you dig into them, they might flood your caves, )but then again you could dig an extra draining tunnel) and b) they supply you with water

also you could cross them with tiny boats, and they could house fancy things, like creatures or crystals, so they would be an interesting feature...

Quote from: letheus on October 29, 2013, 07:17:49 AM
maybe, how about underground caves filled with water?
they could do two things: a) if you dig into them, they might flood your caves, )but then again you could dig an extra draining tunnel) and b) they supply you with water

also you could cross them with tiny boats, and they could house fancy things, like creatures or crystals, so they would be an interesting feature...

I fear that for this future one needs z-levels. And since those won't come any time soon if they come at all.

I read through this entire post and I agree with the need for a semi-realistic implementation of water in-game. Would humbly suggest testing the different aspects incrementally:

1) Implementation - have water generated via mechanical means, like the atmospheric condensers OP mentioned. This can be collected from via plumbing i.e. make it similar to solar panels and thermal generators. Simple to implement, and a good test for the uses of water and how people would make use of it.

2) Adjustments - increase the mediums of water collection to include from cacti, which are already present on the map. Implement water as a collectable resource, like metal and food, which would open it up for trade. Instead of going directly to rooms, like power, plumbing must now lead to a storage unit, much like a stockpile. When eating, colonists will visit this storage unit as well as the paste dispenser. Possible to implement water needs for colonist alongside food needs as well.

3)  Advancements - Introduce standing and/or flowing water to the map, with care taken to ensure spawning restricted by codified set of rules (i.e. spawning locations <would suggest outside only until cave-ins are sorted out>, quantity and quality and border bounding). Increase collection mediums to include high tech and low tech alternatives. Implement filtration systems. Implement condensation and evaporation. Implement waterborne illnesses and cures. Implement rationing mechanisms.

Just my 2 cents worth :)

...and I am amazed that no one mentioned "I am fluent in 6 millions forms of communication" or even "What I need is a droid who can communicate in the binary language of moisture vaporators".

i rly want water mkanagement like dwarf fortress pls

I love the idea of water in the game, I dont think it needs to be too complicated possibly functioning the same as electricity where you place a water pump on a water source and you pipe it throughout your colony. As mentioned it can be used for showers, toilets, sprinkler system, etc. to improve colonist happiness and fire prevention.

Another idea that builds off of it is that the water source is semi far from your base and be a point of interest in which raiders will go over and destroy, disrupt, or capture the water pump so to protect it you'll have to set up some sort of forward base of operations like a mini base to keep it secure, and itll also offer an opportunity for some offensive action. For example if raiders control the water pump you have to send a group of colonist to go and attack them to get back control.

I think water has always done very well as a factor in anything post apocalyptic/desert related stories. Itd be a missed chance leaving it out. It should be a finite resource (wells?) until tech is researched that can extract water from the environment.

Somehow Dune's windtraps come to mind :D

id love this like peppie said, post apoc maps, or what have you!

Would make sense to have it, you could have a system like how the power lines are now for it, possibly having it integrated into the walls by default. For outdoor growing, you can go without it (Naturally moist soil, rain can take care of it), but you need it for hydroponics, aeroponics and, to a partial extent, colonists (Maybe the nutrient paste has a good bit of water in it?). It could be used for automatic firefighting systems, as well as something that can be hooked up to a turret to make it have better cooling (Up to 7/8 shots instead of five, and it won't explode if damaged to a certain amount, just stop firing).

If a water line breaks in a wall, you could say that it is sealed automatically, whereas outside lines could end up with a pool of water on the ground for a bit.

Perhaps even add a recreational structure (Pool/Hot Tub) that is great for happiness, but takes up a lot of water and a good amount of space (If you have it built in a zone fashion, it needs x tiles per colonist for use, more than that and it increases a benefit).

Also, coffee. That is a must, if possible. Space coffee.

i like this idea OP!!

I love this idea, but how about having some kind of well or mechanical pump (Like those wind ones from the 1860's US Midwest farms) in early game that provides water in a reasonable but regular amount, but is limited by the fact the water table in arid lands is a very limited resource, forcing people in later parts of the game to seek ever more creative ways to sate their growing water needs like air condensers or using local natural sources suggested earlier in the post?

I am adding my support to this idea. Only having money, metal and food as resources is insufficient, and I like a lot of the ideas for uses of water.

How about keeping with the desert theme, and having oases? It would attract all kinds of living things, animals (food), raiders(danger), traders, etc. They could have a body of water that could either be used up, or slowly replenished.

Water should definitely be part of the game, as a need for the colonist or to make hydroponic food grow a little more challenging !

I strongly support adding issues like water to the game. For starters just having water, its collection and storage, and colonists requiring it.

Further developments with it could include things like portable water (producing bottles of various types. Cheap and simple ones don't carry much, are heavy, and risk breaking. Harder to produce ones are lighter for the same volume, and are less likely to break, etc.)

And then you could take it even further with issues like water quality and contamination. Issues of germs, toxins, maybe radiation, etc.

Another feature, possibly best discussed in another thread on its own, would be one of knowledge and 'advanced tools'. An oaf with nothing but a shovel has no idea about water safety. Is it clear? Probably safe. An educated scientist with lab equipment could then give you a better idea on if the water is pure, contaminated with heavy metals, swarming with bacteria, or heavily irradiated. While everyone would be able to build basic wells and ditches, more complex filters and such would require a colonist with higher level knowledge. This would play very well with expanding the research system, and making scientists with poor manual labour stats more useful in the long run as they are needed to "Plan/Design" things that the other characters can then build.

Quote from: Cooky on November 03, 2013, 01:39:58 PM
I love this idea, but how about having some kind of well or mechanical pump (Like those wind ones from the 1860's US Midwest farms) in early game that provides water in a reasonable but regular amount, but is limited by the fact the water table in arid lands is a very limited resource, forcing people in later parts of the game to seek ever more creative ways to sate their growing water needs like air condensers or using local natural sources suggested earlier in the post?

I like this idea, then you wouldn't have to mess with like a flowing water mechanic or anything. Maybe it can be like a futuristic type pump that needs power. Water could be a new resource and this pump would collect water and add it to the resource screen thing. You would probably have to put it on a certain terrain (like a farm) or maybe where you place it determines the amount of water you get and how fast you get it.   

Quote from: Luckless on November 08, 2013, 10:04:11 PM
I strongly support adding issues like water to the game. For starters just having water, its collection and storage, and colonists requiring it.

Further developments with it could include things like portable water (producing bottles of various types. Cheap and simple ones don't carry much, are heavy, and risk breaking. Harder to produce ones are lighter for the same volume, and are less likely to break, etc.)

And then you could take it even further with issues like water quality and contamination. Issues of germs, toxins, maybe radiation, etc.

Another feature, possibly best discussed in another thread on its own, would be one of knowledge and 'advanced tools'. An oaf with nothing but a shovel has no idea about water safety. Is it clear? Probably safe. An educated scientist with lab equipment could then give you a better idea on if the water is pure, contaminated with heavy metals, swarming with bacteria, or heavily irradiated. While everyone would be able to build basic wells and ditches, more complex filters and such would require a colonist with higher level knowledge. This would play very well with expanding the research system, and making scientists with poor manual labor stats more useful in the long run as they are needed to "Plan/Design" things that the other characters can then build.

I also really like this idea, especially the part on adding more research and making scientists more useful. I think if we combine ideas like this and the well one it could make a pretty beast water system.

I think water should definitely be implemented in the game. It would fit so well with the theme and might also be an interesting mechanic.

Some ideas:

First of all, agriculture should require water. It's an arid environment, your plants should definitely require water.

I dislike the idea of atmospheric condensers, because, frankly, I think they would be pretty uninteresting gameplaywise. They would just stand there, requiring nothing form you. If they would be included, it should be an expensive late-game option with some downsides, like providing only little water. I would find these water sources a lot more interesting:

1. Collecting rain water. It would be inexpensive, safe and requiring little work from the colonists. But it would be unrealiable - rain should be rare in an arid environment like this! Unless you covered massive areas with your rain water collecting equipment, the water shouldn't be enough for large scale agriculture. Though of course the rain itself would take care of your plants.

2. Extracting from cacti and other plants. Reliable, but relatively time-consuming because you need colonists actively extracting the water. Would provide only little water, so it wouldn't be enough for anything but essentials. An interesting option might be farming cacti for water. Maybe extracting water could even kill the plant so if you were too aggressive with extracting from wild cacti, they might go extinct.

3. Rivers, (lakes). These would provide massive amounts of water, making even large scale agriculture very effective. There should be a downside though, so it wouldn't be the only feasible water source: I think these large bodies of water should be located in parts of the map otherwise less desirable. They could always be far from the starting location in areas with little rocks and no metals so players wouldn't always relocate there. Maybe if there was fog of war, players wouldn't immediately find it. What, I believe, would make this very interesting gameplaywise would be the way players got the water from the river to the colony. The colonists could either carry it manually, making it very time consuming and less effective, or they could build water pipes to carry the water to the colony and their fields. If the pipes would have to be long, they would also be very vulnerable. If raiders or some other unfortunate incident would cut the pipe, a colony relying on the river would quickly find themselves to be in trouble.

to make normal rivers and shit like that, you need to make the map 8x bigger (yes 8x bigger i didnt spell it wrong) 1600x1600 would be a really cool world..... a big enormous world with al kinds of jungles and alien type animals....

Is it confirmed whether water will be added as a resource? This is one area of development I really think would enhance the game.

I too think having water as a resource would be a great feature. Water is life. And besides the more obvious water requirements for drinking and agriculture, it would be needed for sanitation (important for health!) and industrial uses (coolant, steam vents, whatever industry will be implemented).

It shouldn't be much harder to manage than the other features though, but I do believe it should be as important as food for the survival of your colonists. Especially in arid environments.

As to where to get the water from, why not make it more simple initially, then make it harder as game development progresses? I propose initially just having wells that drill to the groundwater, simply assuming that groundwater is available everywhere on the planet. If not that, then maybe restrict building these on freshwater springs, like how the geothermal generators can only be built on steam geysers. This would allow water to be more easily implemented without new environmental features such as rivers or other water bodies. I also feel this would be more in line with the "technological" theme (i.e. being able to build solar panels and geothermal generators from day 1) than more unreliable rainwater collectors or cacti water collection, as has been proposed in the thread.

As for handling the water, how about something like this:

* Water pipes, to get the water where you need it. Similar to the way electricity works. Make walls able to transmit water too, to make things simple.
* Water purifier, making the water entirely safe for consumption (not really needed for other uses).
* Water storage, to, yeah, store the water, obviously.
* Water dispensers, where colonists can drink/fill their water bottles. Maybe also used for fire extinguishing?
* Some way to integrate the water supply with farming. Easiest would probably be to already have water capabilities in the farming structures, and just connect pipes to them to have the benefit of a steady water supply (or in the case of hydroponics, a water supply at all!).

Any thoughts?

What if you had the ability to damn the rivers? There for creating a silt deposit where the water used to be. The silt would have a higher amount of nutrients then ground normally does so the crops would grow faster here or maybe you could harvest more from them?

But i definitely like the idea of water! in some way shape or form!!

If the world gets much bigger, then you could end up tapping ice deposits! Think about it, the picture on the start screen shows the planet having quite extensive amounts of ice that reach well into the wastelands.

I am thinking that water should be handled as a rate resource similar in many ways to electrical power. 

• Conduits could easily be switched over to "conducting" both types of flow, and sources for water would have a rate of production, based in part on the presence of water in the near environment and how the amount of water changes over time.
• Pumps need to be built anywhere next to standing sources of water and would have output depending on the number of unclaimed water tiles nearby and the rain-dependent depth of the water.  If a "flowing" water source could be set (a stream, river, etc.), the draw rate could be higher because of the amount moving past the pump.  Would draw power to operate.  Would probably need additional maintenance to cover cleaning/replacement of filters, more if the water source is "questionable", like a marsh or stagnant pool.
• Well heads need to be built over specific well sites (to prevent over-depletion of the water table) and would be a less rain-volatile source for water.  Would draw power to operate.  Would probably need some additional maintenance to cover cleaning/replacement of filters, but not as much as pumps.
• Rainfall collectors need to be built outside, and would be either a standing building (lower tech and fairly efficient but taking up space) or integrated into a floor structure (allows for walking across but less efficient (additional filtration needed) and harder to research/build).  May not need power to operate unless floor version is too OP.  Maintenance would be minimal (filter cleaning/replacement) except for floor version, which individually would be very low but collectively high for any significant placement.
• Moisture vaporators would be a high tech, low standing water alternative, able to provide a steady source but needing significant power to run and possibly considerable maintenance.
• Storage tanks would provide the same function for water that batteries do for power, and could be built indoors or out.  I don't know if you would have a similar fault with water supply as power - I could see the sudden loss of all stored water and damage to flooded/battered furniture and buildings.
• Patches of water on surfaces could be dealt with similar to current filth, needing to be cleaned up to avoid negative thoughts by nearby colonists.
• Water could be used in outdoor farms (with sprinklers to supplement rainfall), hydroponics (very water intensive), nutrient paste dispensers, auto-turrets (water cooling), "water closets" (like a camper bathroom), and any other uses that can be created (maybe water features, swimming pools, or hot tubs to placate colonists).

One way or the other i belive the game would benefit a lot from having water as a resource. whathever way it is implemented however it should have a somewhat different mechanic compared to other prime resources in the game (food and power) otherwise it would just add complexity withnout adding meaningful choices for the player.

There are already plenty of great ideas posted here, instead of adding to them i'll just post the way i was imagining a possible system for water.

As a resource water would be defined by sources and outlets for usage

SOURCES
as Rimworld has this "desert planet" appearance it would be interesting if water avaibility was a real constraint for the development of a colony, as opposed to power and food which are only limited by the infrastracture you decide to build withnout any real limit except space.
The way i propose to do so would be through temporary water pools: what if the actual water was underground, and manages to rise to the surface by the means of tidal forces? It is implied that the planet is a moon of a gas giant, so it would not be unrealistic to have water to surface during the "high tide" and to recede underground during the "low tide".
The effect of this would be to have seasons of a sort that, provided water has vital uses for the colony, would force player to adapt by stockpiling enough water during the "water season" in order to survive the dry season.
This has also the advantage that would not be excessivly difficult to implement: we just need to add a special tile of terrain to the map generator. Let's call it "mud" for now, during the "water season" all mud tiles would be replaced by still water, which could be collected indefinetly by colonists (with the hauling job enabled) if highlighted under the "orders" tab; while during the dry season all still water would be converted back to mud tiles.
As for other, artificial, sources of water, of course there's space for all of them aswell, but you must be careful not to trivialise water management by making them easly avaible, perhaps they could be limited by weather, or be locked down as a difficult research topic. I see no problem making it buyable from trade ships though.

USAGE
Water collected would take the form of a carriable resource and could be stockpiled as other tangible resources in order to be consumed in various ways:
-Perhaps the most obvious use would be for colonist to drink it. Each colonist would need a "thrist" bar added to them, when it's empty he would go consume water from a stockpile or directly from a pond, it would be nice if said thrist bar would decay faster when the colonist is under sunlight.
For added complexity we could add a "water purifier" that works in a similar way to the nutrient paste generator, and add negative thoughts for colonists which have to resort to unpurified water.
-Another use could be farming, in this case each plant would have an "hydratation" value which would kill the plant if it reaches 0, colonists with the "grow plants" job would need to water the crops in order to not let them die. Obviously the system can be expanded: crops in open areas would be hydrated by rain, perhaps hydroponics would require more water, the addition of a "sprinkler" fueled with hoppers that hydrate crops automatically.
-Preventing fires: colonists would be able to douse flames quickly by using water (in this case perhaps it would be auspicable to increase the difficulty to do so withnout)
-Other non vital uses could then be added: showers or other hygienic furnitures are a common suggstion, lavish meals, perhaps as fuel for to-be-added fusion reactors, etc....

What i personally like about this idea is how it adds tension to the simple managment of the colony which scales accordingly the more colonists you have. Currently the only threats your colony face are external attacks, if left on his own colonies thrives with little effort, this would make for a more interesting experience.
In addition this would be easly tweakable, you could add a checkbox in the world generation tab to disable the tides and have water effectiely never disappear; or have different season lenghts with different storytellers.

Apologies for the lengthy post and for any language mistakes i surely made (i'm italian); also to those who posted ideas that go in different directions, i don't have the presuntion to think this is the only and possible way to implement such a system, i just wanted to add my idea as a possible and alternative inspiration.

Water as a resource, nice idea. Could be used for firefighting, consumption, eye-candy in game...plenty of other reasons.
Maybe the colonists could build a "above-ground pool" to capture rainwater.(this option, a new building vs new terrain,z-axis ect...easier to implement)
(http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=144.0;attach=975)

Then piped to connect it to a water purifier, fire extinguish system, ect. Could be possible to create a windmill/watermills system(though through extensive in game preparations..ie several 'buildings' working together).

Water, the next frontier.

Not to kick a dead muffalo, but I really like this suggestion. Water is life.  ;D

There were many great ideas here - some of them really costly and requiring extensive refactoring, some that can be implemented overnight.. but I believe most of it can be done in baby steps and a good place to start is probably agriculture and rain (since both systems already exist):

• Each plant, in addition to preferred light level and temperature, has a hydration requirement. Obviously, high for water-loving plants like rice, almost nonexistent for cacti.
• Plant's growth (and withering) is governed by where its current hydration is in relation to the optimal level (after light and temp).
• Too much hydration may also be a bad thing, especially for xerophytic plants.
• Hydration stat is replenished when it rains (snows too?), and depletes over time depending on surrounding temperature.¹
• Rain water can be collected into rain collector barrels (new structure), from which crops can be watered (new job) by a colonist.
• Since rainfall and biome are already correlated, native plant hydration balance shouldn't be too hard.

¹ - May render the Desert biome unplayable until other water sources are implemented. Possibly introduce one or two edible xerophytic crops.

Water as a resource could make ice sheets more than a mega-death biome, since even though the temperatures would still be insane, you would have tons of (frozen) water as a mitigating factor.

Bumping this to revive it.

Everytime I play the game I wonder about water use...  water purification, water to kill fires..  AND water to grow ressources !!!

Tynan we really need water.

edit : would be perfect as we need it to produce beer  ;D

I think water shouldn't be forced to be a rare resource, and instead be more like food. you need quite a bit of it, but it's not hard to come by. if you don't play in a desert, of course. or a swamp, because the water is really dirty there, and you'll have to clean it to get it drinkable.

+1 i wonder too that water isnt in the game. i think it should not be too rare because the game is hard enough. nice idea!

This is one of those ideas that once stated leave you thinking 'now I hear it - it's obvious'.

Water really should find a place in the game, it's key in every survival scenario after all! I really like someones idea above of an in base water generation device / room / system. Colonists could draw a portion of water each day, perhaps you could even ration the water amount - just like food - if your pawns get extra then they work a little faster and are generally happier.

Perhaps as default when you crash land, there is a dew collector in your supplies, like this;

(http://assets.inhabitat.com/files/dew1.jpg)

Which is enough for say 5 pawns. Technology could be researched to increase the water production rate, to allow a large colony size, or better hydrate those pawns you already have. Perhaps even, excess water could be taken to crop fields..? Irrigation systems maybe..?

Fine idea OP. So much potential in this idea in so many ways.

Quote from: salt1219 on October 07, 2013, 05:39:14 AM
I was thinking water should be collected like solar panels collect power, there would be a rain catch that fills a tank that is used over time.

I have a great idea about stable water source, but I can't seem to remember its name...
Anyway, it's a simple yet quite efficient design given its natural properties, although in some case it takes more time to build. Still, once done, it easily provides fresh water for dozens, hundreds even.

I've tried to googled it,
the device should look similar to this (http://eamonnmallie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/18.jpg).

Quote from: Mattija on February 28, 2014, 09:55:48 AM
One way or the other i belive the game would benefit a lot from having water as a resource. whathever way it is implemented however it should have a somewhat different mechanic compared to other prime resources in the game (food and power) otherwise it would just add complexity withnout adding meaningful choices for the player.

There are already plenty of great ideas posted here, instead of adding to them i'll just post the way i was imagining a possible system for water.

As a resource water would be defined by sources and outlets for usage

SOURCES
as Rimworld has this "desert planet" appearance it would be interesting if water avaibility was a real constraint for the development of a colony, as opposed to power and food which are only limited by the infrastracture you decide to build withnout any real limit except space.
The way i propose to do so would be through temporary water pools: what if the actual water was underground, and manages to rise to the surface by the means of tidal forces? It is implied that the planet is a moon of a gas giant, so it would not be unrealistic to have water to surface during the "high tide" and to recede underground during the "low tide".
The effect of this would be to have seasons of a sort that, provided water has vital uses for the colony, would force player to adapt by stockpiling enough water during the "water season" in order to survive the dry season.
This has also the advantage that would not be excessivly difficult to implement: we just need to add a special tile of terrain to the map generator. Let's call it "mud" for now, during the "water season" all mud tiles would be replaced by still water, which could be collected indefinetly by colonists (with the hauling job enabled) if highlighted under the "orders" tab; while during the dry season all still water would be converted back to mud tiles.
As for other, artificial, sources of water, of course there's space for all of them aswell, but you must be careful not to trivialise water management by making them easly avaible, perhaps they could be limited by weather, or be locked down as a difficult research topic. I see no problem making it buyable from trade ships though.

USAGE
Water collected would take the form of a carriable resource and could be stockpiled as other tangible resources in order to be consumed in various ways:
-Perhaps the most obvious use would be for colonist to drink it. Each colonist would need a "thrist" bar added to them, when it's empty he would go consume water from a stockpile or directly from a pond, it would be nice if said thrist bar would decay faster when the colonist is under sunlight.
For added complexity we could add a "water purifier" that works in a similar way to the nutrient paste generator, and add negative thoughts for colonists which have to resort to unpurified water.
-Another use could be farming, in this case each plant would have an "hydratation" value which would kill the plant if it reaches 0, colonists with the "grow plants" job would need to water the crops in order to not let them die. Obviously the system can be expanded: crops in open areas would be hydrated by rain, perhaps hydroponics would require more water, the addition of a "sprinkler" fueled with hoppers that hydrate crops automatically.
-Preventing fires: colonists would be able to douse flames quickly by using water (in this case perhaps it would be auspicable to increase the difficulty to do so withnout)
-Other non vital uses could then be added: showers or other hygienic furnitures are a common suggstion, lavish meals, perhaps as fuel for to-be-added fusion reactors, etc....

What i personally like about this idea is how it adds tension to the simple managment of the colony which scales accordingly the more colonists you have. Currently the only threats your colony face are external attacks, if left on his own colonies thrives with little effort, this would make for a more interesting experience.
In addition this would be easly tweakable, you could add a checkbox in the world generation tab to disable the tides and have water effectiely never disappear; or have different season lenghts with different storytellers.

Apologies for the lengthy post and for any language mistakes i surely made (i'm italian); also to those who posted ideas that go in different directions, i don't have the presuntion to think this is the only and possible way to implement such a system, i just wanted to add my idea as a possible and alternative inspiration.

Hydration should only really be necessary in rather dry biomes, and plants should require different amounts of hydration to thrive (rice really much, potatoes somewhere in the middle maybe?). also the tide idea is nice, but it should also be possible (with considerable effort) to access the ground water directly. you could also make it necessary to clean water, or else it's going to be quite likely that your pawns actually get sick from it.
in the early game, you'd have to distill the water at the cook stove, but maybe you could get some kind of automated facility later on. if you are in a hot biome, while it's going to be harder to actually get water, and need more, you could maybe also use the sunlight to distill it. of course distillation isn't ideal, because it drains everything out of the water, so you really want to get to some kind of chemical cleansing soon. also, settling on the coast actually makes sense now, because, although there are less mountains (and thus less metal), you have a practically unlimited supply of water if you can distill it to get the salt out. the tides shouldn't leave mud behind, but just create random pools when they come up. also, there should still be larger lakes, which would shrink during the dry season.

Ive edited the frequent suggestions topic to link to this thread as it seems to be the best discussion on water.

This post is necro. But I'd really like to see water system implemented in the game. It's like the most important resource for life to survive. I can't help but think when a pawn go berserk because he has been rejected 7 time by the same pawn, feel uncomfortable, ate a raw potato, think is room is too small and not good enough for his crash survivor fancy taste, that if he had drank a coffee this morning, his life would be different, but he had no water. And also, if he had took a shower, maybe he would smell better and have more success with the ladies.

Seriously, I can't help but to think all of this affect a colonist well being while he don't need water. Water being an omnipresent resource so abundant that there is no need to seek strategy to get it, while you spend so much time making pretty room to satisfy all those little prince and princess. He even have drugs now to cope with that girl rejection, what is next? A therapist to help with his addiction?

Water would add a full dimension to the game, a new challenge but not overwhelming, as we can all understand that we need water instinctively.

Water system should be in my opinion similar to electricity system. No need to make it over complicated with tons of animation and tons of requirement to find water. It should be as hard if not harder than electricity to distribute in a base, but we are also in 5500 and we space travel, I would think they have came up with a technology that can produce H2O using different method. A pump that extract water from a well, like those geothermal holes... it should be harder to get in desert that is for sure, but not impossible. I don't know. Seek in scifi.

I really like the game anyway, I just think that it is the most obvious missing feature that would improve the game play the most.

By the way, I like all those feature, drugs, relationship, beauty, joy systems and the game is awesome, again, just think that water at this point could be the next big thing to implement.

P.S. Thinking of those geothermal hole, maybe you could have a choice to make between using it for electricity or to extract water from the steam? Make a choice, easy water, or easy power?

I would rather pay attention to other things.

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 12:26:28 AM
I really like the game anyway, I just think that it is the most obvious missing feature that would improve the game play the most.

By the way, I like all those feature, drugs, relationship, beauty, joy systems and the game is awesome, again, just think that water at this point could be the next big thing to implement.

P.S. Thinking of those geothermal hole, maybe you could have a choice to make between using it for electricity or to extract water from the steam? Make a choice, easy water, or easy power?

Except the feature is not missing it's deliberately not there(there is a reason why Tynan hasn't implemented something so obvious and in your face), if you've noticed all the colonist needs, then you might be aware that they mechanically are different from another. Water overlaps with food, it serves the same purpose and is mechanically the same(intake of resource to satisfy).

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 03:45:45 AMWater don't overlap food. Not more than comfort, beauty and joy overlap each other. Try to survive 3 day without drinking and come back tell me if water overlap your food. Not to mention hygiene and all the good things and strategy it could add to the game, maybe at some point this idea didn't made sense and was too costy to implement, but things evolve. Good for you if you don't like the idea, it doesn't mean that some other players wouldn't like to see it happen so if it doesn't interest you why don't you spend you energy on proposing things that you'd like instead of bashing idea you don't like. For your information, a month ago the game as been launched on steam which has give lot of attention to the game and a new pool of consumers that deserve the same respect than you and their suggestions has as much values than yours.

If somebody can't be bothered to read—and follow—the stickied post on frequently suggested features before jumping in, their suggestions don't deserve the respect of anyone.

The fact that you're still fucking going on about it even after it's been pointed out that this shit ain't happening per the stickied post suggests that you're probably a moron, and definitely a nuisance.

Ok, upgrading from "probably a moron" to "definitely a moron." The fact that the stickied post is old and you've just wandered in fresh and clueless doesn't mean it does not apply to you, and it sure as hell didn't tell you to necro a thread that's been dead for six months so you can talk about how great this discussed-to-death idea would be.

This idea is so obvious that of course you gotta +1 it.

Water is so good for so many things..
Most especially, elaborate and artistic hydro-engineering.


Creating a moat around your colony
Creating a lever-controlled moat around your colony that flushes undesirables :)
Helping putting out fires
Irrigation of fields (lever/controlled water channels a-la DF possibly)
Cleanliness rating for pawns, affecting disease development/mood
Water freezing into slippery ice on a harsh winter
Ice sculptures to make that freezer a little more fun, fun stuff in ice-sheet starts.
Swimming to cool off / have fun
Pool parties!
But... Crocodiles :(

etc etc



Large lakes/rivers that prevent you getting to areas on the map, so you need to build canoes. Can be used to fish on good spots if not accessible on foot)

Quote from: Lightzy on August 21, 2016, 04:43:08 AM
This idea is so obvious that of course you gotta +1 it.

Water is so good for so many things..
Most especially, elaborate and artistic hydro-engineering.


Creating a mote around your colony
Creating a lever-controlled mote around your colony that flushes undesirables :)
Helping putting out fires
Irrigation of fields (lever/controlled water channels a-la DF possibly)
Cleanliness rating for pawns, affecting disease development/mood
Water freezing into slippery ice on a harsh winter
Ice sculptures to make that freezer a little more fun, fun stuff in ice-sheet starts.
Swimming to cool off / have fun
Pool parties!
But... Crocodiles :(

etc etc



Large lakes/rivers that prevent you getting to areas on the map, so you need to build canoes. Can be used to fish on good spots if not accessible on foot)

Yes it open a whole lots of possibilities, I like them all, but no need to make it over complicated at first. You have few crops, then people modded the game to have mores. You have few use for electricity, then people modded to have more use to it. You have a combat system, then people modded it to their taste. I would really like to see water to be implemented in some way. I think a limit should be put thought to not affect the game performance on the vanilla release. Keep it simple. :)

Maybe it could be modded, I don't know. I am just a new user from steam, the game got a lot of attention and positive review, and I really like the game. I don't see what is so terrible the get this discussion going again, this is not a total non sense topic. I don't see anywhere here that water is out of question and the idea should die forever.

Anyhow this is a design choice, but the game still evolve. Who knows.

You brought this shit up from a dead thread. Six fucking months it was dead. This has been discussed over, and over, and over again and it's not going to happen. You are pushing other suggestions off the front page so you can beat this dead horse, so yeah, you are polluting the forum.

So I have delete all my non constructive argumentation I invite some to do the same to keep this thread clean and still alive.

I think the purpose of it is to encourage people to use this thread instead of creating new one. There is a whole bunch of new players around since the steam release, so necroing dead horse from pre steam release may happen, better that it happen here. And anyway, water management would still be an awesome feature to add to this game. :)

Don't mind the forum nazis. They run around contributing nothing except annoyance to the actually creative people who have actual suggestions.

I would suggest to them to post suggestions if they have any, and not post at all if they don't.

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 06:56:15 AM
So I have delete all my non constructive argumentation I invite some to do the same to keep this thread clean and still alive.

No, it fucking isn't. The horse is dead. This isn't going to happen, and the purpose of the Frequent Suggestions sticky is not to encourage discussion of shit that is not going to happen, but rather to discourage it entirely.

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 06:56:15 AMI think the purpose of it is to encourage people to use this thread

Wrong. And necroing a thread that's six months dead isn't kosher pretty much anywhere.

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 06:56:15 AMThere is a whole bunch of new players around since the steam release, so necroing dead horse from pre steam release may happen, better that it happen here.

Postulating the existence of other dipshits who don't read the sticky doesn't excuse you from acting like one yourself. You are beating a dead horse. Do you have no clue what that even means, or what?

Quote from: Lightzy on August 21, 2016, 07:20:42 AM
Don't mind the forum nazis. They run around contributing nothing except annoyance to the actually creative people who have actual suggestions.

I would suggest to them to post suggestions if they have any, and not post at all if they don't.

My suggestions have always been better than yours, dumbass. You still haven't gone off to prove that alcohol lets you survive freezing temperatures, as you claimed before. Go do that.

---

We do not tolerate this kind of treatment of our members.  Pax_Empyrean is now on a brief vacation from the RimWorld community forums and will hopefully return wiser and more constructive.

See forum rules here: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=122.0

1. No personal attacks
2. Sustained hostility or anger venting
3. Do not sustain flamewars
17. Mods enforce these rules only

As always, use the Report Post button if you see anything wrong and don't attack our forum members!

Triple posting isn't kosher either. Have you never been on a forum before?

Can we just agree to disagree and move on. Insulting people isnt kosher either. This discussion lead nowhere, I just wanted to tell ludeon how much I would like to see water system and what I think it would bring to the game. They won't do it.. alright. But sorry dude I won't take your word for it. Who knows, now that things are rolling and they are on steam best sellers, that open the valve for more budget to work on new feature. They talk about small little suggestion that take 4 hours to do, and I fully agree with that, it really can push the game into great place. Adding a whole new system like water management would make possible a ton of new 4 hours new little suggestions.

Modeling water is not even remotely easy to do and can get really resource intensive if you do anything even sort of realistic with it (see: Dwarf Fortress). If you're looking for easy to implement suggestions, which we should be, water is not one of those things.

We could have avoided all this shit if you hadn't insisted on doubling down after reviving a long dead thread and ignoring the sticky listing the stuff that has been discussed to death and isn't going to happen.

Well the way I imagine water system is fairly simple. Almost a copy paste of the electricity system. No need to go much further than this and model dynamic water. You pump water to feed water working device just like you pump electricity to feed electricity device.

I wouldn't propose something remotely impossible to achieve. It came from the idea to implement a water distribution system that would work like the electric system. Because a plumbing system work pretty much the same as an electric system.

A little challenging, but no need to make tides and all that stuff. Keep it simple. You put water pump on hole similar to geothermal holes. Water collector working like solar panels.. They don't have to start from scratch, they work on something that already exist and modify it.

And that is still not what I read on that sticky. What i read is that they are the most frequent asked suggestion that arent likely to be implemented, and that there is link to thread about those suggestion to go read and leave a comment there. Or else couldnt they just close the thread to new comments?

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 07:28:30 AM
dude...

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=447.0

Thanks

Read rule #10.  ;)

FYI, that was an old quote.  I updated it, and the official rules will always be found here:
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=122.0

Note that the last rule is "Mods enforce these rules only".  So if you see someone violating the rules, use the Report Post button.

Anyway, you were right to post in this thread.  We have no forum rules against "necro posting" (although we may lovingly tease those who do it).  We in fact have a rule (#9) that says to use the forum Search feature to find a relevant discussion and post there.  So thank you for doing that.  And thanks for removing whatever was off-topic before.

I now return you all to your regularly scheduled on-topic discussion of water as a resource!

Water systems were one of the things I was hoping to see implemented.  But I'm new to the game and it seems it's already been decided not to go that route.  That's fine, the game is fun without it, but for me the lack of water makes playing on desert maps pretty absurd, so I won't be playing them.  Plenty of other fun biomes to enjoy.

Quote from: milon on August 21, 2016, 08:39:15 AM
Read rule #10.  ;)

:-[ Sorry, I am pretty new to this forum (I am pretty new on any forum at all). I shall stay respectful to the rules and other users, and also use the report post button if I encounter a situation like this again, before it escalate. Thanks for your patience.

Quote from: eadras on August 21, 2016, 09:07:16 AM
Water systems were one of the things I was hoping to see implemented.  But I'm new to the game and it seems it's already been decided not to go that route.  That's fine, the game is fun without it, but for me the lack of water makes playing on desert maps pretty absurd, so I won't be playing them.  Plenty of other fun biomes to enjoy.

I totally agree about the game to be tons of fun without it, but that is the first thing that come to my mind as an improvement that would take the game a step further and open lots of possibilities. Note that I have no knowledge with writing code, so I talk about things I don't really know, but I imagine something fairly simple using a system almost identical to electricity. As I could read, the best change and update come from using an existing feature and modify it.

Maybe someone will mod it at some point. I shall ask on the mod forum what kind of work it could represent to use the electric system to create a water system similar to it working in parallel, and adding a water variable to the mood, health, and to grow crop. Sure sound like lot of work though, but not as much as creating a water system like dwarf fortress and making a realistic fluid physic on large scale to the whole world.

Quote from: FullMetalPant on August 21, 2016, 09:33:29 AM

Quote from: milon on August 21, 2016, 08:39:15 AM
Read rule #10.  ;)

:-[ Sorry, I am pretty new to this forum (I am pretty new on any forum at all). I shall stay respectful to the rules and other users, and also use the report post button if I encounter a situation like this again, before it escalate. Thanks for your patience.

Quote from: eadras on August 21, 2016, 09:07:16 AM
Water systems were one of the things I was hoping to see implemented.  But I'm new to the game and it seems it's already been decided not to go that route.  That's fine, the game is fun without it, but for me the lack of water makes playing on desert maps pretty absurd, so I won't be playing them.  Plenty of other fun biomes to enjoy.

I totally agree about the game to be tons of fun without it, but that is the first thing that come to my mind as an improvement that would take the game a step further and open lots of possibilities. Note that I have no knowledge with writing code, so I talk about things I don't really know, but I imagine something fairly simple using a system almost identical to electricity. As I could read, the best change and update come from using an existing feature and modify it.

Maybe someone will mod it at some point. I shall ask on the mod forum what kind of work it could represent to use the electric system to create a water system similar to it working in parallel, and adding a water variable to the mood, health, and to grow crop. Sure sound like lot of work though, but not as much as creating a water system like dwarf fortress and making a realistic fluid physic on large scale to the whole world.

implementing water like electricity seems like a good idea, although I would suggest to have an item colonists consume, too. so you'd have some kind of manual well in the early game, or just get water from a lake or river, and later on get an electric well (or maybe one using muffalos?), and then you use water pipes to supply stuff like a water dispenser, toilet, sink, etc. with water.

I should have look in the mod community before, because this water/electricity idea is exactly what someone was attempting to do.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=18602.msg225663#msg225663

I think that is what is making the most sense, and doable in a acceptable amount of time exploiting an existing system instead of creating a new one from scratch. Though, seems like the guy work alone on this, and he have to figure out how the whole rimworld code is written in other to exploit it to get it done.

I would imagine it has a water gauge to be filled that would work more like JOY (when a pawn go to play pool or watch tv, is joy gauge is filled) he would go fill a flask, which would take like 5 or 10 second. But there would be no item to consume (still, a water device could create an item you can carry to use the water for something else, that could work too). Watering crop would work like a sunlight lamp, a sprinkler with a radius.

Or maybe the pawn could be ordered to water crop, which would decrease his water gauge (like when you walk around an ugly place, your beauty gauge decrease). The water gauge would represent the water he carry no the water he drank, so the penalty on mood and health would only apply once he ran out of water for a bit.

A well at the beginning would be possible to work that way too (just as a pool table don't need electricity, but a tv does), as well as a manual device to water crop (maybe that first well would allow you to water crop on a certain radius), until you build an electric/fuel pump and a plumbing system.

The problem I see is how do you calculate water consumption, as electric device consume electricity unless you turn them off, would it use water unless you turn you water device off, that still make sense but may be a bit of micro managing, unless it turn on and off on automatically activation. The extra is stored in water tank (battery).

I would help if I knew anything about coding!  :'(

So, with the trolls moderated out,

Back to the topic of how to use water in creative ways in the game, I hope?

Sure thing :)

The thing with water is that it would open the way to so many more ideas in my opinion, even if it just start as a very basic system. Apparently Tynan said that he wouldn't want to double food as it's pointless, but what I imagine doesn't double food, it double the electric system and open the way to many, many water working devices that would give a lot of depth to the game, adding new mechanics and mood/health/world properties that make the utmost sense in a colony simulator. 

I'm thinking that certain events could decrease water quality or outright poison it, like raiders could poison wells/ponds/etc and toxic fallout could make water toxic for a while. Requires iodine to clean? Also someone mentioned underground water sources that could flood your colony, they COULD be on the same level as the colony but they'd be inside mountains. They could have a small sign that they're there, perhaps tiny water pools once you destroy nearby stone tiles? Or a leaking water animation. The water that comes out to flood your colony could slow movement and building speed considerably. It would be difficult to stop a flood, plus moisture pumps would be required to remove the water after it's dammed up. Walls could outright stop water from spreading but doors would merely slow it.