03-19-2017, 05:26 PM
So water is not really handled in banished, except in the context of fire control. In fact it's an area where many city builders tend to fall short. And yet if you look, water is one of the most important resources in human existence. After thinking long and hard about the problem, I've come up with a system that might work. Though again, how it might be implemented in code I am not sure.
Basically, every house and building that requires water has a small guage that shows how much water is stored. If it falls too low, than a resident or employee will travel to the nearest water source to fill it up again. As long as the guage is full everything runs smoothly.
Source of water can include springs, rivers, and freshwater lakes. It can also include artifical sources like wells, fountains, reservoirs, and canals.
Now if you want to go simple, than you can expand your supply of water by constructing canals or aqueducts that bring waters sources closer to where they are needed. Either by pumping it from a well or by linking the canal to a natural source like a lake, a spring or a stream. Maybe have a more advanced pumphouse building and pipes that can bring water to businesses and homes without the need for someone to go out and fetch water.
But, if you wanted to go a step further... introduce water capacity. Each natural source has a limit to how much water can be drawn from it. Every spring produces a set number of liters of water, every stream and river is supplied by an unseen source that is constantly pumping water down it, and there is an unseen groundwater source that determines how much water can be pulled from your wells.
Now lets say that lakes and reservoirs act as storage units. They are filled up by rain and by water flowing into them from streams. Streams and canals connected to them also drain water. If the imput is higher than the output, the lake fills up, if it is lower than the lake drains. If it drain too much than good luck fishing or using any marine industries built on its shore. In reverse, if a lake or stream is over capacity, than you run the risk of flooding.
Now lets also say that each cannal or stream connected to the lake drains a set amount from the source. A little stream or ditch adds a small amount of output, while a big river or shipping canal adds a lot of drainage. The all drain into the sea, an underground river, or into an off-screen site that represents whatever it is downriver. Each field or industry connected to that stream increases its draw. Same with any person visiting the stream or source to get water. (Though in this case it would be small and temporary) If their source is dry, than the stream goes dry. Easy to walk across, but bad news for anything drawing on that source. The player could then use floodgates to control which fields get water in case of a drought. They could also build more reservoirs and storage cisterns to increase their water storage for times of need.
Ideally there would be enough water coming from the sources that if there was nothing else drawing from the streams, than there would be no risk of the streams or lakes drying up. (Unless you were playing an arid map where water shortages was part of the experience.) It would only be if you started drawing on the stream with heavy farming or water intense industries like beer brewing or tanning that you might start having problems.
