Removing water?

[Maethius]

I believe this issue raises its ugly head with primarily with mods (BetterRuins, at least!) but I think I have run into some vanilla ruins that are partially underwater inside. I know I've run into sunken ruins in a lake many times.

My question is, is there a way to drain an area of water? As far as I can tell, the nearest answer is to destroy every block to the walls and fill in an entire area with sand or another solid block, which removes the water and then opens up the space once the temporary block is removed. While this works with some locations, it isn't helpful if you are attempting to un-submerge a basement with water 3+ blocks deep. It also won't work with chiseled walls and the like, and it forces you to destroy every decorative block in the area.

Is there a system in the works to remove water in any quantities?

[Dilan Rona]

best solution unfortunately is using sand/gravel to fill the space to get rid of water. and mining it out afterwards. There is no known mods for sponges (yet)

[Thorfinn]

Not that I know of. Not without cheating anyway. Hay blocks is my go to. And, like you say, you still have to either contain or destroy the non-solid blocks anyway. It's not that big of a pain, though. Wall off the ruins with rammed earth or something and you can place and remove hay blocks at an obscene rate.

[Thorfinn]

10 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

There is no known mods for sponges (yet)

Hey, that's a great idea. Not sure it meshes very well with the level of realism they are seeking, though. What would be kind of cool is if you could place a screw of archimides at the bottom of the basement (or whatever) and connect it to a windmill. The apparatus works by destroying the highest air-touching source block closest to the pump, say, every 10 minutes of game time. It would mean you have to come back tomorrow, but, hey, seraphs have forever, to the best of our knowledge.

Oh, dark thought. What if seraphs are the re-embodied spirits of what became drifters?

Edited February 26, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Dilan Rona]

actually your idea is better using the archemedes screw.

[Maethius]

I love the idea of a water pump or mechanical drain system! Perhaps this would be a good case to add rubber trees; to create seals or hoses for moving water?