[1.0 release] Water is behaving oddly compared to older versions

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• 15 Mar
  Jcheung System

  Highlighted comment
  
  "Water Physics and Floodgates 1.0 issue" (suggested by <Hidden> on 2026-03-15), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.

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• 13 Mar
  Jcheung Admin Pinned

  pending merge https://timberborn.featureupvote.com/suggestions/215655/bug-oscillating-water-waves
  it's an old bug, but the waterfall limits were masking the problems to a degree.
  
  the fix is to reduce the dam/floodgate count per span-you have 4 dams per spam there, try 2, or even 1. it may take some time to settle after you make the changes
  
  ~advice not from a dev

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• 13 Mar
  SangurianSoul

  I am having the exact same problem, came here to mention it or looking for a fix. I am also on the Waterfalls map.

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• 15 Mar
  Dalorian Merged

  There was an update with the water flow and floodgate mechanics in 1.0 experimental. instead of holding the water back and then letting the overflow spill out at a decent rate, it now seems that it holds the water back and then releases the water all at once, causing waves and floods through channels and districts. This causes major issues with water management and badtides in the early game as you have to rush for the new flow and fill valves. Please let the floodgates just spill over instead of emptying reservoirs in floods.

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• 19 Mar
  Adrian

  Happens to me too. It makes hard difficulty games near impossible. As soon as you get 2 dams in a cascading fashion water starts sloshing to the point where in the same river there are completely dry places and water is overflowing. What's weird is that this seems to intensify with every wave up to a certain point then calms down, but before it does the next draught starts (that's how long it takes) and the problems starts all over again. Game is unplayable in that state for me.
  
  To quickly test for that open the Waterfalls map in the Map Editor, PAUSE water simulation and add natural dams before every waterfall along the clean water path, and then set Water Simulation to max speed.

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• 19 Mar
  Jcheung Admin

  @adrian see pinned comment for workaround

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• 23 Mar
  Joe

  Another video to demonstrate how half of the river disappear after closing the source.
  https://youtu.be/82tWWIKT7q4?t=43

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• 23 Mar
  Adrian

  Thanks Jcheung, this does help a little bit and the sloshing is more manageable... However the blob/slime physics still cause the water to flow UP a dam when it's running out. When you have 0.5 reservoir, 0.9 dam and the water is still flowing trough it without any waves... That just ain't beaveright.

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• 28 Mar
  Ian

  I have a series of dams at levels on water falls. After a bad tide I opened the top level gates. The water surges over and over in a cycle never settling down. I tried every gate setting but it just cycles.

  timber_waterfalls_broken_p1vji9.png

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• 28 Mar
  tremor3258

  This is being really annoying with trying to set up aquaculture areas.

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• 31 Mar
  Behrhunter

  add same issue same map, increase your flow should solve it. I had it happen to sluices, had to match the flow perfectly.

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• 07 Apr
  Steelcrow

  I have same issue, on the same map. I have seen this happen briefly on the Lakes map, but on Waterfalls has been very problematic for water pumps along the flat plains section. After struggling with it for a few game days, I unlocked throttle valves and built a full span up near the source, after its first drop. Throttle valves eliminate the problem, when they have a side spillway for the water pulses to empty into.
  
  Watching closely, the backfill's water level can be seen pulsing slightly as it fills up. So it starts at the source and propagates down the entire stream unless forceably restrained.

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