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[Covenant Ringthane]

Hi there. Put simply, does radiation (the heat kind) work in Dwarf Fortress?

You see, once, I planned to make a great mountainhome in the faraway northern glaciers of the world. For that bastion of dwarfdom, I wanted a outside courtyard/entryway with walls, a portcullis, a drawbridge, a dry ditch, plenty of fortifications for marksdwarves... you get the idea. However, as we all know, glaciers are fairly cold, and dwarves die if their beard-sensors get chilly. So, I devised a plan. Everything would match the usual design, with a small addition. The courtyard (and, by necessity, everything else) extended outwards by one block in both width and length. I would channel out this extra space and fill it with magma, so that my dwarves's beards would stay at a comfortable temperature out in the cold. Of course, I would need to make several alterations to the courtyard and the nearby landscape, as we were on a glacier (I did not want six layers of ice to melt and flood my little hole in the ground). Anyway, soon after I begun making changes to the earth, the fortress fell, but that is a story for another time.

Gentledwarves, would there be any meaning, had my actions succeeded? Would my dwarves have been able to brave the outside without the fear of having their beards snap-frozen?

[EvilBob22]

Good question.  I'm pretty sure conduction/convection works, but not radiation.  I have done an outdoor ice fortress in a tundra embark without any trouble, but I haven't personally done a glacier.

One interesting note: magma melts ice, but only if the magma is under the ice and moving.  That tends to make me think that the heat transfer is not actually calculated, but simulated.  But, heat changes are calculated in a magma cistern (maybe only when flowing though).

[itg]

Heat doesn't radiate, per se, but walls and floors touching magma will become warm, so you can make a heated courtyard by building a magma pool directly underneath it. I assume this prevents cold damage, but I haven't tried it.

[Larix]

It's not the glacier per se that kills, cold damage depends on precise temperature. If you don't lower the minimum temperature in worldgen, chances are you won't have a single place that's cold enough to cause damage. You can easily test the temperature of your fort by letting a log or other organic non-food item lie around on the surface. If it stays intact and takes no damage in a full month, the place is safe to live in without further precautions.

As said above, tiles adjacent to lava/magma (preferably moving/flowing) get heated up, which might help preventing cold damage. Remember that magma _will_ melt all adjacent ice, you need channels made of native rock, cast obsidian or constructed walls to contain it. I haven't tried, but as far as i know, constructed ice walls should be able to withstand magma.

[Niccolo]

As said above, tiles adjacent to lava/magma (preferably moving/flowing) get heated up, which might help preventing cold damage. Remember that magma _will_ melt all adjacent ice, you need channels made of native rock, cast obsidian or constructed walls to contain it. I haven't tried, but as far as i know, constructed ice walls should be able to withstand magma.

Yep, constructed ice walls are sufficiently dwarven to withstand the Earth's blood.