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[Aldaron]

Just started my tundra fort, and to my great dismay, I noticed that the few ponds I have stayed frozen over the summer (the only water around, save for a possible aquifer I couldn't find yet). So I dug into a pond, making a few blocks of water. Now now, how to melt it?

- "Let's build a bridge out of 'er!"

So I built a bridge into my farm room (right there on the floor, not over anything), and the nice game allowed me to choose water as the material. Sure enough it melted pretty quickly indoors, producing one square of -- stagnant water! I can't get a depth reading, get it to spread, or build a farm on it.

So for the heck of it I tried to dig a channel under the stagnant water. It fell down. It still continues to be the same stagnant water though.

This is funny and weird.. But more weird than funny!

[MickEfinn]

I used to use this on glacier maps to make farmland underground in the rock. Just add one water road and presto! As of 33f anyways, no mud. ah well.

[Toady One]

This is Bug 383.  It just doesn't handle water "boulder" items that have melted yet.

[Aldaron]

Thanks for the reply    . I'm eagerly waiting.. (Would have thought a melting object would just generate some amount of water, 2/7(?). where it was).

Meanwhile, I'd be interested to know if there's any way at all to turn ice into water that I could use for starting my first farm! Or maybe sea water or beer or wine! Anything, really! Or take water with the seven settlers! =)

I recall reading that dropping ice down in a cave-in would cause it to melt and produce water. I tried that and it didn't happen. Maybe that thing is fixed now to make more sense?

[ December 17, 2007: Message edited by: Aldaron ]

[Aldaron]

Hehe =). Maybe I just like the cold parts too much, but at least my first glacier map is rather flat and featureless. So I can't resist suggesting two features. Crevasses, really just being long and thin pits, and meltwater streams, that form especially at the edges of glaciers, and mostly / only in the summer. Water being available, at least very small amounts of it and one season per year, would be fun and realistic and make glacier environments more independent.

Further harder ideas:

Maybe the game could generate meltwater channels inside the glacier. These would begin at crevasses where small streams end up. They would be filled with water in the summer, empty in the winter, providing a nicely hazardous area for exploration.

At least this glacier is completely flat. Would be neat if glaciers were gently sloping domes just like they actually are. And if mountains sometimes came with small, steep glaciers (dunno if this is the case already though!). This would also allow positioning meltwater channels and crevasses (mostly perpendicular to the streams) more realistically.

Also, snow on the glacier's edge should melt in the summer (related to streams), and snow on the high end of a glacier should stay there year-round. This is of course assuming the glacier isn't growing or receding very much. If glacier's edge didn't have snow melt, the glacier would expand.

Maybe the crevasses could be covered with snow in the winter, making natural pit traps? Perfectly realistic, not sure how fun. Could probably use the same mechanic as thin ice on top of a lake / stream.

So please excuse me but I'm a glacier nut and really fond of DF  . Thanks for making the greatest game I've played this year.