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[Parhelion]

I am embarked in a cold region that contains both a river and a volcano.  I'm considering some different ideas.  The first thing that comes to mind is "Mwhaha, instant obsidian farm!" 

However, then I remembered the region is cold and the river stays frozen most of the time.   I'd like to keep the river unfrozen for fishing and waterwheels, as well.

Are there some strategies to "breaking up" the ice and keeping the river unfrozen for the majority of the year?

I've looked over the forums for info on using magma to keep water from freezing, but that didn't turn up anything.  I'm also considering literally building a giant awning over the river and am wondering if this would work, and if I'd have to do the entire river or just portions of it.

Any other ideas?

[i2amroy]

What you would need to do is to run a tunnel directly underneath the river and then fill it with magma. This will then keep any water directly over the magma tunnel unfrozen year round. If all you want to do with the water then is use it as a barrier or drinking, you should be find just keeping the center of the river unfrozen without unfreezing the exit/entrance tiles (basically turning your river into a lake while it is frozen). If you intend to use significant amounts of water for something while the river is frozen, what you will need to do is a bit more complicated. Basically you will need to locate the entrance end of the river, smooth the tiles beneath it (at the end of your magma tunnel) and then turn them into fortifications, therefore allowing the magma to move there and unfreeze the entrance to the river. This means that you will need constant magma resupplies in order to counteract the drain off of the edge of the map, a thing that will consume large amounts of magma and FPS very quickly. Personally I suggest that you try to handle with just the lake idea, and if you really need lots of water then you definitely should add a way to close off those tiles (floodgates in the magma tunnel will work) so you don't constantly drain magma when you don't need it. Lastly you might consider just making a large underground reservoir that could be filled while the river is melted and then harnesses while it is frozen.

As for the awning idea, it doesn't work. Even if you build over a tile it will remain listed as "Light" and freeze in the winter. Too put it the short way, dig a tunnel beneath your river and fill it with magma and you can still fish in it during the winter, though your waterwheels won't work. Then check out DWR's on the wiki to make up for the lack of waterwheels while the river is frozen.

[evileeyore]

Or... instead of all that work, dig a tunnel next to the river (on the same level 1 square away).  No it won't be open at the ends, which is fine as lava heats 2 squares away on the same level including diagonally.


Now.... it's only important to have the source side actually be unfrozen year round, so you can stop short on the drainage side if you don't need it to actually drain.

[Parhelion]

Ah, I thought the magma thing wouldn't work for some reason. 

Thank you, I will give one of these a try and see what happens.

[Quietust]

Or... instead of all that work, dig a tunnel next to the river (on the same level 1 square away).  No it won't be open at the ends, which is fine as lava heats 2 squares away on the same level including diagonally.

Check again - magma only heats 1 tile away.

[i2amroy]

Now.... it's only important to have the source side actually be unfrozen year round, so you can stop short on the drainage side if you don't need it to actually drain.

Unless you want to have waterwheels running, in which case you need not only input but output as well in order to generate current.

[MrWiggles]

You could just make an entire covered river.

[i2amroy]

You could just make an entire covered river.

Aw you will notice in the second part of a covered river will not work. Once a tile is uncovered then it is permanently marked as "Light, Above ground" and water will forever freeze in that tile if it gets cold enough. The only potential way to get around this involves multiple levels of natural stone (or obsidian cast stone) caving in over the given tile, meaning it would take even more work than a magma tunnel to do.

[doublestrafe]

It just so happens that I have built a river of magma below my river to keep it from freezing in the winter. I completed it last night.

It should be noted: This does not work.

Sure, pumping magma under the river thaws it out. That's fine. But next winter? No dice. The whole thing froze over on me.

Apparently DF doesn't calculate the temperatures unless the magma is moving. And a 7/7 flow does not count as moving, either. I built a conduit from the end of my magma river back to the beginning and hooked it up to a pump, with the pump powered by a water wheel. This gave me a permanent setup very similar to the brook itself: all 7s up to near the exit (in the magma's case, the pump) but lower numbers nearer the exit. That winter, the river started to freeze (it goes through several biomes, so there was still flow), but at the shallow end where there were fluctuating numbers it stayed thawed. When I saw what was going on I realized that the solution was to turn off the pump. That let the bunched up 7/7s at the far end spread out, melting ice wherever they flowed.

And yeah, it's fps hell.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Try the caverns. Less pumping.