Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[davidc]

I believe I have the latest version. I tried gathering plants in order to brew, but even though I had rye grass it said that i had no brewable plants... I would have expected that I could do that.

Also, how do you use ice to drink?  I don't think it explicitly says how to do that in the wiki but I would like to know how to do that to avoid dehydration   

[nuget102]

I believe I have the latest version. I tried gathering plants in order to brew, but even though I had rye grass it said that i had no brewable plants... I would have expected that I could do that.

Also, how do you use ice to drink?  I don't think it explicitly says how to do that in the wiki but I would like to know how to do that to avoid dehydration 

Your dwarves can't drink ice, however ice melts when it's no longer in the ice layers (e.g. dig down to the rock layers) so with some engineering you could make an underwater reservoir made from melted ice blocks.

[PatrikLundell]

Ryegrass is a kind of grass, not the crop rye, which is why you can't gather it.

If you create a cave-in of the ice onto a "warm" (i.e. non freezing) surface the ice should melt. However, I think (without knowing) that doing this to murky pools or a stream won't work because the cave-in would also expose the rock below to the open, freezing air, so it still wouldn't melt until the surface melts.
A cave-in of glacier ice not exposed to the surface air will melt, however (provided you drop it on a "warm" surface, not more ice).

I'd take a two pronged approach:
- Gather all plants you can find on the surface by a blanket designation, rather than trying to cherry pick. Some of them ought be brewable.
- Dig down quickly to locate a cavern with water. Depending on the severity of the thirst you can have the luxury of building a safe(ish) pool/well embryo behind an airlock, or you have to rush out into the cavern to stave off the dehydration (make sure to make buckets!).

I'd complement the first one by browsing the plants marked for gathering, using the wiki to identify them, and bumping the collection priority on the ones that are brewable.

Given the ice, you either embarked in a rather cold embark, or it's already winter (which is about when you run out of the embark booze). You should have set up your farm plots, but if you haven't plump helmets are both brewable and will grow during the winter. That, requires you to have access to underground soil, of course.

[davidc]

Could you do something like cave in the murky pool one level down, then roof it over?
Could you take the ice somewhere for it to melt?

I could dig into the caverns but that's a lot less safe.

[PatrikLundell]

The problem is that murky pools are only a single tile deep, so anything dug out would  by necessity be exposed to the open air. You COULD build a box with a roof over the ice, since a cave-in of the ice then wouldn't cause the floor beneath to be exposed to the open air but you can't do it in the reverse order.
Ice "boulders" will melt when brought into the warmth (but if you build something out if them before they melt they'll resist dragon fire just fine), but they only result in useless smears of water (not 1/7 deep, just a "contamination").

I'd definitely set one of my miners to dig for a cavern with water, if for no other reason than your need of a backup and that you'll have to find the caverns anyway at some point. (And building a "house" will take some time anyway, and you can't start the channeling until you've protected the ground beneath from the horrible sun. You COULD just build a wall with a ramp up and then a roof out from the ramp to block the sunlight, but when you do your cave-in you'll have a hole straight down for any nasties to enter your fortress through. If your dorfs are thirsty you're very close to being out of time...

[Sutremaine]

I believe I have the latest version. I tried gathering plants in order to brew, but even though I had rye grass it said that i had no brewable plants... I would have expected that I could do that.

If it's a :,`.; tile, it's groundcover and can't be gathered.
If it's a " tile, you can gather it.

[escondida]

Incidentally, for long-term survival, be sure to bring enough drinks for your first few months, bring seeds, and--most importantly--bring experienced planters. If they're not experienced, they'll waste your seeds and you won't get nearly as successful a crop.