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[Meph]

I was looking into that long ago. The issues are that DF doesnt handle temperatures all that well. There are tied to biomes, and even if I create something ice-cold, it would instantly take on the ambient temperature. Other items are ignored (ice blocks for example are immune to temperatures and never melt), while others melt away if it is too warm (you make an ice-chair in winter, it melts in summer)

I could easily make a civ that does not need to drink, is immune to frost-bite and builds most everything out of ice. That would allow them to settle permafrost regions easily, but I'm unsure what kind of unique kinks that kinda civ should have.

[Rekov]

I think any frost based civ would probably need a building of some kind that generates ice boulders. There are actually some fairly interesting mechanics surrounding ice: http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Ice#Observations_on_constructing_with_ice

But generally, you can't easily produce large quantities of ice without being able to thaw and freeze on the surface. I suppose you could pump/haul water from below.

In terms of using ice to make things, constructions made of ice don't melt, but buildings, furniture and workshops made of ice do. Since temperature is an above ground/subterranean thing, ice buildings could be built inside surface structures made of ice as long as it never thaws.

This civ would probably also need a building that converts ice boulders into drinkable water, since ice boulders can't be melted into drinkable water. It would be interesting to set up, because you'd have to have the input side of the building be above ground, and the output not just be inside, but subterranean.

It might be that DF's handle on temperature just isn't sophisticated enough yet to make this concept worth while.

[Meph]

I can easily make fake ice, but I wouldnt know what the highend stuff should be for a civ like that.

[Rekov]

The stuff that would be cool would probably be impossible. Stuff like creeping cold from their fortress, etc. I guess I was picturing an Unseelie kind of vibe, but I vaguely remember somewhere that you had intended to give elves a more fey feel to them, so that might be overlap.

[LMeire]

Weather control? Probably needs DFHack magic, but I could see ice-wizards or whatever summoning custom blizzards or else lowering the ambient temperature of the fortress map just to make themselves comfortable. It could be like the endless winters that precede Ragnarok, maybe give them some war-animals that reflect that like wolves that never stop growing or the ability to "invite" allied giantkin visitors as mercenaries/possible residents. (Assuming the civ aren't giantkin themselves.) Or maybe weapons with super-low fixed temperatures, so they deal extra damage to organic materials and/or inflict unpleasant cold-themed syndromes on contact.

[Darkond2100]

I would say that the high-end for an ice civ would revolve around ice golem labor and beautiful transparent towers.

[Meph]

I would say that the high-end for an ice civ would revolve around ice golem labor and beautiful transparent towers.

Ice walls are not transparent, you'd need windows for that.

[Rekov]

I don't know if this was excluded from MW .40 deliberately, or if it just hadn't been implemented yet, but one of the things I really missed from the older version of MW was the ability to toggle features on and off. Specifically, the simplified materials. One of my favorite parts of DF was having all the ridiculous different types of bone, wood, leather, and such.

[LMeire]

Idea for the warlock/necromancer/whatever civ: Ghostly shenanigans. Things like generating and/or duplicating ghosts using souls and changing their professions to take advantage of that one "feature" where they'll keep doing labors like fishing, animal training and in at least one case military duties.