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[MrLurkety]

To make a robust system for floating objects, we should have things that are less dense than the water below it float upward. Otherwise they stay on the bottom. 
This would make a few things possible, like pseudo boats that are really just wooden floors floating on water, moving with the current.
If this is added in, we could make a 'dwarven canal' to transport dwarves and items on the pull of a lever with a locking system.

This is just an idea floating out there¹; we should devise a more specific system, of course, as that would allow better and more complex creations.

This would make securing a water supply more attractive, creating more uses with the probable oversupply of water.

^{1: no pun intended}

[Shonai_Dweller]

For the boats release Toady mentioned recently how he's considering water displacement and how a heavily loaded boat should be lower in the water and stuff so I guess he's leaning towards 'more complex' right now.

[GoblinCookie]

Ice badly needs to be on the top of the pond (or river or whatever) with water underneath rather than outright replacing all the water.  That would allow water creatures to survive the winter, plus it would allow us to smash through the ice to get liquid water in adventure mode.

[MrLurkety]

GoblinCookie: Ice is less dense than water, so yes, if this is implemented, it will float to the top.
Shonai_Dweller: Okay, but every idea may help him. If we come up with a robust system, he may implement part of that, saving a bit of time to work on other things.

[FantasticDorf]

Ice badly needs to be on the top of the pond (or river or whatever) with water underneath rather than outright replacing all the water.  That would allow water creatures to survive the winter, plus it would allow us to smash through the ice to get liquid water in adventure mode.

Already got you covered, though the ice you are describing that could be shallowly cut/stabbed through would need to be different to permafrost ICE, maybe a subtype of water that eventually turns into (so that you can swim below it/bore a hole into the top but it doesn't obstruct the water tile only the overhead tile?) permafrost eventually with time, so that the fortress mode version is just that doing it sped up across like a week (though its a handful of seconds to the player)

Obvious strength/weight tests for walking ontop of it, based on shearing and listening to the ice crack.

[GoblinCookie]

GoblinCookie: Ice is less dense than water, so yes, if this is implemented, it will float to the top.
Shonai_Dweller: Okay, but every idea may help him. If we come up with a robust system, he may implement part of that, saving a bit of time to work on other things.

It would if the game automatically obeyed the laws of physics rather than allowing for perpetual motion machines.   

Ice badly needs to be on the top of the pond (or river or whatever) with water underneath rather than outright replacing all the water.  That would allow water creatures to survive the winter, plus it would allow us to smash through the ice to get liquid water in adventure mode.

Already got you covered, though the ice you are describing that could be shallowly cut/stabbed through would need to be different to permafrost ICE, maybe a subtype of water that eventually turns into (so that you can swim below it/bore a hole into the top but it doesn't obstruct the water tile only the overhead tile?) permafrost eventually with time, so that the fortress mode version is just that doing it sped up across like a week (though its a handful of seconds to the player)

Obvious strength/weight tests for walking ontop of it, based on shearing and listening to the ice crack.

Not quite getting what you are on about, given that we can already mine through permafrost ice the water on the top of a lake does not need to be different type of ice, regular permafrost ice should also float if we dislodge a block of it into a body of water (icebergs anyone?).  What we need is basic floating mechanics and also to make the game understand that water freezes gradually with the top of the body of water freezing first.  Once it has an understanding that ice floats on water (in general) then it should automatically put the ice in the correct place on top of the water.

Ice cracking really does not require a special mechanic separate from the other materials breaking, so it should wait until materials in general can break if a too heavy thing is placed on them.

[FantasticDorf]

I mean even with the floating goblincookie, not having complete penetration of ice into a lake via lower layers before the lake/sea freezes SOLID like the existing method means there is a realistic development of ice thawing & becoming solid. Thawing/freezing would be required to get that nice distinction between iceberg/glacier and a slightly thick/thin ice on the water which is risky to cross over since poor swimmers won't be able to manage 7/7 water from the ground collapsing underneath them.

> My attached suggestion explains sorting depth biomes appropriate to the quantity of water, such as deep sea so that they aren't impacted by the seas freezing over, therefore less likely to be caught up in a frost in the surface and frozen solid if your creatures swim away for the winter leaving behind more fish in the ocean year round with biomes send out animals & retract without being or frozen to death.

I mean, you could use this to actually populate artic seas with different quantities of solid and non-solid floating ice without risk of falling into frozen water & freezing up into a ice block in one go during a snap freeze, and instead having the process takes weeks before it even gets to a phase which creates a entire solid block that holds out against heat and also permeates more cold.

[GoblinCookie]

I mean even with the floating goblincookie, not having complete penetration of ice into a lake via lower layers before the lake/sea freezes SOLID like the existing method means there is a realistic development of ice thawing & becoming solid. Thawing/freezing would be required to get that nice distinction between iceberg/glacier and a slightly thick/thin ice on the water which is risky to cross over since poor swimmers won't be able to manage 7/7 water from the ground collapsing underneath them.

> My attached suggestion explains sorting depth biomes appropriate to the quantity of water, such as deep sea so that they aren't impacted by the seas freezing over, therefore less likely to be caught up in a frost in the surface and frozen solid if your creatures swim away for the winter leaving behind more fish in the ocean year round with biomes send out animals & retract without being or frozen to death.

I mean, you could use this to actually populate artic seas with different quantities of solid and non-solid floating ice without risk of falling into frozen water & freezing up into a ice block in one go during a snap freeze, and instead having the process takes weeks before it even gets to a phase which creates a entire solid block that holds out against heat and also permeates more cold.

The distinction between solid/non-solid is not really needed because it only really exist at our macroscopic level.  A very thin layer of ice would allow very small creatures to pass over it even if that ice is 'semi-solid' from our POV.  Actually liquid water becomes more jellylike at a lower scale, which again draws attention to the whole problem with defining the solid ice VS semi-solid ice; to smaller creatures what is semi-solid to us to solid.