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[expwnent]

This method is very simple, but it does not appear on the wiki for 31.04 or for 40d, and a quick search didn't turn up anything, so it seems to be unknown. So here's my contribution to dwarven science:

You can make ice walls very easily by designating a pond over an outside, freezing-temperature tile. Dwarves will drop water from one z-level above, the ice will freeze into an ice floor, then the next time a dwarf drops water on that tile, it becomes an ice wall.

See diagram:



Applications:

1. Infinite stone. Granted, that stone is ice, but still. Infinite given infinite water. And if you have ice and you're clever about it, you can get infinite water (2/7 of water freezes to an ice wall, which melts to 7/7 water).

2. Ice walls can be built in this way even on map edges. If you wanted, you could close off your fort entirely, or force people to come in from a certain side. I haven't tested this, though.

3. The ice walls are somewhat impervious to cave-in, if you're very, very careful. If the ice wall that forms is not supported, it does NOT immediately cause a cave-in. Instead, it just hovers in midair until you build a construction, or dig, or basically do anything that could normally cause or prevent a cave-in. Water always falls exactly one z-level before freezing.

4. Easier to make than obsidian.

5. Nothing can survive being encased in ice.

Drawbacks:

1. The infinite stone is ice, and there is seldom a shortage of stone anyway.

2. The ice walls will melt like normal ice if your climate is warm enough for ice to melt in the summer.

3. Weird stuff happens with ice walls made on map edges. As far as I can tell, sometimes they give support, and sometimes they do not. Sometimes, they'll even cave-in.

4. Needs a cold climate.

5. It's a slow process. Only one dwarf at a time will fill a given pond. But if you designate a separate pond zone for each tile, it'll go a lot faster. But unless you use macros, it'll take a long time to order all the pond designations.

6. Lots of "inappropriate building" job interruptions as ice walls are made.

7. Ice walls cannot be made on the top z-level with this method.

This should work in both 40d and in 31.03. I haven't tested it in 31.04, but it should work.

[Argonnek]

Interesting concept, but isn't ice (the stone) essentially useless for anything but constructions?

[expwnent]

You can make buildings and such out of it, too. But yeah, ice stone isn't that good.

It's the ice walls that are more useful, in that they're different from constructed ice walls.

[Boingboingsplat]

I'd like to see someone casting a castle made of ice instead of building one out of ice.
Would probably be rather time consuming, but oh well.

[Skorpion]

I'd like to see someone casting a castle made of ice instead of building one out of ice.
Would probably be rather time consuming, but oh well.

It'd melt in the summer.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Not on a glacier.

[Jim Groovester]

Not a new discovery, but certainly a fun one.

I have a fifteen story tower I've built using ice. I cheated, though, and made an ice mold, and then turned off temperature and used a pump stack to fill it up with water from an aquifer, and then turned temperature on again. It's 48x48 tiles large, so I'm left wondering what I'm going to do with it. I have bit more space than I need for a two hundred man fort, I think.

It'd melt in the summer.

Depends on climate. It's possible to get maps that are permanently frozen.

Another thing about natural ice: it doesn't cause any dust when it caves in.

[Urist Imiknorris]

Another thing about natural ice: it doesn't cause any dust when it caves in.

Handy for controlled demolition..

[Eagle_eye]

@Jim Groovester: Use it as stone storage. or better (and more dwarfy) a magma reservoir

[Absentia]

"Gee, Urist, what are we going to do with all the room in our ice castle?"
"Keep magma in it!"

[Eagle_eye]

actually, ice walls are impervious to magma.

[Absentia]

I know that, it just seems ridiculous.

Also, give your noble a really nice bedroom and wall him in. Imagine all your dwarves pointing and laughing at him through the walls while he starves to death.

[Jim Groovester]

@Jim Groovester: Use it as stone storage. or better (and more dwarfy) a magma reservoir

I'd have an obsidian tower if I did that. I don't even have magma on that map anyway.

actually, ice walls are impervious to magma.

I have natural ice walls, not constructed. As in I made them with flowing water and pond designations. Those are not impervious to magma.

[Eagle_eye]

ah. well then, use it as a deathtrap.

[Ralith]

@Jim Groovester: Use it as stone storage. or better (and more dwarfy) a magma reservoir

I'd have an obsidian tower if I did that. I don't even have magma on that map anyway.

actually, ice walls are impervious to magma.

I have natural ice walls, not constructed. As in I made them with flowing water and pond designations. Those are not impervious to magma.

Unless you have 40d, EVERYONE has magma.