Print

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

[FleshForge]

Protip:  Ice supports melt.
ed: no they don't, oops

[Noble Digger]

Protip:  Ice supports melt.
ed: no they don't, oops

They sure do if they're constructed "Inside" I kept finding little smears of water and mud in my fort because of supports melting.

[FleshForge]

Oh maybe it did then.  It left the mechanism used which confused me.

Word to the wise if you're trying to irrigate this way - dropping ice from above onto ice floor nets you nothing, it won't melt.  I remember reading something like this (build a Floor before doing it).  Dropping a large hunk of ice into a cistern and then building your farm below that for gravity flow/floodgates is probably the simplest way to get this done.  Since my first try at the farm is a failure the caravan had a meager 3 barrels of booze, and two waves of migrants rolled in like locusts, that fort is now toast  Anyway that was a great idea, I'll definitely give that more time later on

[monk12]

For a few forts now I've been ignoring the entire farming industry in favor of the meat industry. Bring a ton of booze for the migrants that come before the caravan, milk (1pt) to turn to cheese, and a bunch of dogs for defense/emergency food. And a trained axedwarf to search and destroy wildlife, with a trained butcher to hack up the carcass before it rots. Of course, I tend to run light on starting skills, so I've got surplus points for that extra cow.

[Saposhiente]

Problem is, [ALCOHOL_DEPENDENT]

[o_O[WTFace]]

I embarked on glaciers a few times.  It sometimes does end in immediate hilarity, I think because cavern creatures sometimes decide to run up through your fortress to get to the surface.  You just have to wall off a little section of cavern once you breach it, and its a good idea to bring a dedicated soldier to chase away the crundles.  Ideally, bring bronze and cassiterite and smelt weapons and armor and picks on site.  Or bring extra soldiers, storm the caverns and forge the cavern creatures into roasts and trade goods

[Noble Digger]

The stones left over when mining out ice tiles ("water" is the name they are referred to by) will melt if stored indoors or used to build a support or bridge indoors. If you want to irrigate an indoor farm using ice, just have your dwarves dump one unit of "water" stone on each tile of farmland. It will melt (disappear) and transform into 3-4 individual units of water (if they were in a 1x1x1 channel it would have 3\7 depth in it). Theoretically you don't need a 1:1 ratio of water:farmland but that's how I would do it. Ice only melts when it's "inside" "dark", so please remember that "dark" is a one-time thing, if a tile has ever ever been "light", nothing you do will ever make it "dark" again. Constructed floors, bridges, cast obsidian, nothing. Treat your natural walls and floors (aka ceilings) with respect, as they keep away the hated sun and cannot be replaced once destroyed.

[FleshForge]

Yeah the problem is, when the ice chunks melt they form a contaminant "water" instead of making mud.  If you do have actual ice terrain though, it's not too hard to survive once you figure out this trick of making a cave in plug cistern.  I've realized that the terrains that are freezing and do NOT have ice are vastly harder - frozen pools on the surface are all you have to work with, if you even have any.

[jester]

I havent done a glacier yet but plenty of haunted trundras.  Trick I use is to crack the caverns early and then dig out large areas in the soil near the surface for herbs and wood.  Small amounts of stuff will start growing underground on soil or sand or whatever once the cavern is breached.
  Failing that walling off sections of the caverns can be quite easy if you find the right bits, islands are great for this.  Just make sure they are totally sealed.  Taking one male and 3 female dogs pretty much has you covered for food for 2 years too.