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[Xenon, Dwarf of Hoar]

Hi guys.
How are you doing?
I'm fond of beer and long romantic walks by the smelting estates.
I recently embarked to a nice new locale (all of my previous forts died very early from diseased fps. I admit, I have a bit of a thing for waterfalls.)
This is a nice place with a volcano (first time I've seen magma).
But the river. The river, she is cold. Not the lovely flowing blue I am used to in the temperate homelands, but a pale and ghostly blue.

Sorry if my ramblings have bored you, but could you give me advice on dealing with ice?
Some cool things I can do?
I have thought of building my fort entrance through it (not sure whether it thaws in summer yet)
Can I thaw it by creating a magma flow beneath it?
I need inspiration. Advice and stories appreciated.

My fisherdorfs are not happy, but this is one fort that will not decline to an ecstatic mess of Urist McComforted-by-Waterfall moving at 40 fps

tl;dr: What lovely industrial dwarfish things have you done with a frozen river?

[Pilsu]

Yes, a magma flow underneath it should thaw it. Whether you can thaw the edges, I don't know.

Use the ice to practice engraving instead of just having dwarves rub stone until stupidly good at art. Be sure to train them to swim first though.

[Eagle_eye]

if you want to thaw the edges you'll probably have to VERY CAREFULLY flow magma along the side without letting more than 1/7 spill over at once. also, 40fps is not that bad for a big fort...

[Hyndis]

If there is stone under the river you can carve fortifications to the edge of the map.

As stationary 7/7 magma doesn't seem to melt water for some strange reason you'll need to keep the magma flowing, however as you have fortifications on the edge of the map under the river anyhow that should be very easy to do. You will need a pump stack to get magma just under the river however, and that will require either a whole lot of slave labor, DWR, or wind farm if your map has wind.

[Xenon, Dwarf of Hoar]

I started with a proficient(? Well, I put 5 skill points into it) engraver for kicks.

Should overflowing be a problem? I am not pumping it so it shouldn't have pressure and only flow down, right?
This is assuming I can just tap into the side of the volcano I have next to the river. Am I wrong here?

-EDIT- I realised I would have to pump (or build a floor + walls) to get lava on both sides of the river.

My previous forts have never been large. I have not yet managed to appoint a mayor. 40 fps is from a population of about 20 dwarfs and very large arrays of very comforting waterfalls.

Also, a quick question about cave-ins if you don't mind.
Do cave-ins occur when mined rooms (or built floors) become to large without enough support, or solely when the rock or floor is hanging in free space?

[Kearn]

hanging in free space

[mrbobbyg]

This is a nice place with a volcano (first time I've seen magma).


tl;dr: What lovely industrial dwarfish things have you done with a frozen river?

That makes me sad.  Dorfs need magma for proper development.

[Xenon, Dwarf of Hoar]

Thanks, guys.
Nice community you have going here, I may just stick around.

[Hyndis]

If there is stone under the river you can carve fortifications to the edge of the map.

As stationary 7/7 magma doesn't seem to melt water for some strange reason you'll need to keep the magma flowing, however as you have fortifications on the edge of the map under the river anyhow that should be very easy to do. You will need a pump stack to get magma just under the river however, and that will require either a whole lot of slave labor, DWR, or wind farm if your map has wind.

Oh, forgot.

If you have no stone under the river you can still do it, but it must be above ground.

First off you'll need to construct floors over the water to protect it from turning into obsidian. Build walls to contain the magma that follow the path of the river.

And now for the sneaky part!

You need to build a wall to the edge of the map. Yes, you can do this! Build drawbridges that are 1 tile wide and 5 tiles long. This will get you from the edge of the wall to the edge of the map. Link them to levers, pull levers. A retracted drawbridge acts just like a wall and is even indestructible to building destroyers. At that point you can deconstruct the lever since you don't need the lever anymore.

[NewsMuffin]

Hi guys.
How are you doing?
I'm fond of beer and long romantic walks by the smelting estates.
I recently embarked to a nice new locale (all of my previous forts died very early from diseased fps. I admit, I have a bit of a thing for waterfalls.)
This is a nice place with a volcano (first time I've seen magma).
But the river. The river, she is cold. Not the lovely flowing blue I am used to in the temperate homelands, but a pale and ghostly blue.

Sorry if my ramblings have bored you, but could you give me advice on dealing with ice?
Some cool things I can do?
I have thought of building my fort entrance through it (not sure whether it thaws in summer yet)
Can I thaw it by creating a magma flow beneath it?
I need inspiration. Advice and stories appreciated.

My fisherdorfs are not happy, but this is one fort that will not decline to an ecstatic mess of Urist McComforted-by-Waterfall moving at 40 fps

tl;dr: What lovely industrial dwarfish things have you done with a frozen river?

My fisherdorfs are not happy, but this is one fort that will not decline to an ecstatic mess of Urist McComforted-by-Waterfall moving at 40 fps
tl;dr: What lovely industrial dwarfish things have you done with a frozen river?

to an ecstatic mess of Urist McComforted-by-Waterfall moving at 40 fps
tl;dr: What lovely industrial dwarfish things

McComforted-by-Waterfall moving at 40 fps
tl;dr: What lovely industrial

moving at 40 fps
tl;dr: What

40 fps

ಠ_ಠ

But yes, magma should melt the ice.

[Xenon, Dwarf of Hoar]

Oh yes, I see what my mistake was there.
Very clevar use of quoting.

That's a very good idea, melt it from above.
Thanks for the bridge trick.
This way I would only need to melt the entrance of the river onto the map, and divert it underground.

However, someone mentioned only moving lava will melt the ice.
How fast do volcanoes refill themselves? I wouldn't want to be left burning wood for my steel industry.

Do you think placing some lignite on a floor above the river and lighting it on fire would melt the ice?

[NewsMuffin]

I'm pretty sure if you just have magma near it, it should melt at least some of it.
I haven't tried this, but I think it works, because you can have a hallway that makes you walk through water, and if there is a hollow cavity in the ceiling, floor, or walls, that is filled with magma, you'll explode or something similar.

[bowdown2q]

Fun thing I did in my last Kobold Camp game: if you've got a body of water that thaws periodically, dig out the ice in winter and fill the bottom of the lake with coffins. As long as you make sure to keep everybody out of there once spring hits -or train swimming - then you have the most kick-ass graveyard EVER.

[Hyndis]

Oh yes, I see what my mistake was there.
Very clevar use of quoting.

That's a very good idea, melt it from above.
Thanks for the bridge trick.
This way I would only need to melt the entrance of the river onto the map, and divert it underground.

However, someone mentioned only moving lava will melt the ice.
How fast do volcanoes refill themselves? I wouldn't want to be left burning wood for my steel industry.

Do you think placing some lignite on a floor above the river and lighting it on fire would melt the ice?

A volcano will fill up quite fast but you can always go down to the magma ocean and use that magma if you need even more magma.

You don't need very much magma either, just 1/7 is enough to melt the ice. A slow but steady stream is all that you need. Alternatively, you can just do it in bursts. Create a large cistern underground where you can collect liquid water. Then when it gets low periodically turn on the magma pump to to melt the ice and refill the cistern. You could even link it up to a pressure plate to entirely automate the process.

I've done the cistern method before to collect drinking water. A 10 Z level tall cistern that is 20x20 tiles will contain 4,000 units of water. As each unit of water provides 10 drinks, that means the cistern holds 40,000 drinks for dwarves. The cistern doesn't need frequent refilling.

Other option is to just dig down into the caverns and tap into the water there. If there is water going to the edge of the map then you have an unlimited source of water underground.

[Xenon, Dwarf of Hoar]

Thank you.

I'll have to experiment with some pressure plates to automate things.
I have been wondering whether a constant "on" signal (or "off" in the case of drawbridges and fluid) is generated by say 7/7 water on a plate set to 7/7.
Or will that signal be generated as soon as there is 7/7 water, tunring off 100 ticks (I believe it is) later?

Unfortunately I had a lot of this fun you all talk about.
-Buzzard stole plump helmets (5)
Repeat
-Urist McHelpful cancels give food. No food.
-There is nothing to catch in the central swamps
-Urist "The Bear" McGrylls is hunting for small creatures
-Urist McHungry-Woodcutter went berserk

And so ended this expedition. I suppose I should have put more effort into making the only dwarf with an axe happy.