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[zmc]

Hi!
After a double ambush by those pesky goblins, my militia commander is in hospital with a fractured skull. I am in a frozen biome and the dwarves keep cancelling the "give water" order because there's no liquid water around.
I've read about using a cave-in to melt some ice, but I'm unsure how that works and whether it will even help in this case... I need drinkable water, not mud. I've also read about magma but haven't found any, yet. Are there any simple, quick ways of getting a bucket full of water?
Regards,
ZMC

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Dig down until you hit cavern water. Risky because of cavern critters but fast.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

if you have a frozen river on the map there's a little exploit you can take advantage of, dig a ramp on the side of the river, near where the river enters the map, then dig under the ice on the river to the edge of the map, smooth the ice wall and carve a fortification on it, it'll start pouring water and it will remain liquid at least until you expose it to the surface. be carefull, for this water comes out pressurized.

if you don't have a river, explore the caverns, and pray for an underground pond

[zmc]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Like this? No water coming out of it :-(

[Askot Bokbondeler]

no, it must be on a tile adjacent to the edge of the map
this


and it must be on the source of the river, one of the river edges will be the source the other will be the exit, there's no way of knowing which is which, so you may have to try both.

[zmc]

Hmm, I built fortifications on the edge of the map at both ends of the river now. Exactly like in your edit of my screenshot.
Still no water. :-(

[plisskin]

Dig down until you hit cavern water. Risky because of cavern critters but fast.

Caverns might be your best bet in a pinch. If you can punch through to them, you only need a shaft going down into some water for a well and you'll have a water supply. I don't know if flying creatures can come up wells.

[Hyndis]

Dig to the caverns. Remember, your well can draw water up many, many levels. There is no limit to the number of levels a well can draw water up from so long as there is an open channel all the way down to water. The deeper the well the longer the bucket takes but it will still work.

To protect your fortress build traps at the adjacent 8 tiles to the well. Anything that flies up the well will be captured in one of the traps.

[vassock]

Dig down until you hit cavern water. Risky because of cavern critters but fast.

Caverns might be your best bet in a pinch. If you can punch through to them, you only need a shaft going down into some water for a well and you'll have a water supply. I don't know if flying creatures can come up wells.

I'm pretty sure they can, especially building destroyers. I always make sure that my water source is coming from the cavern water because it is definitely infinite. What you do is you carve a fortification next to the water and build a drawbridge beside it. When you need to refill your reservoir, just flip the switch. Then close the gate. Obviously, you need to build and connect the drawbridge before you carve the fortification. This way, you get infinite water and your fortress remains airtight since fortifications and drawbridges are indestructible (when raised).

[gtmattz]

When embarking on a glacier/frozen area, it really should be your first major task to get water.  I usually go for the caverns, but if you have magma near the surface you can use that to melt some ice.

[Lagslayer]

Basically, the water only freezes once it enters the map. If you can get one of the source tiles to release water underground, it will not freeze. If this is the surface of your river:

       gggggggggg
      s~~~~~~~
      s~~~~~~~
      s~~~~~~~
      s~~~~~~~
       gggggggggg

g=ground
s=source of the river, which is just off the edge of the map
~=the river

...then what you want to do is go 1 z-level below the surface and turn one of the g into a fortifications. If the material is not stone, then the z-level lust below the river bottom may still work, assuming that is made of stone (but don't quote me on that).

[Askot Bokbondeler]

you can carve ice into fortifications. i told him to do that already, he claims it isnt working

Hmm, I built fortifications on the edge of the map at both ends of the river now. Exactly like in your edit of my screenshot.
Still no water. :-(

can i see a screenshot of what you did?

[Blurk]

you can carve ice into fortifications. i told him to do that already, he claims it isnt working

Hmm, I built fortifications on the edge of the map at both ends of the river now. Exactly like in your edit of my screenshot.
Still no water. :-(

can i see a screenshot of what you did?

i tried to carve ice in to a fortification, it then turned in to a generic rough ice wall

[Lagslayer]

you can carve ice into fortifications. i told him to do that already, he claims it isnt working

Hmm, I built fortifications on the edge of the map at both ends of the river now. Exactly like in your edit of my screenshot.
Still no water. :-(

can i see a screenshot of what you did?

Derp. Can't believe I forgot while I was typing.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

i tried to carve ice in to a fortification, it then turned in to a generic rough ice wall

it sounds like the tile you were carving was exposed to the surface, making the water that started to pour freeze instantly into a rough ice wall
can i see a screenshot of both the z level you were working on and the z level above? use imgur, it's less of a hassle than imageshack