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[imperium3]

Actually, a drawbridge is less effective, because it stops working when certain megabeasts (for example, a bronze colossus, which I can say from experience you REALLY do not want in your fort!) stand on it.

So magma is best...

[Girlinhat]

Yes, but you can see those things coming and raise the drawbridge ahead of time.  As far as "path on demand" a bridge and freezing moat are about equal, except the moat can be weaponized more broadly.

[Tanelorn]

This is not a new idea...  I cannot find the link at the moment, but there was a movie of pretty much what is described in the OP floating around when I first started playing around 2 years ago.

I remember that movie. The freezing/thawing was incredibly fast. In that movie, the setup was used as a freeze trap, and it was *very* effective.

As far as I remember, the magma was running under a fairly small area, and pumps were moving the magma about. For a large moat, I guess it would take a lot of pumps to be as quick as in the movie.

[Urist McGyver]

Better. Freeze the ice, and then tunnel through it...

Wait, what?

[Girlinhat]

What?  Did you ask something?  I was too busy boiling magma to listen to you.

[Urist McGyver]

When dwarves are melancolic, they comit self-suicide.

[GrizzleBridges]

When dwarves are melancolic, they comit self-suicide.

self-suicide is the worst kind of suicide.
and your post has nothing to do with anything.

[Alastar]

Hmm... can we use rapid-cycle heating (repurposed mist generator?)  to turn a single tile into a constantly freezing/thawing deathtrap that will get a would-be-invader before they have time to move on? I don't really know much about the temperature system and how specific heat is implemented... would using bismuth (or gold, lead, platinum etc) for the floor make such a system more responsive?

[Triaxx2]

For shame. That's no way to melt ice. The proper method is from a magma gantry.

[Alastar]

So cycling magma through a set of pumps so quickly that it's hanging in mid-air isn't a dwarfy enough way to melt some ice? I definitely need to up my game then...

[Qwernt]

My current fort is the first time I have used magma to melt a pool to get water.  I was surprised to realize, that most of the time the magma doesn't melt the ice.  It appears to require flow.  More specifically, the water freezes and melts over and over again when their is flow.  When there was no flow it seemed to just stay frozen.  You may want to play with it a bit before you decide to use it as a defense...

[Rumrusher]

wait won't having magma pumping under the area super heat the water causing any one walking through it to melt? so you best to reverse by using the water as a ICE bridge and when the siege hits throw the switch to the magma and melt the thing causing the goblins to bleed out and die. you might want to build a pump so that it feeds in water maybe have it so that if the siege is over have a switch to flush the items down a chute for dwarves to get at.

[Si Fi]

If you can make your entrance into more of a lake it becomes a siege ending drowning/freezing trap. This would require a crap ton of magma though, of course.

This has sparked an idea for myself though, if you place pumps pumping water to the surface, with magma 1 level down (or none would work really, you'd just have to mine out after an attack), you could freeze enemies en route

[Girlinhat]

No.  There's a temperature scale... somewhere.  There's a set temperature for "inside a cavern" and "magma".  There's also a temperature for "the floor above a magma pool" and that temperature is a bit higher than room temperature.  The worst it will do is soothingly bathe the goblins.

[Urist Imiknorris]

No.  There's a temperature scale... somewhere.  There's a set temperature for "inside a cavern" and "magma".  There's also a temperature for "the floor above a magma pool" and that temperature is a bit higher than room temperature.  The worst it will do is soothingly bathe the goblins.

IIRC, those temperatures are 10015, 12000, and 10100, respectively.