v0.31 Talk:Ice

Observations from a freezing biome. Mined ice produces boulders of Ice which can be built with or dumped, they still cannot be added to stockpiles and will melt underground or if the overground temperature rises. Ice boulders melt into 'dirty ice', which is liable to be cleaned up by a bored dwarf, and then into 'stagnant water'. Stagnant water seems to act like blood smears and other psuedo liquids, it doesnt actually put water in the square, run or form pools. Neither 'dirty ice' nor 'stagnant water' will muddy a floor for farming. Anyone see any mistakes in this?

I sure do, my good fellow; I sure do. --Bronzebeard 06:27, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

As for temperate biome, mined ice produces 'water' item ≈ which can be cleaned.
BTW, brook behaves curiously on winter coming. I've got an edge of two biomes on my map and the brook is flowing from one to another. And on late Autumn first freezes the upstream part of the brook, then the downstream part does, on Spring downstream part melts first, then the upstream does. --Peregarrett 13:34, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

That sounds like expected behavior to me. The colder tiles will freeze sooner and thaw later, regardless of the water source in question. --FunkyWaltDogg 13:53, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

It looks funny, when a half of brook is frozen and the other half still flowing =)

Further experiment shows:

* Later, on early winter it is always ice.

* When it is an ice boulder • it can be used as other stone, for example a wall can be build of it.

* When it is an ice pile ≈ it can be cleaned. Both items are described as 'ice'.

--Peregarrett 14:17, 20 May 2010 (UTC)

I've seen this as well in a temperate climate with a brook. The transitions happen at consistent dates in the calender, obviously with water being liquid first, then patchily turning to ice, and the mined ice being anything from stagnant water, through dirty ice to ice (appearing as rocks) depending on the date and position on the map. Channelling the stuff creates 'glacial slopes', and any water that's flowed under the lip of the surrounding land (due to winter mining at the edges of the ponds/brooks when the water froze in previous winters) tends not to freeze up the following winter, at least at my current location, which can be a pain in the arse as it creates an 'entombing' hazard for the miners if they need to get access again and release too much of it at once and get caught in the quickly freezing flow. I can't wait for some sort of dwarven thermometer to be announced so that we can dot them around the locale and chart things a little more accurately. Could even have a 'noble' buzzing around with chalk and slate, doing the job for you.