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[vassock]

I have trouble with water. Usually, by the time I build a well, I run out of water/booze to drink. Is there a way to mine and melt ice? I read that it can be "dumped," but what is the procedure for that?

[vassock]

And what is the best way to find an underground water cavern with unlimited water?

[ottottott]

Well if the goal is just to find a cavern then designate many up/down stairs in a pillar until you reach a cave. On a normal map each cave level should have water on the bottom. Beware of the creatures in the caverns though.

[Jayce]

Ive dumped ice before it just turns into pieces of water and not a pond.

[KrazyDocK]

Whoa, whoa, WHOA!
Your first priority here is to ENSURE ENOUGH BOOZE!  (I sent a similar reply to a similar post recently).  You said you run out of booze.  Don't let that happen.  Make sure that you produce more than enough.  Sure you want to build a well eventually for when you need it (like for injured dwarves) but that is a much lower priority than making sure you are overproducing booze.  If you EVER run out of booze, you know something is going wrong in your fortress.

[Lytha]

Yes, the first priority of a fortress (after you've brought the starting supplies to a stockpile) should be a farming plot. I realize that subterranean farming requires some mud and so some water, but even in a freezing biome, you should be able to set up some aboveground farming plots for prickle berries or so. You can't directly see the shrubs in the snow, but if you just tell your dwarves to collect plants from the entire area, you should get some shrubs.

Once you have such a farming plot and a still, feel free to mess around with a well and other stuff.

This of course only works if you didn't stupidly bravely opt for embarking on a mix of Glacier&Ocean or Glacier&Mountain or Glacier&lifeless Tundra biome. If you did that... well, nobody forced you to embark on such a place, did they?

But even then, the caverns should have some water, or you should have cleverly selected an area with an aquifer.

[vassock]

I found a cavern at level 12 or 20, but it was a magma pool, not a water pool. I also have a 10x10 farm for plump helmets and a smaller one for pig tails, irrigated of course.

[Double A]

I found a cavern at level 12 or 20, but it was a magma pool, not a water pool. I also have a 10x10 farm for plump helmets and a smaller one for pig tails, irrigated of course.

You don't need irrigation, once it's muddy it's muddy forever.

You need to be brewing all the time, unless you have some crazy proportion, like 100 booze per dwarf. Then your brewer can take a break. For a month or so.

If you find yourself running out of booze, start a surface farm. Most surface booze is just as good as underground, although a handful are worse, and two are even better. If you find sun berries, mass produce them like crazy.

[FleshForge]

Be sure to reserve some barrels for booze only - a problem I had at first was producing too much food and running out of barrels for booze.  It's very easy to produce huge amounts of food and overrun your free barrels.

[Trekkin]

Melting Ice Guide-

ice rocks = puddles.

Ice floors = 1/7 ice

Ice walls = 7/7 ice.

Magma allows for perhaps the most efficient creation of farm space on a glacier imo.

[vassock]

Be sure to reserve some barrels for booze only - a problem I had at first was producing too much food and running out of barrels for booze.  It's very easy to produce huge amounts of food and overrun your free barrels.

How do I do that? I went to the p (stockpile) menu. I can change the number of reserved barrels, but how do I reserve them for booze?

[Double A]

Be sure to reserve some barrels for booze only - a problem I had at first was producing too much food and running out of barrels for booze.  It's very easy to produce huge amounts of food and overrun your free barrels.

How do I do that? I went to the p (stockpile) menu. I can change the number of reserved barrels, but how do I reserve them for booze?

Limit the barrels in your non-booze stockpiles, and don't limit them in your booze stockpiles.

[peregarrett]

Glacier Magma Water production:
First you need infinite magma source. Volcano is the best
Then you need glacier itself. May work for large frozen lakes too
Dig a long and NARROW magma channel to glacier, and large reservoir room exactly below th glacier. Only one floor high!
Let magma flow to reservoir through the channel. When magma reaches the reservoir and begins to spread at it's floor, the glacier above begins to melt.
But.
Due to narrowness of channel and wideness of reservoir, magma tiles with depth 1/7 evaporates. Water above that tiles turns back to ice. Them magma refills that tile and melts it back. And even if water depth was less than 7/7, after freeze-melt cycle it becomes 7/7 again. So it's almost infinite source of water, if handled with care.