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Author Topic: How Deep Does Water Freeze?  (Read 4094 times)

Cydonian Monk

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How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« on: January 07, 2011, 04:52:34 pm »

I apologize in advance if this particular variation of this question has been asked, but my searches find nothing but the normal "My Water Froze!" type of posts.

I also freely admit that I haven't explored this scenario in-game (yet), but might later in the life of my current fort.  It'll just take many dwarf-years/lives to test out, and there are higher priority projects (such as digging a borehole to the Magma Sea).


The question is simple: If, through liberal use of drawbridges, walls, and pumps I manage to construct a multi-z-level lake over sourced water (brook, stream, river, etc) in a biome subject to freezing, will the entire body of water freeze?  Or just the upper layers?  More specifically: can I keep my water source active by doing this (without using a 150-200 z-level Magma pump)?

Of course the water source would still be "above-ground/light," but I've observed cases where only the upper parts of an ocean will freeze, and that's all "above-ground/light," too, so I'm unsure.

Have any of you tried this?  What were your results?

Thanks.

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forsaken1111

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2011, 04:53:49 pm »

I apologize in advance if this particular variation of this question has been asked, but my searches find nothing but the normal "My Water Froze!" type of posts.

I also freely admit that I haven't explored this scenario in-game (yet), but might later in the life of my current fort.  It'll just take many dwarf-years/lives to test out, and there are higher priority projects (such as digging a borehole to the Magma Sea).


The question is simple: If, through liberal use of drawbridges, walls, and pumps I manage to construct a multi-z-level lake over sourced water (brook, stream, river, etc) in a biome subject to freezing, will the entire body of water freeze?  Or just the upper layers?  More specifically: can I keep my water source active by doing this (without using a 150-200 z-level Magma pump)?

Of course the water source would still be "above-ground/light," but I've observed cases where only the upper parts of an ocean will freeze, and that's all "above-ground/light," too, so I'm unsure.

Have any of you tried this?  What were your results?

Thanks.
If the tile the water is in is (or has ever been) exposed to the outside (ie, the tiles are lighted) it will freeze completely to the bottom.
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Lord Darkstar

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2011, 05:02:18 pm »

I thought only the top layer froze? Sounds like the next time I've embarked in a biome with freezing water, I'll have to conduct some !!science!! to see for myself.
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learn to give consolations to frustrated people
What is this, a therapy session? We don't need to console someone because they're upset about a fucking video game. Grow a beard, son, and take off those elf ears!

forsaken1111

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2011, 05:04:49 pm »

I am 95% certain the entire body of water will freeze down to the stone/soil.
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Lord Darkstar

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2011, 05:09:19 pm »

That's for built reservoirs, and not naturally generated multi-z level water, correct? Because I know that in my glacial beach embarks in 0.31.x, the ocean only froze on the surface. It was still liquid on the deeper z levels. And I can't recall ever seeing a naturally generated surface lake that was ever more than 1 z depth (ie, shallow) in any of my 0.31 games.
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learn to give consolations to frustrated people
What is this, a therapy session? We don't need to console someone because they're upset about a fucking video game. Grow a beard, son, and take off those elf ears!

Illanair

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2011, 05:16:16 pm »

So in other words a quick fix would be to avoid channeling away the top layer of ground beside the river/brook and simply dig beneath that.
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Lord Darkstar

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2011, 05:19:25 pm »

If you dig out your reservoir by tunneling in the same z level, the water in that aqueduct will never freeze, even though its water source, the brook or river, does. But if you CHANNEL it out, it will expose the tiles to the sky, they will be marked "outside", and water in those tiles will freeze when that biome freezes in your embarkation/fortress appropriate time of the year.
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learn to give consolations to frustrated people
What is this, a therapy session? We don't need to console someone because they're upset about a fucking video game. Grow a beard, son, and take off those elf ears!

forsaken1111

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2011, 05:22:09 pm »

Yep. So long as the area has never been exposed to sky it won't freeze.
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Cydonian Monk

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Re: How Deep Does Water Freeze?
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2011, 06:16:28 pm »

Right.  So the water source will always freeze, as it was exposed at embark. 

Building a resevoir wasn't so much of an issue (I've already got ~7,000 cuUrists of water in my three main resevoirs), but I wanted to see if I could maintain a 4-tile wide flowing water source year round for my hydro plant (without resorting to the dwarven reactor or Magma).  Obviously not, and the winter freeze is a long, cold, dark, 5-6 month experience at RedMetal.  I'll just build a small reservoir-fed system to provide a bit of backup power during winter.

Thanks!
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