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[Fischer541]

So been thinking of making a Tundra/Glacier Fortress right now, but I'm a little taken aback by the fact of little to no trees. As well with perma-frozen water. So are there any hints and tricks to kinda of making the first Tundra fortress?

[squeakyReaper]

Hit the ground fast.  The longer you stay above ground, the more likely your dorfs and animals will freeze to death.  Magma, when you reach it, can melt ice into water (always 7/7 when it melts) and warms the area.

[Fischer541]

At what level is magma/lava usually found? (When not embarking near a volcano.)

[slay_mithos]

as for what I've seen, the first magma floor can be anywhere from 30 to 150.

It all depends on the "volcanism" of the embark zone, thing you can't know without cheating of trying to dig down as far as you can early.

I might be wrong, because it is only from experience.

[Conan]

Also, bring about 10-20 pieces of wood for beds and moods.

[Lexx]

No need for any wood. Just dig down to the caves. Bring 1 military dwarf to deal with whats down there ( I recommend dodge, fighter and a weapon skill 3 advances each. ). Colonize in the first cavern and work from there. Its a fun challenge.

[IT 000]

Hit the ground fast.  The longer you stay above ground, the more likely your dorfs and animals will freeze to death

They don't freeze to death, but yes, hit the ground fast, there's no point in staying above ground.

[squeakyReaper]

Dwarves will.  If...  they're naked.  And sleeping.  Eventually they'll go numb anyways.

[Fischer541]

I see Elk and Reindeer are natural creatures in the Tundra/Glacier etc. Will those creature have a higher resistance to the cold?

[Stormcloudy]

If you bring them they will starve without cavern grass. Nobody's going to freeze to death, unless they literally get themselves frozen in a block of ice, which is a different problem.

[IT 000]

Dwarves will.  If...  they're naked.  And sleeping.  Eventually they'll go numb anyways.

No they don't, if your dwarves are going numb I suspect it is due to a Forgotten Beast syndrome.

I see Elk and Reindeer are natural creatures in the Tundra/Glacier etc. Will those creature have a higher resistance to the cold?

Higher resistance to cold means nothing, a cat can survive just as well as a polar bear can. Likewise a polar bear can survive in scorching temperature.

[Moonshadow101]

As stated, don't worry about the temperature in a "my creatures will freeze!" sense. That sort of thing isn't modeled in the game.

As you can imagine, the caverns take on a particular importance. If you're embarking on a pure glacier without any forest tiles or anything, you'll have absolutely no trees or soil on the surface, so your farming and woodcutting will both have to take place in caverns. If you don't already do so, consider embarking with a military Dwarf and some basic copper gear: trolls and giant toads can be a serious problem otherwise.

[Fischer541]

Aye... I kind of forgot about the military dwarf to protect me from the caverns but I haven't gotten that deep as of yet... Right now I've had four dwarves die of thirst, but right now I have three farmers going at it to bring in plump helmets etc, and various other plants. So my alcohol stores are kind of stable right now. Food isn't that bad because I brought along nine turkies or so. Problem is I forgot how to get the males to fertilize eggs.


Scratch the turkey reproduction - Just received 30 poults, I almost shit myself.

[Khym Chanur]

Make sure to make large pots out of stone instead of barrels out of wood, to keep down the amount of logs you use.  Also, when you get an anvil you can make bins out of metal, further saving on wood usage.

As stated, don't worry about the temperature in a "my creatures will freeze!" sense. That sort of thing isn't modeled in the game.

I've been told that creatures and dwarves can be frozen by the environment, it's just that glaciers in a world created with ordinary world-gen parameters won't be cold enough.

If you don't already do so, consider embarking with a military Dwarf and some basic copper gear: trolls and giant toads can be a serious problem otherwise.

You can tap into the underground pools without having to breach the caverns, and then use that for irrigation for both farms and growing trees.  You just have to bring along enough logs to last a few years.

[jhxmt]

I've been told that creatures and dwarves can be frozen by the environment, it's just that glaciers in a world created with ordinary world-gen parameters won't be cold enough.

This.  I've just genned up a quick pocket world with advanced parameters, setting the temperature range between -500 to -100, and embarked.

Upon arrival, I made a new military uniform containing nothing, set to replace clothing, entitled simply, "Naked".  I then assigned all my starting seven to a squad, gave them that uniform, and then chuckled malevolently as they went and stood in the middle of this icy wasteland clad only in the beards Armok gave them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meanwhile, a slight issue with the wagon and its wooden barrels of delicious, necessary alcohol soon became apparent:

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Hmm.  If the !!SCIENCE!! doesn't pay off and they don't freeze to death, those are going to be some very irate dwarves.  Oh...

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Well, discovery number one: dogs definitely freeze to death.  So, it turns out, do yaks, hens, cats and drakes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But dwarves, at least so far, seem to be doing just fine and dandy (although they are all complaining about the draft - while standing naked on a glacier).  Maybe they're immune to the cold.

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Ah.  Or maybe not.

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Okay, definitely not.

So, test result: yes, dwarves can freeze to death on a glacier, as can all other creatures that I embarked with.  Also, alcohol can freeze, as can your wagon, leaving you with nothing but a snow-covered pick and some wonderfully useless crossbow bolts.

Oh, and freezing to death doesn't leave the corpses in a particularly neat state, either:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)