Question about how Water Freezes

[smol-wittle-debil]

If water is pumped to the surface during winter (when all the water on the map freezes), how exactly does it freeze? Does it take time for the water to cool and form ice blocks, or will it happen immediately upon contact with the ground/other ice?

If possible, I would like to be able to create a defensive wall of ice in winter by pumping water from my reservoir to the surface, and I am trying to figure out if that is possible. The wiki pages for 'water' and 'ice' don't seem to help me with the information that I need.

Any info is appreciated

[Fel]

Water on tiles considered "outside" (have been exposed to the sky at least once) will freeze if the map's temperature drops low enough for water to freeze.
Freezing and thawing are pretty much instant so your defensive wall of ice is going to be a bit hard to realize (wih natural ice at least, if you mine the ice and build the wall it's a different story).

Be extra careful around ice when it is going to melt because it becomes aq very dangerous death trap as well.

[DoubleG]

if you have a freezing biome then one of the best water defences you can do is to have a frozen lake on the surface that the enemy have to walk over. Then have magma pumped underneath. The moving magma will raise the temp of the water above it, causing it to melt.
Then pump the magma out, freezing the water and giving you a popsicle enemy army.

[smol-wittle-debil]

Originally posted by Fel:

Water on tiles considered "outside" (have been exposed to the sky at least once) will freeze if the map's temperature drops low enough for water to freeze.
Freezing and thawing are pretty much instant so your defensive wall of ice is going to be a bit hard to realize (wih natural ice at least, if you mine the ice and build the wall it's a different story).

Be extra careful around ice when it is going to melt because it becomes aq very dangerous death trap as well.

do you mean to say water pumped to the surface will instantly freeze as soon as it comes into contact with the open air?

[Fel]

Unless they changed it for some reason then yes, it caused me all sorts of issues in the past because I had a few tiles labelled as "outside" that prevented my entire water network from working for over a season each year in a few of my forts in older versions.

[smol-wittle-debil]

Ah ok, yeah that seems impossible then. I was hoping I could create like a water blanket that would freeze on contact into an instant ice wall. I guess that isn't possible though. I am converting my forts entrance to be on a small island in the corner of my map. I have the front half of the island that faces the land all walled off with a drawbridge, but I was hoping not to have to wall the back side. It is only an issue in winter.

[Fel]

When you want to do projects like that, embark in places where it doesn't freeze during winter.

[AlP]

Originally posted by smol-wittle-debil:

Ah ok, yeah that seems impossible then. I was hoping I could create like a water blanket that would freeze on contact into an instant ice wall.

It is possible, but with buckets.

Designate pond areas above the tiles where you want the ice wall, and dwarves will start dumping water there. Two buckets on a tile will create an ice wall (one bucket will make an ice floor).

[DoubleG]

Originally posted by AlP:

Originally posted by smol-wittle-debil:

Ah ok, yeah that seems impossible then. I was hoping I could create like a water blanket that would freeze on contact into an instant ice wall.

It is possible, but with buckets.

Designate pond areas above the tiles where you want the ice wall, and dwarves will start dumping water there. Two buckets on a tile will create an ice wall (one bucket will make an ice floor).

water freezes in buckets. Not instantly but it does freeze.

[Fel]

It's fine if the bucket brigade stays on "inside" tiles thankfully.

[AlP]

Originally posted by DoubleG:

Originally posted by AlP:

It is possible, but with buckets.

Designate pond areas above the tiles where you want the ice wall, and dwarves will start dumping water there. Two buckets on a tile will create an ice wall (one bucket will make an ice floor).

water freezes in buckets. Not instantly but it does freeze.

There's usually plenty of time to empty a bucket, unless you have a very big project going.