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[DauntlessGolem]

So my finals in college have just finished up and I've been playing DF non stop this past week, and I thought I'd share a few of the odd things about my fort, as it's the first one I've actually stuck with

The first thing I noticed after the second migrant wave is every single migrant is a novice swimmer and I have no idea why. My hopeful guess is a drowned mountain home.

I actually got a queen my second year, and I've never had to deal with nobles much before. She is constantly requesting grates and banning the export of them, so I don't know what to do with the hundreds of grates I have now.

A minotaur invaded, punched a cow a lot, collapsed from exhaustion, and was promptly stabbed. He must have had a rough life.

I'm currently thinking about moving everything in my fort to the third cavern layer, anyone got some tips on what I should do down there?

EDIT:
Oh yeah, my very first FB was beaten by some human caravan guard. He ran past all my military, beat it with his hammer, then went into the caverns and walked offscreen,  probably to go kill more FBs

[Valtam]

First of all, welcome to Bay12 and to DF!
I laughed a lot with your Minotaur quip.

1. Some dwarves retain relevant skills from worldgen, but NPC fortresses and Mountainhomes are currently waterproof. It could be that they had to ford a river to get to your fortress, but it's something I haven't heard about that often.
In any case, you'll need that novice swimming flair for #3.

2. Grates are useful for many things, usually for sewage systems connected to dwarven showers, because horizontal grates allow fluids and contaminants to go through while dwarves remain in place. You can also create divisions between big rooms without using walls and improve their value, or you can also create a fortification that can be lowered down with a lever, neat enough for marksdwarf shooting ranges. If you're not against checking a game's wiki (and you'll certainly need to check it while playing DF) then read this piece about grates to have a broader idea about them.

3. There are plenty of things that can be done underground. You can carve a palace out of stone or create a working aqueduct with pumps, grates and channels. If you have artifact furniture you can set up some pieces in key places so that valuable building destroyers are stopped by them (Forgotten beasts, Giant Cave Spiders, something else...) and remain like sitting ducks. If you find magma below, then you can start a serious metallurgy project and start creating steel products en masse.

Godspeed! Keep telling us about your dwarven (mis)adventures.

[Melting Sky]

Grates are useful when placed in your plumbing pipes periodically. They are a good way to keep unwanted guests from crawling up through your wells, water works, forges etc. Just make sure the grates you use for magma plumbing have a higher melting point than the temperature of the magma. Building destroyers can still get through them eventually but they make a good added precaution that removes a good number of possible threats. Even if you get a FB crawling up through the plumbing the time it takes to rip out the grates in your pipes will buy you enough time to prepare a proper welcome for it. If the gates are masterwork then you can use them as see-through walls that will inspire happy thoughts in those that pass by them. Just be aware that projectiles can be fired through them both ways. If you do the whole crossbow militia thing then building grates at choke points in the your fortress that can be raised when needed via a lever provides a good way to cordon off areas that end up with unexpected breaches or guests roaming around that you can still fire through.

[Thisfox]

A minotaur invaded, punched a cow a lot, collapsed from exhaustion, and was promptly stabbed. He must have had a rough life.

"Ah, finally someone from my race! Hello, friend! Is there a tavern around here that I could stay at?"
"Mooooo?"
"How dare you say that about my mother! Prepare to die!"

[triskaideka]

Building destroyers can still get through them eventually

My understanding was that building destroyers can't destroy grates and hatches on Z-levels above them as long as they have no other means of pathinging to the grate's (or hatch's) Z-level?

[EBannion]

Building destroyers can still get through them eventually

My understanding was that building destroyers can't destroy grates and hatches on Z-levels above them as long as they have no other means of pathinging to the grate's (or hatch's) Z-level?

At the moment, they ca'n't, but that's a logic and pathfinding issue and so I wouldn't rely on it forever because who knows when Toady will slip a tiny fix in that changes it.