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[Name Lips]

Some people are very interested in the 3d shapes they'll be able to carve out of the exterior of mountains. I'm interested in hollowing out a huge area and having a "beehive" suspended in the middle for my dwarfs to live in.

But then I realized that a lot of these plans will require dwarfs to tunnel directly UP, as in, hitting their pickaxe at the ceiling above them... and after that, there's no way to reach the ceiling even higher up, right? So to do these fancy designs, are we going to have to have a clever sequence of stairs and tunnels giving our dwarfs access to the higher levels, and then tunnel out our shapes one level at a time starting from the top down?

What happens if you are just one level above a previous tunnel, and you build a tunnel directly over it accidentally? Does the floor collapse, leaving a pit down to the previous tunnel? Can you build bridges over these pits?

Is it even possible to create high-ceilings? Can I have a dining hall with an impressive, vaulted ceiling? Will the dwarfs care? Is there any way to reach the ceiling to engrave the high-up walls? Scaffolding?

I'm sure you see the basic thrust of my questions. Basically it's the process and logistics of carving out large, open spaces in 3d.

[Vengeful Donut]

quote:What happens if you are just one level above a previous tunnel, and you build a tunnel directly over it accidentally? Does the floor collapse, leaving a pit down to the previous tunnel? Can you build bridges over these pits?

If you look at human towns in adventure mode, they have floor tiles that act like they are between levels. Toady said we will be able to make buildings like in human towns.

 

quote:Will the dwarfs care? Is there any way to reach the ceiling to engrave the high-up walls?

They wont care.
Staircases are furniture, so setting them up and tearing them down willy nilly shouln't be a problem.

- actually, I'm not sure sure if they are furniture or not. If they aren't it gets easier.

[ September 12, 2007: Message edited by: Vengeful Donut ]

[Turgid Bolk]

As I understand it, the process will be something like in real life. You'll need to somehow get a miner to the top of the area you want to carve, mine out the top level first, then the second level, on down til you reach the floor. You can do this by either building stairs/scaffolding directly at the cliff face, or digging a tunnel off to the side, then "up and over" the room you want. The tunnel could then be rewalled.

You could also start at the floor, but that would involve building a staircase on almost every tile to reach the ceiling and dig up. More labor and more time, but I suppose it doesn't leave an ugly access tunnel in the roof.

Of course, all this is just speculation, I'm sure we'll figure out the easiest methods soon after the next release.

Edit: Come to think of it, your access tunnel could just be part of the room. So you would dig one floor space, make it a staircase, dig up, make another staircase, etc. up the the top level. Then proceed to dig the entire top level, destroy the staircase, dig the next level down, destroy the staircase, and then you have it. Don't forget to smooth the walls as you go, if you want them smoothed!

[ September 12, 2007: Message edited by: Turgid Bolk ]