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[Wheeler]

I've tried to look for any existing questions to do with this but my noobish skills couldn't find any help ^^;
I have built the floor and wall foundations but I have no idea how to build stairs to the next level up. (and yes, I do know how stairs usually work) Can anyone offer any help? It would much appreciated and rewarded with e-cookies.

[Marthnn]

I've tried to look for any existing questions to do with this but my noobish skills couldn't find any help ^^;
I have built the floor and wall foundations but I have no idea how to build stairs to the next level up. (and yes, I do know how stairs usually work) Can anyone offer any help? It would much appreciated and rewarded with e-cookies.

Stairs? Start with an up or up/down stair at ground level. Once it is build, go up one z-level and build a down or up/down stair on top of it. Voilą.

Above-ground construction takes time, in part because you can't designate everything in advance and have to wait for parts of it to finish.

Oh, and you can't build anything on a built floor. Deconstruct it first using (d-n). If you don't plan your construction well, you can end up doing this all the time.

mmm... e-cookie...

[Wheeler]

I've failed at the first hurdle - I'm unable to even build up or up/down stairs on ground level. This is the root of the problem for me ^^;

[Lytha]

Try b-C-x. After it's built, go up one z-level and build another one on top of this one so that the next z-level becomes accessable.

[Marthnn]

Ah.

You DO use the (b-C) menu, don't you? And you have accessible building material? And mason dwarves? If you can build walls and floors, stairs should be as easy. Just don't build on a constructed floor...

Give more info and I might help more.

[Wheeler]

*blinks at the new discovery*

Darn you stairs and your ability to hide... right, I owe e-cookies to two people now. *throws them up in the air and runs off to build her ocean-cliff city*

Thank you all ^^

[Hyndis]

Its entirely possible to build above ground, but you're either going to need:


1) A fuckton of blocks or bricks.
2) A freezing biome and a massive bucket brigade.
3) Obsidian casting.

If you go route 1 its seriously a lot of blocks or bricks. to build anything of a substantial size. I'm not kidding. Its a massive, massive number. Tens of thousands easily. To build a grand above ground fortress its going to be in the six digits probably.

Making it out of ice instead is much easier in that you don't need bricks. You also don't need as much infrastructure to cast ice as it takes to cast obsidian.

Casting a fortress out of obsidian is awesome, but just building the machinery is a massive undertaking. You're essentially building a machine that covers most of the map.

[Marthnn]

Well, if you don't mind using raw stones instead of blocks, that's less work needed.

But it's true the amount of building material needed is enormous. Use stockpiles close to construction areas to reduce hauling time of your masons. That is easier with blocks, as a bin can contain 10 of them.

If you don't want to dig half the map for stone to build above ground, you need a renewable source of material.
Ice feels cheaty to me.
Obsidian casting takes time and planning, and is actually accessible to mature forts only.
Other materials include obsidian rock (from an obsidian farm), glass (if you have sand soil and magma), clay (if you have any clay soil).

Or you can do with regular rock, since it IS present in such huge quantities.

[Jelle]

If you're going to build aboveground I can suggest cutting lots of wood first thing and building a small pallisade to protect your temporary base, so you're safe while getting your hands on the stones to build a real wall.

[tolkafox]

Build half above/half below. Houses need basements, yo.

Learn how to designate pathing with the -d--o- menu as well, the open-top pathing will slow you down a lot. Also, you can't build walls on top of floors which stinks, multilevel palaces take some work unless you go with pyramid schemed houses.

Don't forget to roof over your houses if you want to build beds.

I haven't learned how to designate pathing yet, so I'm not much help :/

[Marthnn]

Also, you can't build walls on top of floors which stinks, multilevel palaces take some work unless you go with pyramid schemed houses.

No, you can't build walls on top of floors. Deconstruct the floor and build a wall. There you go.

[Hyndis]

Unless you mine out a huge portion of the map you will not have enough stone. You need a renewable source of building materials. Bricks are ideal for this. If your map has clay you can dig down to magma and set up a brick factory. Churn out huge quantities of bricks and use them for construction.

There isn't anything cheaty about ice casting. You can only do this in a freezing biome if there is a renewable source of liquid water. Easiest is if there is water in the caverns touching the side of the map. It just takes a whole lot of time and labor to build a fortress via bucket brigade. Building a frozen fortress is entirely possible to do.

[Lytha]

Easiest would be an aquifer, wouldn't it? Less ramps to run for the dorfs, no forgotten beast dangers at all.