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[AutomataKittay]

Thanks again for all the useful hints. A few more questions, though:

1 Trap placement. I have this inconsistency in my head about traps: I remember reading that wagon caravans can't go over traps, and on the other hand while browsing over fort design, I see a lot of people use long hallways filled with traps as their entry point. Does that mean that one forfeits caravans in that case or am I missing something?

2 Will my animals on a pasture be safe in case of a siege/ambush, or do I need to build pastures within my fort? I'm guessing gobos would be more than happy to butcher all my precious livestock. How do you go about establishing a sucessful livestock industry than. I had an idea of channeling a large pit from the surface layer and wait for a few seasons for it to be populated by grass/trees (if possible) and than building a glass ceiling over the pit for the sun to come through. Would this work as my semi-internal pasture zone?

3 Does z-hight increase the usefulness of marksdwarfs? For example, am i better of stationing my marksdwarfs on 3rd level tower than on z-0, or does it make no difference?

Cheers again!

A lot of fortress was designed and built before the version that made wagons unable to go over traps. I recall that it was the minecart version that did that.

You only really need to wall and roof over your pasture zone, or use cave moss if you've dug down enough. Alternatively, you could use non-grazers and birds, which don't need pasturing other than to keep them somewhere. Once a surface's been touched by sun, it stays lit forever ( DF physics is a bit wonky ).

Higher the markdwarves are, the less further they can shoot horizonally at ground level, it's still useful if you're relying on trenches and moats. Or just want to keep them out of physical danger using fortifications.

[Bigheaded]

Thanks again for all the useful hints. A few more questions, though:

1 Trap placement. I have this inconsistency in my head about traps: I remember reading that wagon caravans can't go over traps, and on the other hand while browsing over fort design, I see a lot of people use long hallways filled with traps as their entry point. Does that mean that one forfeits caravans in that case or am I missing something?

2 Will my animals on a pasture be safe in case of a siege/ambush, or do I need to build pastures within my fort? I'm guessing gobos would be more than happy to butcher all my precious livestock. How do you go about establishing a sucessful livestock industry than. I had an idea of channeling a large pit from the surface layer and wait for a few seasons for it to be populated by grass/trees (if possible) and than building a glass ceiling over the pit for the sun to come through. Would this work as my semi-internal pasture zone?

3 Does z-hight increase the usefulness of marksdwarfs? For example, am i better of stationing my marksdwarfs on 3rd level tower than on z-0, or does it make no difference?

Cheers again!

here's an example of how a wagon may move around traps:
XXXXXXXXXXX
XWWWWWWWWWX
XWWWWWWWWWX
XWWWWWWWWWX
XWWWXXXWWWX
XWWWXXXWWWX
WWWWTTTWWWW
WWWWTTTWWWW
WWWWTTTWWWW

OR
XXXXXXXXXXX
XtWWWWWWWtX
XtWWWWWWWtX
XtWWWWWWWtX
XtWWWTTTWWWtX
XTWWWTXTWWWTX
XTWWWTXTWWWTX
WWWWTXTWWWW
WWWWtXtWWWW
WWWWtXtWWWW

X = Walls, W= mined out area which wagon can pass through, T = Traps
So in each , both should be effective, but both done in different ways.
In the top one, the entry section is at the bottom, the wagon will head up and around the traps, while goblins will usually take the most direct route, over the traps.
In the bottom one, the entry section is also at the bottom, there is only one way for goblins and wagons, and you will find that goblins will still take the fastest route, so a lot of those traps are useless, i'll change those to small t's, as goblins probably won't pass them, but as i say, you can never have enough traps   (i've reached 200 traps just on the surface alone!)

It simply depends how far you get, if you get to the stage they attack with 40 goblins, mounts and crazy stuff, then yes, you need some serious defense.

Ambushes though can be dealt with by a small military.
Once you get some dwarves sparring, after they hit proficient, it doesnt take long to go from that to legendary (4 seasons seems to be an average, although some weapons seem faster (hammers) and some slower (spears)). When they hit full iron/metal armor, they can literally take out armies alone. or at least just send in some fodder as well. I have 2 dwarves, one with ~62 kills, one with ~68 kills, they simply just block/dodge/armor deflect everything, i did throw some fodder and lost 2 other dwarves against one batch of 20 gobbos.



2. The simple solution to this, is hit the caverns, and use moss for them to graze on, you should have a Z level within a few from a surface made of peat/clay/soil, moss will then grow on this after hitting caverns, so just set up an area around there, perhaps accessed from further down rather than sideways, so that if you need to expand defenses, they dont get in the way.
I am pretty sure glass roofs do not work, as you can't see through them (i.e a necromancer needs line of sight to raise a corpse, he cannot see through glass walls). The question is, do you even need a roof? just set up 2 z level walls and make it accessible from below. So if you want it outside, you could try that. Much easier to mine an area out though.


3. No. Marksdwarves have a range of 30. they can change z levels at the cost of 1 range, and can do it for a maximum of 3 up or down. so if you shoot 3 z levels down, they have 27 range horizontally. No increased damage as far as i'm aware.