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[TomIrony]

Here's a thing I haven't tried yet, but for those who might have...

... If you dig around the edges of the map (as far as you can, I know you have to leave at least one row of tiles untouched), and say make the edges sheer cliffs, do migrants, caravans and ambushes just plummet when they spawn?

I guess the caravans would just bypass your site (which is a shame).

[jcochran]

If you completely channel out the edges, migrants just stand on the untouched edge and eventually die of thirst. Also the caravans and such also bypass you. However, this doesn't stop the spawning of wildlife. The channeling only prevents humans, elves, goblins, kobolds, and dwarves from reaching you.

I've recently started a few embarks and like the relative security of a channeled edge, but also want caravans to reach me.

So, I went through a few iterations on a theme...

1. Channel entire edge of map except for a "wagon only" passage at one spot right next to a goblin grinder. Should allow passage of both caravans and migrants while keeping goblin ambushes at bay and (as I thought at the time I built it) wildlife. But I was rather rapidly disabused of the notion that it prevented wildlife from getting in with various "Job interrupted by bla bla bla" notices. And when I got a migrants arrived notice, I took a look at them and unfortunately saw that they were just standing there unmoving. An examination of the map showed me that they were blocked by a tree and were unable to walk to the spot where the grinder was. Scratch that embark...

2. Instead of making the channel around the border 1 tile wide, instead made it two tiles.  Untouched, ramp leading downwards, flat ground..... So no matter where the migrants spawned, they could climb down to the flat portion and then walk around the map until they reached the goblin grinder. Worked fine... Then autumn arrived and I got a notice that the wagons were bypassing my inaccessible depot. Hit Shift-D to verify that it was access-able (and it was) So looked at where the caravan spawned. Well, it was a long ways away from the wagon only passage. So scratch that embark.....

3. Now I alter 4 tiles from the edge....

Ground level (Western edge of map)
         #▼######        # = Untouched ground
                                ▼= Ramp leading downward
Ground level - 1 (Western edge of map)
         #▲...###         # = Untouched ground
                               ▲= Ramp leading upward
                                . = dug out ground

Now, no matter where the caravan spawns, it can go down the ramp and then proceed on the 3 tile wide path underground until it reaches the wagon only and goblin grinder entrances. I made the 3 tile wide path underground in order to prevent trees from growing on it. (also means that trees only need to be chopped down on the tiles that will be channeled. Saves a bit of time. And of course if there are any stagnant pools close enough to the edge, then they're gonna be drained. And if you do drain 'em instead of going around them, be sure to remove all "up ramps" from 'em in order to prevent a nasty chink in your border.