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[Mike_B20]

My current fortress is getting very deep.
By the time my miners and builders get down to the deeper levels they are about ready to head back up for some food, drink and sleep.
I'm thinking about re-basing some of my food production, industry and sleeping quarters to a deeper level.
This will require a better understanding and use of stockpile functions as well as splitting up my military if I want to explore caverns.

How do people handle the great distances dwarves need to travel in deeper fortresses?

[PatrikLundell]

The short answer is to make straight staircases. 100 tiles upwards from the magma sea takes the same time for a dorf as 100 tiles on flat terrain. Thus, the cost is not really the depth but the bends made to dig around the upper caverns to reach the lower ones and the magma sea. Once you've mapped out the caverns you should be able to find a good spot to dig a staircase. Of course, if you secure caverns (which I do), your options increase each time a cavern is secured, as you can build a staircase to bridge the air in the cavern according to where a staircase would fit your fortress.
I've been down to the very bottom of the map without huge problems (securing the bottom took 5 or so years, though, with a single minded effort on the job and just keeping other things going on routine). The distances were reported as over 300 (if I would build a wall segment with material from my workshop quantum stockpile).
The most efficient fortress is a sphere with a lot of staircases, but that's not so player friendly given both the human mind's tendency to think flat and the limited visualization options (i.e. view layer per layer) provided by DF.

[feelotraveller]

Dwarven Sphere



 

Unfortunately big cubes with lots of staircases actually turn out to be very inefficient; early fps death from crazy excuse for pathing ensues with all dwarfs seemingly destined to take the most snarled (scenic) route to their destinations.

Restricting choice to one staircase is a good move.  Relatively easy just to drop/minecart supplies down.  Burrows can split your population into different areas.  Or you could double up some or most of your fortress at a deeper level even to the point of abandoning the upper level(s).  All depends on what you are heading down into the depths for...

[Flying Dice]

Yep, the simple, easy, and relatively FPS-friendly option is to drop a 3x3 shaft of stair straight down. Branch all your stuff off of that with a small section of corridor between the area and the main staircase which you can later bridge and channel out so that you can isolate every floor/module from the staircase with a single lever pull.

Usually the only divergence is a tunnel out to your magma, but I usually like that for a bit of flavor (even if I tend to build sleeping quarters and a small dining hall for my smiths and smelters out there).

[Bouchart]

You could always just relocate your whole fort down to a few levels within the magma sea layer.  Then dwarves would only need to go up close to the surface for things like farming above ground crops, fishing, beekeeping and probably trading, which all aren't a high priority in a mature fort.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, that's definitely viable once you've breached the caverns and started farming and herding on cavern floor/muddied stone, but prior to that you're basically trading long travel time to the forges for long travel time to farms.

[Bearskie]

Especially for metalworking industries, I tend to just drop my resources down a drophole.  Cuts hauling time by alot.

[Linkxsc]

Bah. Be real dwarves and pump the magma up to your fort level as needed. Make a resovior of it above ground and unleash it on your foes.

Honestly,assuming you have enough magma safe stone, its actually pretty easy to do, and saves having to relocate the whole fort.
Also note, sand and clay are usually towards the surface, and I go heavy on those industries if I can, so its that much less thats gotta be shipped down.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Minecarts FTW! No matter what you do, minecarts can help you bring the sand/clay/aboveground resources/ores and magma together. Magmacarts, impulse tracks, the list goes on. And they're weapons, too!