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[Spectre9000]

I'm building some underground fortifications to pathways to defend my fortress with a proper military. However, I'm uncertain how to determine their line of sight if I were to place them a z-level above the path floor, but not fully carve out the ceiling area for the path. How far out do I need to carve the ceiling to allow my dwarves to shoot down upon the enemies?

From that conundrum I thought about something else... I've read that dwarves can shoot 20-30 tiles (depending on level) forward, down, up, or some combination of that, meaning that a high level dwarf could shoot 10 down and 20 out to my understanding in an open field of view. Therefore, I had the thought of, why do I want to put them a z-level above? I'm not sure there's any actual advantage to that, so I wanted to ask all of you if there was indeed an advantage to having your dwarves higher up?

I understand that you might want them higher to avoid stray arrows hitting things behind them, or to give them a better view of uneven terrain, but I don't see any advantage to that underground right now, so I'm rethinking my design.

What are the advantages to place your marksdwarves on a different z-level than your enemies, and how does line of sight work looking down on a z-level that has a cieling?

[Slogo]

Units standing adjacent to a fortification will not suffer a penalty when firing at a dwarf behind the fortification. So if you put the fortifications on the ground level an enemy archer can potentially run up and fire at your dwarves without penalty.

[steel jackal]

you need to dig out the tunnel about half way to where the target is

so if your one z up, your arrow will drop a z level about half way between you and the target

. So if you put the fortifications on the ground level an enemy archer can potentially run up and fire at your dwarves without penalty.

cage traps right next to the fortification will prevent this, assuming the player has nothing against cage traps being OP

[Spectre9000]

Thanks for the answers, that clears things up.

[Fleeting Frames]

There's also the fact that dragons only breathe fire on their z-level.

[Werdna]

Units standing adjacent to a fortification will not suffer a penalty when firing at a dwarf behind the fortification. So if you put the fortifications on the ground level an enemy archer can potentially run up and fire at your dwarves without penalty.

I don't think there's a penalty, I believe they either can or they cannot fire through the fortification.  Elite Bow and Crossbowmen (dwarf or goblin) can fire through the fortification from any distance as though it is not even there (if there is a penalty, in my experience it is inconsequential compared to the skill of an Elite).