new to the thread newbish to the game. but my question is because I read a lot of the 40k novels and such and hear of hive cities and I'm just wondering to myself "That is my next mega project" which would in fact be a combination of building up and down and with me I plan on giving (Though not need) all of my dwarves running water, so throw in a massive aqueduct/sewer/plumbing system.
the question would be how does one or what would be the easiest way to go about that. (Where would a good embark be how should the building architecture play out.)
The obvious parts are that you would need a lot of stone and a source of renewable water. There are normally underground lakes in the majority of the world, but embarking on a river would probably save you from having to build more screw pumps than necessary. Screw pumps can be used to move water, and you will probably need a lot of them.
It might be better to embark on a flat area, so that you could get started on your hive city without having to move too much soil around to accommodate.
When building structures, don't use loose boulders. Turn all your boulders into blocks. This saves on materials, since 1 boulder makes 4 blocks. Though one wood log only gets one block, unfortunately. Same problem for glass, clay, and metal.
Finally, you will need to be aware of how water pressure works to avoid accidentally flooding your fort. So here's the wiki link:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Pressure