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[ThatAussieGuy]

Yes, but a thin row of floors around the airlock won't stand out too much.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm going to take a guess and assume that flying creatures can't dig and fly at the same time. Also, wouldn't the ultimate digger defense be a suspended cube surrounded by fortifications, and many Dwarves with sharp sticks and crossbows?

[Osmosis Jones]

Yes, but a thin row of floors around the airlock won't stand out too much.

Oh, I know. The whole point I said shame though is that it means that you can't make a completely isolated structure.

[zubb2]

There is a game called total miner forge on the xbox live and i use this same method to defend my forts.

[Eric Blank]

It's also pretty effective in minecraft, if you've got the time to set it up with magma.

[Jeoshua]

I had this idea when diggers were announced, but never got around to actually building it.

So if anything, I support this message 

[Sus]

I'm going to take a guess and assume that flying creatures can't dig and fly at the same time.

Dude.
When Toady says "tunneling", assume it to mean "flying, trapavoid, magma proof, undead and tunneling".

Also, Aussie has once again ventured beyond the impossible and returned with a bucketload of sweet, sweet ☼SCIENCE☼.

[Kel]

Ultimately though, it will always be possible to have creatures that cannot be defended against - diggable, magma immune, amphibious, building destroyer fliers, for example. Made of granite or something equally unkillable by your military for extra !!FUN!!

Hmm... obsidianisation/freezing is the only thing which will always kill absolutely everything, right? The problem with the former is its great complexity to set up (not least because you'd want some system of keeping your checkerboard-esque-thing supplied with the liquids), and may very well be impossible to make unbreachable.

Freezing on the other hand... embark in a freezing biome, have your fort surrounded by a magma sheath which warms a larger, water, sheath around that? Any diggers get wet and promptly frozen as the water is no longer warmed by the magma. Preferably with an aquifer somewhere inside your fort to provide it with never-ending water, which has no risk of compromise by invaders.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm going to take a guess and assume that flying creatures can't dig and fly at the same time.

Dude.
When Toady says "tunneling", assume it to mean "flying, trapavoid, magma proof, undead and tunneling".

Also, Aussie has once again ventured beyond the impossible and returned with a bucketload of sweet, sweet ☼SCIENCE☼.

Flying building destroyers cannot destroy buildings whilst flying. Although it would be pretty amusing watching space invaders systematically destroy tiles from the surface down.

[dbay]

As an added level of killiness, if you use one of the designs that puts floors under the water on every layer, you could put weapon or cage traps on those squares - that would help keep out zombie diggers, though it might be considered broken (if you don't use one-tile traps). Also, if the water buffer is three tiles wide or more, and you drop a little magma near the top in the centre tile, you can drop obsidian on your enemies.

Also, I wouldn't recommend supporting your entire fortress on Supports in case a FB or clown gets in there (they can breathe under water and destroy buildings).

Another concern is that if something does get through the water into your fort, they'll flood the fort. I would recommend putting doors and hatches everywhere possible, as well as drains off the edge of the map (through fortifications). Maybe even water-triggered pressure-plate blast doors that seal in case of floods, but that might be unnecessary.

Also, your airlock design lets building destroyers in easily, I think, which could flood the fortress. Perhaps add a drawbridge over a pit? And consider making it three-tiles wide, for caravans.

[Leafsnail]

I've heard that trapavoid creatures can be washed into traps (disregard this if it's not true)?  If so you could have a sortof spiral waterfall all around your fort, with traps covering all the floors (using a cavern or a fortification for drainage).  I think this would be a beautifully elegant solution if it were not guaranteed to cause some kind of FPS death.

[Sus]

Flying building destroyers cannot destroy buildings whilst flying. Although it would be pretty amusing watching space invaders systematically destroy tiles from the surface down.

Thank The Toady One for small blessings. Maybe there won't be any excessively ‼Fun‼ tunneling combinations either, then...
OT: Can one land on a 3x3 tower with a windmill on top?

...Although I, for one, would love to see Aussie do checkerboard/waterclock...

[ThatAussieGuy]

How exactly would they mix?  I SUPPOSE with a bit of careful timing and one-shot pressure plates you could distill the checkerboard's controls down to a single lever pull.


The waterclock I've built in my current fort is for something else.  Something... dwarven...

[King Mir]

You don't actually need every tile to be water; every 3rd tile will do. You could have vertical pipes so that a breach will drain a pipe from the breach up, not a level. (and an infinate supply will prevent draining as long as the hole is bellow ground level). Then it's easy to alternate magma and water, though there would only be a 1 in 3 chance that that's a benefit at best.

[Osmosis Jones]

Soo, why doesn't anyone just build a cave in generator above the sides of the waterlock?

Done right, you could drop an entire ring of obsidian and clear the whole perimeter.

Mounting screw pumps with a small magma reservoir on the inside of the cube would let you regenerate an emergency access tunnel afterwards as well, though you would need to drain the waterlock to safely remove said tunnel later on. Or better yet, have a 3x3 room floored with a retracting bridge on the bottom of the cube, and fill it with magma. When you need an emergency exit, retract bridge and bam, instant space for a stairwell down