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[resin007]

Hello, all! I am getting into DF and have followed the wiki's basic Fortress tutorial to get a fortress set up, do a bunch of things wrong, and then have all my dwarves slaughtered by zombies. In short, this is Fun!

I'm starting my second fortress now and have a major question: what is the exact keystroke sequence for building stairs? Specifically, please be very precise in explaining how I select the designated square or squares.

What I want is a basic, single-tile staircase that goes down multiple levels. My understanding is that I need a "down" staircase on the top level, an "up" on the bottom level, and an "up/down" on all the intervening levels. These are all single-tile spaces at the same exact x-y point. I do this by designating a down then an up to get two levels. As I dig further down, I turn each up into an up/down and make the new bottom an up. Make sense?

The problem is that the keystroke combination I'm using doesn't work consistently. In my first fortress, I somehow muddled through this, but I had to basically mash buttons until I got a workable staircase. In my current one, I cannot get it to work at all. In digging a 3rd level, I've somehow made the level 2 stairs down, thus preventing any access from level 1 to 2. Absolutely nothing I do can get it to become up/down.

I feel like the problem is with my selection. Am I supposed to follow this sequence to make an up/down staircase: "d - i - move X over the staircase tile - Enter - esc" or do I select something more than the single tile once?

This is somewhat related to a follow-up question. How do I make a one-tile selection for anything? I feel like when I'm "unforbidding" the garbage dump, that I'm not really doing anything because I'm just selecting one tile and escaping (which the game says is the "Done" command), but then no one comes to get the stones from the dump...

Sorry for the long-winded question! I'm frustrated that I can't advance in this second fortress...frustrated because I love this game!

Thanks!

[resin007]

I should add that I'm having the exact same problem with my level 1 staircase. I've somehow turned it into an up/down, and no combination of button mashing will turn it back into a down staircase. So for those keeping score at home, I have:
Level 1 - up/down staircase
Level 2 - down staircase
Level 3 - up staircase

What is the keystroke sequence to make it
Level 1 - down staircase
Level 2 - up/down staircase
Level 3 - up staircase
?

Maybe that's more clear, ha. Thanks!

[Quietust]

If a tile has been mined out, then you cannot dig an upward stairway because there's nowhere for it to go - in that case, you must construct an upward stairway (or up/down stairway) in the already-excavated tile.

If you want to dig multiple levels at a time, you should just designate the intervening ones as up+down from the beginning.

[Garath]

Try just making up/down stairs after the first down. Untill you breach a cavern from above you're using those anyway, so why put an extra step in-between? And when you breach the cavern, construct up stairs on it to seal it off

keystroke for level 1:
(d), (j)  (down iirc)
2:
(d), (i)
3:
(d), (i) if you want to continue down, now or later
(d), (u) if you want to stop at this level

designations can't be changed later. Channeled areas can't be mined etc

[resin007]

Thank you, both! Constructing the stairs did the trick, and I can just designate all lower levels as up/downs in the future.

BUT, I feel like I'm still not really understanding this.
Right now, I have my bottom level designated as an up staircase. There's nothing dug out underneath it. Why can't I re-designate it as an up/down? I feel like there's a key sequence I'm messing up...

To select a single tile for a designation, do I just move the X over it, press Enter, and then esc?

[weenog]

Not sure why you can't revise an up staircase into an up/down staircase directly, but you could probably just go around the problem by removing the up stairs in that area, turning it into a basic mined tile, and then constructing an up/down staircase where it used to be.

[Garath]

when you designate a tile you order to remove all material but leave an up-up/down-down-ramp-nothing (that's how I imagine it at least)

so when you later designate up/down, they'll look at you like you just hugged a tree, because the materials ain't there, you need to construct it now, and grab the materials from somewhere else.

[smakemupagus]

To select a single tile for a designation, do I just move the X over it, press Enter, and then esc?

Move the X over it, press Enter *twice*, then esc
first enter starts the designation, second completes it

[Laurin]

There is a nice little stairs tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjWO27aa0I

[resin007]

To select a single tile for a designation, do I just move the X over it, press Enter, and then esc?

Move the X over it, press Enter *twice*, then esc
first enter starts the designation, second completes it

Thanks! This was the real meat of my question...not just for this issue! I've got a better handle on things now.