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[Loud Whispers]

Has anyone tried this?

Yes. Secure your booze/food first. A booze stockpile with a roof is mandatory.

Secondly, build the ceiling before you build the floor (for the 1zlvl high buildings). Building multi-tier houses saves resources.

Oh and if you run out of wood, make wooden blocks. Above ground forts are difficult, but absolutely worthwhile. I'd suggest making a grand communal bedroom before making individual ones. Bedrooms are a priority.

[CaptainArchmage]

I tried this once before in 0.31.18 in Genesis. I walled off a mountain and forest embark, and decided to build some homes for the dwarves. This didn't go entirely as planned; the result was a massive high-rise block of flats, most of which had no door and a bed. The top contained a marksdwarf turret and a wood stockpile. All of my migrants ended up moving to this until space became available underground. This was before grass grew in mountain biomes (note grass doesn't regrow in mountain biomes currently), so I was able to smooth the ground directly.

Meanwhile, in the underground, within a shorter period of time, I had smoothed eight-room houses over two floors with personal plumbing for each dwarf, within a magnetite vein containing platinum deposits. The lower floor was intended for use as a workshop level, but ended up housing dwarves.

Question: Are there still areas of mountain with no soil or grass, with the rock exposed to the sky?

[kero42]

I tried this once. It was by far my most sucessfull forts (consider most of my forts don't last past one year). I had used the lazy newb pack to change the popcap to 20(where i have decided to leave it for now) and i embarked with mainly fishers and woodworkers, with two miners just incase. I also brought a farmer and some pigs. In the few weeks my miners were dead (drowned, would have been hunger or thirst, but I made them mine into a river after they got stuck. In retrospect, it probably wasnt needed), and i had just started building the first house, I decided it would be a carpenters house as he was my favourite and expedition leader. Forward one year, the house was half done and i had added a carpenters workshop for him to use next to what would be his bedroom. Then he got a strange mood, he made me an animal trap, which was no surprise as he liked animal traps. I put in his room to up the value. The roof was soon completed after that (we had more carpenters by then). Then kobolds attacked and i saved out of panic. And my Laptop got a virus so it had to be "scrubbed". I lost all my Df files(for the second time  ).

TlDr: Tried this, took me two years to finish one medium sized house, should have had a military to stop kobold spearmen.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

When I have been doing this, I manage to get a decent-sized communal area, roofed, with a second floor, two rooms, and a walled off farm within a season.  Of course, I embark with about 50 wood, but still.

[doublestrafe]

Has anyone tried this?

Oh and if you run out of wood, make wooden blocks.

One log still only makes one block, so I'm not sure why you'd recommend this. Though it does make for much more graceful and less deadly reconstruction.

[Splint]

Has anyone tried this?

Oh and if you run out of wood, make wooden blocks.

One log still only makes one block, so I'm not sure why you'd recommend this. Though it does make for much more graceful and less deadly reconstruction.

Hence why I suggested the sawmill. It helps. Alot.

[Loud Whispers]

Has anyone tried this?

Oh and if you run out of wood, make wooden blocks.

One log still only makes one block, so I'm not sure why you'd recommend this. Though it does make for much more graceful and less deadly reconstruction.

Didn't the update give x4 blocks?

[AutomataKittay]

Has anyone tried this?

Oh and if you run out of wood, make wooden blocks.

One log still only makes one block, so I'm not sure why you'd recommend this. Though it does make for much more graceful and less deadly reconstruction.

Didn't the update give x4 blocks?

Only for stone blocks and ore to bar, as compenstation for constant 25% drop rate. Bar to block and wood to block are still one to one as far as I can tell from what I've done.

[wer6]

i had a tree vilage: i had to buid it new area and and it was hard: growable trees helped but barely early game byt ut  helped when i had a giant feiled that grew a hundred oak trees every harvest ( and then i get 2-6 from that)

[Ubiq]

For the record, being under a bridge counts as inside. So you can always throw up a series of walls and just construct a bridge to roof over a building.

It's a lot faster with a handful of dwarves and you need somebody with architecture to build a depot anyway.

[Urist McKoga]

You can embark with a hunter or build a wall in you city to avoid animals.For houses, i think comunal Houses a better idea, and make a Inn with food storage,booze, and dining hall in first floor and some rooms in top. Put all single dwarfs in this

I was actually just doodling a layout for an Inn in a meeting >_>, it'll be a time/space saver at the start. Once I have enough dwarves to have a constant supply of blocks, I'll think about giving people their own house

For RolePlaying, put all imigrants in the inn (until make house for everyone)
I think going for this challenge to =)

[Itnetlolor]

I'm working on my own sort of village setup. Unfortunately, real life has been getting in the way of progress lately, but I already drew up some plans, and I already have the walls setup (not updated yet). I am expanding as best as I can to keep up with future demand. Soon, those condos are going up. That tavern idea also sounds like a good idea for migrants.

If you're interested in watching the developments, here's the site (SabreLured).

Spoiler: My plans for the surface (click to show/hide)

I ought to try that underground tree farming thing sometime.

[thegoatgod_pan]

One of my favorite forts was this. It wasn't a challenge or anything, I just couldn't get through the multilayered aquifer--every time I made a seal, there was another level of aquifer. So I peppered the landscape with holes, and threw up huts out of fire clay. Then I started making clay pyramids where the aquifer experiments failed.  By the fourth and successful plug I had a sprawling, Aztec or Mayan city.

[wer6]

niiiiccceee... i had complete wooden hut for my elfs.

[Xob Ludosmbax]

I made it to year 5 or 6 in that challenge before life got in the way, and I got too busy to put a lot of time into it. 

Anyway, a few tips on creating an above-ground fortress from my (limited) experience:

• Population cap -- In general, managing your population cap makes DF a lot easier.
• Clay -- Building with clay is so much easier than chopping down trees.  You don't even need to fire the clay into bricks to build with it.  Just collect it and build with it.
• Glass -- Also very useful.  You do need to fire it to build anything, but it's much more versatile and valuable.
• Volcano -- Magma without digging.  'nuff said.
• Advanced Worldgen -- Lots of little things to make life easier, more difficult or more interesting.  One thing I heard recently that I haven't tried yet is that setting erosion really high gives you volcanoes that are more pillars of lava than peaks, while the rest of the land is pretty flat.
• Surface water -- Have some inside your fortress.  Bonus points if it doesn't freeze or evaporate.
• Stockades and Defensive Walls -- Enclosing your fortress has obvious martial benefits.
• War dogs -- To defend your stockpiles from keas.
• Food -- Fishing, Eggs, Plant gathering, trading.  Farms were not immediately cooperative, so I focused on alternative food industries.  YMMV.
• Bedrooms -- Start with a dormitory.  Also, build bedrooms for your nobles before you get them.  Enclosed space takes much longer above-ground.
• Quantum stockpiles -- Minecart based quantum stockpiles are especially useful above-ground, as space is at a premium.
• Refuse -- Enable or disable "Gather refuse from outside" from the o-r menu as you wish.
• Slabs -- Impossible to create slabs without stone, so be careful not to create unburiable dwarves.

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=117280.15 has some discussion about it, but the first post is completely different than the original first post, so just ignore the first page because it'll make no sense.