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[Callista]

I don't see why you wouldn't use walls to direct invaders where you wanted them to go--toward your traps, your military, your drowning chamber, whatever. Unless you're trying to defend your fortress with military dorfs that never go underground, why wouldn't you use walls at least at some point?

[NightlinerSGS]

I'd say it's fine. Although I'd personally leave ambushes and sieges on while I did it. I'd treat it like a mega-project - very useful, but very slow going and you have to be on top of it the whole time with your military right there to make sure nothing goes critically wrong, and all your builders get massacred by that goblin cave dragon. Sort of like building the dorf version of the Great Wall.

This. Walling off a 8x8 embark, including building gatehouses, moats (filled with water or magma) and roads all around and into my fortress is a true megaproject. It takes ages to accomplish, you need a good logistic to get the materials where you want them and you need a military to protect your builders. Those builders need to be fed at the site (walking back and forth to/from the fortress on 8x8 takes too much time), they need living space etc etc...

The needed logistics can be easily compared to a real world megaproject. With all that in mind, I believe it is not only credited, but also an accomplishment which fully deserves the resulting immunity from sieges and ambushes.

[DarkWolfXV]

There is no wrong way playing Dwarf Fortress. Simple.

[flameaway]

1) I think you can make a strong case for walling off - from a strictly role-playing POV.  If I was a dwarf and my entire existence depended on the walls I built.  I'd build walls and not worry about fairness, or stand up fights.  I'd be utterly ruthless in applying whatever came to hand to protect my little bearded babies.  Enter at your own risk goblin bastards.

2) I'm a new player and I figure that learning the mechanics in a calm environment is less frustrating than being killed repeatedly in an embark I'm not prepared to handle anyway.  I like to leave the invaders on, just because it's challenging and lends a sense of urgency to the building efforts.  When I get bored with the stuff that interests me now, I reckon I'll get around to learning to chop things off in an arc.

I haven't even played adventure mod yet.

Cool...


3) Why worry about whether it's lame to wall up anyway?  Pursue your own method and just have fun.  Pretty much have to anyway since it's a single player game.

[Silicoid]

I use a trench+wall when I have to do something experimental like drilling through aquifers, minecarts and making undead bacon. 

I don't see the problem in walling off-walling off won't save you from evil biomes when a piece of hair can potentially kill your fort.(I did lose a fort to a piece of horse hair).

[Farmerbob]

I've recently decided to wall off most of the map to better control access points to my fort. I am doing this mostly to protect my hunters and wood cutters from getting pwned by random ambushes. Still, I feel like this is kinda lame.

Do you think walling off is lame, or is it the credited survival strategy?

The only question here, since it's a single player game,is whether or not you are having fun.

[Ajonos]

I don't see why you wouldn't just turn off invaders at that point. I keep two worlds going: One for when I play without invaders (and occasionally turn on invaders when I want to test a project I built), one for when I play with invaders (or they play with my dwarves).

Both fun, just in different ways.

[Cobbler89]

Keep in mind that sometime in the nearly foreseeable future invasions will destroy constructed walls. (And by nearly forseeable I mean that in the next version if you build constructed walls and retire the fortress there's a chance they won't be there when next you see it, but we don't know how soon after that such things will occur before your eyes in Fortress Mode seiges.) And rumour has it cage traps are gonna be nerfed (well, made less foolproof anyway).

I say enjoy your invincible fortress while you can!

And when invincibility becomes a matter of casting obsidian, do something more than mere walls with it. Cast a towering obsidian tree in imitation of the new giant trees. Or wall off your entire civilization with a series of contiguous embarks (might make a good succession world project, actually...).

[Fear The Amish]

I prefer to make Killing lanes Build towers that are accessed from the ground then build walls to make lanes that push them past the towers and keep them in the killing zone as long as possible. So basically each segment of the map has 1-2 towers in it with walls that funnel invaders between them and then force them into a maze.

[moki]

I like building castles with just one or two entrances, but I don't wall off big parts of the map just to control where enemies can go. The best defense are 40 dwarves with the very best training and equipment, stationed near any entrance. Woodcutters still have to risk their lives most of the time, but if I want to do bigger projects outside the castle walls, I'll just station a squad of recruits there as first response team. They may not hold their own against a siege, but they're good enough to protect civilians until the real soldiers arrive.
I used to build walls around the whole embark area with entrances with lots of weapon traps and separate paths for wagons, but that became boring after a while. The only acceptable trap for me is an elaborate system of magma landmines or watercannons - or anythings that only a !!mad scientist!! could imagine.

[expwnent]

Glowiron: Administrator's Log
1058 Felsite 18
Final Entry

The seige has lasted for two months. Supplies are low, and we have only a handful of soldiers. I can hear the relentless scratching of the undead army at the wall. It will not hold much longer.


Coming Soon(TM) to a DF version near you.

[slink]

There is no wrong way playing Dwarf Fortress. Simple.

This. 

The only question here, since it's a single player game,is whether or not you are having fun.

And this. 

[Kon]

For me, a big part of the game is trying to protect the caravans. I think it is lame to just let them die. So, I never wall off my fortresses completely. I do raise drawbridges after the caravan is safely inside. Then I kill or drive away all ambushers and siegers prior to the caravan leaving.

[ohgoditburns]

Walling off entirely is pretty lame. Creating chokepoints/killzones is totally dwarven.

[Align]

Keep in mind that sometime in the nearly foreseeable future invasions will destroy constructed walls. (And by nearly forseeable I mean that in the next version if you build constructed walls and retire the fortress there's a chance they won't be there when next you see it

Rats, no Great Wall of The Wealthy Daggers then.