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[AlwayzL3git]

Also, another plus side is that a true dwarf would dig INTO the mountain in stead of digging straight down into it. This is because dwarfs would be one z-level lower by starting at the base of the hill in stead of on top, which is very unlikely that it would be an efficient thought, but hey, what can ya do?

[Sir Crashalot]

.... but hey, what can ya do?

Something like this?
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=43679.0;topicseen
 

[AlwayzL3git]

.... but hey, what can ya do?

Something like this?
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=43679.0;topicseen
 

A true dwarf would just dig out a bunch of squares and fill them all with booze, beds, cats, plump helmets smeared in dwarven syrup, and stone crafts.
And have one fill with lava just in case he wants to take down 14 goblins along with him and all his dwarven treasures.

[Lord_Phoenix]

If your entrance is just a ramp or set of stairs dug down into the ground and you want to break a siege to get traders in again, your only option is brute dwarfpower, which can leave you at a significant disadvantage in the late game.

I'm obviously missing something here, but what are your other options if you're not underground?  You can shoot at them, but can't you lure them underground and shoot at them there too?

The problem comes from the central staircase.  If you have an entry staircase and then a hall or something and then the central staircase, everything is fine.  However, a central staircase from the surface is really nasty because invaders can just plow straight down into anywhere in the entire fort with little ability to defend against it at all.

Personally, I either build into the side of a mountain if available with good space available or a staircase straight down a bit til I hit a few layers of rock, and then build an underground castle where the entry defenses and barracks and such are, and then a ways past the castle, with it's own defenses along the way, I build a nice town square with the main staircase.  Any potentially dangerous entrances/exits are connected to the castle rather than the main city, such as cavern entrances/mining tunnels, so that any potential dangers have to go straight through all my defenses to get to the castle, and then through more defenses to get to the city.

[Hamiltonz]

In the few times that I've started on a completely flat zone my pattern is to dig 2 sets of three wide ramps, a 3x12 hallway, a 5x5 depot room, an then a 8x1 hallway leading to my central staircase.

The ramps are for the wagons.  There are two sets of ramps because I want a solid layer of gound between the surface and my top floor.  The wide hallway is of course for the wagons, but it's also for two sets of drawbridges and 30 cage traps.  Since cage traps now block wagons I've stopped building them, but I kept the pattern.  I guess I could make the 3 wide halway shorter and the 1-wide hall 3-wide and filled with cage traps.

Basically, it's a ramp then a long hallway before my central stair.  Defenders station in the long hallway protecting the central access point from attackers.

[Starver]

The problem comes from the central staircase.  If you have an entry staircase and then a hall or something and then the central staircase, everything is fine.  However, a central staircase from the surface is really nasty because invaders can just plow straight down into anywhere in the entire fort with little ability to defend against it at all.

That's why I set up a stockade.  To start with simple, just although later on it can become complex.

Some say this is undwarfy to do.  However, most of the time the topside 'buildings' are dwarfed (NPI!) by the subterranean diggings.  It may look like the busy oil-extraction compound in Mad Max 2, but beneath it is something more like the caverns of Zion from The Matrix.

(I tend to do the same in my very limited Minecraft activities.  Typically digging out a column of space (or a pyramid, or something more complex) directly below my embark, with a very basic 'topside' building.  Until I start running out of space for all the cobblestone rubble I'm extracting, and hit magma layers, at which point I start laboriously casting (with the help of the copious amounts of sand or soil I've also built up) an obsidian (and often glass) over-structure that's really just a by-product of whatever ultimate plan I have for all the underground area between me and the bedrock.  I just wandered over to the computer with some old Minecraft screenshots of mine stored on it, then realised that would of OOC for this particular thread.)

[joeclark77]

Lately I've been trying "terrifying" embarks so I begin by digging down one level, then horizontally a few tiles, and then digging out a big room.  This is the fastest way to get everything and everyone inside, and it can then be walled-off quickly with a single piece of wood or stone in the entry hallway.  Later, when things are safe, I'll build a more elaborate horizontal entryway with a trade depot and everything.  Typically that 1x1 vertical entrance will be re-purposed as an archer tower.

So I guess my point is, it doesn't matter so much how you initially dig in.  What matters is how you architect your "true" entryway and defenses.

[Magistrum]

If you have a Cliff, it's aways better to mine into it.
Mining into a mountain is not advisable.
in plains and mountains I aways channel 1 z level then build a 3x3 room(for the trade depot) dig 20 squares to any cardinal direction and then start the main staircase.