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[cyberTripping]

I'm a bit of a newb to the game still, and had to make a new fort due to annihilating my old one (long story, let's just say I've learned the importance of backups). I embarked at a volcano, and found that it has sand. After a while of starting, I realized what I wanted to do. I'm planning on this being my first megaproject once the fort is running full power, a large green glass tower rising up out of the volcano, and perhaps dipping down into the lava if there's a way to do such a thing reasonably.

This got me thinking. What were other people's first megaprojects like? as such, I came here to ask just the question.

[smjjames]

I think I remember my first megaproject way back in 40d being a huge pyramid. I forget if it was hollow or not. I remember that fort dying due to FPS death though.

[Scruffy]

My first? Must have been a couple of large underground halls for my king. Pretty much just decided to dig large multiple z-level high halls with engraved walls, large pillars, magmawalls and walkways. Dug two huge halls and a thronechamber. Took surprisingly long. I think that it was inspired by Lotro version of Moria 2nd hall. Just image something from DF or tolkien fanart.

A large aboveground fortress with wide 5z level high walls with sealed walkways inside, large courtyard split in 4 segments and a high  inverted pyramid held up by 4 pillars with staircases inside. My largest megaproject. Damn thing took forever to build and I would have never been able to do it without a building from an early version of the masterwork mod that allowed me to change the color of blocks (ran out of marble long before finishing) (Just checked the old save. Seems like the groundfloors were 80x80, the first 6 or 7 floors above it were around 45x45 and the highest point of the inverted pyramid was around 80x80 and the damn thing was 50z levels high. That is a ridiculous amount of blocks. Over 100k I think) Not going to make something like that again.

Oh, one very important thing about megaprojects: Normally df allows you to build only 15z levels above the highest point on the embark site. You have to change it in world gen. It can be extremely frustrating spending hours building something and then noticing after 15 levels that you can't finish because of world gen height limit.

[Broken]

Oh, one very important thing about megaprojects: Normally df allows you to build only 15z levels above the highest point on the embark site. You have to change it in world gen. It can be extremely frustrating spending hours building something and then noticing after 15 levels that you can't finish because of world gen height limit.

Not anymore. DF Hack has an script that creates new Z levels automatically if you reach the top. So there is no need to create useless z levels 
in world gen, you can add them when as they are needed.

[MrCompassionate]

My first was an arena made of floor hatches to drop the contestants into spikes. This did not work at all but the massive crystal glass windows to look in were cool.
My second was a volcano fort with an entrance that hangs over the maw and goes down and into the wall. People kept getting shot by magma crabs but it worked and the fort prospered.
My third was another, less stupid arena which worked like a charm and did away with many prisoners in an entertaining fashion especially with  the brutal "ring outs". Giant bigcats vs trolls and cavern beasts was my favorite, so dramatic.
My forth was an enormous throne room 2 z levels high with a golden throne masterwork lead statues and engraved all over. An 800 year old vampire king with 21 thousond kills held the throne. A great black path led to the throne and behind it a hidden room with an artifact lead sarcophagus. Sadly he currently inhabits the grave after a deathly infection.

[fractalman]

Maybe not a true mega-project, but...1000 or so rock blocks and ~300 logs, for an unnecessarily elevated windmill farm with 60 windmills, all under the time constraints of a community fortress.
The actual structure went up in about one season, but the infrastructure I needed to get it built so fast could qualify as "Megaproject" level infrastructure.

I'll probably do something simple next, like roofing over the entire embark with microline.

[itg]

My first was a giant stone "tent" over the surface of the map. I built walls, 5 z-levels high, as close to the map's edge as close as possible, then built a sloping roof over everything. I didn't control the color at all, so it wasn't very attractive, but it did keep out the giant eagles.

[Larix]

I'd say it was my open-pit mining fort with all constructed dwellings (the only underground facility was the well-house, since the map froze five months per year). The quarries eventually touched the first cavern level at z-40 or so, and the bigger one was about as large as a full embark tile. I had only very rudimentary knowledge of constructions and how they work, so the first buildings were butt-ugly, but the later ones got more ambitious and fancy (although still all planned on-the-fly and shoddy). I must have used about 30 000 stones/blocks in constructions and fps was utterly awful towards the end. It was a glorious sprawling mess: gridlocked caravans, disoriented wild animals wandering through buildings and scaring the shit out of the civilians, a massive "justice" clusterfuck, a thirty-z tower of soap, a dwarf stuck in a traction bench for five years (and surviving the experience), it had it all.

[MDFification]

My first was a giant stone "tent" over the surface of the map. I built walls, 5 z-levels high, as close to the map's edge as close as possible, then built a sloping roof over everything. I didn't control the color at all, so it wasn't very attractive, but it did keep out the giant eagles.

0_0 I just built huge walls for mine. Sealed off the surface, secured the caverns, made there only be a single easily defensible entrance to the fort... I can't imagine how much time it would take to build this tent.

[coldmonkey]

Oh, one very important thing about megaprojects: Normally df allows you to build only 15z levels above the highest point on the embark site. You have to change it in world gen. It can be extremely frustrating spending hours building something and then noticing after 15 levels that you can't finish because of world gen height limit.

If you can't build up, build down.

[Beast Tamer]

My first Megaproject was the Military District of my current fort. Twenty levels high, it encompasses four separate barracks for four different squads, eight training rooms, a swimming chamber, four armories, eight archery ranges, and -at the very top- the Quarters for my Duke/Champion. She, along with her Consort, spearheads every assault.

(The trick is to assign them to their Military Squad before they become a noble then train them up. Whatever you do, don't take them out of the military or disband their squad.)

My next Mega Project will consist of finishing my city, then putting a ceiling over it to keep myself safe from flyers.

[firsal]

First, and so far, only megaproject of mine was moving my enitire fortress into a tower-complex above ground. Houses 200 dwarves plus dining, hospital, and production centers in 12 floors of space. Consists of 5 towers, with the central 20x20 tiles in size and the outer 4 10x10 in size. The central tower is connected to the other via covered walkway at the 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th floors. Took 5 years and 11000 granite blocks to complete.

The upper 7 levels are devoted to housing and dining, while the rest are given over to fortress industry. It is absolute HELL to get things running smoothly.  I'm still not yet done, even. I plan to add outer fortifications, a power plant, a barracks structure and a pump stack to deliver magma to the surface. Probably will take another 4 years to complete, plus more dead dwarves.