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[Urist Mcfortwrecker]

my perfect fort has walls around the general area of my entrance (which i almost always dig into a standalone hill, for challenge) and then I have a single 3 wide drawbridge for the caravan. I then pick another standalone hill and dig up a barracks/archery tower, which usually just consists of fortifications built along the edge of the hill and a barracks/training room dug into it, almost a self-contained mini-fort except for the hallway connecting them a couple Zs down. this complex also has a drawbrige, this one 1 wide because all that's needed there is a sealing door. archers stay inside, melee wanders out to finish off those that archers wounded. if the fort is doing really well I'll even include an armory within the barracks with forges to both replace ammo and arm new recruits. then, after a couple invasions I set up the memorial slabs lining my caravan route, both restricting the caravans and showing them the bravery of my dwarves

[Panando]

I had a lovely magma hallway once, thanks to embarking on a volcano.  The only problem was getting it clear of magma again in time for the next caravan to get through.

This. Is the problem with magma traps which are also caravan-enabled.

It's very easy using downstairs and a drainage area under the downstairs, the ways out of the magma pit can even be made as up/down stairs allowing them to both drain freely, but caravans cannot traverse downstairs. Caravans CAN traverse grates but you cannot combine a grate and ramp to make a self-draining ramp. The solution would seem to be to use 3-wide corridors of grates (the grates can be built on downstairs to avoid support issues) then either pump in magma from the side or drop it from above.

I designed a very effective self-cleaning no-drainage required non-recycling magma trap, using raising bridge-walls under the floors (which were made of downstairs). When enemies came in, the trap was triggered, the bridges would raise preventing any magma entering the tiles under the stairs, a retracting bridge (or floodgate) would open allowing magma to pour in. Then the raising bridges would lower letting all the magma fall down and the retracting bridge would close stopping new magma coming in. The magma simply pools on the raising bridges, and the next time the trap is triggered the bridges raise and the magma is atomsmashed out of existence clearing the space for the next load of magma.

Finally I linked the trap to a pressure plate set to be triggered by a dog. The dog (later a Leopard), would see enemies through a window, and try to run to them, activating the pressure plate. The bridges open/raise and the trap was flooded.
The trap worked exceptionally, it would incinerate everything without discrimination. When all my dwarves were in the trap collecting goodies, and a kobold thief appeared, the dog/leopard would trigger and all the dwarves would get incinerated. Hence a component of a good incineration trap is a way to seal off the trap and activate a safety mechanism and open an access way allowing dwarves to collect goodies, and once the goodies are collected, it can be reset to dangerous mode. Another considerably safer way is to use a 'dead man's switch' where you pasture the animal of choice ON the pressure plate, holding it down, for example, keeping retracting bridges open. Once the animal sees enemies it moves from the plate, and the bridges close, sealing the enemies in the trap. The trap can then be flooded with magma or water or military dwarves or whatever response is appropriate for whatever has been caught in the trap (the nice thing about the dead man's switch approach is the animal can't be put back on the trigger plate while the trap is still full of nasties - the dwarf trying to pasture the animal will just run away).

The problem is it somehow seems more dwarvern to have a death trap as your entrance way which is entirely lacking in even the most rudimentary safety mechanisms.

[cikulisu]

one or two retractable bridge-fall traps, followed by a water/ice/magma drowning chamber, followed by blade traps, followed by a barracks housing 10~ of my strongest warriors. i don't think anything has ever managed to get through it, once it's fully built.

[Button]

I use the long, safe caravan route/short, trapped invader route pattern for my fortresses. I have a particular pattern for my trap route though. First there are at least 20, usually 30+ tiles' worth of bridges. The ones on either end flip outwards, and the ones in the middle retract. Standard pit trap. (I have a bridge to cut off the long route as well, to keep out stragglers.)

Above the pit trap is a magma chamber, which is floored with bridges. If I have something too heavy to pit captured on one of the bridges, I unleash the magma.

The bottoms of my pit traps vary. Sometimes - particularly in games where I am at war with the elves - I just leave my enemies down there, to fight whatever else I end up pitting. Sometimes I let my marksdwarves use them for target practice. Sometimes I melt them, or cast them to obsidian. Sometimes I spike trap them to death and use their corpses for crafts.

After the pit trap is a hallway of cage traps, to alert me to goblin ambushes, or to capture valuable animals.

Then I have a hatch-glitch failsafe, followed by a war beast tied up in a 1-tile-wide hallway to catch kobolds.

[dennislp3]

I prefer a wide open entrance hall with an army of stout dwarves to cut the enemy down...traps are for the weak >.>

[krenshala]

I prefer a wide open entrance hall with an army of stout dwarves to cut the enemy down...traps are for the weak >.>

A room full of war animals and sparring militia sounds like a nice trap to me.

[PainRack]

I'm kinda impressed by Minas Tirith so I have this grand drawbridge above ground, elevated by walls if need be and a series of bridges where I can remove the walkway bridges, trapping the goblins in midair, there to be massacred by crossbolts.

I been trying to implement a it's raining goblins mechanicsm, where the bridges will drop goblins into my barracks but the one and only time I did that didn't turn out well when the master lasher wasn't stunned by the dropot

[Valid_Dark]

I Have a tunnel going into a mountain with a little statue garden before the stairs down,

On one side of it, I have my catacombs dug into the mountain as well, the other side I have my military training area,

Outside I have a refuse pile, and some above ground farmland, next to that I have a few animal pastures and an animal training area.

outside that I have a wall, multiple tiles high, 2+ tiles wide with a drawbridge over a moat I've dug out.

[Zanthra]

In my games I usually dig a trapped entrace pathway, bring or cut a lot of wood, get my mechanic working on mechanisms, and craft a lot of spiked wooden balls for weapon traps (they basically perma-stun the goblins until they bleed out rather than outright killiing them and jamming the trap, and they are fast and cheap to build early). Then use some dogs or cats to detect the sneakers. It also usually zigzags back and forth a few times.

Usually this hallway is dug a few Z Levels down, so that I can have a marksman's box one Z level up, with fortifications looking down on the approach, with bridges in front.

As ambushes, sieges, and traders bring me various weapons, I will usually fill several wapon traps with other weapons as well, mixed in with the spiked wooden balls (the end of a 1 tile thick wall used for the zigzag will always get a spiked ball since most attackers will cut the corner tight, and I don't want it getting jammed on the first attacker). Once I get my metal industry up, it generally consists of manufacturing Steel Giant Axe Blades, segragating the masterwork ones, and melting the non masterwork down. I then fill weapon traps with 10 masterwork axe blades each (with masterwork mechanisms wherever possible... it's beautiful to see trolls explode into tiny bits and pieces flying every which way).

I build various trapboxes at the corners and sides of the map, with a few animals in the middle, and a spiral walkway to get to them, then build weapon traps around the spiral. This draws ambushers to them, although I have ended up with siege squads stuck there after their commander got killed (I think a larger entrance room with weapon traps before the spiral with some sort of water trap or drawbridge trap to make sure they all die even if their leader dies to the first weapon trap would make sense). I also usually build a secondary entrance protected with cage traps and drawbridges so that my dwarves can go in and out easy without having to path through the long trapped entranceway.

At some of the zigzags I will both other fortifications with ballistae far behind them (unless I end up with some blind dwarves, then I will put the ballistae closer to the fortifications). If I run out of room underground, I will often start extending the entrance above ground. Usually with a raized 1 tile wide switchpack  pathway where falling off requires pathing again. A mix of full spiked ball traps, and full axe blade traps are usually enough to encourage dodging and cut them up enough to see them dead.

I know it's not exactly fair to the attackers, but hey, I enjoy watching them get wiped out by traps.

[Kattel]

i always like a dodge 'em trap entrance way (single tile wide walkway with sheer 20+ drops on either side) i will generally rig up a 'landslide' mechanism (which differs depending on the map and if possible and not too big of a megaproject will involve quantities of magma.) to push pesky trap_avoids off the bridge. my fortress innards are usually at the bottom of the drop so that passing civilians can pick up a stray goblin arm as they pass the splat zone and pop it in the refuse pile. sides of the sheer walkways far walls are usually fortified with squads of marksdwarves patrolling...for those annoying situations where the siege leader falls of the cliff and rest stand there scratching there ass's 'waiting' for him. on the inner side of the walkway is usually a cage-o-death. either full of war dogs, jaguars, or whatever i have...FB if ive gotten one caught at some point.

[ZzarkLinux]

Just noticed this thread. I posted my recent design in another thread, which was probably a mistake.

Finally I linked the trap to a pressure plate set to be triggered by a dog. The dog (later a Leopard), would see enemies through a window, and try to run to them, activating the pressure plate. The bridges open/raise and the trap was flooded.
The trap worked exceptionally, it would incinerate everything without discrimination. When all my dwarves were in the trap collecting goodies, and a kobold thief appeared, the dog/leopard would trigger and all the dwarves would get incinerated. Hence a component of a good incineration trap is a way to seal off the trap and activate a safety mechanism (...)

The problem is it somehow seems more dwarvern to have a death trap as your entrance way which is entirely lacking in even the most rudimentary safety mechanisms.

How many dwarves were in the accident ?? Seems like a really cool trap. I guess the trap smoked clothing too, so you wouldn't have to worry about Urist going in there to change clothes ? For safety ideas, I guess it depends on your goals. If you reside in an easier biome then you may want to leave the safety off, but if it's a tougher biome with close goblins, giant fliers, or more, then the saftey would seem appropriate (assuming you can successfully build the furnace).