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[Mr.Northern]

So I built a shooting gallery one level above the ground level outdoor trade depot so my crossbow dwarves can provide cover as traders enter.  On the first sieze with only melee weapon equipped goblins I see my lone crossbow dwarf fire twice and then suddenly he's on the ground getting stabbed by a goblin spearman.  The combat log indicates he lost his grip on the stone and fell.  I'm confused how this could be as the ground level has a 2 wide channel around the perimeter with a block wall on the inside.  On the z level above where the crossbow dwarves live I have a 20 tile long by 10 tile wide area with a floor underneath it all and a solid perimeter of fortifications.  To contain jumpers I built a floor on the 20x10 area on the z level above.

Does anyone know how I keep my crossbow dwarves from falling/jumping into fights with goblins that cannot actually reach them due to a 2 wide pit and block wall on the other side?  When this happened the first time I assumed for some reason the dwarf jumped over the single level high fortification, so I put the floor on the next z level.  This is making crossbows useless to me since if I wanted dwarven paratroopers falling from the ramparts I would have given the axes and heavy armor and let them rain down on my enemies.

[freeze]

Ran into this as well. It happened a few times and only once did I see "loses grip" so I assumed they were climbing down. In an attempt to curb their climbing inclinations I built a 2z curtain wall and built a sniping platform/overhang with fortification carved block wall perimeter 1z above that - they jumped, or possibly but extremely unlikely dodged, down, breaking bones etc before being swarmed by the gobs and trolls.

Haven't tried roofing it yet though. I think I'll fall back to traps and making damn sure I can get steel or at least bronze before the first caravan. Tonight I'll probably try variations on fortifications to see if vertical bars, built vs carved fortifications, certain other impassable blocks etc allow missile fire but are dwarf-proof.

[Tacomagic]

I've had modest success doing the following:

First: Set up restricted traffic zones inside of and one-tile outside of the fortifications (so that they cover the fortifications and the air tile outside).

Second:  Set the interior of the tower (where you want your marksdwarves to stand) as a high traffic area.

You'll need some ceiling access for the dwarves.  I saw a subjective drop in monkey marksdwarves after doing that.

You can also try using wall grates as fortifications instead of constructing fortifications.  If the problem is with them dodging through fortifications, wall grates might act different since it's considered a building and not a construct.  Haven't tried this one myself, but I'm going to try it with my next defense tower.  The downside being that flying building destroyers can knock those down.

[iceball3]

I've had modest success doing the following:

First: Set up restricted traffic zones inside of and one-tile outside of the fortifications (so that they cover the fortifications and the air tile outside).

Second:  Set the interior of the tower (where you want your marksdwarves to stand) as a high traffic area.

You'll need some ceiling access for the dwarves.  I saw a subjective drop in monkey marksdwarves after doing that.

You can also try using wall grates as fortifications instead of constructing fortifications.  If the problem is with them dodging through fortifications, wall grates might act different since it's considered a building and not a construct.  Haven't tried this one myself, but I'm going to try it with my next defense tower.  The downside being that flying building destroyers can knock those down.

That, and I'm pretty sure wall grates don't stop ranged weapons.
I do wonder if a wall great outside of a fortification would quell those issues, though I imagine it'll reduce the downward line of site significantly.