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[Desgeretjin]

Below the magma. I like natural lavafalls for their burning mist.

[Foxite]

Below the magma. I like natural lavafalls for their burning mist.

This sounds epic but how do you dig under magma? For all I know, besides candy there's only SMR.

[Naryar]

Below the magma. I like natural lavafalls for their burning mist.

This sounds epic but how do you dig under magma? For all I know, besides candy there's only SMR.

Hell.

Also I tend to build my fortresses pretty flat (on 1-2 z-levels, stockpiles tend to be more) and pretty close to the surface.

Though, magmafalls do NOT produce magma mist.

[asnys]

I like surface fortresses.

[Iamblichos]

Generally within the first 5-10 levels of the surface, though I have also been known to settle in one of the caverns.  It's more fun, but it's also a lot more !!FUN!!.

As time goes on, I am becoming more and more fond of magma forges, so I am tending to settle further and further down.

[Buckley]

*snip* Wrong thread.

Great replies tho... giving me ideas...

[Kraegan]

I tend to do both.  If I have a biome that's easy to setup up in then I generally build close to the surface and rarely go lower.  If it is a harsher biome then I dig for the cavern and set up there.  I generally prefer the cavern forts as I hate having my dwarves live in dirt rooms. 

[milo christiansen]

I tend to build all over the place (different areas each fort).

One of my favorite recent forts was built between the third level caverns and the magma sea. Hauling issues were taken care of by a paired drop shaft and impulse elevator (automated via powered sorters and minecart launchers, both of which are mod buildings added by Rubble addons).

This works really well, as then haulers can haul several items to the drop shaft in the time they could make a single trip to the main stockpiles at the bottom of the fort. Sadly a drop shaft of this type is utterly impractical without some mods, as falling items can kill a dwarf very easily.

[tussock]

I use drop shafts most of the time for magma forges. Use levers to lock the bottom before you open the top, activate the correct dump zone, and mass dump your next tranche of materials. Once that's finished, turn off the dump, lock the top, open the bottom, and you're all good, though I prefer to swiftly remove the materials to their own piles to reduce later accidents. Easy to access your drop shaft for multiple levels of input and receiving as needed, it can even double as a magma dump with a little tinkering.

The time it takes to move things back up is a fine encouragement to shift more of the fort down, and the inevitable accidents are good training for the medical staff, while encouraging a fine array of cemetery construction activities which are good for the economy. There's really no negatives at all. Excellent for prisoner rehabilitation too, with a good 90+ z available for letting them consider the error of their ways.

[Desgeretjin]

Hell.

Also I tend to build my fortresses pretty flat (on 1-2 z-levels, stockpiles tend to be more) and pretty close to the surface.

Though, magmafalls do NOT produce magma mist.

It does if you also use it for garbage disposal.

Below the magma. I like natural lavafalls for their burning mist.

This sounds epic but how do you dig under magma? For all I know, besides candy there's only SMR.

Conquer through the candy spire, then architect through smr using method described here:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Semi-molten_rock

[Urist McShire]

I tend to place most of my fortresses within the first ten z-levels of the surface, generally to make things easier on managing my food production and wood gathering. I like having a surface component to my forts.

Though, recently I have gotten the idea to channel several z-levels deep into the stone layers and then start constructing multi z-level buildings, like an underground citadel defended with archery towers as the second line of defence before the enemy can reach the main stockpiles.

Actually, I'm getting chills just thinking of it. I might have to make good of my imagination and start building that tomorrow!

[pisskop]

I always have an entrance w/storage, but my forts start at the meeting hall or the landing under the aquifer.

5 - 10 levels of empty space, using every other level without an aquifer
10 - 15 levels of empty space, minding the caverns with a standard aquifer.

The issue I have with deeper embarks is the caverns interrupting my designs.
  If I specifically embark for the caverns I usually tier my forts more than normal.  Food up to, masons in the middle (cavern 2-3), metal on the bottom.  the surface is likely bad if I do that.


  Also of note, I tend to make distinct wings, not seperate 'villages'.  I dont use too many burrows, letting the dwarves jobs and rooms keep them close by.  Feels more organic, and helps maximize Fun.

[Legendary Emu]

I recently started digging just a few levels under the surface (where roots won't destroy everything and there's still soil) for the first part and then turning that into a guard post and moving everyone else to a stone level. I like to think my designs are most trappifying, with traps and drawbridges and narrow corridors, and if you get past all that you reach another set of traps and narrow corridors of death.

[TD1]

I don't have any traps: It's military versus military, the way Dwarves were meant to fight!

[Niddhoger]

Occasionally I've actually started a fort all the way down to lava in order to get decent forges running. This is, of course, absolutely impractical. Hauling all of your goods to the bottom alone occupies most of my time when I do this.

I chuck it all down the stairs onto a general stockpile, ensuring first that nobody will be walking up and down said staircase during the dumping.

One could also dump straight onto the top level of stairs and then channel out that tile to have everything fall down at once, but I literally just thought that up so I don't know the specifics of how it would work.

What he said! Make a "pit" and just dump all the stuff down 100 levels.  Amazing how even glass tables remain intact after falling 100 levels onto cobaltite! The main issue is making sure no one is at the bottom... they'll go splat. 

I never build forts in "soil" layers.  It feels too much like some grubby kobold.  I am DORF! We dig through STONE.  I will set up -temporary- workshops in dirt (within first year) as part of pre-embark preparations (bringing ore and coal to forge my own weapons, cheap milk into cheese, spare leather into bags, etc).  However, these are just to exhaust pre-embark supplies while my weaponsmith makes a few picks and my miners get to carving out rooms.  Otherwise these dorfs would just be sitting around for a season doing diddly-squat. 

I hate "wide" fortresses, as these often waste time running down long hallways.  I tend to have one long vertical shaft 10-20z levels down.  Each floor has only a handful of rooms on it.  I typically layer them workshop/stockpile/workshop/stockpile.  The still, farmers workshop, and kitchen are under the food stockpile.  The "prepared" food/drink stockpile is under those (and adjacent/inside the dining room) which is over the living quarters which is over the stone stockpile which is over the mason/mechanic/stonecrafter... etc.  It winds up that I rarely go outward more than 10 tiles, but again will go 10-20zs deep. 

I also like to build surface fortifications too.  Walls with long empty moats dropping down into the first stone level (smoothed natural stone is virtually impossible to climb).  Gate houses, archery towers, ballistae... I feel like just digging into the ground doesn't let the world properly fear your dorfs! While I exist 20-100z levels down (I do sometimes make cavern/magma sea embarks), I need the world to see (and fear) my works above ground.