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[dwarfhoplite]

Inspired by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City, I got the idea for an aboveground fortress where dwarves dwell in dark and narrow alleys, deprived of sunlight by the incredibly densely built multi-level buildings that carpet the map. The poor could perhaps live in squalor in the lowest levels while upper levels remain for those fortunate who manage and police the city. Eventually buildings would cover all arable land and food would have to be imported.

Please tell if you have any thoughts or pieces of good advice.

I think such a massive project is best built out of clay because it's unlimited resource and perhaps FPS-friendliest to produce. Plus the red colour of unburned clay adds to the atmosphere.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

Dwarves would prefer to live lower down. Dwarves you consider valuable should live in the lower levels.

[Rocktomato]

A magnificent idea. I suspect immense amounts of suffering will result.

I don't think even a Dwarf would want to live at the bottom of a huge aboveground Dwarf-hive. Let's just say they're an unusual tribe of cloud-lovers.

Linked below is an image of what the lower levels of Kowloon looked like.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/05/article-0-12EF32BB000005DC-209_964x618.jpg

[utunnels]

I have tried building above ground cities. It is quite time consuming. Usually I prefer a small population, so I usually build a main workshop area with big walls, then build smaller buildings for my dorfs to dwell in.

If you are using clay bricks, you need to fell trees, turn them into charcoal, etc.

If I recall correctly:

1 unit of logs = 1 unit of charcoal = 1 unit of clay bricks = 1 unit of glass blocks = 1 unit of wood blocks

1 unit of stone = 4 units of stone blocks

Which means if you don't go underground, you need fuels, lots of them. You can also construct buildings using logs directly.

[vjmdhzgr]

It's impossible for an above ground tile to be deprived of sunlight. Once it's light and above ground it's light and above ground forever. Also this will be incredibly difficult. Building above ground is very difficult, very difficult. Very difficult.

[dwarfhoplite]

You can build with clay boulders. You just collect it from the ground and it is ready to be used. I'm using those, and I'm running no digging challenge as well. In a nutshell, I've got free building material but close to no other resources since I'm on a semi-desert.

 I figured out opening the cavern and mining in general would harm frame rate. I'm thinking of playing a very long multi-generation game so it doesn't matter that it takes time.

I have played with the idea of going massive above ground before, here http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-12356-fortressblew

[Urist McVoyager]

It's easier now than it was. Between the tree upgrade and the current Idle Activity nature of construction, you can get buildings up with little fuss. Just chop trees and let people with nothing major to do yet handle the building. And you don't have to worry about them taking over workshops since construction is currently unplugged from labors.

[Dorsidwarf]

Also, cave adaption was tweaked.

Being in an above ground structure can't cause cave adaption, but it won't reduce cave adaption either.
You'll need an underground chamber to stick your low-tier citizens for a few months.

[dwarfhoplite]

I have to play the old version, for my rig runs the new one at a terribly low speed.

[Dwarf4Explosives]

To solve the problem of the lower levels being lit if aboveground, you could just dig out small part of the ground, not enough to get into the caverns and then dig out most of the rest of the map to the same level.

[dwarfhoplite]

Dwarves are quite happy aboveground.

[King_of_Baboons]

Bonus points if you built it in a tundra.like this one:

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=147099.0

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

It would be fun to do this, but downwards in a cavern as opposed to upwards above ground. I already carve out natural cavern pillars for my farming-related workshops. I might now gen a world with massive caverns with many pillars and see whether I can fit a whole fort in them.