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[Urist Tilaturist]

By sticking to fantasy standards humans might be weak willed and go crazed while being this close to...

...adamantine? Adamantine itself has no psychological effects. The demons just do not like dwarves taking too much of it.

Dwarves go crazy anyway with their stress and strange moods.

[Urist McVoyager]

I love surface forts. I tend to build castles above-ground.

[That Wolf]

I love surface forts. I tend to build castles above-ground.

Yeah me too.
I like to embark with 3 woodcutters 2 miners and 2 farmers.
Get the woodcutters to clear a large area for the castle, mine out a chosen type of stone and lots of it, I like marble recently, then get the miners to turn it all into blocks, while this is happening the farmers and woodworkers set up the mead hall and farms, then I make a farm house for milking, shearing, butchery etc.
By then the first wave of settlers come, usualy with some useless kids, I tell all of them to become farmers and builders, then build a 2story barracks and burrow the kids in it.
By this point im in the first cavern layer and have made hundreds of cage traps.
I set them up outside and in the caves.
My wall starts at this point.
I often make is too large thinking of the future, it takes a few years to set up properly the design is a 2 high wall with a 2 wide walkable perimeter, 3 high towers with fortifications for archers, all surrounded by a 2 deep moat and one gate with a drawbridge with metal bars both linked together, by this point I often have 70ish citizens. I will create a mini village to occupy the gate and open it when needed,
My military often walk the perimeter
Lately I have been thinking of making a military fortress, having rotating training schedules so all farm and then train and then are on duty.
I will often build a fort next to major rivers to reduce the amount of walls needed

[Urist McVoyager]

I tend to get lost in the moment. Used to be I'd get the starter pack with the StartDwarf program and drum up an initial population of thirty to handle building. I'd push the embark points to max and cart in my own stone so I wouldn't have to mine it, and center the whole project around the four wagons that would bring. I'd settle perfectly flat land, dig my farms down a layer so they're even, and build the Keep on an artificial hill about 30x30 wide, and the Keep would be 20x20. The first set of walls would be about 50x50 to give enough room for farms and sheep pens within the Keep area to keep them safe. The second would be about 100x100 to enclose the rest of the industries above ground. The walls themselves would be three tiles thick so there could be a walkway inside, and that second set would have a moat to channel the enemies to the gate instead of letting them climb so easily. Not that I wouldn't set up overhanging fortifications to prevent determined climbers, just making sure the climb's as high as it can be.

[mndfreeze]

What methods do you guys use to build your walls multi-Z stories high?  The few times I've tried I found it a real pain in the ass to get the dwarves to build it em.  I ended up building the first floor of walls, a stairway next to em going up, and then having to build floors out from the top of the wall so the dwarves had something to stand on to actually build the next layer of walls, then another stairway up, another layer of floors, etc etc.  It ended up taking FOREVER not to mention the amount of job cancellations and tree branches and other things that just popped up to get in my dwarves way.  Figures of course after all this AND making an overhang on the outside of the third story, I found out there is a new bug where goblins could somehow go through fortifications.

;(

needless to say that really turned me off on using walls for anything but the most basic of defense. 

[Putnam]

Not a bug that goblins can jump through fortifications, AFAIK.

[That Wolf]

Yeah after playing adventure mode and hanging around my forts I can confirm fortifications can be jumped through and onto of.
The method I use to build a wall is this
Build the base starter wall as a guideline. Build a few ramps to be deconstructed later and then I build the floor tiles next to the wall 1z lvl above the ground  then build the second story wall on top of the base wall. Rinse wash repeat. I am sure there is a better tech though.

[mndfreeze]

Not a bug that goblins can jump through fortifications, AFAIK.

Wait, its NOT a bug but is actually intended?  Fortifications are tiny little slits in stone walls used to shoot arrows and bolts through, no humanoid could fit through them REALLY.  They are only like 6 inches wide or so, and actually taper as well so the inside shooter has more angle to shoot out then the outside has chance to shoot in.

I swore I read this was a bug, if its not I am extra sad now.

[mndfreeze]

Yeah after playing adventure mode and hanging around my forts I can confirm fortifications can be jumped through and onto of.
The method I use to build a wall is this
Build the base starter wall as a guideline. Build a few ramps to be deconstructed later and then I build the floor tiles next to the wall 1z lvl above the ground  then build the second story wall on top of the base wall. Rinse wash repeat. I am sure there is a better tech though.

This is basically the same thing as me just your using temporary ramps instead of U/D stairs.  I also leave my stairs and the floors that stick out from the wall there on each level so dwarves could go on them and shoot down, which is how the gobbo's got in,through my fortifications that i THOUGHT were safe and to be used for that exact purpose.

liiiiieesss wiki guide, you have filled me full of llliiiieesss!

[smakemupagus]

No idea whether Toady considers it a bug or a feature, but wiki and bugtracker both have it listed as known bug 8160

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Fortification
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/mantisbt/view.php?id=8160

>> liiiiieesss wiki guide, you have filled me full of llliiiieesss!

You could fix it, or be specific enough about what you consider llllllllliiiiiiiiiieees so someone else could fix

[mndfreeze]

I'll go look through it again and see if its already been changed.  I only started playing DF maybe 6 months ago or so, and learned it all starting with the big wiki guide.  It stated somewhere, in either the main newbie start guide or perhaps in a linked specific guide, how to use fortifications and walls so you were safe and how things could NOT go through em.  It was a long time ago I read it.

[smakemupagus]

OK sounds good -- if it was in the New player guide i think there are specific links there for feedback.  Good luck!

[Miuramir]

Not a bug that goblins can jump through fortifications, AFAIK.

Wait, its NOT a bug but is actually intended?  Fortifications are tiny little slits in stone walls used to shoot arrows and bolts through, no humanoid could fit through them REALLY.  They are only like 6 inches wide or so, and actually taper as well so the inside shooter has more angle to shoot out then the outside has chance to shoot in.

You seem to be thinking that fortifications imply solely an embrasure (and of a fairly specific era and type); the term in DF usage is much more general, and includes battlements (with or without crenelations), pillbox-style positions for siege artillery, etc. 

Ideally we would have multiple types represented differently in DF, but that sort of additional detail is not likely to come into play until Toady focuses on armies, siege weapons, and proper besieging tactics in a future arc (if at all). 

[That Wolf]

The exploit where you drop a liquid and you can fully refill a container got abused by me.
I filled up barrels of with 100 units of sunshine, plenty of barrels.
I used to do it for vampire blood so I can have a temple for adventurers to journey to without attacking a vampire and dieing just for a sip.
The trade caravan loved me... if only dwarves had come and bought me some steel.
I gave away a few barrels of sewer brew and swamp whiskey.
On that note, can you carry magma around in a flask or anything magma proof?
I would love to throw magma and drink it. Ive just never been near magma and thought about it at the time. And my pc is being.. fixed. Muhahaha

[mndfreeze]

You can carry magma in a minecart.

IMO I think it should be added to be able to make some other container be able to cart magma around if ifs magma proof, like a bucket.  Something to simplify the process of moving magma around.  Perhaps a well built out of all mafma safe materials then you could just pop it over the magma sea or whatever.  And if there is an easy way to dump it like how you designate to fill up your own pool of water, but magma instead.