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[Defensive kobra]

hello, i am an rather new player, have only played the game for like maybe a little more than a year, and the amount of time i have spend looking at the wiki, hatching ideas and plans and just wondering things exceed my actiual playtime by an rather large amount, and there just are some things that i am curious about, and i might as well put every single one of them into one post

1 can intelegent non- dwarves who are not part of my civilization, such as invading goblins, elves, ambient merfolk or even semi megabeasts like ettins and minotaurs who exist in fortress mode but whom are unable to hurt any dwarves and outside cage traps able to socialize with each other and eventiually have children/ reproduce, if they are in the grounds of my fortress for long enough? (i am aware that interspecies breeding is not possible, was more thinking i lock some merfolk or elves in a room for long enough and there will eventually be more of them)

2 how does claiming an egg box work for animal people citizens who are able to lay eggs, and is getting reptilian female adventurer mode characters into my fortress an good idea in other to have an decent food source early on that unlike other animals can also be an functioning member of society? would claiming an egg box and laying eggs interfere with any other tasks they are trying to perform such as defending the fortress from an clown invasion or prevent them from performing in a tavern, socializing etc? would egg laying animal people be able to provide enough food through egg production alone to feed themselves and two other dwarves? while egg size does not affect the sale value of the egg, does it affect nutritional value?

3 how do you create an outdoor building with an roof on top? should i use floor or wall tiles above my building, and how do i even get my dwarves up there to begin with?

4 so clowns is the codename for one of the spoiler monsters in the game, but is there a codename for the other? should we call them mimes? goths maybe? wruce banes? anti-clowns?

5 are invaders able to pick up and use weapons / armor that is sitting on the ground? Could i for instance find a minotaur, capture it, give it an masterwork adamantine battle axe and throw any humanoid i want executed into the pit were they will be efficiently destroyed by an minotaur who is more than proficient with the weapon, eventiually using them as an potential weapon against megabeast invasions

6 can invaders, visitors and other non citizens in my fortress increase their skills while visiting my fortress?

[vjek]

For number 3, an answer to that is pretty straightforward..
Adjacent to a wall, build a set of stairs.  At least "Up" stairs, from the ground level.  You can also use a ramp, but the stairs allow you to go higher than 1 level, so if that's your plan, use stairs.
This will give your dwarves access to the top of the wall.  From there, they can build wall/floor tiles of any amount, adjacent to the edges of that wall, or on top of that wall.
If you want to go higher, after you've built your walls/floors on that higher level, build an "Up/Down" stairs on top of the "Up" stairs you previously built. 
Now you have access to the second higher level. Repeat as desired. (this wiki entry has some similar instructions/examples)

Once you've built everything, and put a roof on the top, you can deconstruct the stairs from top to bottom, if you don't want to leave or provide access to the roof.  If it's sealed, there's not really any reason not to, but at least you know it's possible.

It's easier/faster to build with blocks versus stones.  Ideally, you would make rock blocks, and use the rock blocks in your construction (or wood, clay, glass, ice, obsidian, whatever you have a ton of or can make an infinite amount of).

[PatrikLundell]

1. Sapient non invaders (trolls, troglos, intelligent clowns, etc.) can reproduce if they stay on the map long enough (and, obviously, have both genders present). It's a bit more unclear with invaders, although I believe I've seen births on 1 year long sieges. I haven't heard of rigorous testing of captives. I wouldn't be surprised if offspring are bugged like non sapient experiments are (offspring are marked as "Friendly", but fight neither invaders nor fortress members. They were easy to slaughter with a fairly inexperienced squad, even if their parents were deadly).

2. I don't know for certain, but grazing egg layers (elk birds) are a pain to deal with because they starve while sitting on their eggs. It's possible to micro manage with chains or temporary caging, but it still requires management. Sapient egg laying fortress members have to eat and drink (unless modded or undead), and so would starve and thirst, and probably get significant problems with lack of socialization, praying, and any other needs satisfying activities. Also note that eggs laid by sapients are collected and eaten as any other eggs. DF currently doesn't model nutrition. One piece of food is one piece of food, although it's said value factors in on the amount of satisfaction gained from eating food containing a favorite ingredient, but not when no such ingredient is present (lavish meals used to be good for everyone, but that's not the case anymore).

4. I don't know what you're talking about, unless you mean the ones that haven't got code names, i.e. F(orgotten)B(easts) and Titans, or the vault dwellers (with various names) that are essentially non existent in fortress mode (but you can get to them in adventure mode, I believe).

6. To a limited extent, I believe. Any creature (except exceptions) can learn from experience, so I'd expect an axe wielding invader chasing after wildlife and slaughter it to learn a little. Similarly, dodging out of the way of something would probably train dodge, performing in the tavern probably trains the corresponding skills, researching definitely allows visiting scholars to make breakthroughs, and presumably learn scholarly talents along the way. I've had visitors both participating in and leading guild demonstrations, which I assume they'll learn from.
However, organizing learning in some directed fashion would be a lot harder (dwarven swimming training probably works).

[Uthimienure]

3. To build the floor above, you need "up stairs" from the floor, and "up/down stairs" above them. If you want to continue more stories above that, you can keep adding to the stairs with "up/downs". If you want to put a hatch cover so an upper floor can be secure, then you need to stagger the staircases each level to allow for the hatch cover(s).

(edit: Forgot to add, if you stagger the stairs... you'll have to deconstruct a floor to build an "up stair" going to the next level, or plan ahead and build the stair instead of floor, which I usually forget to do.

[DrCyano]

I'll try to provide some answers:

1. Yes, non-dwarf residents can reproduce, but not adventurers unless you use a DFHack command to fix that

2. I don't know about sentient egg layers, but it's safe to assume that it works like egg laying animals but with all the additional requirements of a sentient resident (food, socialization, etc). My guess is that you need to imprison someone sitting on an egg to convince the dwarves to feed them with the "feed prisoner" labor

3. Floors = roofs, to build up, construct temporary or permanent stairs ('b' build -> 'C' construction -> 'x' up/down stair). I usually build stairs on the outside like scaffolding and then remove them (designate construction removal) when the building is done

4. As far as I'm aware, only circus-related stuff has a consistent naming convention.

5. I've never witnessed an invader picking up an object and using it. Captured "pets" probably won't either unless you can make them citizens and put them in a squad. Better to trap a forgotten or mega beast for your executioner pit (bonus points if you can build a gladiator arena with chambers to release monsters and prisoners into the ring)

6. Yes, definitely! One of the risks of relying only on weapon traps for defense is that an initially lucky invader dodges the first few, then gains legends dodge skills from dodging the remaining traps and becomes untouchable by the time your soldiers engage the enemy. Always have a "Plan B"'in case of invulnerable invaders (fortress self-destruct levers are popular for this purpose)

[kaijyuu]

To my knowledge, the only way for hostiles to pick up equipment and use it as a weapon is when they try to grapple a target and grab something they're wearing. This is usually something lame like a pig tail sock, not their masterwork steel battle axe.

Many a cyclops have incapacitated themselves by tearing off someone's shirt and insisting that it's their weapon now.

[Thon]

Number 1 might be possible. I had a (tame) Goblin on my my previous fort which I have absolutely no clue where it's coming from. Couldn't assign any labors, had full preferences/likes and yeah was named (Tame) Goblin...

Gave her the nickname "Bupu" and let her socialize and hang around in guildhalls, even gave her a room ( She is getting skilled from watching demonstrations but still can't do labors ).
Retired the fort and started another one, about 50 years later returned there with an adventurer. She became a general it seems. Good for her.

[PatrikLundell]

I've had a "tame" goblin/ogre pair that "returned" to a fortress of mine, presumably from a conquered site. That's bugged, of course.

[knutor]

For longer gameplay, get comfortable using dfHack scripts, there sometime occurs some game ending anomalies, dfHack can unwind or even prevent. Teleprt a season or two, will help unbog a cluttered fortress, so player can once again focus on design. Superdwarf on hunters can help in savage/evil biomes, where hunting topside is insane. And then there is autodump, easily the most used script in dfHack. Great for clutter fixing and retrival of unretrivable corpses, gems, etc..

1. Yes. Titans, Mega, and Semi will produce offspring, with exception of Bronze mechanical Titan. There's prolly others, I am rusty on new stuff. I never heard of a forgotten beast having offspring. The egglayer uninvited visitors will seek out your nest box, this is why its good to place a few nestboxes, outside of the fortress, topside and bottomside.

Too tired to try and answer others, maybe laterr. Take care.

[PatrikLundell]

Titans will not reproduce, as they're technically the same as FBs, only being present topside, and thus are the only ones of their kind.

I haven't seen any cases of egg laying non residents trying to use nest boxes, even when I experimented with placing a few topside.