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[Relee]

I was thinking of building an enclosed above-ground "Greenhouse" for growing aboveground crops, but I'm afraid of leaving my fortress open to aerial assault. I was thinking of building a walled area and covering the top with bars or grates to let the light in... but would that really work?

[JujuBubu]

It could, but I actually don't know if grates need walls or floor next to them, or if you could construct a whole floor ..

another way which works perfectly is to build floors out of glass above the greenhouse ..
light shines through but nothing gets in, not even trolls

[Relee]

According to the wiki they need to be attached to a 'solid point', like a floor tile. But the wiki didn't say anything about letting sunlight pass through.

Glass is a good idea too though! I hadn't thought of that, I hardly ever use glass; I don't normally get a fort large enough for glass production to be reasonable.

[Salmeuk]

From certain forts of mine, grates are essentially floors. You can attach them to each other.

:edit:

They allow the passage of light through them to the room below.

That's what the wiki says. I'm not sure about it, though. I vaguely remember creating a series of grates for a similar purpose to yours, but while it did let light in, it was counted as below ground.
  Not sure though.

[Untelligent]

1. Either light passes through floors, or aboveground plants don't need light so long as they're above the natural surface of the ground, or both. I can't remember, but either way, you can build normal floors above your garden and still grow plants there.

2. Flying critters will only fly over your walls if they have a valid ground path to the other side. Not sure why. Must be a pathfinding bug. Anyway, just temporariliy seal all exits to your fort with drawbridges over channels and you're safe from them.

[Zerox]

Aerial assault?
Unless you have harpies, skeletal giant eagles, or a cliff for shooting at you nearby, You'd probably be fine.


But you wouldn't be safe from the
TYRANNOSAURS IN F16S!

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Aerial assault?
Unless you have harpies, skeletal giant eagles, or a cliff for shooting at you nearby, You'd probably be fine.


But you wouldn't be safe from the
TYRANNOSAURS IN F16S!

Offtopic: SimEarth?

OnTopic: Neither you from Flying Gobbons! Nor Winged CARP!

[Untelligent]

No, Calvin & Hobbes.

[Skizelo]

From certain forts of mine, grates are essentially floors. You can attach them to each other.

I don't know which version you're remembering, but I've had a grate fall from beneath miner's feet when they channeled away a connecting wall. Then, like an idiot, I constructed a floor to fill this gap in the middle of 8 grates, which fell through, taking out several workshops and muddying some shops I built above a reservoir.

[Skanky]

Indeed. Grates don't support other floors around them.

[Overdose]

If i'm not mistaken, an above ground farm doesn't need grates/bars at all. Just make sure its the biome you gathered plants from, and it should work. I think you need bars/grates though if you want to place something like an indoor/outdoor refuse stockpile though. The last time i did it was back in 33f though so it may have changed since then.

[Reasonableman]

REMEMBER THE BIOMES. Can't stress this enough. If you gather a bunch of seeds from the forest, then build a painstaking system of pumps and aqueducts to irrigate a portion of a mountain biome, you will NOT be able to grow anything. I made that mistake and almost payed with my entire booze-starved fortress.

[JujuBubu]

So level the site you want your outside farm to be at, irrigate the pebbles and boulders if you want to, build a closed wall around it, two levels to be secure  and give the farm underground access ..
nothing should bite you now .

[Loctavus]

What I do.

1) Dig my farm.
2) Channel out the roof.
3) Pave over the roof with rock flooring.

Done deal.

This creates a LIGHT and INSIDE enviroment. Light lets outside plants grow, but being inside means they arn't subject to whatever the biome is doing. I did this on the scorching map I was on, but I wasn't able to grow strawberries until I put a roof on it.

Then all my guys got stomped by hippos, but that's another story. Loosing is fun.

[JujuBubu]

so the game does not care which material the roof is made of, as long the area has been channeled ?