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[EvilCheerio]

I (like many people) find that above ground constructions are a great way to make your base more versitile, and get rid of some of that extra stone. Does anyone have any usefull, cool, or just fun to build constructions.

I was thinking about making small siege engine bunkers. small buildings build around the map that allow you to move around the area underground and come out ready to do some initial damage to the sieges. I'm not sure how usefull this would be but it would be fun.

[Moon Label]

I like making pyramids.  GIANT pyramids.

[Bryan Derksen]

I was thinking about making small siege engine bunkers. small buildings build around the map that allow you to move around the area underground and come out ready to do some initial damage to the sieges. I'm not sure how usefull this would be but it would be fun.

I did something like this on one of my maps where I'd set the playing area unusually large. There happened to be a number of choke points scattered around the map so I was able to build a few short walls that anyone trying to approach my fort would have to go through. Eventually I added small towers next to the gates in the walls, giving each a small stockpile of crossbow bolts, food, drink, and a couple of beds, and connected them to a system of underground tunnels that criss-crossed the map. Turned out to be quite handy; I was able to repel a couple of sieges by hitting the individual groups of goblins well before they gathered together at my main gates.

I also killed many more thieves than usual, since they'd come in through the locked doors of my remote towers and then only get caught much later on once they were deep into my tunnel system. They couldn't flee as easily in those tight spaces and I could often maneuver military dwarfs to cut off their escape.

On the downside, I forgot to lock tower doors a few times and wound up with ambushers appearing deep inside my tunnels. It was a lot harder for my civillian dwarfs to flee under those circumstances too and I lost a few that would have been able to get away on the surface.

Of course, all of that's moot if your pillboxes don't have surface-level entrances. I built them into mine because I wanted to use those remote towers for safer resource gathering - dwarfs would only be allowed outside in certain areas of the map, when I could set my military to guard that zone, and they wouldn't stay outside for as long. I set all the underground tunnels to be "high traffic" areas to convince them to stay inside for as long as possible when pathfinding.

It was also fun having my entire military come boiling up out of a wee little tower seemingly in the middle of nowhere, like an ant colony going berserk.

[EvilCheerio]

   That does sound fun, In just about any map, if you destroyed enough of the ramps you could force enemies to follow a very narrow path, In some maps you might even be able to block off entire island so that only by leaving through narrow paths can you get to a wood source.

  I've heard a lot of people talk about pyramids, like glass ones, but what would that be, a bunch of connected walls with ramps on the outside?

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Yes, you would basically design the form using constructed walls and add ramps/stairs as you like in your design (think South America).

A building is only really nifty in my opinion, though, once you put some decorum in it - status, bed rooms, meeting halls, colored floor tiles creating a pattern, etc.

Deathworks

[Proteus]

One of the above ground constructions that I almost always build is a stone house that houses stones that usually takes a form of a tower thatgets higher and higher.

Another things are truely extensive fortifications that rival the walls of Byzantium and surround a small courtyard (for outside crops and refuse zones) as well as a set of platforms, ramps and bridges (normally my main entrance is at least one level above ground, reachable only by a set of retractable bridges)

I also sometimes build my crypts at least partially above ground.

[Doppel]

Hi!

Yes, you would basically design the form using constructed walls and add ramps/stairs as you like in your design (think South America).

A building is only really nifty in my opinion, though, once you put some decorum in it - status, bed rooms, meeting halls, colored floor tiles creating a pattern, etc.

Deathworks

Do you ever forget opening with "Hi!" and ending with "Deathworks"? 
(no ho,... mean offense)

[Bromor Neckbeard]

I generally build a "control tower" that rises from the lowest z-level all the way to the highest z-level, and (map conditions permitting) it will have glass walls in the above-ground portion.  I have all my fort's important levers on the same level.

I'm also a big fan of the pillbox idea.  Generally I make them entirely inaccessible from the surface with no exterior doors and a small moat surrounding them, so there's no way siegers can break down the walls and bypass my defenses, but I can fire at enemies no matter where they are on the map.

As far as getting rid of excess stone, I will frequently create "nature preserves", which are just huge outside areas enclosed with a simple wall, with the only access being from underground.  This allows my lumberjacks and herbalists to gather wood and food without danger from any enemies except possibly flying ones.

[Rilder]

Rockfinders Wall.
Thats so far the most extensive building I've built.

That "moat" is actually a wall of water. 

For the record this was built before rectangle construction designations.

Pretty sure I have carpel tunnel because of it.

[tp12]

i tried those siege bunkers once, quite usefull... might just do it again.

[nil]

Rockfinders Wall.
Thats so far the most extensive building I've built.

That "moat" is actually a wall of water. 

For the record this was built before rectangle construction designations.

Pretty sure I have carpel tunnel because of it.

those things are gonna be a mainstay once siegers start mining, I think

[Lidhuin]

Rockfinders Wall.
Thats so far the most extensive building I've built.

That "moat" is actually a wall of water. 

For the record this was built before rectangle construction designations.

Pretty sure I have carpel tunnel because of it.

those things are gonna be a mainstay once siegers start mining, I think

Several levels of them, to be sure that the eager miners are washed away.

That or magma.

[LegacyCWAL]

I have a couple.


In a previous fort, I decided to build a couple of tunnel-access-only Marksdwarf bunkers behind my moat to expand my defenses a bit.  Then I decided to add a couple more.  Then after that, I decided to connect them with a fortification-lined bridge.  Then I expanded it a bit more.

Like any great drunken engineering project, it wound up as a monstrosity with a mind of its own that I was powerless to stop.  Fortification-lined Doom Bridges hundreds of tiles long, half a dozen bunkers, a hanging ballista platform, direct links to the barracks and ammo stockpiles, and the beginnings of a Doom Bridge that would extend ten screens above the caravans' usual route.  And it was color-coded by Z-level, to boot.

Then 181.39 was released, and I decided to start a new one rather than risk corrupting it.


The new one has a building project that is not really a defensive monstrosity so much as it is a piece of landscape management of which I'm actually rather proud.  It's a 3-wide bridge extending one arm to each edge of the map for traders to use.  It even goes over some rather vital areas of the fortress, and is largely lined by walls (to keep attackers from shooting caravans atop it and from shooting down into aforementioned vital areas).

The best part, though, is that the map is rather conducive to cutting off caravan access, with heavy forestation and a river going north-south that cuts the map almost in half.  Some removed ramps here, a strategically-placed statue erected in the woods there, a few moats that would be used to cut off secure lumber farms anyways, and suddenly, the bridge is the ONLY way for the Human and Dwarf caravans to get in.


One idea I've had that I haven't gotten around to building yet is a "Paratrooper Pod".  It would be a platform sticking out over a typical siege route, completely surrounded by walls, and held up by a single support...with a lever attached.  A siege comes, you put some melee soldiers on the platform, and wait for the goblins to be directly underneath.  Then, pull the lever.

The platform collapses, the goblins have a bunch of rock fall on them, and when they come to, they're surrounded by bearded drunks with very sharp objects.  In theory, the dwarves would have thick armor and a LOT of levels of toughness, so they would come to quickly and more or less unhurt.  In theory.

[kurisukun]

I haven't really gotten past the fortified entrance to the fortress stage.

Although once I built my entire fortress underground, with a central pipe for magma shooting up to a giant 6 floor magma-tower, which, when full, could be emptied onto the unsuspecting seigers waiting outside.

I thought it was genius.  ^___~

[EvilCheerio]

That paratrooper pod would have to be filled with your best soldiers. Legendary miners that went on to become master killing machines in full plate armor of the best quality and material you can find.