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[Mattex]

PS: Note this is a LONG explanation - sorry.
PPS: Also, i was really excited when i thought of this, so sorry if it has been said already, i couldn't find it via search.

Ok, after reading some of the forum (using the search tool for "underwater base"). i saw some comments on begin sad about not begin able to dig underwater, i MAY have a solution for this.
You'll need an infinite source of water - such as a river or ocean.

Dig your fortress the way you normally would, above ground or underground, doesn't matter.
Now, you have to wait for the trade caravan to see where it spawns, then build 2 GIANT long walls from your trade depo to the spawn point of the caravan making sure theres enough room for them to pass each other and whatnot. (cant draw a pic since i'm not sure how to do so in here)

find the infinite water source and make some kind of auto-pump system, pumping the water from wherever it is, to the top most part of the map. (you could probably use Blocks/Walls to build it higher) so that when turned on, the water would eventually flood the entire world(usually a bad thing). BUT DON'T TURN IT ON YET.

Then, making sure your fort is totally self-sustainable (as in, not needing to go outside. ever), build a roof over your wagon pathway, make sure no part of your fort has an exit, Turn on the pump system and bring all your dorfs inside.

Tada! your very own underwater base! with the ability to trade with caravans!

[PTTG??]

Unfortunately, water will flow off of edges and back into aquifers. There is some promise in your idea- I like the idea of having a trader access port to your sub-aquatic base.

[Mattex]

Unfortunately, water will flow off of edges and back into aquifers. There is some promise in your idea- I like the idea of having a trader access port to your sub-aquatic base.

Still, it would eventually flood the world wouldn't it?
this would take longer but you could build a giant wall+roof around/on the ocean/river thus having the pump as the only access to said supply.
If you use an underground aquifers you could channel into it (hopefully not causing world-flood early)

Yea i thought of the traders, as i use them alot.

[peekama]

Since natural walls (such as those formed by obsidian) don't deconstruct when they fall, couldn't you make an obsidian farm of some sorts above the water, form a giant pillar, and drop it in to the water?

If that worked, you could make a series of these pillars and drop them all next to each other.

[sneakey pete]

Traders come from wherever they can. Doesn't matter where your path goes: as long as there is one to the edge of the map, they'll spawn in a place that they can access it.

[Pilsu]

Since natural walls (such as those formed by obsidian) don't deconstruct when they fall, couldn't you make an obsidian farm of some sorts above the water, form a giant pillar, and drop it in to the water?

If that worked, you could make a series of these pillars and drop them all next to each other.

Might work

Make the scaffold out of ice blocks, those should melt once the construct is caved in. No unsightly clutter

[Golgath]

Traders come from wherever they can. Doesn't matter where your path goes: as long as there is one to the edge of the map, they'll spawn in a place that they can access it.

Lies!

When I painstakingly made a massive stone bridge to the edge of the map, it showed it as accessible to the traders.  I waited several seasons, and they either arrived normally or didn't show up at all when the route was the only option.

[E-mouse]

Can traders arrive on Z-levels other than those that naturally exist on embark?

That sounds like something worth investigating.

[Thuellai]

Which is odd, because I made a trade tunnel (5x5 space with walls and bridges on either side and the rest of my fort closed off, so it was the ABSOLUTE only route - I even checked to make sure there were no extraneous green Ds) and the traders showed up there every time.

With mods I get 8 caravans a year easy.

I'm pretty sure it works.

[arghy]

You could always just dig out the entire map and flood it that way but let me tell ya multi Z level liquid filled map.... the lag was insane. The best and easiest way to do this is ramps, simply keep creating ramps and watch your dwarves sink into the ground without falling to their deaths like they do with channeling but be sure to have a way out from the bottom if your doing sheer walls because eventually there will be no way out.

[andrea]

Since natural walls (such as those formed by obsidian) don't deconstruct when they fall, couldn't you make an obsidian farm of some sorts above the water, form a giant pillar, and drop it in to the water?

If that worked, you could make a series of these pillars and drop them all next to each other.

that is what i wanted to post and start making today! this is not fair!
also, by being on the bottom of the sea, we can still farm. if  we use magma enough, we could also dig underwater.
my idea is to make several pods, for bedrooms, dining room, famrs, and a big one that go all the way up to the air, to allow people to enter. or maybe it could be an underground tunnel to the land. tunnels between pods would be made out of dropped obsidian. it shouldnt take much. and the floors i use to build the walls of the mold would be destroyed after they go down. so i owuld have blocks of underwater obsidian ready to be mined. i only need to take dwarves there.


ok, it seem that the ocean isn't deep enough. i could still build the obsidian pods to get to the bottom of the sea, but that is only 1 z level deep, so it would be easyer with the pumps.

but, since this is a test and i am sure that somebody will find a better map (and i don't want to generate another world with deeper oceans) i'll still do it, just to see if it is as good as it seem. i should have an aquifer somewhere that could help.

[Pitchblack]

This is odd. I had this idea a while ago, except I planned on using a river. The idea was to build a fort around 4 towers with tunnels leading to each. the whole fort would essentialy eb a giant obelisk carved from the ground. i would make an airlock (got plans for this to) a anti fire system, magma pipe, farms, sand collection, airpipe etc...  Anyway The whole design is airtight, had rooms for 70 dwarfs, 2 dining halls ( on smaller and made of glass) an antiflood system that could seal off sections of the fort. To make it underwater i would simple channel out layer after layer, then make a offshoot of a river. this offshoot could be disabled if need be by a dam.

I could scan my plans for it but i doubt anyone could make sense of them.

[sneakey pete]

Can traders arrive on Z-levels other than those that naturally exist on embark?

That sounds like something worth investigating.

I'm.... i dunno. will check now.

edit: well, according to the shift D menu, a bridge i built to the edge of the map was accessible by the caravan. Didn't have time to check it more than that.

[Mattex]

I've been setting up my fort to do this crazy idea, but it seems i cant build Walls any closer than 5 tiles from the edge of map.

Is there any way to build a "water-stopping" device, no matter how silly it would be?

[Duke 2.0]

I've been setting up my fort to do this crazy idea, but it seems i cant build Walls any closer than 5 tiles from the edge of map.

Is there any way to build a "water-stopping" device, no matter how silly it would be?

 Raised drawbeidges, my friend. Raised drawbridges. Although the raised section needs to be on a floor, so anything above z-1 would need to be on top of a floor.