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[Sowelu]

I like building on hillsides.  However it makes it pretty annoying to check all my stonefall traps for corpses, or even just find where all my dwarves are, when there's a new elevation every five squares.  I'd like a viewing-only mode that goes from your current layer down (or, from the sky down--I'm not picky and I only plan to use it outside).  It looks just like the normal view.  Except that if the current tile is sky, then instead of drawing "sky" or "there's something small on the next tile down", it draws what's ACTUALLY on the ground below that tile.

So essentially I can look at the surface of my whole mountain without scrolling up or down.

[Neonivek]

I have no problem with this suggestion... I can just imagine the many times this would have made my life a lot easier!

[Footkerchief]

I've wished for something like this so many times, but it might look really confusing.  Maybe lower levels could get progressively darker?

[Sowelu]

Hmm, maybe..or maybe a red/blue line on the boundaries so you can tell which side of a ramp is the up side and which is the down side.

Ideally, this is something you'd only turn on when you had something specific in mind to look at, so I hope it wouldn't look too confusing.  It wouldn't be an everyday interface (though if done well I wouldn't mind that too much either).

[Warlord255]

Wouldn't work if you have one floor below another.

[Draco18s]

Wouldn't work if you have one floor below another.

This is mostly for outside work, so I'd consider it an acceptable loss to treat this view in such a way that it comes out like Google Earth.

[Footkerchief]

Ideally, this is something you'd only turn on when you had something specific in mind to look at, so I hope it wouldn't look too confusing.  It wouldn't be an everyday interface (though if done well I wouldn't mind that too much either).

That's a good point, I was thinking of an init option, but it would work much better as an in-game option that you could turn on for brief periods.

e: there's also a compromise that would allow this to work indoors as well -- it could show everything on the current level and below, but nothing above.  So basically, changing Z-levels would change the top display level (just like the "lock" in Mithaldu's Lifevis for those who have used it)

[Granite26]

Seems the easiest way to get the effect would be to just show a special view of whatever it considers to be the surface, and any select tools (V, Q, K) show the z-level that is selected.  (Also don't support designates (D, I, P) on that screen)