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[Broose]

I want to make an underwater fortress, but I don't know how I would begin building it. Can anybody with experience explain the process?

[TheDJ17]

I don't have experence but I think that you should chanel down everything but the "damp" tiles ,build high walls around your fort, and then dam the river.

[Duke 2.0]

 There are a few methods:

 1. Drain a large body of water and make a fortress in the dry bed.
 2. Make your own bed and make a fortress in it. Then flood the bed.
 3. Create obsidian with magma and water above a body of water and drop the layers.

[Broose]

Thanks, I think I'll try making my own bed for that.

[CloisteredSyrups]

Easiest:

Set up a "normal" fortress, make sure you have sufficient underground food/animals/essentials, then turn what was once your fort "entrance" into a lake. Seal off, eat plump helmets, make babies.

Hardcore/possibly insane:

Set up several hundred pumps and drain your way into the middle of the ocean.

Dig in, deep underground, with farms and animals and all the like.

Turn off the pumps, and then, sploosh.

Epic bonus points if it's an evil ocean.

[Blakmane]

Easiest:

Set up a "normal" fortress, make sure you have sufficient underground food/animals/essentials, then turn what was once your fort "entrance" into a lake. Seal off, eat plump helmets, make babies.

Hardcore/possibly insane:

Set up several hundred pumps and drain your way into the middle of the ocean.

Dig in, deep underground, with farms and animals and all the like.

Turn off the pumps, and then, sploosh.

Epic bonus points if it's an evil ocean.

Dwarf fortress junkie mode:

Not allowed to mine underground, fortress must be made entirely out of obsidian. Towers that crest above the waves for bonus points.

Also: if you have the computer, embark somewhere that freezes once a year. That makes pumps unnecessary, and gives you the opportunity to trade once a year as well.

[Mount]

Thanks, I think I'll try making my own bed for that.

Just remember.. if you make your bed, you have to lie in it...

[CloisteredSyrups]

Good god. Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

DORFCATRAZ.

[Lalandrathon]

Hardcore/possibly insane:

Set up several hundred pumps and drain your way into the middle of the ocean.

Dig in, deep underground, with farms and animals and all the like.

Turn off the pumps, and then, sploosh.

Epic bonus points if it's an evil ocean.

Unfortunately this only can get you down a level. Try to go down two and the water pressure algorithm makes your game speed look like sunscreen. 

[Derakon]

According to the "fun with coal" thread, you can drain the ocean simply by dumping a steel bin containing a hunk of burning rock into it. The heat from the fire evaporates the water, while the bin protects the fire from being extinguished. The fire lasts for over a year, giving you plenty of time to start your construction.

[Wahad]

Bah! Nothing of these underwater fortresses.

A true dwarf makes an undermagma fortress!

...has anyone actually ever attempted that?

[Zorgn]

I had a fair amount of success draining a part of the ocean with atom smashers. Dug rooms out around the edge of the map underneath the ocean floor, & built bridges triggered to raise by a pressure plate in an alcove. Left enough room to the side so I could collapse a section of flooring through the room's ceiling and start the auto drainer.

I never finished (2000x digging designation canceled gets old...), but I'd think a ring of these around the edge of the map would keep more water from pouring in, and eventually get the sea floor dry.

[Naze]

People who tell you to dig out a mountain then flood it are just being lazy jackasses, don't listen to them. Make artificial rifles, I've gotten up to almost 2 million power this way, connect them to a massive number of pumps arranged in a ring in the middle of the ocean, hook it up and boom, you got a dry-dock essentially.

[Michilus]

Here's the most awesome approach I've seen yet:
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-3664-blockaderhyming

Best underwater fort ever.

Basically it involves dropping massive plates of obsidian (made from magma of course) into the ocean until you reach the surface. It's a massive engineering project, and it's really only cool if you've got lots of underwater z-levels.

[Broose]

Bah! Nothing of these underwater fortresses.

A true dwarf makes an undermagma fortress!

...has anyone actually ever attempted that?

You know what? You're right. Screw the old plans I'm making a magma fort.