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[Shaostoul]

Okay so I was working on making a fort and it was huge...

It was roughly a 300 XandY tile wide and 14 z-level high pyramid and I finished half of it and tired of it after finding out that orcs were no where to be seen.

I was making a massive magma fall defense system with an enormous underground system of... stuff and got tired of the magma taking 1 year to go from 2/7 to 3/7

I then recently watched Star Wars Episode 2 and was inspired by the Gungan city how it was giant spears and under water. I couldn't find a deep enough location of water to do such a feat (so this is still and idea if I can find a suitable location. I've found a method of draining the ocean more or less.)

I then thought of just doing this an easy way and building it against a 20+ z-level sheer cliff and can't seem to find such a cliff.

I've thought about building inbetween a chasm, but they're so tiny, so it'd never be any good.

So I'm looking for ideas of mega projects that would be fun to build. An obelisk is entirely too easy. I personally don't want to do a statue of something until after the main megaproject is done.

So... Ideas? I'm in a very uncreative mood and it's killin me.

[Scarpa]

I have been pondering something involving a bottomless pit. So far my best idea is a cliffside fortress constructed entirely hanging off the walls of the pit. I have a good map with magma and glass that would be good for it since I'd ideally like to do it with minimal mining.

[blah28722]

Build your fortress within a volcano/magma pipe.

I cheated a bit and modded the dwarves before I did it, but it's mostly so I can dig faster.

1: Expand the room around a volcano/lava pipe. Leave a bit of room around the original pipe's wall for stairs.
2: Build rooms that jut out of the central lava pipe's wall. At the bottom of the pit, build sleeping quarters.
3: With the exception of farming plots and sand, remove all other instances of existing soil in the newly dug pit.
4: Fill the pit with lava from holes in the lava pipe.
5: Make a self sufficient fortress that is completely encased in magma.

BONUS:
Have a river run through a "pipe". Have it go into the fortress, create a real river, and leave again in a pipe.
Fill the above ground areas with magma.


It's a project that would take forever normally, so I had to embark with more than a few legendary miners and modded the melting temperature of stone.

[Byakugan01]

Make a sunken ship out of magma, then relocate your fortress to it-my current megaproject.

[alway]

Depending on how fast your computer is... Build a nice fort with all the essentials, then get a high population. Turn on Mason and Architecture for ALL excess labor (in other words anyone who at any point in time ever has "No Job") and put them to work building multiple megaprojects at once! My current fort has a population of about 160, a magma cannon in the shape of a tank, a fort in the shape of a huge underground tower which I am slowly strip-minning around (mostly because I can, and cause it looks cool, not because I actually need the stone), and I hope to add a big statue over the ground shaped like an axe on top and a key on bottom (since the name of the fort is "Axekey." Of my 160 population, upwards of 80 are set to build my projects.
As I said though, do this only if you have a very good computer. I have an AMD Phenom X2 920 CPU and Geforce 9800GTX+ GPU, and am getting usually between 20 and 30 FPS.

[Shaostoul]

See I've already done the in the magma pipe in the bottomless pit stuff. They're easy. Magma and sand make it super easy. I'm thinking along the lines of the

castlevania castle where there is a normal castle and the exact duplicate only upside down above it. I was doing that one for a lil while until I ran out of z-levels.

or an under the ocean and above the ocean mega fortress.

(As a side note I have my max population set to 500.)

Or a fortress completely suspended off the ground connected to a sheer cliff (for mining and subterranean farming)

Yes my fort can run max pop and an 8x8 square well enough for me.

I just can't seem to find an idea of exaclty what it is I want to do.

[Gergination]

I've got something in the works that is going to take absolutely forever.  I'll share it when I get done with it (probably months from now).

Think of something really really stupid or crazy.  The great thing about megaprojects is that they don't have to actually serve any purpose at all.

A giant gauntlet full of traps (that aren't straight up death machines) that prisoners have to run through is something I want my megaproject to eventually have but it isn't the project itself.

A gigantic dam with working power plants and intricate canals.

A massive aquarium.

An Ice/Soap/Weird Material (Ash maybe) fortress.

A gigantic structure that will make a picture in 3D dwarf.

A huge floor mural that covers an entire z-level and tells the history of your world.

A mega mega project in which multiple fortresses close together interact in some awesome way (Use adventure mode to set them up).

[alway]

I just though of an interesting one:
Mod Deer into Dragons, to make them really common, and let them breed (children and baby tags I think).
Then embark in a forest (for maximum "deer"). Capture any dragons (there will probably be a lot, if you change deer into them), keeping some wild and tame some.
Build a colliseum, and have dragon vs dragon (or vs anything you feel like throwing in there) battles.

With lots of (breedable) dragons, you should be able to host some pretty epic battles!
Say for example... 10 dragons vs 5 dragons and 20 recruits? 

Bonus points for automated traps in the arena (spikes hooked to pressure plate, retractable bridges over drowning pits, that sort of thing)

[dragon0421]

I was thinking of one day remaking Rapture from Bioshock, which is similar to your idea. My initial plan is to just build it next to an ocean and pump/channel water in once done with the external architecture.

I also read a thread recently about building an airship. That sounds like fun and very dwarfy.

An Ice/Soap/Weird Material (Ash maybe) fortress.

Superman's Fortress of Solitude?

[Lummox JR]

I then recently watched Star Wars Episode 2 and was inspired by the Gungan city how it was giant spears and under water. I couldn't find a deep enough location of water to do such a feat (so this is still and idea if I can find a suitable location. I've found a method of draining the ocean more or less.)

I can't tell you how ashamed I am to be the one to mention this, but the Gungan city was in Episode 1.

Anyway though, good visuals in Episode 1. With the exception of the droid foundries in Episode 2, it's probably the dwarfiest of the prequel trilogy.

[Shaostoul]

My bad about the episodes. -shrugs- I've been a little off track lately and Dwarf Fortress and my car has been keeping me sane. (Yes dwarf fort is assisting in keeping me sane.)

But yeah, I would like to make the gungan-like city just cause I think it'd be kinda cool. I'll have to think about it more and see some more ideas of megafortresses.

[Itnetlolor]

Has anyone tried making suspended magma rivers?

No, not traditional aqueduct-style. I mean literally suspended. Kinda like suspension bridges.

Basically what I'm talking about is using a massive matrix of screw pumps to transfer magma from one part of the map to another, completely above ground over open space.

Here's an outline: (side view)

 %% %% %% %% %% %% %% %% %% %%    Screw Pumps
M  M  M  M  M  M  M  M  M  M OM   Pumped magma bridge
                           D ||
                 D___...::::;;;
 UE U E D  D  .:::: source
Unsuspecting residents walking beneath (in a battle of course)

Basically, screw pumps are the only means of getting it across. Everyone can walk beneath; but you can trigger whether or not one of them work; leading to death from above.

To keep from overflow it should have alternating currents, but keep it one way to fill.

Another outline:
  → → → → → → → → →
IN       I/S       OUT
  ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ← ←

Intersection can help regulation.

I think, if it works, this can be one awesome, and terrifying, way to get magma across a map.

Think of the mist as an added bonus. An awesome bonus. You can go water if you want, if you are a pansy.



EDIT: Modification to plan; if used for defensive measure.

  → → → → → → → → →
IN       I/S       OUT
  ← ← ← ← ←%← ← ← ←
           %

Include a screw pump at an intersection and pump independently by will. Now it's more easily controllable, and you can willingly deploy it. Just be sure your recruit has adequate pump skill, and is stationed there. Oh, what the hell; install a small barracks for the defense grid pump operators. As a plus, the barracks can serve as the main power station for the screw pump matrix.

[Shaostoul]

The problem I keep finding with transporting magma (Which I've been doing a crap ton of. I'll have to show some of my works that I gave up on.) Keeps cooling and/or I run out of magma.

Is there any way to make magma flow/fill faster? I don't mind it being slow moving, but filling faster would be great.

[ein]

Screwpumps.
They move magma as fast as water.
Have few picking up from aqueducts and dumping in the end zone and you'll have it fill up pretty quickly. Even faster if it's nothing but an array of pumps moving the magma. Aqueducts are for water and pansy elves.

[AtomicPaperclip]

Make a bridge across an ocean out of cast obsidian. Then make it into a fresh water aqueduct.