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[piecewise]

So right now my Girlfriend is playing Fortress mode and is trying to build a moat. I've never actually built a moat, being the adventurer I am, So I was wondering how wide it would have to be to stop enemies from getting over it. And does filling it with water allow people to swim "over" it? Also, would just digging a trench and filling it with wolves do much? Or can I do something like a pressure plate that causes a hatch to open and drop an enemy several z levels down into a wolf pit?

[EvilTwin]

even an empty channel is enough to hold enemies away, though you should be aware of their marksmen. the idea with the hatch is nice as well, but i'd use a retracting bridge since it covers more than one tile. should be at least 5 tiles long...

[Derakon]

Water is counterproductive if your climate has a freezing winter. Even if it doesn't, creatures knocked into the moat will be able to climb out if the water's deep enough. If you must have a moat, make it dry or magma.

You can set up pressure plates to open hatches, yes, but you'd have better luck using a bridge since they cover more area and are thus more likely to catch the unit that triggered the hatch. Don't worry about it falling on your wolves; falling objects and units deal no damage.

[Vester]

So right now my Girlfriend is playing Fortress mode and is trying to build a moat. I've never actually built a moat, being the adventurer I am, So I was wondering how wide it would have to be to stop enemies from getting over it. And does filling it with water allow people to swim "over" it? Also, would just digging a trench and filling it with wolves do much? Or can I do something like a pressure plate that causes a hatch to open and drop an enemy several z levels down into a wolf pit?

If you're going to use a bridge to drop them it, make sure it's a retracting bridge. A drawbridge will just (theoretically) fling them away.

Also try getting exotic animals down there too, like Giant Scorpions.

[EvilTwin]

hehehehe, just dont put archery targets there, too

[Solarn]

There is only one reason to make a water moat: carps. Fill it with the buggers and you've got the perfect goblin defense system.

[XSI]

You only need a single line of 1z deep channels to stop anything that doesn't fly, but I would recommend having the wolves in your moat at least 3 or 4 z levels lower, and even better, use a bridge like said before.
Goblin bowmen like shooting wolves.

I suggest you make the entire bottom of your moat retractable bridges, and link them up to a lever. You can now pull the lever if you want to dump the invaders that got pushed in(Wrestling or just hit hard enough by hammer) into the pit below it. Note that invaders will not fall into anything for any reasons other then being pushed or hit really hard.

And when opening/closing bridges, some items/units may fly up a z level, but I only know that from anchored bridges, not the retractable ones.

[Sutremaine]

Water moats in freezing areas can be made workable by filling them to one z-level below the top (the water would be visible as blue dots, which is a nice effect). You'd only be doing it for the aesthetics though, as any vicious fish in there would die as soon as winter came.

...Unless you had war carp, in which case you could try and have their trainer lead them in and out of a subterranean safe area.

[Albedo]

You could add a layer of magma beneath the wet moat, and have it heated year-round.  Ah....

'Course, if water freezes on a map, you'd have at most about 3 seasons to capture a breeding pair of any aquatic animals before their habitat killed them all.

[dragon0421]

You could add a layer of magma beneath the wet moat, and have it heated year-round.  Ah....

But if you're going to go to the trouble of heating your water moat with magma, you might as well make a magma moat, which is much more awesome.

[Skorpion]

You could add a layer of magma beneath the wet moat, and have it heated year-round.  Ah....

But if you're going to go to the trouble of heating your water moat with magma, you might as well make a magma moat, which is much more awesome.

But then you couldn't keep wolves in it.

Now I want a moat full of dog-paddling wolves with ranks in swimming.

Or a magma moat that steams.

[Duke 2.0]

 It is unfortunate that, from what I can tell, wolves are pretty much identical to dogs.

 Still, nice concept.

[Hyndis]

This would be quite useful if only for an arrow sponge. While it probably won't have much effect on melee attacks, the ranged attackers will expend all of their ammunition on the dogs.

Throw enough dogs into the pit and they will repopulate on their own. And should any goblin fall into the pit, they'd be doomed too.

You can even throw goblin prisoners into the pit, if you can capture them with cage traps. They might take out a few dogs, but thats okay. They breed extremely quickly.

[RandomNumberGenerator]

You could add a layer of magma beneath the wet moat, and have it heated year-round.  Ah....

But if you're going to go to the trouble of heating your water moat with magma, you might as well make a magma moat, which is much more awesome.

Magma Moats seem very overdone to me. I actually prefer water, just because it's different.

I do like the idea of a magma-heater water moat, though. I wonder if you get enough magma, if you could make it boil...

[Albedo]

I agree - seen one magma moat, seen them all.

But if you're going to go to the trouble of heating your water moat with magma, you might as well make a magma moat, which is much more awesome.

But then you couldn't keep wolves in it.

Or carp, which was the context.