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[Retro]

I had at one point intended to form a "carved from the living rock" fortress out of the biggest mountain ever genned (ie. not one construction in the entire place, but still a grand underground megafort), but that fell flat when I noticed that I was getting pretty laggy FPS on that map even with just 7 Dwarves.

Undergrotto. I was also getting laggy FPS from the get-go; I've got a hundred and something levels in a 6x6 area and after a decade in with th majority of the digging done and over 100 dwarves, I'm very happy for the rare times FPS goes above 20. And it's still only like 2/3 dug, although my style was more "hollow out and THEN build constructions" rather than carving out rock structures (although there are still carved floating curved walkways). Still, the fact that I have a DFMA map of it means it doesn't qualify to be discussed in the thread :P

Itnetlolor, I had thought of something similar and didn't get started for the same reasons. I think it'd be possible if you just made a mectric fuckton of pumps surrounding an area and then an epic-size power plant, then create a second level of pumps that feed into the first, thus creating the next drained area. Eventually you'll get access to the oozy ocean floor, so long as you left yourself room when you built the first set of pumps. You could totally manage it.

[Sysice]

Anything relating to aboveground castles. They just don't hold my interest, mostly because of how slow everything is. I could do the same thing faster by just digging out of a mountain and removing the rest, with the added benefit of allowing engravings.

Fluid logic. I always start and fail horribly within the first few seconds.

[Lord Dakoth]

One of my more recent ideas was for a Goblin-Powered Party Canceller. The idea was to have a shaft that fell through the main meeting hall, with a 1*1 retracting bridge in the middle of the shaft and clear glass windows all around.

The idea is, a goblin is dropped from the above Z-level and onto the bridge. All the dwarves, who are partying in the meeting hall, see the goblin and cancel their partying. After the partygoers are all back to work, the retracting bridge is... retracted, and the goblin disposed of.

Yes, I know that there are better ways of stopping or preventing parties, but this idea always amused me. Haven't gotten around to it, unfortunately.

[Itnetlolor]

Itnetlolor, I had thought of something similar and didn't get started for the same reasons. I think it'd be possible if you just made a mectric fuckton of pumps surrounding an area and then an epic-size power plant, then create a second level of pumps that feed into the first, thus creating the next drained area. Eventually you'll get access to the oozy ocean floor, so long as you left yourself room when you built the first set of pumps. You could totally manage it.

So, what I think you're saying is, I should try to make a ton of screw pumps, form an anti-foundation surrounding the whole area, power it to drain, carve and build in the newly revealed ground, and then disassemble it when it's finalized.

Am I close? Because if that's all it could really take, provided I get a bit more skill working around water, this should be possible then.

New problem, dealing with terrain that has aquifers and such (being either a lake or oceanic). I guess for a first crack at the whole concept, I should use Reveal, and work from there. I'm not familiar enough with aquatic terrain (nor would I have the tolerance) to work on it without using trial and error. Considering there will be a fort underground, and it may have some leaks if built within an aquifer.

[Retro]

Yeah, basically. I think we're on the same page but I'll try and diagram it out just to be sure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

XX = pump (for the purpose of this diagram, it's always pumping left)
~ = water
DIAGRAMS ARE SIDE VIEW

default ocean:


~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 1, on top of ocean:
~XX
~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 2, just inside ocean surface:
~XX
~~~~XX
~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 3, just above the ocean floor:
~XX
~~~~XX
~~~~~~~XX
~~~~~~~~~~  newly-revealed ocean floor!
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ


You can repeat this for as many levels as necessary. In theory it should work; I've never tried myself.

[Itnetlolor]

Yeah, basically. I think we're on the same page but I'll try and diagram it out just to be sure.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

XX = pump (for the purpose of this diagram, it's always pumping left)
~ = water
DIAGRAMS ARE SIDE VIEW

default ocean:


~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 1, on top of ocean:
~XX
~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 2, just inside ocean surface:
~XX
~~~~XX
~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

pump set 3, just above the ocean floor:
~XX
~~~~XX
~~~~~~~XX
~~~~~~~~~~  newly-revealed ocean floor!
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ


You can repeat this for as many levels as necessary. In theory it should work; I've never tried myself.

Seems close enough of an idea.

Now, where my idea comes in is that it's flowing from those towers (tall as necessary), and the towers also form waterfalls to add detail to the scenery.

I can always have submerged screw pumps to make it more effective I suppose. More as a form of backup.

[alway]

I've used that sort of system to drain a brook before... and from that experience, I can tell you that your fps would probably drop to low for that to be practical, especially since it needs to be running every time the fort needs to be opened.

[Greiger]

I once decided to make a large airship dock on top of an existing fortress.  It would have 2 airships on docked, the Enterprise and the red drill airship from Final Fantasy 4.  I even made sure there would be enough space to park the big whale as well if I managed to build the other 2.

I gave up when I couldn't figure out how to make the dock itself look awesome yet logically able to support all the weight.   Dropping the main deck of the enterprise 10 z levels into the fortress roof then 3 more z levels through the fortress itself when I forgot that bridges don't support constructions didn't help matters much either

[ToonyMan]

4 FPS.

Living on a 6x6 mountain area for 8 years is not a good idea.  Even if your a choking on steel production.

[Itnetlolor]

With the next release, and adjustable max-Z height; and hopefully a better threading system for rendering (saving on FPS), most of these might be attempted again to see if it would be possible.

Too many good ideas to go to waste. BTW, if you want a nice basic dock to work with, you can always consider mine from my project. In order to handle the weight, the foundation is cut into a hook, and filled in accordingly. That can always be considered.

Toying around with Crayon Physics, doing that method helped me solve many a puzzle by making sturdy paths, or applying/resisting tons of weight by dealing with leverage.

Making a plausible foundation like that usually works. At least, in my case, it does. And the tunnels made in making those can be taken advantage of as a small office or something. Again, my project has the example.

[Lightning4]

I've had quite a few.
In the 2D version I had an unreachable glacier fort, basically supposed to be a hardcore mode at the time (shy of settling in elephant infested forest). Did well but never went anywhere with it.

I planned on making a sort of Auchindoun (from WoW) like fortress. I ended up stopping when a siege came at an inopportune time.

I had one fortress that turned out quite epic. I don't remember what I intended to make, possibly a pantheon with temples to the various civ gods. I ended up embarking on an undead ruin (when they still existed), and lost almost all of my dwarves in an absolutely epic battle. Sadly, for one reason or another, I never did continue that fort. I did leave a story up on the DF wiki somewhere about it.

Then a much safer temple fort similar to the idea above. Got bored after digging the main room.

And my present fortress idea was to make a dolomite-walled outdoor city plus dolomite castle. It's about half done. Large apartment complex and crafting areas complete, but the castle is barely half done. And given how close the next release is, I don't foresee finishing it.
As far as forts go it's pretty long running now. Well over 10 years logged, legendaries everywhere.