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[Naz]

So I've got chronic problems with caravan wagons not being able to get to my fortress due to trees, boulders, pants-on-head-retarded drivers, etc. I'm thinking to remedy this situation by constructing an interstate system on my map and I wanted to get feedback on a few of my ideas from all the Urist McArchitectpants out there.

Deep roads- build my highways all underground so I can engrave them/line them with traps etc. Only issue I can see here is potentially having dwarves stuck in them if I give the ol' "Dwarves stay indoors" order during a siege.

Roads- Actually build stone roads out to the edge of the map so caravans can get to me, only concern here is would they be destroyed by megabeasts? Also I'm not sure if I want to attract the king or not, given Dustsabre's vehemently anti-noble culture.

"Roads"-Same as above except I'd use floors instead of roads.

I'm not too concerned about sieges or megabeasts having a long, smooth path to my fort since all I have to do is pull a couple levers and you'd have to be a flying bronze colossus tied to a dragon and a titan that ate lightning and shat undead carp to actually get into my fort.

[Retro]

Personally I would suggest using 'roads' of built floors. But that's purely pragmatic - to make things interesting, why not build a skyway? Have your road be floating way up high above the ground and add fake supports and cables and whatnot for effect.

[Naz]

Yea I thought of that but I figured it would restrict the caravan's ability to retaliate on anything that decided to take some potshots at it.
I'm thinking floors too though, thanks for confirming my suspicions.

[Psychoceramics]

you can keep the king from coming by not offering any offerings and still have roads.

[Naz]

I've already made offerings, needed to unload a bunch of stuff in my finished goods stockpiles.

[BigD145]

I'm partial to setting aside one whole z-layer for my underground trade highway. It's fully expandable and capable of having many toll booths to delay the enemy and let traders in and out in a siege. Every once in awhile it's prone to flooding, but that's why I made pumps.

[bmaczero]

Just building straight-up roads is an advantage because you can build them right up to the edge of the map, unlike constructions or digging which have to leave a few tiles where trees might grow.

[armadilloHD]

None of the above, create an actual interstate sky bridge highway looping around the entire map 

[RedWarrior0]

You can build floors up to the edge, btw

[Caesar]

Build an entire aboveground 'tunnel' to deal with all the excess stone. Just make sure to leave a few side passages so that your woodcutters can access the outside.

[bombcar]

I build a nice block road to the nearest map edge, and line it with statues spaced one apart. This prevents the wagons from leaving the road, and so they must spawn where the road goes. (They won't spawn without a path.)

[Caesar]

I build a nice block road to the nearest map edge, and line it with statues spaced one apart. This prevents the wagons from leaving the road, and so they must spawn where the road goes. (They won't spawn without a path.)

I do think that's a lot of work to restore if/when a building destroyer shows up.

[bombcar]

He'll fall in the cage trap.

[NW_Kohaku]

Build an entire aboveground 'tunnel' to deal with all the excess stone. Just make sure to leave a few side passages so that your woodcutters can access the outside.

Why do that?  Just enclose every part of the outdoors that you would want to harvest wood on within a wall, and put a ceiling (glass if you want the full effect, or not) over the whole thing. 

I don't like the notion that any of my units are at risk.

[deoxy]

1.  Find a place on the edge of the map with a very few sqaures actually touching the edge... 3 minimum, 5 is perfect, larger than 5 gets to be more and more work the larger it gets.

2.  Channel excess land away from this edge, leaving a 5x5 square that touches the edge and has no ramps up to it (well, you probably want to leave one for now, but remove it later).  Ramps on the edge of the map can be removed by building a floor on them (and then removing it, if you like).  This will be called the Entryway for the rest of the post.

3.  Build a 3-wide floor straight to... the z-level ABOVE the Entryway.

4.  Build a skybridge to the entryway directly beneath said floor.  Build walls on both sides of the bridge - the floor above keeps any walls that are built out of order from collapsing (yay) and protects the caravans that will eventually use this.  Use actual bridges for this sky-bridge (more on this later).  If you're really sadistic and/or playing with a mod that has lots of creatures larger than size 10, build your skybridge 2 rows of hatches, one row of floor (hatches can drop large creatures, bridges can't).

5.  Build raising bridges along all exposed edges of your entryway except the 3 where you want caravan to enter.  Raise them.  (This should keep anything from spawning there, and, since there's no other access, it's almost completely safe - being able to drop anything that's on your bridge takes care of unwanted visitors - goblins, elvish caravans, whatever).

6.  Build floodgates/doors/bridges/whatever such that, when you pull the right lever, the ONLY way to your depot is via your skybridge.

Tada.  Now you will always get caravans along one very protected route.  If you are worried about thieves or ambushers on your skybridge (a wise thing to worry about), make a break in the flooring above it and chain some animals there where they will always see whatever is coming.

The only weakness with this is the liason... but then, he tends to get himself killed, anyway (since he's too dumb to come with the caravan).