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[ByDurinsBeard]

Edit - scratch my earlier question, I realized one naturally can't stack ramps above each other. To shortly rephrase, which one of these ramp arrangements is big enough to allow wagons descent and ascend into ground? Each one would be 3 tiles wide.

X = solid ground
^= ramp
_ = empty space

X^_XXX z-1
XX^_XX z-2
XXX^_X z-3
XXXX^_

X^__XXX z-1
XX^__XX z-2
XXX^__X z-3

X^___XXX z-1
XX^___XX z-2
XXX^___X z-3

[Osmosis Jones]

The first one will work. Wagons are wide, but flat.

[Zona]

age-old technique of blocking the magma-dwelling nasties with a single Bauxite wall grate.

 You don't even need to do that. Just channel only when your ready to build your magma forge/furnace. And channel out the square the building blocks. Nasty's cant pass through it that way.

[Dorf3000]

age-old technique of blocking the magma-dwelling nasties with a single Bauxite wall grate.

 You don't even need to do that. Just channel only when your ready to build your magma forge/furnace. And channel out the square the building blocks. Nasty's cant pass through it that way.

Even building destroyer nasties?

[Zona]

Yes. So far as ive ever seen they can't destroy workshops from below. The blocked tile seems to count more or less as a wall.

[sonerohi]

I'm not going to lie, I haven't played as dwarves yet at all. I am playing Human Castle with knights and smiths living in a stone fort with ale and decent meals, the barony and other nobles living in an oak and marble palace with every liquor and fine meals,  farmers and peasantry in wooden hovels with haphazards fields and wells, and carpenters, masons, crafters, and such living in guildhalls with appropriate workshops. All thanks to burrows.

[dennislp3]

I'm not going to lie, I haven't played as dwarves yet at all. I am playing Human Castle with knights and smiths living in a stone fort with ale and decent meals, the barony and other nobles living in an oak and marble palace with every liquor and fine meals,  farmers and peasantry in wooden hovels with haphazards fields and wells, and carpenters, masons, crafters, and such living in guildhalls with appropriate workshops. All thanks to burrows.

Im going for a similar design (with humans)...do you simply make large hovels with everything the peasants and all need or are they fairly refined ones that include minimal area...mostly wondering about things like food and doctoring which are needed by all to some extent...you just have food stockpiles in each burrow?

[BigD145]

Yes. So far as ive ever seen they can't destroy workshops from below. The blocked tile seems to count more or less as a wall.

Stuff still can't attack things on the level above. Hatches are one of these things and of course workshops are another. Make sure you place one of the impassable tiles of the workshop on top of the hole.

[random51]

My question: Are people rethinking their standard fortress designs much now that we have more z-levels, caverns, etc? What kind of ideas have you come up with/already tried out?

The only elements of 2010 seriously changing my fort layout are bugs. No stockpile to stockpile transfers is making for an even more compact footprint than I usually use.

If it weren't for that bug I'd be trying a discrete burrow approach for a number of processes(metalworking, military, etc.). Without the stockpile to stockpile transfers I find it rather painful to get the starting resources to each independent burrow.

[Cerion]

I want to try the cavern settlement thing but it really needs a relatively flat and open cavern in order not to be annoying. As I haven't found a suitable cavern yet, I'm building fairly compact underground fortresses and storing goods one level above their associated industry.

The adaptations to the new version are:

Because steelmaking materials have to be hauled from sedimentary layers near the surface deep underground, I try to keep the fortress centred on the map to minimize horizontal travel - so instead of digging into a mountainside first, I just dig straight down and place my central staircase near the embark point. This staircase goes as far down as possible. I try to isolate this from the caverns with walls as too much traffic moves through. The main fortress is typically set quite deep, between the water and magma seas.

I then build a second staircase on the other side of the main barracks from the first staircase which will be the main cavern access. The idea is that any traffic to or from the caverns is forced to use these stairs and pass through the barracks (and optionally, traps) keeping the key vertical traffic artery safe.

The next step, which I haven't reached yet, is to build an above-ground fort to protect the top end of the primary staircase better.

[tastypaste]

With combat being so much more challenging, I find that traps and airlocks are more important than ever. You definitely want a shaft that can be sealed off at each level to prevent the fun stuff from below coming up into your main fortress. And you want lots of traps out front.

My entrance is a zigzag walkway with moats and traps, overlooked by archers. The zigzag gives archers more time to pick off enemies before they arrive at the main gate. The traps help weaken them or cage them before they get to my axe dwarfs who stand at the entrance. If all that fails, I can still seal off the ramps with hatches. When there's no siege, I have bridges I can lower over the moats to make a shortcut for my outdoor workers so they don't spend all day walking through the zigzag. No reason to sacrifice efficiency for security when you can have both.

It's very important to use traps and airlocks. I can't emphasize enough how much they can help. Four champion axe dwarfs just aren't enough to take care of a siege anymore. Megabeasts and Forgotten Beasts aren't exactly pushovers either. All the badguys are tougher and your dwarfs are weaker now. Preparation makes all the difference.

[Kadzar]

I've been hollowing out stalactites/stalagmites into multi-level houses and walling up the caverns. I've also likewise turned the columns in the underground lakes into valuable beachfront property, connected to the shore and to each other by a series of bridges.

[immibis]

I've been hollowing out stalactites/stalagmites into multi-level houses and walling up the caverns. I've also likewise turned the columns in the underground lakes into valuable beachfront property, connected to the shore and to each other by a series of bridges.

Sounds awesome.

[Shima]

... combined with my age-old technique of blocking the magma-dwelling nasties with a single Bauxite wall grate.

Errrrm.. I think you might have a little trouble with strategy...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Some of the HFS creatures are made of gaseous/non-solid substances and will pass through grates/fortifications like they're not there.

I've actually noticed, fortifications (At least underwater) don't protect from anything at all anymore.  I've had a giant toad and two giant olms come up through my well in my latest fort, and I've got the waterway blocked off with fortifications.