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[Marconius]

This is just a bit of idle curiosity on my part... Do you usually build your trade depot on the inside or on the outside? Why?

I realize both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally prefer building it inside, because it seems safer and... well, more dwarflike! Plus it's fun to build and secure a wide path to your fortress.

[beorn080]

Depends. If I'm going to be cleaning the depot while the merchants are there, I'll typically build several huts on the surface for multiple depots. They go in, I close the floodgates, and give them a bath. If I'm just stealing from them via deconstruction, I build it next to a hole on the surface for quick dumping to the underground. If I'm actually dealing with them, nice secured engraved depot underground.

[Dave Mongoose]

In the first year or two I usually just stick one outside.

Once I start getting big(ger) goblin sieges, I shift it inside. Doesn't help much if the gobbos hit the traders before they reach the depot, but at least it means I don't have to rush all my dwarves back inside.

[Daenyth]

Inside near my stockpile of trade goods, with a ramp pathway, protected by channeled drawbridges

[FellMoodFox]

I pretty much always create an airlock trade depot.  If I want to fight goblins, I'll do it on my own terms.

With my recent .31.03 forts, I've made a tunnel heading down into the depot area, crossing a bridge over underground pool or chasm to the depot, with another bridge to be able to seal them off.  It seems to work so far. ^^ I'll probably refine the design more in later forts, not satisfied with the tunnel I currently have since it's pretty simple and I wanted something akin to that one 40d fort someone made where they had running water from the brook all the way down.

[Quantum Toast]

Usually a little way inside, in a room off to the side from the main corridor. Latest one's up on the surface (first fort where I haven't had a hillside to dig into, and I didn't bother making ramps down), but still inside the walls.

[Vercingetorix]

Usually inside, in a sizable chamber right before the passage that leads down in to the fort.  Usually the entrance-guards' barracks is built next to it to keep away kobolds and rhesus macaques as well as other intruders.

It also keeps it indoors so that cave-adapted dwarves don't get unhappy thoughts hauling things to the depot.

[Hyndis]

I always build it inside, behind all of my defenses so that the caravans are actually safe.

I hate cleaning up all of the mess from ambushed caravans.

[Eric Blank]

Usually inside/behind the walls to give my dwarves some form of security. I also plan on arming the walls of my latest fortress with magma cannons to deal with sieges/people I don't like.

[ISGC]

inside my wall, but outside my actual fort
that way, if there is a magma overflow, it wont torch all my dwarves

[Areku]

Both. My favourite depot back in 40d was a square room under an artificial lava lake, with a roof made entirely of magma-safe bridges. When I wanted to trade, I just raised the bridges and turned on a row of pumps to open a Moses-like path through the magma to the depot. Just like the one that appeared on that thread a few weeks ago.

[monk12]

Normally, inside and underground, and heavily defended. Lately though, I've been experimenting with surface depots protected by moats and walls. Tends to look like a medieval courtyard, with the depot near surface stockpiles and stockpiles 1 z below, and fisherys, butchers, and tanners out in the warm miasma-dispersing sun. I think next fort will be built along these lines with entirely magma safe materials, for reasons completely unrelated to horrifying deathtraps. Trust me.

[tastypaste]

Inside depots are easier to drown and the dwarfs don't have to go outside to collect the spoils. And if I decide to be merciful, the merchant guards stand between enemies and the fort. Let them die first. I can always use the extra armor from their corpses.

[DarthCloakedDwarf]

As a caravan approaches my fortress, he passes through a long tunnel, with trenches on either side. The walls are fortifications, and the depot is just beyond the bend right at the ballista.

[Urist son of Urist]

Outside in a courtyard like area. Easy to defend, plus it puts those guards between my fort and the enemy.