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[SanDiego]

Lately I decided to fuck wagons and move underground. My entrance usually lies within some hole in mountainside and leads straight down in nearest cavern, where I stay.

[Scribble]

Initially a 10 wide corridor lined with masterwork statues protected by channels. The entrance room has a Bridge/ moat and portcullis followed by a trap ante room.  The floor is made of clear glass exept two 'walkway/paths' made of gold. underthis depending on my mood its either a binless gold/silver crafts deposit  or a refuse dump for rotting corpses. I like to make the ceiling a least three Z levels highwith the walls alternating between engravings and fortifications. rest of the fort sucks though

[shoowop]

Right now I have an outside fort so I just built a simple 3 tile entrance w/ drawbridge and put the depot behind it

I've been running an idea through my head to start my fort at the very top of a mountain, and build a massive ramp as the entrance, maybe lining it with statues, Or pumping 2 small channels on each side of it just for the hell of it

decisions decisions

[dakenho]

I have large two story area

there are ramps leading down into the bottom area and ramps leading up into the fortress at the end of a hall way

on the second story is a 2 tile over look, for fortifications looking down into this entrance, in the two tiles is my bolt stock pile (steel only).  I call this room the "Archery Range"

[Mordy]

On my current and most favorite fort I cut away the side of a mountain so that it is sheer and then built an entrance half way up with a bridge arching out across a stream with a drawbridge (mostly for show) and a ramp descending to the valley floor.  The entrance is 3x wide and has a second drawbridge with a winding corridor full of traps that goes around it.  Along this corridor is a room that can be sealed off and filled with lava.  Beyond the entrance is a grand hall that's 25 long, 10 wide, and 5z tall.  I am still decorating it. 

[Ratbert_CP]

My current default build is to use a 3x3 block of stairs with a central channel (I envision a massive spiral staircase with an open center) as a vertical core for my fortress.  For security (when I bother with it, or think my ADD/OCD will let me keep a fort around a while), it's easy enough to simply channel out a "moat" around the staircase.  The stairs hold everything up and a drawbridge does wonders keeping the Riff-Raff out (although Magenta is another story).  My depot is universally on the surface near the stairs, simply because it's usually an issue of "OMFG, the trade caravan is here, and I don't have a Depot!"  So I toss one together on the surface and haul bins up...

[coinich]

This was the plan, crafted out of graph paper.  Literally.  Blue was walking tile/traps, black line was fortifications, and the black Xs were Ballistae.  The access to the ballistae rooms was a set of down stairs, hidden by floors so I could build the ballistae.  The one fortress I tried however had quite a bit of fun from the caverns, and I've moved to a more "intestinal" design with 10 ballistae.  The depot is actually in the tunnels, hid underneath by a retracting bridge.  I've also incorporated a "quick release" valve that shortcuts the whole design for the sake of my dwarves.  The entire complex is built into a little alcove in a cliff side reachable by drawbridge only, which spans the river at the base of the cliff.  Retract bridge, no access at all.

Old, elaborate layout:

[lordnincompoop]

I make epic 10-z high hallways lined with engraved pillars and magmafalls and other doodads. After that comes The Maze.

[quinnr]

I go into a mountain, channel out everything around it, and make a tiny bridge when I get the chance. That way I can make an above ground farm too...but with the new channels in DF2010, this doesn't work as well.

[Mordy]

I go into a mountain, channel out everything around it, and make a tiny bridge when I get the chance. That way I can make an above ground farm too...but with the new channels in DF2010, this doesn't work as well.

d -> z  the ramps at the bottom level of your moat, leaving an inner facing ramp for your miner to get out.  Cover ramp with a floor if you want nothing going in there afterwards.

[quinnr]

So I don't need water to make it a moat? Awesome.

[CognitiveDissonance]

So I don't need water to make it a moat? Awesome.

Not at all. You just need a channeled way with no way out.
You can fill it, at your choice, with water, magma, spike traps connected to a lever, trained warbeasts, undead, statues of great heroes, fire imps.
Once marksdwarves are fixed, you can also have the lower level have fortifications facing in, so you can post marksdwarves there for easy practice.

[cdrcjsn]

I've tried a couple of different entrances, but I find that I like going through a cliff for my entrances.

I use a 3 wide hallway for about 6 squares which leads directly to barracks.

Behind the barracks is the trade depot (yes, the merchants go through the barracks room to get to the trade depot.

Next to the depot, I have my finished goods stockpile along with some secondary workshops (jewelry/clothing/leather/craft to improve the goods), and the main stairs to the rest of the fortress.

I place a drawbridge in the tunnel, just before the barracks, with some animals restrained near the entrance to act as guard dogs.

Then I litter that hallway full of weapon traps, (and one line of cage traps just before the bridge just in case).  This is usually finished before the end of the first summer.

I then build a zig-zagging 1 square wide secondary hallway that's filled with traps that connects the barracks with the outer end of the initial tunnel, so when the main draw-bridge is closed people can still go in and out, but has to go through a tunnel and encounter about 10 times more traps than the short main hallway.  The hall is usually finished before the first caravan comes, but maybe not quite full of traps yet.

When I have more time, I tend to build some sort of fortifications just outside the entrance and have some surface crops walled in as well as an outdoor statue garden on the roof of the gatehouse.

[Halo]

I would never completely block off my entrance. Those damn gobbos spend enough time sitting around doing nothing outside of my fort when there is a completely wide open** entrance.

**laced with traps

Incidentally, anyone know of a way to stop those bastards from just sitting around forever?

[Dariush]

best entrance ever:
#######
##DDDDD#
B>DDDDD#
B>DDDDD#
B>DDDDD#
##DDDDD#
#######
#=walls, B=drawbridge (tiles where wall is created on lifting), >=drawbridge covering (down stair is created on lifting), D=depot (I don't know about covering down stair with drawbridge in 31.x, but in 40d it worked).
The plan is this: usually the bridge is lowered, allowing anyone access to the depot and preventing access to stairs. When traders arrive, I lift the bridge and trade with them without fear of invasion, lowering the bridge when I'm done. I haven't tested this entrance yet, but I will in nearest time