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[Old-one-eye]

Oh, there's a link in my sig for tips on mass-digging, if it helps. Dated to 40d but mostly still accurate.

Oh cool, this should be really helpful =), and damn that's one inspirational/intimidatingly awesome fort right there, alot of of it is somewhat similar (free standing land bridges carved out of the mountain and the like) to what I've got in mind, I'll post my efforts here if they manage to be even half as awesome as that grotto fort.

Also, if you get a dragon attacking you should capture it to guard your fortress wealth in keeping with the high fantasy theme.

[Hyndis]

@Retro; make a thread if it's successful, I want to see how it turns out =D

A moat would be a must if it wasn't for the fact you're on a glacier. I Minas Tirith style design would be awesome, which reminds me:

So this morning I thought how cool making Moria would be. I'm planning to imitate the Moria of the films as closely as I can, including the front entrance at low elevation with the lake[read zoned pond] and Balin's tomb [for my expedition leader, it seems fitting to give the founder such a burial] and the bridge of Khazad Dum [which I will not construct, oh no, I'm going to carve the bridge out of the mountain and all the cavern around it. I'm also going to do my best to make the endless stair and the Mountain Celebdil.

It'll probably fail, and I'll be having lot's of Fun with it.

But if goblins take it over then that's canonical at least. XD

Moria style halls are a standard feature of my fortresses. I carve out gigantic caverns, usually at least 3 Z levels tall and spanning most of the map. Huge engraved columns of natural rock support the ceiling above.

These type of halls make for great main halls that the rest of your fortress branches off of.

[Old-one-eye]

I realise that my idea is not that original and done many times before me and done better than I'll probably do, but then I'm new to mega projects, I want something [fairly] ambitious to cut my teeth on without being impossible.

Also I want the fort to be mainly populated by the offspring of the original seven. So I intend to heavily cap the pop, but I heard there was a limit to how low you can put the  cap before it screws the game..?

[Retro]

Also, if you get a dragon attacking you should capture it to guard your fortress wealth in keeping with the high fantasy theme.

Definitely (already caught a yeti, too). I wonder if the dragonfire'd melt natural ice. Unlikely, but magma does, so... Also found me a good inspirational base to add to. Mine'll be different, but that's the sort of thing I'm hoping to achieve.

And Moria is a good place to start. You can probably beat 3z high as well, and get some impressive arches going.

[Old-one-eye]

Also, if you get a dragon attacking you should capture it to guard your fortress wealth in keeping with the high fantasy theme.

Definitely (already caught a yeti, too). I wonder if the dragonfire'd melt natural ice. Unlikely, but magma does, so... Also found me a good inspirational base to add to. Mine'll be different, but that's the sort of thing I'm hoping to achieve.

I don't know if the temperature system is that sophisticated yet. It would be cool if you could find another practical use for a dragon other than guard beastie

That is one epic sand castle.

And Moria is a good place to start. You can probably beat 3z high as well, and get some impressive arches going.

I hope so 

[Eric Blank]

I'm still building that giant tree, granted i haven't worked on it for a week or two. It's planned to be about 35 z-levels tall, constructed entirely of wood for most and a dome of either green glass or green stone, probably both, for the foliage, including an exterior dome with ramps to surround it. Have not decided what it will be however. Most thoughts thus far point to a massive oak or weeping willow so i can make it huge and sprawling.

[Gus Smedstad]

The method I'm using involves temperature trickery - turn off temperature, pour a layer of water from the caverns, turn on temperature, let it freeze, repeat.

Is that the only method available for ice-casting?  What about construction from ice blocks?  I've never actually embarked on to a glacier, so I don't know how it works.

 - Gus

[Retro]

For casting, yes. I could build the whole thing from ice and it'd look about the same, but then I couldn't engrave it.

Eric - Something like this would be amazing (willows are cool but they obscure the tree IMO). You might want to max out the embark points in your worldgen parameters and embark with a few thousand wood.

[Old-one-eye]

@Retro; I read the Undergrotto thread. Wow. Just, wow. That's all I can really say.

I also looked at your advice for such projects on your dfwiki page and your preferred method just feels to me to lack 'authenticity' it's not how I'd   dwarves would go about such things if it was real, not that I know much. But if, for the sake of my sanity if nothing else, that's the way to go about things then that's what I'm doing, I'd originally planned a combination of mining and channelling using extensive scaffolding.

Okay, so I've lucked out with my map

In terms of aesthetics it's exactly right, it has a flux layer, granite a subterranean river, every neighbouring race, it's perfect.

Also, where do I change the speed of the dwarves?

[Retro]

Thanks! And yeah, stairs-and-channel is not aesthetically the most dwarvenly method, but it's a good way. Though in your case as you're building a hall that's most likely a mostly-uniform shape across its height, you can probably use the dig out and collapse method to save time. Dwarf speed isn't listed in the old [SPEED:_] tags anymore, but if you just stick it in anywhere after the creature name you'll be fine. 0 is fastest, 9000 is default, for reference.

[Djohaal]

That shimizu projects website is awe inspiring. I wish I'll live long enough to see such constructs...