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[Itnetlolor]

To assist with cleanup while also making spike traps more lethal just put retractable bridges between the rows of spikes.

Yeah, I think I already illustrated/implied that with how I drew the plans and my recent post and map POI explanations. Why else do you think I said I wanted to take care of the DM-DB before I have to deal with the headache of assigning all the drawbridges?

I intended them to go from _ when OFF, and | when ON to make cleanup easy. And it only applies to levels 2 and 3 due to the amount of dwarves that would be involved in the cleanup, and just the one drawbridge for level 1 to minimize risk for the chained up animals. I mean, notice how in the plans the walls aren't attached to the perimeter of the building? That implies that they aren't normal walls, and also considering they're not Xs, they're not floodgates, therefore they're 1-tile long (but not wide) drawbridges that draw ← thataway, or → thataway.

No matter what, I am railroading invaders to endure this (and a choice of 3 different fates with a forced repeat if they're brave enough via pressure plate and a long walk from up high), and if I have to cleanup while still being attacked (like I'd be dumb enough to do that), I'd be able to choose the path the invaders will have to go. My primary worry, and I'll deal with that when the time comes, of dealing with megabeats/[BUILDING_DESTROYER]s; I might have a legendary military built up by then.

Lastly, why else do you think I allow just a little bit of open space between security features? So I can assign dwarves to stay indoors, and they won't bother going near the main security feature until it looks clear and I give them the "O.K.". Also to ensure that nobody will go near the spike strip until I say so, there's also a reason I'm building it on the top level, and leaving it open. Let's not forget about miasma either. And regarding operation of the spike strip, (SEE New Boiler Design), and I have a good aesthetic spot to place it to make it look like it powers the spike strip.

Sorry if I sounded mean, but I thought my context was clear in my previous posts.

EDIT:
I didn't realize, but considering how it'll all look in the end, when the spike strip is off, all the spikes will be in the up position (and no nobody can get hurt if the spikes aren't moving, nor when dropped on top of them), which would seem rather realistic regarding cleaning up the spikes. We'll just need some sufficiently insane dwarves to do the cleanup... Wait, you mean to say the entire fort is willing to do it? Sweet!

Oh yeah, and regarding the DM-DB, just in case, I made sure to make it so citizens don't trigger the device, so it's still an effective backdoor for anyone who does belong to New Wavehandle, but not those who plan to do wrong with it. Only problem with that is, if I allow citizens to go through the back door, and a Kobold is sneaking behind them, he may accidentally hit the pressure plate before the dwarves, and it'll be fun to watch, but I have a cage trap, as well as some guard dogs and a small wave of trainees waiting for him anyhow if he does manage to bypass security.

EDIT EDIT:
And one other thing I forgot to mention. If you plan on adventuring to this location, I have one special feature that serves as the most effective back-door method of getting into the fort and completely bypass all security (even with the entire place mostly vacuum-sealed from the outside world. But ONLY adventurers can use/abuse this feature if they're clever enough to spot it. In a sense, if reclaiming, but not wanting to damage the landscape, send an adventurer to bypass lockdown and unlock all the doors from inside. Just remember what lever does what.

[Jake]

Here's a couple I've got worked out conceptually but have yet to test.

You And What Army?: First, one channels out the floor of the tunnel save for a single tile-width at the very end, and covers the pit with as many retracting bridges as necessary. The solid ground at the very end should contain a single pressure plate set to retract the bridges when stepped on, but to extend them again when the pressure is released. What you do with the pit is limited only by your imagination and your desire to recover weapons, armour and slightly used silk underwear.
You can flank the pressure plate with traps if you like, but I prefer to imagine the look on the lone survivor's face as he hears his comrades plummeting towards some awful fate, their screams cut off by the grinding of gears as the trapdoors close over them.

Water Slide: The single pressure-plate again, only this time it's linked to a bank of screw-pumps with direct access to some local body of water, and a smaller retracting bridge leading to a tunnel going wherever the player finds most amusing. Can also function as a firefighting system.

A Bridge Too Far:: A stone floor across the moat or river, with a roof held up with pillars. And, yet again, a single pressure plate at the very end.

[Corbald]

Superheated steam doesn't kill now? Well, there goes my plans! I was going to vent the steam from my obsidian works, directly into the entrance (lever operated of course) but I guess that's impossible now

[Veroule]

I tend to use a magma system.
Bottom level pool.
Next level open space, critical to make sure no magma strays from the system or clogs floor space surrounding the grates.
Next entrance, 2 by whatever channel covered with grates.
Above that is a set of pumps that pull the magma from the entrance.  Pumps can pluck water and magma out of mid-air.
The very top is a set of pumps that pull from the upper resevoir and drop the magma on the entrance way.

While the system is running the magma appears and disappears from the entrance randomly.  There is nearly always a path through which means the invaders will come without any specific effort on my part.  Also each tile of the entrance tends to be bathed in magma more frequently than any creature can move, this causes them to be burned instantly.  It is quite rare for anything to make it acrossed.  Cleanup tends to only be bones, metal objects, and non-flamable items; and they will be entirely on the grates.  You can link the grates to a lever and just use a single pull for cleanup if you have no urge to save anything.

You can also make it on a passage where the creature must cross more than 2 tiles of magma bath.  However the longer you make it the more likely it will be that there is not a path through at a given moment.  I don't suggest anything longer than 5 tiles if you want the invaders to choose to walk right into it.

If you wish to set up a larger space I would suggest putting a number of parallel 1 wide paths with 2 wall tiles between them, and using pumps to move the same bit of magma acrossed the entire space.  All the pumps would be 1 level up from the passages and all pump from the same direction.  Make sure your pumps are made from magma safe materials as they can be flooded with magma that didn't fall fast enough.

[Shadowfury333]

My current fort is on an island and has no invaders, but for my next fort, I plan to have a series of drawbridges over a (very deep) pit. The result should hopefully look something like this:

Z

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▓╔════════╗▓╔════════╗▓╔════════╗
▓║++++++++║▓║++++++++║▓║++++++++║
▓╚════════╝▓╚════════╝▓╚════════╝
Z-1 (the open space · tiles are several z-levels, but I can't put the color in code)

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▓▲▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▲▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▲▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
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The bridges would retract away from the fort, except the one closest to the outside, which would retract towards it. This way, invaders either go up (then far, far down) or away, but the outermost bridge would be unharmed by land building destroyers (not that it would matter.) Gravity would be the real killer.

[Huggz]

My current fort is on an island and has no invaders...

That must be so boring... What do you build towards when there are no goblins or elves to kill in horrifichilarious ways?

[Lemunde]

I usually just stick to the vanilla traps as they require less maintenance and micromanagement.  I might add a front gate for possible invaders.  In 40D I would just train a bunch of marksdwarves and stick them in a tower by the front gate which was quite effective.  It might still be but I haven't gotten around to training marksdwarves in the new version.

I tend to use a small array of 5x bronze disc traps in the new version which are pretty effective.  Stone fall traps are good early on for slowing some creatures down but are pretty unreliable after a couple of years.  Probably better to use cage traps.

[Hyndis]

My current fort is on an island and has no invaders...

That must be so boring... What do you build towards when there are no goblins or elves to kill in horrifichilarious ways?

Dig down, and conquer hell itself.

[Turambar]

hey, what are the differences between glass trap components and metal ones?

[ThtblovesDF]

Say, my dear dwarfy friends...

Will animals droped from a certain high release body parts at a lethal speed? Or will they only damage someone if they are droped onto of it?

[Jimmy]

I've been thinking...

Will stones dropped onto a bridge instantly deconstruct the bridge?

I was wondering because I thought of digging into hell, putting retractable bridges across (as the only way into my fort), and only extending them for sieges and caravans. Caravans would get through fine, but with the pull of a second lever, the two opposite tubes, one containing pressurised water, the other magma, would be unleashed by means of a floodgate, where they would mix briefly before plummeting many z-levels down onto the bridges, killing anything on it. When the carnage is over, the bridges are retracted and the obsidian just falls away into the endless pit, hopefully killing any demons that were waiting to come up.

But this all requires that stones won't smash bridges.

Mined stones don't deconstruct bridges. Cave-ins do though.

If you're using bridges, it'll work as long as you pour the water in from the side - if you drop it in the middle, it'll cause an instant cave-in and destroy the bridges.

     That's if you're pouring the water as the second step, after the magma is in place, right? Otherwise, this is something new to me, and blows my mind.

In order to make obsidian, you have to mix water and magma together, so the bridge has to be already covered with water or magma beforehand. If you cover it with magma, then you pour water on it from the side; if you cover it with water to begin with, then you pour magma on it from the side.

From a discussion on the best way to pave over the bottom of a bottomless pit and fill it with magma, several casting methods were discussed and your idea came up (though not directly in the fashion you planned to use it). Interesting read from a Stupid Mega Project viewpoint though.

And to answer the above questions, glass trap components do very little damage, so that it will likely bounce off silk clothing. Metal's got better piercing and edged properties. Dropped animals don't do damage to anyone in the blast radius, same as dropping an anvil doesn't kill someone beneath it.

[EvilTwin]

i dont know if they do any damage when falling on someone, but wouldn't think so... stones don't as well.

but they DO release their body parts on impact... ever dropped a puppy down a deep pit? hehe............................................

[Feral23]

favorite that I have already built-
the waterslide. pressurized water flushing all invaders into a 10-zlvl pit, with a drain and goblinite recovery access.
(near melt shop)
for additional fun, weapon traps line the chute.

seems that big liquid projects kill fps, tho.

note- cage traps will get your mechanics killed, unless they are the *last* line of defense.

better yet, close off access to trap corridor and use a bait animal.

my current design is weapon traps, fortifications, and catapults. untested as of yet...

spiked balls jam less, as invaders bleed out a few steps away. in theory.

silver balls seem to be surprisingly effective, some have speculated that they actually do crushing dmg, like hammers.

the serrated steel blender is also fun, if messy. build them outside to avoid miasma.

i also like bone xbow traps for inner defense, just before the cages.  keep em close, for reloading purposes.

glass can be mixed in with bronze/iron/silver/steel to stretch resources, but usually misses armored foes- until they are battered enough to start dropping armor.

[Eagle_eye]

the entrance(s) to my fort is(are) (a) horrible winding maze(s), filled with traps, multiple paths out, pressure plate activated bridges with pits beneath, and, of course, spikes.

[ReverseWill]

You And What Army?: First, one channels out the floor of the tunnel save for a single tile-width at the very end, and covers the pit with as many retracting bridges as necessary. The solid ground at the very end should contain a single pressure plate set to retract the bridges when stepped on, but to extend them again when the pressure is released. What you do with the pit is limited only by your imagination and your desire to recover weapons, armour and slightly used silk underwear.

If you could post up some schematics, I'd be happy to test that for you. It sounds like a great idea, but I'm having a little trouble visualizing how it would work. I mean, it feeds so well into my already-in-use labyrinth that it's just too cool not to test.