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[johnny_cat]

I'm in my first year of building a new fort, this one looks like it will be pretty good. I've got a forest below, lots of coal, a river, and thanks to bringing a couple of extra competent miners along, I'm fairly well ahead of schedule. I've just noticed one problem, if the entrance to my fort, which is a staircase on top of a large hill, falls to an invader before I can build my defenses, all the dwarves below are majorly screwed because that central staircase goes all the way through the heart of my fortress.

I still have 2 z levels between my civilian floor and my military industrial complex that I haven't touched. What I'm thinking I could do is try to collapse one of the levels of the stairway and dig a dry moat which would be spanned by a drawbridge in front of another downward staircase just in case the above ground castle I'm planning on building falls so that my civilians and reserves could seal themselves off.

The problem is that I can't figure out how to destroy part of my stairwell. I've been using up/down stairs. Also, is it possible to cut off part of a hill so that instead of a slope it has a vertical cliff face?

All this is assuming that enemies don't dig down to your dwarves. If they can, I don't stand a chance.

[Bernard]

Enemies currently don't dig.  There are however some plans afoot to see this change by the Developer, which will be awesome.

Your plan is sound however, see Designations, remove up staircase/ramps etc.

[kaijyuu]

Enemies currently don't dig.  There are however some plans afoot to see this change by the Developer, which will be awesome.

Which will be able to be turned off, if you don't like it or it turns out buggy.


Anyway, yeah, you can remove stairways using designations. I use central staircases since it's easy. Some people make their entire fort out of staircases so dwarves can get where they want to go as fast as possible.

[denito]

I think if you construct a floor tile on a mined up/down stair, it will cease to be usable as an a down stair OR an up stair.  Just be sure you've provided the constructing dwarf an alternate way to get out after this.

Now I'm thinking it would be cool to have a central staircase that's suspended (no walls around it) an rigged to collapse all 100 or so Z-levels if invaders come in.  (You'd have to provide some landings in the middle to place pressure plates on.)  You could accomplish this by having all access to the stairwell go over bridges (which do not support floors they attach to) and having the entire stairwell balanced on a single wooden support at the very bottom.

[melomel]

"Central staircase is huge security liability"

Yes.  Yes, it is indeed.

You can construct floor tiles over up/down stairs.  It's saved me innumerable dorfs.

Also, is it possible to cut off part of a hill so that instead of a slope it has a vertical cliff face?

Yeppers.  Channel down from above, then remove stray ramps.

[Noble Digger]

"Central staircase is huge security liability"

Yes.  Yes, it is indeed.

You can construct floor tiles over up/down stairs.  It's saved me innumerable dorfs.

Also, is it possible to cut off part of a hill so that instead of a slope it has a vertical cliff face?

Yeppers.  Channel down from above, then remove stray ramps.

Note that this isn't safe. While one dwarf is walking over a given tile, another dwarf will sometimes ramp it out (not sure if this happens using both ramp and channel or only ramp) and the victim dwarf doesn't always fall directly downward. Sometimes they'll just sail off the cliff. :\ Children are really bad about this.

[blue emu]

Instead of using a vertical stack of stairways (which is most efficient for movement), I break my main stairway up into stacks three or four levels tall, with short corridors connecting them. This allows me to insert traps and lever-controlled hatches (over the Down stairways) into my fortress connectivity... improving internal security at the cost of slowing down movement somewhat.

[Kogan Loloklam]

I don't use central staircases at all. Invaders aren't the only disaster that allows. I suggest, since you recognize this as a problem, don't do it anymore.

For the time being though, constructed outside fortifications can make your defense stronger. Start building defenses up top for your dwarves to dwarf. I suggest a double curtain wall surrounding a keep. Such a thing should give you three extra layers of defense against attackers and push the defense ring out far enough that you'll be able to dig moats without hurting your fortress. Keep in mind some creatyres can fly when you build your keep, as well as pass through fortifications. Usually those that can are the worst sort too...

[NW_Kohaku]

I'd like to point out that I generally hate designs that revolve around central staircases.

I greatly prefer fortress entrances that only connect to a "Hub floor" and a warehouse expressly for trade goods, which is horizontally connected to the rest fort's "pods", which all have staircases of their own, and do not horizontally connect with one another.

That is, when I'm going for the most efficient floorplands, and not designing specific archetectural features for artistic purposes, and want to avoid geometric shapes entirely.

Large squares just annoy me, and I only really tolerate them for large stockpiles, since "warehouses" aren't meant to be pretty, anyway.  I much prefer fractal patterns for my dwarven forts.

[Hyndis]

Instead of using a vertical stack of stairways (which is most efficient for movement), I break my main stairway up into stacks three or four levels tall, with short corridors connecting them. This allows me to insert traps and lever-controlled hatches (over the Down stairways) into my fortress connectivity... improving internal security at the cost of slowing down movement somewhat.

I do this as well. It looks nicer IMO as each level has its own landing, and it also much more secure as there is a doorway between the stair level and the floor it leads on to.

Also I construct elaborate defenses outside of the fortress itself. All of my military and/or traps goes there. If anything can get by that means they have already slaughtered my entire military, bypassed all traps, and then its time to seal off the topside fortress if the topside fortress is lost.

[gtmattz]

The only time I use central staircases is when I completely wall off the whole embark (minus the 5 tiles on the edge where you cant build).  In this situation I set up an access route with all my defenses, then the trade depot, all of which is seperated from the central staircase by a drawbridge over a pit.  If anything gets past my entrance traps and drowning chamber I can pull the drawbridge and just let them wander around in the defenses for a while until they either leave or I get bored and collapse the roof on their heads.

[Kanddak]

Well, I use a central staircase and I'm happy with it. Normally it's separated from the trade depot by one drawbridge and the depot is separated from the outside world by another one.

[denito]

The only trouble with stairways with landing is they're a pain to designate.  Linux has a built-in keyboard/xwindows macro program called XMacro.  A while back I created an XMacro script that makes the stairs and landings automatically, 200 Z levels at a time.

[Astramancer]

I don't use central staircases, and I make an entrance hallway before you even get to the rest of my fort.  The hallway is littered with traps, then passes my barracks, then the trade depot (with my finished goods stockpile behind it), then it makes it's way to the rest of my fort.  There are several right angles between the entrance and my fort, to shorten the firing lines of invaders.

Eventually, my outer-entrance expands greatly to enhance security.  I make extensive use of dwarven landmines (pressure plates which drop constructed walls/floors on them when triggered), and I positively flood the surrounding countryside with cage traps.

[Dorf3000]

Central staircases are perfectly fine security-wise.  The only problem is if you make the top of it your fort entrance.....

Dig down one or two layers, make storage areas that can later be turned to defensive rooms, and then at the back of those areas start your staircases down.  Also don't dig rooms on the z-level under your defensive level - you'll probably want to have space to make pits and falling traps.