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[TicklemeFeather]

Im trying to make a beautiful entrance to my fortress, and ive decided i want to make a spiral staircase at the center of the entrance. I dont know how id actually start or even begin the designations for this. Any help would be gratefull.

This is what i have so far...

[87]

you can do it pretty easily with ramps.  Otherwise you have to connect stairs across z-levels on the same x and y location and it wouldn't be a true spiral.

[TicklemeFeather]

I dont know where to start designating these ramps is the problem and im worried that something slightly wrong will cause a big problem, as is the nature of Dwarf Fortress.

[Sheb]

The easiest way is to do four lines of ramps in the 4 cardinal directions, each z-level being a quarter-circle.

[monk12]

In my head, up/down staircases are already spiral staircases, which is why they only take up one tile. I'm a fan of spiral ramps, which are pretty easy to set up. Bear in mind that if your spiral is based off of the four cardinal directions, then your main corridor will want to align along one of the quarters of your square instead of being in the middle of it. Bonus points, channel out the unused quarters on each level.

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

If you look on the Quickfort site there should be a few spiral ramp designs.

[Shoku]

Just make sure that the level with the ramp (up triangle not down) has a wall behind it and it will be fine. You could mine out every tile but those walls and it would work, and then after that you could channel out the floors to leave just the actual spiral. Wait on that step if you want to smooth the walls though...

[krenshala]

I'm using a simplified spiral ramp in my current fortress, but my favorite design is a double helix ramp with open central shaft (to daylight).

Code: [Select]

Simplified Ramp:  # walls, + floor, ^ ramp up, _ channeled space
Even Level  Odd  Level
 #######     ####
 #+++++#     #__#
 #+++++#     #__####
 #^^#__#     #__#^^#
 ####__#     #+++++#
    #__#     #+++++#
    ####     #######

The more complicated helix is actually pretty simple, just a pain to build

Code: [Select]

Ramp Helix:  # walls, + floor, ^ ramp up, _ channeled space
Even Level         Odd  Level
###############    ######+++######
#+++^#________#    #____+++++++++#
#+++^#________#    #____+++++++++#
#+++^#________#    #____+++++++++#
#+++#######___#    #___#+++++#^^^#
#+++++++++++++#    #___#+++++#####
++++++___++++++    #___#+___+#___#
++++++___++++++    #___#+___+#___#
++++++___++++++    #___#+___+#___#
#+++++++++++++#    #####+++++#___#
#___#######+++#    #^^^#+++++#___#
#________#^+++#    #+++++++++____#
#________#^+++#    #+++++++++____#
#________#^+++#    #+++++++++____#
###############    ######+++######

[edit] oops, his save instead of preview ... fixed it now

[Dr. Hieronymous Alloy]

Ok, I uploaded the spiral staircase plan I'm currently using to the quickfort site here: http://drop.io/quickfort/asset/spiralstair-plain-csv

Alternately, here:

Code: [Select]


#dig
d d d d d d d d d d d #
d d
d d d #
d d d d #
d d d d d #
d r r r r r r r r d #
d d d d d #
d d d d #
d d d #
d d #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
#> # # # # # # # # # # #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
d r d d d d #
d r d d d #
d r d d #
d r d #
d d #
d r d #
d d r d #
d d d r d #
d d d d r d #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
#> # # # # # # # # # # #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
d r d d d d #
d r d d d #
d r d d #
d r d #
d d #
d r d #
d d r d #
d d d r d #
d d d d r d #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
#> # # # # # # # # # # #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
d r d #
d r d d #
d r d d d #
d r d d d d #
d d #
d d d d r d #
d d d r d #
d d r d #
d r d #
d d d d d d d d d d d #
 

dig where the D's are. Dig ramps where the R's are (I wrote this before channeling created ramps, but it should still work just fine). It'll be more efficient if you tunnel out the center block, but leaving it undug initially allows customization, so your call.