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[BigJake]

..
seeing as 4-levels of aquifers will be inconquerable with cave-ins (I doubt there are that many z-levels above the layer)...

Wouldn't you only need 1 layer if you used concentric caissons?  It'd need a ton of room for 4 rings, though and it'd be a ton of digging for the first layer or two.

[Vehudur]

An idea I had today that I won't be able to build because my computer sucks and keeps crashing...

Embark on an area with a steep cliffside, or build your own cliffside. Either way, carve the cliff into the giant face of a dwarf. His eyes should be made of clear glass windows. His open mouth will be the entrance to your fort while a bridge and ramp (his beard) leads up to said entrance. The bridge spans a mighty magma river to protect the fort.

Bonus points: Construct a giant glass mug beside the Face of Urist, filled to the brim with magma. In event of attack (...)

I like it, but suck at statues (faces included)

(...), the bottom of the mug can be opened to dump magma upon your foes.

Magma on face...  ow...

[Vehudur]

I am now officially re-embarking somewhere else.   After digging 50 (yes, 50) test shafts, I have yet to find a break in the thing.

Oh look, tantrum spiral after 5 of my miners drowned.

Fast one too.  Less than 10 seconds after the last died I had another miner go berzerk, kill five Dwarves, then half the fortress (17 Dwarves!) went berserk at once.

[Briggs]

Magma on face...  ow...

He's a dwarf, he can take it. Another idea was the have a system where a switch could be pulled to fire a magma cannon out the mouth.

[EddyP]

How about constructing a massive cotton candy sword on the surface that, when a lever is pulled, collapses/caves in to the HFS and opens the circus? Bonus points if you can make the same lever pull cause magma to spell out 'The Circus is now open' on the ground.

[Vehudur]

How about constructing a massive cotton candy sword on the surface that, when a lever is pulled, collapses/caves in to the HFS and opens the circus? Bonus points if you can make the same lever pull cause magma to spell out 'The Circus is now open' on the ground.

Tempting.  Tempting.

But I have other things I'd rather use my cotton candy for.

[Krath]

How about constructing a massive cotton candy sword on the surface that, when a lever is pulled, collapses/caves in to the HFS and opens the circus? Bonus points if you can make the same lever pull cause magma to spell out 'The Circus is now open' on the ground.

Tempting.  Tempting.

But I have other things I'd rather use my cotton candy for.

Don't chicken out now! If your fort has truly been going on for 20+ years for no incident I think you can spare some cotton candy for a giant sword that crashes into the bowels of the earth.

[meto30]

How about constructing a massive cotton candy sword on the surface that, when a lever is pulled, collapses/caves in to the HFS and opens the circus? Bonus points if you can make the same lever pull cause magma to spell out 'The Circus is now open' on the ground.

Tempting.  Tempting.

But I have other things I'd rather use my cotton candy for.

Don't chicken out now! If your fort has truly been going on for 20+ years for no incident I think you can spare some cotton candy for a giant sword that crashes into the bowels of the earth.

I believe Vehudur recently abandoned his fort due to extremely unfavorable circumstances...

[Vehudur]

How about constructing a massive cotton candy sword on the surface that, when a lever is pulled, collapses/caves in to the HFS and opens the circus? Bonus points if you can make the same lever pull cause magma to spell out 'The Circus is now open' on the ground.

Tempting.  Tempting.

But I have other things I'd rather use my cotton candy for.

Don't chicken out now! If your fort has truly been going on for 20+ years for no incident I think you can spare some cotton candy for a giant sword that crashes into the bowels of the earth.

I believe Vehudur recently abandoned his fort due to extremely unfavorable circumstances...

Yes, so I should have said it WAS 20 years.  And I had another fort immediately after that which fizzled out (tantrum spiral), and didn't get anywhere.

And that one with the 4 Z-level deep aquifer.

The one I am working on now is in its second fall.

[meto30]

Urh. I've found out yesterday that the outermost layer of the outer wall of an apartment building in my neighborhood was made with syrofoam and aluminum dust. Why did I find out, and what does that matter? Because a fire started a few days ago in the fourth floor(which was a utility level), spread via the HIGHLY FLAMMABLE outer wall, reached the top floor and burned the penthouse suite to crisp. The fire was a very serious disaster for everyone involved.

Which, condolences to the building denizens nonwithstanding, gives me another semi-megaproject idea with lots of fun.
A fort lined with highly flammable furniture side by side such that the entire fortress burns when a single fire starts out. Reach mountainhome status, get the monarch, seal all entrances and then spark a chain reaction that will go down in history!

Edit: By the way, due to the nature of the neighborhood and the high-rise building, the amount of wealth lost to the fire I mentioned the above is estimated to be in the range of tens of millions of dollars. The fire burned the top 34 floors of a 40+floor building.

[JAFANZ]

Maybe build the wallls & floors out of Lignite/Bit.Coal?

[Fanklok]

Build a giant "water" park by water I mean magma. Then go hit the HFS they'll have so much fun sliding your dwarves will be unscathed.

[Vehudur]

wait, building walls out of syrofoam and..  aluminum dust...   why would someone be that stupid?

No wonder it burned.  Aluminum dust is used in (solid) rocket fuel for a reason.

[meto30]

wait, building walls out of syrofoam and..  aluminum dust...   why would someone be that stupid?

No wonder it burned.  Aluminum dust is used in (solid) rocket fuel for a reason.

Go figure. Apparently the building designers thought styrofoam was the perfect idea as an insulator. They also argue that in the hurricane-prone Korean peninsula (we get typhoons 2~4 times a year, although we are far too north to get heavy damage) styrofoam with its wind-withstanding capabilities and light weight was perfect for the case.

Aluminum dust was included in the paint. The building that burned has its characteristic golden-yellow hue that covers the entire structure (even the windows). That yellow semi-transparent paint, investigators have found, contained aluminum dust, small traces of chlorine, chrome, and a LOT of carbon-based compounds that together burn faster than Petroleum.

EDIT:
And apparently a lot of buildings in the immediate vicinity has followed similar lines of design. The designers and contractors have boasted again and again how the high-rise structures were wind and earthquake resistant with state-of-the-art disaster prevention measures, but now it seems the systems are incapable of putting out a run-of-the-mill fire. The building right next to the one that burned, the 84-levels-high 'Haeundae Zenith', is still under construction, and is reputed to be the ONLY building in the area that features fully fire-resistant material.

[Vehudur]

wait, building walls out of syrofoam and..  aluminum dust...   why would someone be that stupid?

No wonder it burned.  Aluminum dust is used in (solid) rocket fuel for a reason.

Go figure. Apparently the building designers thought styrofoam was the perfect idea as an insulator. They also argue that in the hurricane-prone Korean peninsula (we get typhoons 2~4 times a year, although we are far too north to get heavy damage) styrofoam with its wind-withstanding capabilities and light weight was perfect for the case.

Aluminum dust was included in the paint. The building that burned has its characteristic golden-yellow hue that covers the entire structure (even the windows). That yellow semi-transparent paint, investigators have found, contained aluminum dust, small traces of chlorine, chrome, and a LOT of carbon-based compounds that together burn faster than Petroleum.

EDIT:
And apparently a lot of buildings in the immediate vicinity has followed similar lines of design. The designers and contractors have boasted again and again how the high-rise structures were wind and earthquake resistant with state-of-the-art disaster prevention measures, but now it seems the systems are incapable of putting out a run-of-the-mill fire. The building right next to the one that burned, the 84-levels-high 'Haeundae Zenith', is still under construction, and is reputed to be the ONLY building in the area that features fully fire-resistant material.

A lot of things that are supposedly "state of the art" are not nearly as good as they sound.


As for burning stuff, you just can't beat what I pulled off.  I dropped a can of gasoline, it fell over, the lid came off, and it splashed onto an electric heater.  Fortunately I only got the slightest of burns and missing eyebrows.  The shed I was in?   Not so lucky.