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[Mister Always]

Exactly what it says on the tin. Since I have fallen in love with the phrase "stupid dwarf trick" (just imagine a goblin spluttering it while he's being flooded down a trap-lined corridor - go on, you'll like it), I decided to try one. I'm very much a beginner (been playing for two days, have almost everything figured out except the military...I'll watch the tutorial when I get home), so I thought I'd try an easy one - the execution tower.

Twenty-five z-levels tall! No gobbo nor kobold nor bronze colossus nor whatever other beastie shall survive! All shall be marked for [d]umping!

My problem is, I don't know exactly how to go about it. My first instinct was to build a square of walls (something like five by five, perhaps, with an empty square in the middle with a door leading to it so you can actually, y' know...dump the bastards somewhere, with a door leading to it so my dorfs can retrieve precious gobbo loot), and I mean a full square, and then dig out a staircase up (on the outside of the inner 3X3 square), so that eventually there'd be a staircase on the inside with a wall between it and the outer world, and then a single square in the middle where the actual dump will be.
I don't know if this will work, though. Please advice!

[Fellhuhn]

You need scaffolding. Either on the inside or the outside. Your choice. Build one staircase up next to your lowest level of walls, you can add further levels of stairs without any need of special support. But the next stair can only be placed if the one below it is finished. So it is tedious work.

Regarding the walls you just have to make sure that the tile next to your staircase is the last that gets build. Start with a wall tile on the opposite site and then continue with one tile on each site until the level is done. Then continue with the next level.

[Mister Always]

I see...so how do you make scaffolding?

[Randy Gnoman]

Scaffolding is just a term for a temporary construction, used to facilitate other, more permanent construction (like stairs and platforms built on the side of a monument under construction).  You don't necessarily need it if you're going to build the stairs into the tower.

A very simple design actually goes something like this:
 
  !!
<+
X (X23)
>

With no walls at all.

Just build stairs going up 25 z levels, and a floor piece at the top.

When you are ready to dump a caged beastie, build the cage it's in at the top of your tower (so that you don't have to try to haul the creature up the steps).  You can't designate a creature for [d]umping, though:  you need to designate a Pit at the top of the tower.  Hit 'i' to designate an activity zone, designate it over the edge of the tower you want to dump things from (you could even build a plank!), designate the activity zone a "pit/pond" zone (with 'p' I think), then go to "pit/pond" options (with "P" I believe) and select the creature you want to dump into your newly created pit from the list.

If you want walls (and walls are nice looking, aren't they?), then you can construct the walls for level two right on top of the walls for level one, and so on, but be sure to construct corners first: otherwise, dwarves might not be able to access corners, because they're blocked by other construction.

[Mister Always]

Those're some pretty solid tips. Thank you very much!

...though, I wonder. I'm going to make an animal stockpile (I think I have minor OCD. EVERYTHING NEEDS STOCKPILED), and from experience with my previous fort, I know gobbos end up in that (goblin snatcha wandered his silly arse into a cage trap. I didn't know what to do with him so I just, y' know. Left him in in the stockpile). So if I designate the pit at the edge of my tower and designate the caged gobbo in the animal stockpile for pit-dumping GLORIOUS EXECUTION IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS DORFY, they won't take the gobbo out of the cage, right? They'll just haul the cage gobbo and all up the stairs and chuck him?

This may be important.

Also, yes, walls are nice looking! ... though, mostly, I want to get rid of all this blood stone I have.

[mrbaggins]

Something worth noting before you look at the dwarves wondering why the hell they're doing what they are first...

Construction follows a Last In First Out (LIFO) queue.

So if your tower is something like
00000
0   0
0   0
0  X0
00000

With 0 = wall and X = stairs...

Then you can designate the entire thing quite quickly and without waiting for dwarves to finish by noting that LIFO.

By quickly, I mean you'll still be doing a lot of 1x1 wall construction designations, but you can do it all in one pause, instead of 14 (and having to wait for hauling, building and moving out of the way)

[Mister Always]

Oh, I don't so much mind a little wait...I know this tower will never get rid of all my stone anyway, it's more of a, you know, a thing to do. Until I get enough dorfs to make a sizable military and go lookin' for caverns. I haven't even seen any kobolds or goblins in this fort yet, but I'm going to set up a lot of traps in the corridor anyway (soon as those silly dorfs get the mechanic's workshop set up - puh!).

...on the other hand, I may just make a hugely deep pit instead of a tower. Same thing.

Hmmm.

[Dorfus]

The easiest way to build such a tower is as follows. At each level, fill in the floor first (so that you have an open space for your dwarves to walk) then fully designate the walls of two opposing sides, including corners. The dwarves will rush and complete both, then designate the remaining gaps. No risk of being trapped in corners in a rectangular tower, building from the inside. Two pauses, 4 designations for narrow towers.

The only issue is that while at the topmost level your dwarves are horribly exposed but there are ways and means of dealing with that.

[Mister Always]

Exposed? I haven't even seen a KOBOLD yet, I think they'll be fine.

[Hans Lemurson]

Be careful about building corners.  Masondwarfs will not construct things from a diagonal position, so you might find a corner or two of your construction left unbuilt with no way to access it.  I usually suspend the construction of a wall-tile next to each corner to make sure the corners get completed, and then resume those sites once the corners are done.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I usually build walls two at a time, alternating between building the north/south and east/west walls first. That way, the mason can always get to the corners.