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[Girlinhat]

Impressive, but it's got a bit footprint and a lot of work involved.

[Starver]

Impressive, but it's got a bit footprint and a lot of work involved.

And that is undwarfy how?

(Seriously, I know it's not as simple, and a lot of the finer features are very much mainly for the aesthetics of the thing.)

[Scaraban]

Probably use 9 windows instead of 4 depending on how many i have available.

And how is the roof supported? Or do you let any flying beast enter?

Anyway fortifications let your animals get killed by archers and reloading a new animal is kinda a pain.

With windows behind fortifications, archers can't shoot through and building destroyers can't destroy anything.

Building Destroyers can destroy from 2 blocks away

[Girlinhat]

If they can path to it.

[Qwernt]

HHmmm... since I don't mind using danger rooms, you could have the danger room be one pill box, and the lever be in another... of course you will want a fast way to get the guy out of the danger room and into the battle... I will have to think a little on this.

[lanceleoghauni]

This discussion of cages rekindled the idea of dwarven stasis, only to crush it again when I remembered caged dwarves need food :C

[EveryZig]

FBs (and presumably other building destroyers) can't deconstruct through fortifications. I know this because I had a three tailed blob made of flame get stuck in my plumbing system, so I carved some fortifications to shoot it with. I had doors right next to the fortifications for when the water would return, but the doors were not damaged any. (And there was some time between me placing them there and the FB bing shot.) I think this also means that FBs made of flame (so probably flame HFS as well) CANNOT move through carved fortifications (when there is no water in them).

[edit:] I forget, can creatures see downwards through floor grates?

[Girlinhat]

Yes.  And up through floor grates!  Build a trail fort, then enter adventure mode.  This is what your dwarves see.

[Sphalerite]

I love this concept.  It's a way to make gems and glass windows really useful.  On my latest fortress I've taken the idea to a ridiculous extreme.  The fortress includes a large aboveground structure covering most of the map.  The entire outer wall of the fortress is lined with windows on the 2nd floor, with war dogs chained periodically behind the windows.  Essentially I've made the entire aboveground fortress into one giant animal-powered watchtower.  Thieves and ambush groups are spotted almost the moment they enter the map, giving me plenty of time to decide how to deal with them.  Which came in handy when I pissed off the elves badly enough for them to send me 30+ ambush groups in a single season.

[Girlinhat]

I had to deal with ambushing elves once.  I countered them with a single soldier wearing steel.  Wooden armor?  Bah!  Then again, for some reason these elves insisted on coming one at a time, and I've have a group of 30 elves on war grizzlies, fighting my soldier 1 on 1...

[jellsprout]

The animals will still die of old age. If you are planning on using these watch towers for a longer period of time, is there any reason not to replace those four stilts with eight walls and a staircase going underground to safely replace the animals? You won't even have to access the surface this way.

[Girlinhat]

It's true, they will die, but as you'll note in the original posts, animals live for quite a while.  A peacock has raws set to live 15-30 years.  That means it will be 15 years AT LEAST before you have to replace the animal.  While I enjoy good infrastructure, I'm not inclined to build a system of tunnels for an event that happens once every two decades.  If you feel the need for tunnels and stairs, by all means, go ahead, it's your fort and you can do as you like, but you'll rarely, if ever, use them.

[Koji]

You forgot to put a third level on the tower--a tank of magma that can be dumped out via lever and floodgate.

[Girlinhat]

You forgot to put a third level on the tower--a tank of magma that can be dumped out via lever and floodgate.

That would be the first lever, not the third - because there are no levers!  This is not a weapon, this is not a fanciful piece of equipment, this is a simple and robust watchtower, nothing more.  If you're adding magma and archers, you've made something entirely different.  The entire purpose of this tower is to be a very cheap and easy method to detect ambushes before they reach your gate.  Weaponizing is great, and everyone loves a good moat or spike pit, but that's for something else.  THIS, is for simplicity of design and robust purpose.

[Syrup Roast]

[The entire purpose of this tower is to be a very cheap and easy method to detect ambushes before they reach your gate.... THIS, is for simplicity of design and robust purpose.

I dunno 'bout you guys, but dogs chained sporadically in the wilderness uncovers ambushes for me just fine.