http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=41896.0
Nice. No argument there. Very nice.
I'm talking about the actual buildings though. You notice how things stand out and look like they're very detailed in those photos? Something like that. The issue is the graphics interface we have (Again, the stories rock, but the visuals...).
Maybe I could make a custom workshop as a dummy building for specially carved walls. I'm unsure what value they would have if any, but for large common rooms (like the main cavern in Thorin's Hall) it might be an interesting flavor piece. No?
People build multiple z-level grand halls a la LOTR movie Moria. I love making these, but not quite so large. Creative internal cave-ins can create a large artificial cavern, or digging up ramps in a 30x30 area or so allows fine tuning if you want to smooth and engrave the parts that will be out of reach when finished. Most of the details are supplied by the user's imagination though, as room designations don't "see" the extra z-levels.
I like deep pits as well, throwing a few here and there for flavor in parts of the fort that don't have needed buildings on every z-level.
For the cave-ins, you channel or upramp/removeramp on multiple z-levels to isolate a three dimensional block of stone. Completely mine out the top, completely mine out the bottom, except the access to the rest of the block/ For access, build up/down stairs inside of the large block to be removed. Then build a support below the block, and remove the up stair that grants access and support. Link the support to a lever in a safe place, designate a burrow for unwanted immigrants in the block room, and pull the lever. To minimize FUN, make sure you have a solid, unmined, z-level below the cave-in to only cave-in what you want to cave-in.