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Author Topic: Digging pits / Pitfalls  (Read 476 times)

stonewall

  • Escaped Lunatic
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Digging pits / Pitfalls
« on: April 21, 2011, 04:01:23 pm »

Hi,

I'm new to the game and am finally seeing my first fortress blossom (due to diligent lurking  8)) but have managed to kill off half my fort in an attempt to dig a 20 z level drop for a pressure plate trap in my front entrance.

here is my layout (map looks like sh*t i know)


WHHHFFFFFX
WHHHFFWWW
WHHHFFWWW
WWWWWWW


Seeing how fun people find it to discuss "fun" here, I might add that i have refuse hauling turned off for some reason.
Item hauling and mining, however, are on. As a result all my dwarfs are rushing down the stairs to the bottom level to pick up
 the picks, running to the top level, and digging out the floor beneath them. It took me what felt like forever to plan out the
pit, is there a simpler, less "fun" way to do it? Quicker would also be appreciated.
 

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Spish

  • Bay Watcher
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Re: Digging pits / Pitfalls
« Reply #1 on: April 21, 2011, 04:13:07 pm »

Channeling downward in diagonal slices usually works best in my experience. Having the temporary ramp exit it provides is also a pretty big help.

Edit: By diagonal I mean on the Z-axis, not x+y
« Last Edit: April 21, 2011, 04:31:37 pm by Spish »
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Ah, yes, I thought something was amiss. Now I see. There's not enough terrible things in the lakes.

Uristocrat

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  • Dwarven Railgunner
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Re: Digging pits / Pitfalls
« Reply #2 on: April 21, 2011, 04:18:15 pm »

Hi,

I'm new to the game and am finally seeing my first fortress blossom (due to diligent lurking  8)) but have managed to kill off half my fort in an attempt to dig a 20 z level drop for a pressure plate trap in my front entrance.

here is my layout (map looks like sh*t i know)


WHHHFFFFFX
WHHHFFWWW
WHHHFFWWW
WWWWWWW


Seeing how fun people find it to discuss "fun" here, I might add that i have refuse hauling turned off for some reason.
Item hauling and mining, however, are on. As a result all my dwarfs are rushing down the stairs to the bottom level to pick up
 the picks, running to the top level, and digging out the floor beneath them. It took me what felt like forever to plan out the
pit, is there a simpler, less "fun" way to do it? Quicker would also be appreciated.
 

I recommend digging out stairs (down stairs on the top level, up stairs on the bottom level, and up/down everywhere in between) first, then channeling them all out starting at the top.  This has a lot of advantages because stairs give support (no cave-ins) and all tiles are always reachable (because of the stairs).
Logged
You could have berries on the rocks and the dwarves would say it was "berry gneiss."
You should die horribly for this. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.