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[NRDL]

I tried out an aboveground fort, abandoned it, but I did have fun winging it.  I abandoned it because I didn't bring any pickaxes.  No pickaxes, no stone, no stuff from the masonry workshop. 

[Subdane]

Ive been thinking about building an aboveground too, just not sure of which kinda design to choose...

I think im going to build one on the map im on now, nothing interesting going on here... Havent seen any goblins or kobolds.. There was some hippoes and tigerfish when I started but they are gone now. Some elephants passing through from time to time... got a little over 70 dwarfs. Nice place to try it off

Gonna make a lot of iron pickaxes and turn a lot of people into miners, and make an open mine, and take it from there

[jellsprout]

Hunters and lots of them. Hunters hunt, bone carvers make more bone bolts for the hunters and cooks make prepared meals to trade. Your hunters will train their crossbow skill while hunting, making them viable for defense. You can collect surface plants, brew these into drinks and plant the seeds for more booze. I would still recommend embarking near fresh water just in case.

[Buttery_Mess]

If you want an overground fort, it's probably best to build an underground fort first and then move onto the surface. I would suggest that you get to a stage where you can feed and house two hundred dwarves, and in the mean time have nine masonic workshops cranking out stone blocks, with many dwarves with their mason skill enabled. This will skill them up and make nice construction materials for your building project. Unskilled dwarves will still build constructions, but they'll take forever laying them, and it goes a lot quicker if they have only a little bit of skill.

[Where_are_the_gnomes?]

I tend not to do this straight off, but gradually shift overtime to an aboveground fort.
As has been said previously, you need lots of stone. lots. I suggest walling off your fortress with a largish aboveground area. Of course include cage traps in holes in the wall every now and then so that your army has good quality training after they have disposed of the rest of the invaders that decide to try and ruin your fortress. (or town, eventually) Obviously, include two 3-z level ramps on either side of the wall, with a road (which will become your town's main road) leading to one, and a large bridge connecting the ramps. (bonus if there is water or arena below)

Next I build the nobles' houses, just so they can see the extent of damage for themselves if invaders come. Make sure you build a stone block stockpile next to the construction, otherwise the silly dwarves take years to build things. (make the non masons move all the blocks and stone) Be sure to include a few windows in the house, as no house has only walls!

Then make massive apartment buildings, with dining rooms every now again. You can designate different areas of the town for different industries. If you like order, or you can make everyone seem chaotic my building stockpiles (in storerooms, of course) at opposite areas of the town which need the supplies.

Make sure hallways go right to the end of a building, (facing a street) so that when another building on the other side is constructed, so can connect the two with a bridge. Have some more fun by building a jail on a high floor of a building only accessible by bridge.
I enjoy connecting each bridge to a single lever, and see how productive things are when there all the bridges are down.

[Subdane]

What are the stoneblocks for? Rocks for floor and walls. Blocks for??

[UristMcHuman]

What are the stoneblocks for? Rocks for floor and walls. Blocks for??

Roads, my friend.


I tend to want to embark in an area with clay for building houses. I take an extra stone to make the kiln, have the kiln built, then set collect clay on repeat (even though it takes about 5 minutes for a dwarf to pull out a single lump of clay). I chop down trees only for beds and other furniture. Unless I either have an aquifer, or if I find no coal, then I hack down trees en masse for both furniture and fuel.

[Treebiter]

I had a lot of fun making a human fortress in 40d. Made a town with a wooden palisade surrounding it. I limited myself to only using wood for construction and building as realistically as possible. Each workshop was housed in a separate 'shop' building with a small cellar for storage an a living area upstairs. Everyone/family had a their own house. No apartments apart from a large barracks and communal room above the inn were allowed. I farmed aboveground crops only and bred cattle for meat. The only bit of underground construction I did apart from the cellars was a well so I had an unfrozen watersource in the winter. After a few years the pop had grown so large I had to make a second palisade to allow more housing. I also built a large stone castle as a megaproject by surface quarrying.

It was a fun change from normal df. Had to keep a large military as I didn't use traps. Had great fun fighting off large sieges with marksmen on the Walls and ballista towers. I imagine it would be even better now with flying mounts! Is it still possible to have a human embark in this version? If it is I'd recommend everyone try it with the above restrictions!

[Lordofd511]

I would try starting on a volcano with either sand clay. Build a magma glass furnace/ kiln and hey! Infinite building material.

[Subdane]

I like the ideas. Think im gonna try the human settlement way :-)

[alesia]

I have put about a thousand rhyolite and obsidian blocks into a smallish footprint L-shaped 2-level castle thingie with two 4-level towers.  It takes a LOT of resources to build rather than dig.  If you're using lumber, you may be stuck with a simple wooden palisade protecting your outdoors settlement for the first few years.

Thoughts:
* When painstakingly constructing your floors, you can also add visual interest quite easily through checkerboarding and other floor patterns.  Most of my castle is black, but I've got black/white floors in the main entry, one tower is black/red checkerboard and the other is black/green.
* Be sure to take the [GOOD] and [EVIL] tags off of the biome-specific surface plants if you ever want to see them.
* For aboveground farming, you can't go wrong with animal husbandry: bring breeding pairs of sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas with extras for eating in the short-term, and you will have PLENTY of meat.  Then you just need plants for booze.  (Remember to pasture properly!)

[Urist Imiknorris]

* For aboveground farming, you can't go wrong with animal husbandry: bring breeding pairs of sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas with extras for eating in the short-term, and you will have PLENTY of meat.  Then you just need plants for booze.  (Remember to pasture properly!)

Bring egg-layers too. They're all fairly inexpensive, and the (large-ish number of) eggs can be cooked for a renewable food supply. They're probably more cost-efficient for food than larger animals, although bone carvers will probably be wanting for work.

[Excedion]

I prefer using towers for everything aboveground. Especially for housing complexes and workshops. Aboveground farms have year round crops that arent plump helmets too so more variety in the booze you can produce.

Would recommend building a small area first then expanding it more and more as each stage is finished.

[Treebiter]

I prefer using towers for everything aboveground. Especially for housing complexes and workshops. Aboveground farms have year round crops that arent plump helmets too so more variety in the booze you can produce.

Even better, humans don't require booze! 

[Teneb]

Doing an above-ground fortress right now, you'll need to rely on wood until you get your mining going. I'm building a "citadel" on a beach, but that just means that it's a big building where everything is. Set up above- and below-ground farms, with, at the very least, 2 different kinds of brewable plants. My fort is currently surviving on plump helmet and quarry bush booze and meat from any animal I can aquire.