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[Sawdust]

I'm on my fourth embark and got a cool map with a river flowing through a canyon.

I'm considering building a bridge arcoss the canyon, about 2 z-level below the top of the canyon walls (and 1 z-level above the river).  I envision tunnelling out of the middle of one canyon wall and building a bridge to the opposite canyon wall.  I'm pretty sure that enemies would not be able to walk to the bridge (and, so, into my oprn fortress tunnels)...but the bridge would be open to the air and I'm wondering if there's a risk of enemies jumping down (or falling) onto the bridge and entering the fortress.

Thanks.

[ShinWalks]

Flying enemies will indeed be able to enter the fortress through the air. . . if you leave the bridge open-topped. So, don't; just put a roof on it and it will work marvelously! Make the roof out of glass for bonus points!

[Leonidas]

Enemies certainly won't jump onto the bridge, and they would only fall if they were fighting above the bridge.

I would worry more about your dwarves jumping off the bridge, so put up guard rails or make sure that there's zero chance of any fighting there. There's also a risk of missile-armed enemies shooting down onto your bridge from above.

[BigD145]

There's also the risk of your dwarves getting scared and running away from enemies looking down on the bridge. Those sissies need a roof.

[Sawdust]

Thanks for the responses.  I hadn't thought about flying enemies or the dwarves jumping off of the bridge!     I guess having a roof is the sensible thing to do. 

I suppose the roof would be built as a Floor on the level above...but how could one make Walls on the sides of such a bridge, in open air?  I understand that Walls could not be built on any Floor constructed in the open space.  Would  dwarves really jump or fall off in some sort of path finding glitch?

[Mechatronic]

There are problems with building walls along the sides of bridges as the bridge doesn't support the walls so it can lead to cave ins and dead dwarves if you don't designate it one tile at a time. If the bridge is permanent you're better off building a floor across the canyon, then walls on the sides then floors, which, you're right, function as a roof over the top.

[Ethnar]

If there's an empty z-level below your bridge and your bridges will be retractable, flying enemies will still be able to reach you if you rise the bridge (turn it off), even with walls and roof they'll be able to fly in from below. Simplest solution is perhaps two retractable bridges, each to opposite side, to close off tunnels when you rise them.

[dwarfhoplite]

If you dont build walls and roof to make it super safe, you will enjoy playing more trust me

[Forumite]

Donīt make a bridge, build the whole thing with floor, walls/fortifications, and a roof of floors. If you really want a bridge, then make part of it incomplete (preferably after anchoring the bridge on the other side), with just two retracting bridges, one as roof and one as floor, so you can cut off access whenever you feel like it. Traffic designations can make sure they donīt go near the edge of the bridge.

Or have part of the floor as floor hatches, opening them makes the bridge impassable. You might need to make the same for the roof in case they can enter from there.

[BigD145]

Bridges are fine and I highly recommend them. They retract to make indestructible walls and add a layer of security if you plan your fort with them in mind.

When building walls to the sides of the bridges, build the wall next to the existing canyon wall and it will not deconstruct/cave-in/etc. Then just build the next wall piece. Start on both sides of the canyon and bridge and it'll be finished quickly. You're only in trouble if you try to build wall pieces next to the bridge and nothing else touches the wall, including any floors above. Walls are their own floors.

[Fredd]

Watch out though. With too much weight on the bridge, it will not raise.

[i2amroy]

Note that it is not the total amount of weight that stops a bridge from raising, but rather the weight of the largest creature on the bridge at the time. As such a bridge could be raised with an infinite amount of gobbos, but not with a large FB on it. Also a simple way to counter this is to split the bridge up into multiple pieces i.e.

Code: [Select]

123
123
123
123
456
456
456
456with each number being its own bridge (all the 1's are a bridge, all the 2's another, you get the picture). If you hook all of them up to the same lever then they will react just the same as a single bridge, however if a heavy creature stops one of the bridges from raising then the rest will still close (some people have actually harnessed this in order to create a way to 'strand' FB's and other large creatures in the middle of a bridge where they are vulnerable to ranged weaponry but cannot move anywhere or close with the ranged dwarves).

[BigD145]

Watch out though. With too much weight on the bridge, it will not raise.

Assuming you let anything near enough, which I hope you don't. I have only once had a situation where I couldn't raise a bridge. Once in the years I've been playing.