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[DrGravitas]

Consider, then, surrounding future forts with an internal magma moat curtain.

3D will be tough if they're able to just dig from below, although I suppose the getting a ceiling-like level will be even harder. Still, it should be doable somehow. As long as they don't dig right down on top of the top pump, they ought to simply fall right in the moat every time. Then I merely have to replace the dug soil to prevent a magma-proof building destroyer from slipping in.

Of course, I'd have to have some sort of covered bridge to the outside of the magma curtain. Maybe 8 bridges encircling a 1x3 tunnel shape. 3 bridges built into the wall above and below the floodgate space (in place of a door) on the fortress side. When undeployed, the top/bottom bridges are either retracted or folded up. When deployed, the top/bottom bridges create a gap across the magma curtain. The two side bridges will lay flat when undeployed, bridging across the curtain but a square too far from the door (not that the magma falling onto the bridge will make it altogether that walkable.) When deployed, the two side bridges fold up, creating the side walls of the tunnel. Once the tunnel deploys, the floodgate opens and any extra magma inside the tunnel can flow out. Once the bridge-tunnel is clear, the repair team can be sent out.

This is going to kill my frame rate. 

[khearn]

If you don't want tunnelers to mess up your pretty tombs, build tunnels to intercept the tunnelers before they get to your tombs. Dwarves (IMO) should be faster miners than anyone else, so you should be able to choose where you meet them.

[Muttonhawk]

I'm interested in what the dwarfs are using to fend off the thing. Are those picks with hammers on them? ITS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!

[Wannazzaki]

I'm interested in what the dwarfs are using to fend off the thing. Are those picks with hammers on them? ITS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!

Pickhammers. They are a thing that exists. XD. In the Discworld dwarves carry picks that are one side pick and one side axe to find and mine ore veins, and then proceed to fend off people trying to steal it. It's all very fun.

[tmrt]

Enemies' ability to dig is on the list of planned features. And when this happens, overseers will just have to change their mindset and act like dungeon keepers - dig the network of security tunnels and schedule the militia to patrol them. It is also extremely likely that Toady will add some sort of reinforced unbreachable walls when burrowing is implemented or that enemy digging abilities will be limited.

[nomad_delta]

Enemies' ability to dig is on the list of planned features. And when this happens, overseers will just have to change their mindset and act like dungeon keepers - dig the network of security tunnels and schedule the militia to patrol them. It is also extremely likely that Toady will add some sort of reinforced unbreachable walls when burrowing is implemented or that enemy digging abilities will be limited.

perhaps not have anything intrinsically unbreachable, but modify digging speed (for both dwarves and digging invaders) based on the material type... similar to how dwarves already dig through soil much faster and more easily than digging through stone... ooh and perhaps modified again based on the material of the pick used, and of course by the mining skill of the digger...

so you could build a steel wall that *would* be dang near impossible for invaders to dig through, but that'd be expensive of course.

--nomad_delta

[Yoink]

I imagine a steel casing around your fortress would kinda spoil any foe's plan to burrow their way in...
But yeah, this sounds interesting! It would be nice if it was at least possible to mod in. Or perhaps there are tameable creatures, used by dwarves to facilitate faster digging?

[Sutremaine]

Enemies' ability to dig is on the list of planned features. And when this happens, overseers will just have to change their mindset and act like dungeon keepers - dig the network of security tunnels and schedule the militia to patrol them. It is also extremely likely that Toady will add some sort of reinforced unbreachable walls when burrowing is implemented or that enemy digging abilities will be limited.

How about a nice little cocoon reaching down to the caverns? Presumably enemies won't dig into damp or warm stone.

I wouldn't mind diggers if the following were implemented in-game: engraving of constructions, and hiding of unpathable areas. The main objection to diggers is on aesthetic grounds, after all, and if that were removed you can imagine the fun that'll happen when players stumble across old sapper tunnels that expose all kinds of ore but maybe lead to places you wouldn't have gone yourself...

[Protactinium]

I understand where the resistance to diggers is coming from: you work hard to make a cool-looking place, and then something comes and ruins the way it looks because it affects the very landscape.

But this is Dwarf Fortress, and the community metagames and theorycrafts constantly to find ways to overcome challenges in Dwarf Fortress. Something as basic as a Cistern is something that people had to invent outside the game, but I'd venture to say a LOT of people make cisterns on freezing/scorching maps. Danger Rooms were developed by some clever people and the knowledge was spread everywhere, circumventing the perceived slow speed at training fighters.

When diggers are implemented, the first thing I expect is for people to build a big rectangular tunnel encompassing the entire level of your fortress. This way, they always break into the surrounding tunnel and get exposed (for your military to rush over and kill, or to fall onto weapon traps) before they dig through the next layer to get to the actual meat of your fortress.

These tunnels can definitely look aesthetically pleasing so long as they're symmetric and complimentary colors and what have you not.

Alternatively, people will build structures in underground caverns, in such a way that most of the fort is unreachable due to empty air between the cavernous walls and fort.

[Wannazzaki]

I understand where the resistance to diggers is coming from: you work hard to make a cool-looking place, and then something comes and ruins the way it looks because it affects the very landscape.

But this is Dwarf Fortress, and the community metagames and theorycrafts constantly to find ways to overcome challenges in Dwarf Fortress. Something as basic as a Cistern is something that people had to invent outside the game, but I'd venture to say a LOT of people make cisterns on freezing/scorching maps. Danger Rooms were developed by some clever people and the knowledge was spread everywhere, circumventing the perceived slow speed at training fighters.

When diggers are implemented, the first thing I expect is for people to build a big rectangular tunnel encompassing the entire level of your fortress. This way, they always break into the surrounding tunnel and get exposed (for your military to rush over and kill, or to fall onto weapon traps) before they dig through the next layer to get to the actual meat of your fortress.

These tunnels can definitely look aesthetically pleasing so long as they're symmetric and complimentary colors and what have you not.

Alternatively, people will build structures in underground caverns, in such a way that most of the fort is unreachable due to empty air between the cavernous walls and fort.

And then the Dholes come...

[Evile]

Rectangular tunnel? are we still think in 2D?

!!Suspend entire fort in MAGMA!! pressurized too so it would wash diggers back into their tunnels.

BTW having neat forts massacred by tunnelers is awesome idea (I am OCD in neatness myself). Imagine besieged city: first thing you see is houses burning inside, damage and rubble. Clearing that rubble after siege is also a part of surviving a siege. Having two sided outcome of the siege is not how sieges work. besides it can yield into temporal modifications of your fort. That way one can have collapsed halls that are not used anymore (Not from engineering stupidity, but from weathering to sieges), caverns that were meeting halls but now infested with vile creatures and sealed off. You can use your OCD to build 3D fortifications that encompass your entire fortress, and not just one or two entrances, or have most important areas contain extra containment measures like air sockets, water\magma layers, metallic walls (these should be more resilient to digging attempts) etc.

You guys are way too protected by these walls, this has to stop.

[Fredd]

Dwarven slaves used by their goblin masters as sappers is nice

[j.h]

I'm no worried about digging enemies. When they get implemented, we might already have moving fortress sections (also planned), so you would just pull the lever and lift your your fortress to the sky or something.

[Loud Whispers]

I'm interested in what the dwarfs are using to fend off the thing. Are those picks with hammers on them? ITS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!

Pickhammers. They are a thing that exists. XD. In the Discworld dwarves carry picks that are one side pick and one side axe to find and mine ore veins, and then proceed to fend off people trying to steal it. It's all very fun.

Such a thing existed in the medieval arsenal, called the horse rider's pick.

[Random weapon knowledge ftw]

[Wannazzaki]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Have another burrowing gribbly.