40d:Mega construction

There comes a time in every dwarfs life when he says to himself- why not? Be it magma waterfalls, huge castles, skyscrapers, great cathedrals, you can build anything!

Construction Techniques

Building a large number of anything can be a real pain, to speed up the process it is recommended that you create a stockpile filled with only the correct stone/block type either inside or as close to as possible to your construction. This way the material will always be at the top of the list when your constructing.

It is also important to remember that you cannot build on top of a constructed floor.

Towers

It is easy to make costly mistakes when constructing towers- generally because they are built from the inside and dwarfs cannot build walls diagonally.

It is recommended that you complete two opposing walls first and then add in the other two- this avoids the problem of the corner walls becoming inaccessible.

Step 1- Central Staircase:

    X

Step 2- Surrounding floor:

  ...
  .X.
  ...

(repeat until the required width is attained)

Step 3- First two walls:

 #####
  ...
  .X.
  ...
 #####

Step 4- Second walls:

 #####
 #...#
 #.X.#
 #...#
 #####

This assumes that you have walls in the same pattern on the z-level below. If you don't, say if your building an inverted pyramid or widening a tower half way up, the corner walls will be inaccessible. To get around this you can build a few squares of free standing floor, construct the corner walls, and then disassemble the floor. Ensure that the corner walls are supported before removing the extra floor or else they will collapse.

Step 1 - build stairway and floor as above:

  ...
  .X.
  ...

Step 2 - Add extra floor:

 .....
  .X.
 .....

Step 3 - Build first two walls:

 #####
 .....
  .X.
 .....
 #####

Step 4 - Remove excess floor:

 #####
  ...
  .X.
  ...
 #####

Scaffolding

Building rows and rows of up/down stairs will allow you to build large walls without having to worry about getting the workers and materials up there.

Be careful when you're dismantling them that each row is removed one at a time, starting from the top!

You may also consider building the scaffolding inside the building you are constructing, ensuring that the entire ground floor wall is constructed. Then you wont create any surprise back doors into your fortress.

Sloped Roofs

Sloped roofs can be created by building a row of walls adjacent to the top of a wall, a row of ramps can then be built directly on top of the wall giving access to the top of the adjacent wall. Now just build a second wall adjacent to this one and repeat.

Viewing

Most mega structures look best when using a 3D tool, there are however some restrictions involved.

3Dwarf

All walls regardless of material will show up the same, the only difference is fortifications which will show up a lighter shade of blue.

All ramps and stairs regardless of materials will show up as wood.

Single ramps will show up as square pyramids but only if there are no adjacent walls that are one z-level higher than them.

A row of single ramps will not join together as a 'toblerone' shape, instead they will show up as a row of square pyramids.

Examples

Cathedral to the Blood God