40d:Road

A Road is a path of dirt, wood, stone, blocks or bars (metal, soap, etc.). They are used to make paths across the map that make it easier for people and wagons to travel by preventing trees from growing underneath them.

Three kinds of roads can be made:

• Dirt roads can only be built on top of soil, and any plant life (grass, shrubs, or trees) will soon grow back.
• Rough road can be made with regular stone, it will be the color of the first material used.
• Smooth roads can also be made of any kind of block.

Other buildings, including traps, cannot be built on top of a road.

A road is not necessary for the wagons to reach your trade depot. Wagons can travel across most surfaces, including up and down ramps, as long as boulders and trees have been removed from their route.

Building

Select b for build, followed by o or O depending on if you want a paved or unpaved road. Use keys h,m,u or k to adjust the height and width of the road. The number of materials required for a section of road is 1+(height×width)/4, rounding down. Roads may be built on constructed floors, shrubs and the top of walls the level below, but not boulders, trees, ramps or open spaces. Obstructions like boulders and trees will prevent the road being built, but the designation rectangle may contain downward or upward ramps, though road will not be built on these squares.

Roads are one of the few features that can be built all the way to the map edge.

Removing

Press q to access room actions then select the road you want to remove. Press x to remove the road - it is the only available action.

Worldgen roads

Worldgen roads (that you see on the map) aren't built as roads; stone roads are made of block floors and dirt roads are simply dirt. They are seven tiles wide (wide enough, incidentally, for a wagon to just fit on a diagonal one, since diagonal ones are seven tiles across in each orthogonal direction; only 7/sqrt(2) = 4.9 across, and a wagon is 3*sqrt(2) = 4.2 tiles across diagonally). Ramps go directly across the road when they have to connect Z-levels, rather than following the terrain. The fill around level changes seems to be made of natural material rather than constructed. Bridges are made of floors (a wood log bridge has been observed on a stone block road) with walls at the sides - ramps at the ends of each wall allowing you to walk on top of them. There is fill in the river allowing a uniform 3-tile-long approach. (that is, there are three tiles of bridge on the ground before being over water). Worldgen tunnels (Dwarf and Goblin roads) are similar; with bridges over chasms. Tunnels are reachable from a staircase and narrow passageway at the lowest level of a mountain hall, or from a basement level in a tower in a dark fortress. You cannot Travel while in a tunnel.