Editing 40d:Mega construction

It is also important to remember that you cannot build constructions on top of a constructed floor, but you can attach walls to the sides of a constructed floor, and then build on them for the next level up. Thus, if you want to build a wall in the middle of a room, you will have to remove the floors from those tiles first (or simply plan ahead and don't build them in the first place).

 

:''In this discussion, "masons" will be assumed to be the dwarves doing the work.  If your constructions are of wood or metal, then carpenters or metalsmiths will be doing the work - but the process is the same.

:''Likewise, the word "stone" will be used to refer to building material, but a construction can also be made from wood logs, blocks of glass or any other material, or bars of metal or even soap, among others. ''  

   '''X'''  -  Up/down [[stair|stairs]]

   ☺  -  Mason

Walls are the simplest construction. They are the base for anything more ambitious, such as a tower, and are often the very first construction of a new fortress, as (part of) a defensive perimeter.  No non-flying creature can get over a 1-level wall, but there are still reasons you might want to build a higher one, whether for looks, because of rolling terrain, or as part of a larger project.   

  X   <- ''upper stair provides access for masons to build upper tier of walls above first tier''

  wX

If you have 2 access points, you can start in the middle and the ends, and work back toward the access for each.   

Building a tower, large or small, is a Dwarf Fortress rite of passage. There are many pitfalls to [[construction]] though, mainly due to your [[mason|masons']] habit of building [[wall|walls]] in their LIFO order, so adding anything puts that before everything you've already done.  This step-by-step guide avoids these problems.  The diagrams are for a 5x5 tower, but the instructions are adaptable to any size of tower.  

''(Note - In Dwarf Fortress, the walls of a "round" (or oval) tower take ''exactly'' as much stone as for a "square" (or rectangular) tower, but the floor area uses a bit less stone, and with a significant loss of usable area inside - in case that matters to you.)''

If the tower is outside the protection of your compound, consider the safety of your workers - would digging a tunnel to the location be worth the time? Do you want your soldiers and workers to walk over the surface, or underground?  No doors means [[building destroyer|building destroyers]] have nothing to break down.   

:''Pro tip - if you designate walls to be built next to your planned walls, then {{k|s}}uspend that construction, your dwarves will not stand on those tiles to build the desired walls.  This can be used to guide your masons to build from the inside, walling themselves in where it's safe, rather than the alternative.''

     ║'''X'''+☺O <- ''suspended wall order''

If you want an open level of the tower where [[marksman|marksdwarf]]s or [[siege engine]]s can fire out, you want some [[fortification|fortifications]] instead of walls.  Along the edges this is easy, but fortifications cannot be walked on, and a mason can't build them from a diagonal tile, so we're back to "build the corners first!"

The solution is to build a temporary floor-tile off the tower side, to give your masons access to those corner locations.  Once built, then connect those to other fortifications (they have to be connected [[orthogonal|orthogonally]]!), ''then'' you can safely deconstruct the floors and replace them with the final fortifications.

:''Pro tip:'' Alternatively, instead of constructing and deconstruction floors, you may build floor grates ({{k|b}}, {{k|G}}), floor hatches ({{k|b}}, {{k|H}})), or floor bars {{k|b}}, {{k|alt+b}}) for dwarves to stand on to get at the corners. These have the advantage of being much faster to remove, do not require a mason (only a "furniture hauler"), and are collected instead of dropped when deconstructed.

 

 

 

 

Dwarves tend to work from the left, and that's wrong half the time.  To make sure your masons don't wall themselves on the wrong side of what they're building, designate a wall to be built where you ''don't'' want them to stand, and then {{k|s}}uspend that construction - they won't stand in that spot while building next to it.  Once the desired construction is in place and the dwarf on the preferred side, cancel ( {{k|q}}, {{k|x}} ) the suspended construction entirely, and carry on.

 

 

To build out over open space, you only need to add floors.  There is no limit to how far out unsupported floors can extend.  If you then want to build up, build walls (which will support movement and more construction on the next level up).  While you can't build a wall on top of a constructed floor, you can build a wall ''over thin air'', so long as  there's an accessible spot for a dwarf to stand on which is orthogonally (non-diagonally) adjacent to where the wall is to be built.  Don't forget to add stairs (or ramps) to gain access to those upper levels (again... plan ahead!)

Using these methods, you can create anything from permanent spans bridging gaps to mushroom-shaped towers to inverted pyramids balanced on one tile - anything goes.   

If your masons cannot access a location, building temporary flooring is the solution, as described above under "basic techniques", and then deconstructing the floor when it's no longer needed. However, building floor bars or setting a floor grate in place is faster, does not enter into the [[Construction#Priority - LIFO|LIFO]] sequence, and the material will be saved, not dropped, when deconstructed.

Constructions cannot be supported by attaching them to any [[bridge|bridges]] - the game allows them to be designated, and a dwarf will respond to build the construction, but that will then [[cave-in]] immediately upon construction.  However, building a bridge ''over'' an existing floor will allow those floor tiles to be deconstructed and the material recovered.

This is ideal for your patently insane [[Stupid dwarf trick]] needs. Essentially it's building your entire fortress above ground in ONE structure. A subterranean level (the basement) on the bottom floor provides plump helmets, pig tails, and so on. On the ground floor, grow above-ground plants and carve fortifications into all the walls. From here, it's all about absolutely huge levels packed with food stores, refuse dumps, wood stockpiles, workshops, archery ranges, and bedrooms. The only subterranean activity permitted is digging, although you may be able to get away with building your depot below ground. This consumes ridiculous amounts of time and stone, placing walls is extremely fiddly, and as soon as goblins control the ground floor your fortress will starve unless you can exterminate them. So, pointless, frustrating, and borderline suicidal...in short, a perfect megaconstruction.

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

 

===[http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=39541.0 Visual Fortress]===