Showcase your most securely designed shelter.

[City Builder]

Hi,
I'm looking for ideas for my dwarves shelters and hoping people would post screenshots of their most effectively secure shelter.

I'm looking to try to build shelters that can last the night when waves of mobs show up and start pounding down my doors, shelters that last long enough between the mobs hitting the door to come in and the daylight coming up and evaporating them the followign day.

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head would be to make tunnels on both sides of my shelter (above ground shelter) and then place multiple doors every 2 spaces or so, so that the mobs have to end up breaking through each door which with enough of them could make it so that they'd never get to the real interior of my shelter before daytime comes or at least give me enough time to muster all my dwarves in preperation of trying to hold them off when they do finally get to the real interior. But that doesn't sound like a very eloquent solution to designing a very secure shelter for my dwarvies.

[InvalidSelection]

I'll post what I posted in another thread, because it's worked every time to withstand many many nights before I was prepared for it.

I usually start by digging down about 6-8 tiles (use laid in stepping points so you can fill it back in) and clearing a 20x2 tile row. Then I fill in the hole I dug down (this can take some doing and works best if you start from the bottom, going up)

The top few blocks I use stone to fill in, with 1 dirt cap for trees. After that, I use portals to get in and out of the base/to the stash, till I get far enough tech wise to survive the night with an above ground base.

You can also cap off the stash with a 3 block thick stone wall, then keep the shaft if you want to not need portals to get to it from digging. You should still use the portals for a bit to get trees though.

[City Builder]

Hmm, I've not yet had the game generate a world where I have enough stone to produce tools as well as fill in a 20x2 row with stone before maybe my 3rd or higher wave of mobs heading my way, and even then sometimes I still haven't found enough stone for my tools and doing something like that. Perhaps I just need to make more use of the portal and side scroll the game and hope that the game has generated some larger all stone mountains that I can chip away at to get enough stone.

I'm also looking (probably even more so) for above ground secure shelters as I really enjoy the art style of this game so prefer the look of above ground shelters which is what I'm currently trying to build, an above ground secure shelter that doesn't necessarily look like I'm cheesing the game (even if I really am LOL)

[InvalidSelection]

The 20x2 floor is your living quarters where you build the beds, this is just dug into the dirt. The stone fort at top is a 3xwhatever you can gather to surround your stash

This is also only to get you by for the first several waves, once you get good tools/supply lines you can easily move up and build above ground. Remember, their dwarves though, they belong under ground :)

[InvalidSelection]

This guy seems to have got it figured out for a late game design fort.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/595908497312937778/8C57FC5371087C8A9592FE274FB659CD15E73CFE/

Remember, early game survival is the main goal. Make it pretty later.

[archmagi101]

On my latest game, I've been exploring a high-rise apartment style build. It clearly wouldn't work in reality, and it takes scaffolding to truly exploit it, but essentially you build UP from your original stockpile, and then clear out everything below until you hit a desired gap between the ground and your stronghold. As long as you keep the sides decently high enough above the land to keep skellies from building bridges, the only route they have to attack is building a skelly ladder which can then be funneled into a kill zone with smart build tunnels. I plan on tweaking the concept more (false tunnels, etc... that can be circumvented with scaffolds or elevators but not by skelly ladders), but the game is a little buggy at the moment.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=252760771

[bobeagle77]

Here is my Castle early on http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197989930228/screenshots/
Is there a way to post picture here?

[Gorgon]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=323187663
To be honest i've had a lot of success with this base layout, the blocks next to the ladders stop the 2 tile monsters getting up, then when the monsters are at your door, just get your dwarves to attack them. Your dwarves are safe behind the door but sometimes get hit.

[drochnathair]

I'd post a pic but I'm old and haven't quite figued out how to do it. :-P I always build underground, with wooden/metal traps and a couple towers flanking the stockpile. Makes wiping out waves <in campaign mode> a breeze.

[mikeydsc]

I gonna get my screenshot..brb in a few .

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=326185987

its crude beginnings of a castle with thick walls--- I dont even worry anymore with those walls by time wave gets thru them its morning - dwarves get some cleanup monsters but I am not by no means getting slaughtered either. I just go about my bussiness an make repairs after the wave. Will flesh it out more as time goes on. Easily holds 3 waves with no problems.

The almost whole compound.
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/37477920277168761/54CCFF5DCB6A618367AAFA0D994AB16A0BF5B7CA/

[sz.g]

For me the most defensible layout is narrow ground level with long courtyards, both sides, supported by shooting towers. So the towers have clear line of sight, and dwarves have a clear way to run forth and back (I use hit-and-run tactic).
Tunel with height of one block near the doors to impede tall monsters (so not all monsters show up at my doorstep at the same time).
Fences to slow down monsters, and froglisks to "tank" them.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/825758054684075837/DE9D072484B59A90690C8E3EFA3008B82F7D5C9B/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/825758054684075560/EBBC364C928E4C5958EA0DD713AD0ED57775CC13/

[City Builder]

Way to go on that 4+ year Necro.

[InPinkClover]

Originally posted by City Builder:

Way to go on that 4+ year Necro.

I'm fine with it. The topic is still applicable and helpful to new players, and even us old folks that have been playing a long while. :)