can't build up staircase because the above tiles are 'hidden'

[Average AMD neanderthal]

Any idea what to do about this? i never had much issues with building stairs in the original game, but this game is a constant ♥♥♥♥♥ with removing or building stairs in all kinds of ways.

[Saver Sigonith]

I don't know of any ways of building up to a level you haven't dug stairs down from in this version. You're gonna need to start above and dig down first I guess. Where in particular are you trying to get?

[Average AMD neanderthal]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

I don't know of any ways of building up to a level you haven't dug stairs down from in this version. You're gonna need to start above and dig down first I guess. Where in particular are you trying to get?

trying to build up a few levels to give the kitchen access to clay for farms. i'm trying to avoid giving future raids any easy access to the lower areas of the fortress. in the original you can do this very easily, in here it is a massive challenge.

[Saver Sigonith]

Ah! It's not so bad in this version. Just dig down from the surface and cover the top with constructed floors. I frequently cover a small area to use as an early garbage dump up there too, since anything that's been uncovered counts as 'surface' and won't produce miasma, even though nothing can reach you once it's covered.

[Average AMD neanderthal]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Ah! It's not so bad in this version. Just dig down from the surface and cover the top with constructed floors. I frequently cover a small area to use as an early garbage dump up there too, since anything that's been uncovered counts as 'surface' and won't produce miasma, even though nothing can reach you once it's covered.

i already thought of going in from above. it just felt so silly that a simple function from the old game is impossible to do here without resorting to solutions like these. i kept thinking: i must be doing something wrong, i was always able to just build and dig up in the old game.

[Saver Sigonith]

Well you can dig up, but not with constructed floors. You'd need to dig up through a natural wall. Once you have the floor above it dug into a 'downstair' or 'updown stair' you can then construct a staircase (and optionally remove the redundant upper one) and it'll work normally. (I just figured your kitchen was excavated and didn't wanna mess it up ^^' )
I agree it's silly. This version was trying to make stairs more intuitive but I feel like it could be done better.

[Average AMD neanderthal]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Well you can dig up, but not with constructed floors. You'd need to dig up through a natural wall. Once you have the floor above it dug into a 'downstair' or 'updown stair' you can then construct a staircase (and optionally remove the redundant upper one) and it'll work normally.
I agree it's silly. This version was trying to make stairs more intuitive but I feel like it could be done better.

my dwarves as far as i can tell, do not dig up from the position they're at. they need a stair or a slope. but those 2 need an empty tile above them :)
this system is not practical.

[Saver Sigonith]

Again you need a natural wall tile on the level the dwarf is on and then use the 'dig staircase' command, not the construction one.
Maybe I misunderstood the problem - I've never had them fail to do that. If they're currently on an up staircase and won't mine perhaps there's a glitch? Use any mods recently?

[Average AMD neanderthal]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Again you need a natural wall tile on the level the dwarf is on and then use the 'dig staircase' command, not the construction one.
Maybe I misunderstood the problem - I've never had them fail to do that. If they're currently on an up staircase and won't mine perhaps there's a glitch? Use any mods recently?

the dwarves are in a room, it is already hollowed out. i intended to have them construct stairs in the middle of it. something which is trivial in the old game, here they can't do that because the tiles above them obstruct their view... strangely enough.

[Saver Sigonith]

Ok, no I did understand. Yes there is no way to do that in the current version.

[Excellion]

Originally posted by Average Imperium Enjoyer:

the dwarves are in a room, it is already hollowed out. i intended to have them construct stairs in the middle of it. something which is trivial in the old game, here they can't do that because the tiles above them obstruct their view... strangely enough.

In the basegame it's not possible, but with DFHack it can be done. When building stairs with DFHack active you can once again opt to build single-level stairs. For those single level stairs you can explicitly select what type of stairs you wish to build (Up, UpDown or Down).

Saves a lot of frustration in cases where you realise you want to go up a layer.