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DF Gameplay Questions / How do I (or can I) dig straight up or down?
« on: June 22, 2008, 12:11:24 am »
This may sound like a stupid question, but I'm new to the 3D version, and I've spent a week trying to figure this out without success. I've tried channeling down, channeling down and then building a downwards stair next to the channel, building an upwards stair to dig up, and other variations on "what will this stair do"--but none of it lets me get my miners down or up a level. The Wiki is no help; I've read the page on mining/digging about eighty times and it only confuses me more each time (I get convinced that what I'm doing SHOULD work, and then it doesn't. Again).
The one thing I haven't tried yet is going up or down a Z-level on the outside of the mountain, digging inward from the edge of the mountain parallel to my current main tunnel, and building stairs up or down from there. I'm really hoping this isn't necessary, because it lands me with a bunch of extra digging my miner has to do and new entrances to either guard or stick a forbidden door on, and I don't like the thought of risking my miner scrambling around outside in the process. Is that going to be the only way to do multiple floors?
The one thing I haven't tried yet is going up or down a Z-level on the outside of the mountain, digging inward from the edge of the mountain parallel to my current main tunnel, and building stairs up or down from there. I'm really hoping this isn't necessary, because it lands me with a bunch of extra digging my miner has to do and new entrances to either guard or stick a forbidden door on, and I don't like the thought of risking my miner scrambling around outside in the process. Is that going to be the only way to do multiple floors?