Run the thing however you like, but my opinion: More people (including myself) would probably be interested in this without the seemingly very time consuming and extraordinarily detailed blueprint component to it. Looking at the existing blueprints, I felt that learning how to even interpret the legend alone on the file would have taken longer than an entire normal community fort turn, and got very discouraged. Also, following somebody else's down-to-the-tile blueprint feels like busy work, whereas translating a rougher concept into DF terms would involve good creativity, even if the basic vision were pre-decided.
It seems like a handmade quick sketch with some rough indicators of how many z levels are intended to align with the sketch would be sufficient and in many ways actually superior for this purpose?
Just my 2 cents though.
(Note that if done this way instead, you might need more leeway on the length of a turn. Something like "1-2 years, try to keep it to 1 but some room for going over if needed to finish a section")
Thanks for the input! I pretty much agree with you and I should have been more clear on some of my points. The .psd is what I was working on before I thought to use the world as a succession fort. It shouldn't be nearly that detailed and a lot of it is just doodles really. The front facing image would have been sufficient. I was intending to update it by now. The only things we need to keep consistent are the dimensions of the wall, the z level of fortifications and how far it is recessed into the mountain. This is because it will probably take several years to dig the whole front of the mountain and you can't put the natural rock back once we dig it. It would be good to have blueprints for the entrance and throne room because they are connected to the front wall but it will be those of who ever starts building and not my own. Actually maybe not the throne room because someone might end up putting it somewhere else. It's just that we can't have someone try and put a room right where we will need to put the wall and enterance and it will be hard to tell becase the wall will be like 20 blocks in at the bottom. I will try and reword the rules so they are more clear. Your idea of going more than a year might work but we would have to see what the other players think.
I know using photoshop/gimp for blueprints is a pain. Like I said they can be in what ever format you want and sketches would probably be preferable for most cases and be more fun to look at. It is not necessarily for this fort but I have been playing around with a web app for dwarf fortress blueprints and the basic gui is completed.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/134665186/draftdorf/draftdorf.html I have the code for actually drawing to the canvas but I am still optimizing it. It is similar to what I was doing in photoshop except visually much closer to dwarf fortress(or what ever tileset choose). This app is more intended for quickly making smaller blueprints that need correct placement like water pumps. It will also export for use in quickfort faster and more fun than with excel.
*edit* I have simplified the wording of the rules. Check it out and see what you think. I have also removed my .psd file because it is too confusing and the front view should get the idea across.