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[Maul_Junior]

scrolled down to bottom of first post. I had a reaction:




Then I had another one.



don't worry, you'll see Kitty again. We're having Kitteh roast for the next few months. Oh, and you need new shoes.

[Fleeting Frames]

...Just how high is your library? Just the entrance hall, at 7z, is tall enough to efficiently fit all industries used fortress inside, and I can't even tell how one enters the hall of prophecies.

Was part of your motivation "1z is just 1 more step"?

PS: establishing baronship ~100 meters high in air has some real style points. I've also got to say, the sense of scale to each other is more visible on the stonesense screenshot. The statue itself is also symbolic of nobility watching over the fort.

[Merthyn]

...Just how high is your library? Just the entrance hall, at 7z, is tall enough to efficiently fit all industries used fortress inside, and I can't even tell how one enters the hall of prophecies.

Was part of your motivation "1z is just 1 more step"?

The library is 8 z levels high! Because I was working with a balcony every 2 z levels an even number worked out better than the 7 for the great/entrance hall. The entrance hall -with- dome would be 10 z-levels high. One enters the fortress proper via a sloping ramp stairway;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

As of yet the entrance hall where one descends into the stairway is pretty dull, partially because my above ground fortress serves more as a barracks and dropoff point for finished goods. The sides of the stairway are also dreadfully un-ornamented. Eventually I want to knock out all those colourful natural walls and replace them with obsidian, gold and golden statues much like the staircase itself, but with so much work left to do I'm going to have to prioritise other stuff.

I should indeed get a few good stonesense screenshots of the entire thing, I'll keep that in mind for the next update. I can't now sadly, because that would inevitably reveal parts of the palace!

[Merthyn]

Let's get aristocratic - Palace Update!

Time to get started on a proper seat of power for the Razor of Partners. This area should occupy most of the north layers of the fortress and exist as a small microcosm for all my nobles and eventual resident ruler!

The Throne Room

It's tough to plan a whole build like this ahead of time, so I figured I'd start with the one room I had plans for already; the throne room!
The idea is to have the central walkway of the fortress go through the great hall and library and eventually lead visitors up into the throne room where they can supplicate themselves before the monarch.
I decided on a circular design, with a central royal dais seperated from the rest of the room by a chasm. The rest of the room consists of benches for aristocrats or senators.

The build;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Starting as I usually do, the dwarves knock out the upper layer and replace the natural stone walls with a nice uniform layer of quartzite. Afterwards it's time to channel down to create depth. The benches on the side feature a walkway of jet lined with gold. Beware the deadly rock clutter!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This process continues until we reach the 'ground' level where the throne is located, then it's time to have the dwarves smelt more gold and tidy up the rock clutter by having part of it dragged off, part of it autodumped.
Then we get to detailing. After the first screenshot's progress I realised one-wide walkways for the benches woulden't suffice and had to lengthen every row with an artificial row of blocks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The rest of the furniture and flooring follows! But first...

Designing the palace proper


While the dwarves were busy smelting heaps of ore for gold blocks, I got to work on designing the rest of the palace. I like to roll with the idea of a small palace-city,
where the palace stands apart from the rest of the fortress proper as housing area for not just the king, but also all the other nobles.

In my previous fortress I went about it as follows - don't mind the red lines, drew those to explain something to a friend;

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now for Prophetmirrored I intend to go bigger and better; so this time the palace is getting a full blown cavern and is to be surrounded by a wall. I started by figuring out where I wanted my 'wall' and tunneling
out the edge of the palace cavern. Made a few minor digging order mistakes here that cost me some time to correct, but we live and learn!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The palace proper is to have one grand central dome for the throne room, two medium domes for the dining hall and royal chambers, and two minor ones for flair. I might house a palace guard there.
The larger domes will have smaller spires/roofs surrounding them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Throne room dome and top cavern

Now that I got the planning down it was time to get to work on the central dome, and by extension the 'cavern' housing the palace. As I knock out some flooring you can already see the furnished throne room!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Afterwards, we start digging up to make the dome layer by layer. Much like the palace interior I wanted the dome to be lined with jet and gold. I didn't keep track of how much gold blocks I used. I'm guessing 200+
I started digging up with the middle part of the palace, as this one needs to be higher than the rest due to the height of the central dome. After I finish a layer I knock the floor out in the dome.
On the third screenshot one of my human residents made a mistake removing a floortile, he prostrated himself upon the throne room floor with a bit more force than the custom proscribes.
Took our cleaners a while to get rid of the bloodstains as he dragged himself towards the exit before expiring.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And finally, we finish up the dome.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[/img]

The result in Armok Vision

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And thus we finish the first part of the palace!
The update took a while, partially due to my occupation with other games during the Steam sale, partially because Photobucket had to break image linking to third party websites.
Not only did I have to move all my images to another site, I also had to fix all the links in previous updates. In return I made this one extra royal.

Stay tuned for more Palace!

[Rose]

Wow.

[Madman198237]

^

Complete agreement.

[Dunamisdeos]

This is pretty amazing.

I started building a big architecture thing and tried to carve and smooth it rather than building with blocks, but I discovered the problem with lots of weird color stones messing it up ;-;

[Fleeting Frames]

Grand. Got to skip back to start to remember what the post covers.

Near as I can tell, you hollowed out a cavern surrounding it, almost just so you could have it be a dome, not a canopy.

An idea: For some statues, have you considered building a floor, building a statue, then deconstructing the floor?
It'd make the statues float in mid-air, which would mean the floor wouldn't cast shadows on level below (also, the screenshots in AV would look slightly different).

('course, can't engrave air)

[takes a second look and realizes the statues are on pillars, not floors]

@Dunamisdeos: You could make them part of an organic inspiration for a larger picture.

[Merthyn]

I started building a big architecture thing and tried to carve and smooth it rather than building with blocks, but I discovered the problem with lots of weird color stones messing it up ;-;

Yeah, I've tried this myself in the past. I think it can work out if you don't have too many colours, but bright stones or gems just ruin it for me. That's why I knock out the natural walls regardless of all the extra work, through any blocks necessary! ;P

God I wish metal blocks multiplied the material like rock ones do...

Near as I can tell, you hollowed out a cavern surrounding it, almost just so you could have it be a dome, not a canopy.

Quite correct! It's difficult to appreciate the dome and seperate roofs if they're not "in the open". Thank the heavens there's such a thing as books or YouTube while the dwarves work on the ramp up/channel labours of the whole thing. My biggest gripe is how you can't -not- micromanage mass channeling designations, or the dwarves will find a way to cause collapses.

Grand. Got to skip back to start to remember what the post covers.

An idea: For some statues, have you considered building a floor, building a statue, then deconstructing the floor?
It'd make the statues float in mid-air, which would mean the floor wouldn't cast shadows on level below (also, the screenshots in AV would look slightly different).

('course, can't engrave air)

I toyed with this in the past, but I generally prefer having my statues in alcoves or on pillars. The big downside here being that you have to make sure you tile/unify the floor underneath before you place down the statue. Lots of frustration fixing my great hall pillars because I was impatient on the initial construction there.

Floating statues definitely seem better for a more spatious result though... Choices, choices!

[Fleeting Frames]

Regarding blocks, you do get 4 bars of metal for 1 ore of metal. (Or 4 blocks for 1 native ore.)
So they multiply, it's just earlier.

Well, regarding designations, I assume you've already tried messing with marking/lower and higher priorities, though those also count as micromanaging I suppose.

Floating...Mechanically, it's useful for workshops on occasion as well as with pressure plates and windows, perhaps, but doesn't really deliver visual impact on floor level I suppose. Have to take advantage of caverns to really use it...Hm, maybe a circle of upright spears floating above central area like some kind of halo? Perhaps window-encased orbs of magma to cast light indoors with rendermax plugin?