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[Flattermann]

 what kind graphics pack are you using and doe it work with the current version?

[MuseOD]

@martinuzz sexy

[Ascimator]

I usually use quickstart design from the wiki, except for the dorms - these 6-room clusters look soooooooo organised and hivey.

[Burmalay]

what kind graphics pack are you using and doe it work with the current version?

It's Ironhand gp. Works with current.
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2511

[King DZA]

My design varies greatly between forts, though I do normally prefer a sprawling horizontal layout over vertical. The only design rule that I carry though the design of all of my forts is this:

Aesthetics>efficiency.

[arphen]

Obligatory after been called things:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Mr. Palau]

Am I the only one who ahs a simple entrance here? I go for effecincy over aesthetics and choose to do a vertical design even though I think horizontal fortresss look a lot better becasue you can see the entire fortress on one level. My centrel staircase starts as just a 3x3 hole in the ground, I start on flat embarks so I don't ussually do mountains, and hence don't just dig into one and start the fortress from there.

[Mushroo]

I also am a fan of flat embarks with the down staircase next to the wagon.

Once the basic rooms are dug out, I build a gatehouse/guard tower using the excavated stone.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

I also like flat embarks, but once I have my stuff inside (a hole right next to the wagon), and once I get things set up enough, I like to dig 4 3-wide tunnels, one to each side of the map, ramping up to the surface only at the very edge.  That way all caravans have an easy route in without being exposed to the surface for long.  I like to put two draw bridges in each tunnel, so I can air-lock them if needed, and I then tie all the tunnels together and make the combined super-tunnel wander a bit so I have room for traps/combat before it reaches the also-airlocked trade depot.  The trade depot is then the main entrance to my fort, although I usually have a large walled-in area on the surface that is connected to my farms and food-processing workshops.  This is where I have pastures, tree-farming, and possibly above-ground farming.  Of course I can seal that off too in case of fliers.

Underground farms are always near the surface, in dirt layers for laziness and to take advantage of putting them near any above-ground food production.  I then usually have farm workshops and a large butcher/leatherworker/soap-maker/bone-bolt-carver complex beneath the brewers and farm workshops.  Another level below these is my main food storage, and then the main dining hall. 

Workshop locations, bedrooms, and military-complex vary more by fortress, but these elements of design I really like, and tend not to get too far away from my standard on most maps.

Oh, and I try to use any terrain features to my advantage on most maps.  I love hollowing-out hills and rock-spires as above-ground fortifications and putting an "easier", more direct trap-filled entrance near them for migrants and invaders.

I've honestly never incorporated the caverns into fortress design much, although I suppose I should start using them for more than just a source of well-water.

[Farmerbob]

Typically I first create a 20-tile long tunnel with four 10x10 rooms immediately indoors

These rooms are used for:
1) Storage
2) Kitchens, butchery, Dining room
3) Bedroom
4) Depo & mason/mechanic/carpenter/craftdwarf workshops

After my dwarves have unloaded the wagon and disassembled it, I then move intp phase 2.

Extend the entry hallway a few tiles, then build a 10x20 room, and at the far side of the room, a 3x3 stairwell straight down till I find a cavern or magma.  Seal it up if I break through into a cavern.  If I hit warm stone, start exploration mining to set up lava smelters, etc.

Open up a 40x40 cavern around the first level of the 3x3 stairwell.  Start this with a 20x20, and designate it as a stockpile for just about everything but rock, corpses, refuse.  After the 20x20 is done, remove the upper stockpile designation, the dwarves will then move stuff from the temporary upper room to the lower storage.

Once the stockpile has been moved, build constructed walls in the 10x20 room where the stairwell down begins, and make it a windy back-and-forth pathway that enemies will have to navigate.  Later, this will be filled with many, many traps.

Set the miners to mining five more tiles around the perimeter of the 20x20 stockpile.  Build 1 of every non-magma shop around the edge of the stockpile.  Build industries close to one another.  Loom by clothier by dyer.  Butcher by tanner by leatherworker.  Etc.  Save room for duplicate shops that you know you will eventually want.

Disassemble all upstairs shops and begin using downstairs shops.

Continue expanding the main cavern till it's 40x40, then create noble rooms, dining and dormitory rooms, hospital, puppy farm, cat storage, bird farm, daycare, etc. around this periphery.

Redesignate the original 4 rooms as barracks / training / general defensive.  Or use that area as a place to build more death traps if you generally don't have a military.  Build another stairwell up from the edge of the big room, and create a pasture if you plan on keeping animals for hair/hooves/horns or a meat industry.  I generally build a big pasture underground, then collect a bunch of rocks in a stockpile next to it.  Then I collapse the ceiling above the pasture, and have my dwarves build stairs up, and build a ceiling over the pasture, with a little bunker building at the top that I will eventually build a door at the exit, then a wall inside the door to permanently seal the entry unless I have dwarves disassemble the wall later.  The farm is typically located next to the pasture, but underground.  I'll build a dozen farmer workshops around the farm and pasture, but all underground.

By this point I've normally been in game about 1 year, and have some immigrants.  The next steps depend on the fort.

I typically start with 5 miners, the leader with all admin skills and woodcutting, and a farmer.

[Montague]

I like the caverns and always build a part of my fort there. Usually a meeting hall and hospital and whatnot since that's where the main source of water is. I aim to make it pretty looking

Had a couple bad experiences involving Forgotten Beasts getting into the hospital/ meeting hall but it doesn't dissuade me.

[Ewhalecancer]

I like my fort being slightly inconvient just to make unimportant jobs take a little longer like hauling. I also favor big forts. Making grandiose Gates and meeting hauls just so when i return on adventures its cool.

[daneel]

Large hallways, often 2z high, and lots of ramps. Open workshop floors. Sometimes a central staircase or spiral ramp depending on terrain. Placement of rooms and what's on which level can vary quite a bit.

This is Quakefaces:


Human caravan just got slaughtered by a siege outside.


Hospital, trade depot and short (for me) hallway of death.


Large workshop halls and about 2 sieges worth of goblins stored for later use.


Not much here yet, a small control room on top of the dining hall and noble quarters.


Relatively unimpressive dining room in this fort.

Below this we have tombs with 4 vampire caretakers, and forges down by the magma. Only 44 z-levels below ground but still 3 cavern layers, I tried generating this world to be shallow.

I find this kind of design fairly efficient. About 50fps currently with 132 dwarfs, that should go up a bit once I kill off the goblins.

[Flying Dice]

I prefer an organic layout, though I do tend towards standardized room sizes. Of course, a good portion of my current fort is going to be built out over a lake (once I get magmadrop/pumps working), so that should change things up a bit. Will post pics when further along.