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Always

51 (23.8%)

Usually

37 (17.3%)

Sometimes

34 (15.9%)

Rarely

58 (27.1%)

Never

34 (15.9%)

Total Members Voted: 212

[Uronym]

Do you plan out the design and inner workings of your fortress before you start working on it, or do you add stuff as you need it?

I have never designed or planned it out very far.. I'll sometimes leave long corridors in case I want to add something later, but that's it.

[NecroRebel]

Every time. If I don't have my forts planned out at least to some extent beforehand, I get extremely inefficient things, like long corridors, or close off every route for expansion and so have to destroy things I already had to get more. Planning out also helps me keep things compact on any given z-level, as my preplanned designs allow for radial construction around a central staircase much more easily than unplanned designs.

[Uronym]

Do you plan the whole thing, or just one floor at a time? Do you have pictures of your well-planned fortresses?

And how do you plan it? Do you draw designs on grid paper? With MS Paint? Designations?

[Flying Dice]

I typically will designate pretty much all the basics before I even unpause: entry tunnel, central staircase, depot space, first dormitory (which later becomes barracks 1), living quarters, dining hall, food preparation, growing, and stockpile, workshops, finished product stockpiles, raw mats stockpiles, military equipment stockpiles, danger rooms, archery ranges, hospital, fortification access tunnels, etc.

Then I disconnect the designations from the central staircase by cancelling the ring of tiles around it, and when I want to dig something out, I just redesignate that one or two tiles.

[Jingles]

I have an overall plan that I work towards, and then put components in as I need them or as the come up.  The components I plan on paper before hand based on what is there space restrictions and so forth.

[slink]

I plan as far as picking a site where it is not too far to running water, soil for farms, and with enough room aboveground to build a walled courtyard with two drawbridges over pits protecting the entrance.  Then I lay out a standardized corridor and storeroom system and a main stairwell to join those things.  Often I will also lay out the dining room and hospital, but sever the digging designation so it is not dug until later.  Housing and offices are a little more flexible in design, depending on how far down it is to the first caverns.  I don't take anything lower than that except for the shaft to magma for the forge room.

So I guess my answer to one of your questions is that I use designations to plan my layout.

[NecroRebel]

Do you plan the whole thing, or just one floor at a time? Do you have pictures of your well-planned fortresses?

And how do you plan it? Do you draw designs on grid paper? With MS Paint? Designations?

Typically I use MSPaint to draw out one floor, then use the same footprint for every z-level of the fort with only minor variations. I tend to come up with a new design every couple months, but there's a couple features that I commonly use. Usually, the fort involves a large central stockpile that everything else is arrayed around. My workshops are in 7- or 8-shop groups, depending on how I do the entry to the shops, each group arrayed in a circle around a staircase that leads to the related stockpiles above and below the shops themselves. The bedrooms are similar, each a 6-square chamber in a ring around a central plaza.

Hmm... I think I have an image of an older fort with this rough paradigm someplace... Ah, yes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That one is actually less efficient than many - it was designed with aesthetics more in mind than most of mine - and were I to remake it now I'd change some things about it, but it's still one of my favorites.

[Jalen]

"When the battle is finally fought, the plan goes out the window when you cross the line of departure, because there's always some son-of-a-bitch in this choreographed dance that you have planned who climbs out of the orchestra pit with a bayonet, and chases you around the stage." -General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

In other words. No, I don't plan anything.

[Clutzy]

No planning beyond "stocks, workshops, housing, dining, jail, defense" and not always in that order . This causes me to dig deeper thankfully since I can be quite lazy about that, wanting to fill the entire z-level before going down again. Makes things quite haphazard, but I think it would be fun for adventuring should I ever decide to.

[Loud Whispers]

Embark now, plan later, cry tomorrow.

[Uronym]

I'm also curious as to what things you planners plan, and how often they go according to your plan.

• Do you plan the economy and industries of your fortress?
• Does it almost always go as you planned, the design, and the industries?
• Do you pick your embark location before you begin planning?
• Do you use external tools to figure out what minerals you have?

[Loud Whispers]

• Do you plan the economy and industries of your fortress?
• Does it almost always go as you planned, the design, and the industries?
• Do you pick your embark location before you begin planning?
• Do you use external tools to figure out what minerals you have?

1. The only industry I really have to look out for is the textiles and farming industry, all others are crippled (except maybe masonry)
2. You must always plan for the worst, assume it to begin raining sentient necrotizing blood indoors always.
3. A flat surface works well for my tastes
4. Nope

[slink]

I'm also curious as to what things you planners plan, and how often they go according to your plan.

• Do you plan the economy and industries of your fortress?
• Does it almost always go as you planned, the design, and the industries?
• Do you pick your embark location before you begin planning?
• Do you use external tools to figure out what minerals you have?

1.  The economy is broken, so there is no real plan there.  I always sell stone crafts because there is always stone.  I never sell metal goods, because metal is rare.  I used to sell prepared meals but with pastures required now, livestock is difficult to keep.  I keep only turkeys, for private consumption, and also collect eggs from everyone's poultry pets.  I haven't mastered the trick of getting them to wear clothing yet, so I don't make that.  I produce food, booze, furniture, weapons, and armor for fortress use, and crafts for export.

2.  As far as my plans, yes.  As far as what shows up to attack me, and when, that is out of my control.

3.  I try to pick a good embark site, in terms of resources.  It should have running water, some soil, at least a few trees, and useful metals.  The actual geography dictates where and how my fortress will be built.  I can't see that until we arrive.  I think of it as like landing on a faraway planet after having chosen it from orbital surveys.

4.  Yes.  DFHack, the newest version which runs alongside DF and has a command line interface.

[orrey]

I usually start with a basic plan of the layout, but it's more of a mental image of how its going to look.  For my 34.2 fortress, the process went like:

Design a custom world to make sure I had enough z-levels to work with, custom cavern density, lower erosion, a few other things.
After that, go through legends and check out the world.  I went through a few until I found one with a living royal family and at least a few megabeasts still around.
Then, find the embark.  Wasn't really too specific here, just wanted a cold biome in the foothills of the mountains.
First order of business after embarking was setting up necessary things; meeting halls, farm plots, rooms.  Doesn't have to be in line with your final design, but its necessary in the first couple years.
After everyone was lodged and fed, I started designation for the overall fortress setup.  I went off of basic ideas like living and dining in the center; industries on the side, spiral ramps, then designated things until they looked nice.
As the fortress got older, things tended to get added more organically or whenever they'd fit, like hospitals, tombs, and such.


I try not to use tools; I usually just check once on embark to make sure the underworld isn't collapsing into itself or something, or that there's water in the caverns (if I have no water on the surface).

[schismatise]

Yes. Yes i do.

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Ground level +1

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ground level

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meeting Hall +1

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Meeting Hall

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hospital

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Military Quarters

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Civilian Quarters

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Farm & Workshops

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Forge (incomplete)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Forge Plumbing & Quarry

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Edit:

Hmm... I think I have an image of an older fort with this rough paradigm someplace... Ah, yes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That one is actually less efficient than many - it was designed with aesthetics more in mind than most of mine - and were I to remake it now I'd change some things about it, but it's still one of my favorites.

Damn... that is sexy.

I love the idea of doing such designs, but being so war-orientated it's hardly realistic in alot of embarks due to time considerations, and i end up alot more compact. But oh, a dwarf can dream!