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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

[wanzerm23]

I like the chaos of adding things on the fly.  Plus, I'm too new at this to really know what I'm going to need in advance.  Its usually, "Oh, crap.  I need soap.  Now where the hell should I put the soap-makers workshop?"

[Salmonpunch]

Planning makes my fortress much worse it seems, as I always make it too cramped or way to spacey with not enough doors (which would be good if not for noise causing unhappy thoughts)

So I usually just plan ahead what kind of fort I want to run: IE: what type of military, what goods to export, ect

[Koremu]

I set up with a broad idea of what will go where, but the fine details get resolved as I go along.

Generally I start with a small secure area, even to the point of not going more than one level down until I have a secure perimeter if necessary.

[gabandre]

i dont need to plan, i have a modular system of fortress building, i just add pieces that are needed, like LEGO

[gzoker]

i dont need to plan, i have a modular system of fortress building, i just add pieces that are needed, like LEGO

I would like to see that. A 3d video tour would be nice. Or pictures.

On topic: Usually i have an idea about the fortress i want to build, and i choose the embark accordingly. This means i look around for hours, using dfhack to reveal and prospect. Then i tweak the world, changing evil and minerals and history, then generate it again with 600-800 years of history.
Before embark i plan out the basics, like defense, food industry and sleeping quarters, but everything after those are organic. Like the underground execution tower i just thought of. if there are too many changes, design flaws, then i savescum to my first save and redesign the whole place.
After i reach the perfect image of what i thought of beforehand i tend to abandon the fort after a few years of play. Then the process resets.

Other times i don't plan anything and just go with the flow. A corridor here, a glass vampire tank filled with water there, the migrant dormitory next to the depot, farms in the caverns, towers in the sky...

The only thing i always do is digging a cemetery after digging the farms. I need it every time.

[King DZA]

With serious fortresses, I usually have some goal in mind(e.g., "This time I'm going to turn the caverns into a massive underground shrine!", or "This time I'm going to build a vertical fort surrounded by a giant fucking deathmaze!"). How that goal will be attained is usually decided as I go along. As for the other questions...

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?

Nope. My industries are most commonly set up shortly following the sentence, "Oh shit, that's right. <Insert industry product here> is important."

My plans are flexibly vague, so yes.

My embark is decided by the goal I'm working toward.

Where's the fun in that? The mystery of the unknown is one of the best parts of a new embark.

[C0NNULL]

I chose 'Rarely'.

There are no plans. There is a general dwarven feng-suai (sp?) design system, but that is all.

I chose rarely on account of the fact that megaprojects require plans. The fortresses that support said megaprojects, however, do not get plans.

[Xotano]

my fortress is usually multiple Z levels deep with the first floor being storage trade second being workshops third being bedrooms fourth being a dining room with some food type workshops to the side and a food only storage to the other and the fifth is either another set of bedrooms or a hospital area, below that is usually a prison or burial chamber with the one that its not being directly below that, besides that no planning has gone into it.

[dwarfhoplite]

I used to plan them but I was too perfectionist. Nowadays I prefer organic building. My tip is to use only one z level until it's full

Here a pic of my current fort
http://postimage.org/image/n7sti2u31/full/

[Uronym]

I love how your fortress looks like an underground city with cavernous streets and "buildings" off to the sides, and not like an enormous maze of corridors leading to square, identical rooms..

How do you do that without planning?

[nightwhips]

I used to plan them but I was too perfectionist. Nowadays I prefer organic building. My tip is to use only one z level until it's full

Here a pic of my current fort
http://postimage.org/image/n7sti2u31/full/

No you di'int! That's a goddamn giant dwarf ASCII in the middle of your fort! ĦQue dwarfy!

[gabandre]

i dont need to plan, i have a modular system of fortress building, i just add pieces that are needed, like LEGO

I would like to see that. A 3d video tour would be nice. Or pictures.

[...]

i already have a topic about it
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=92779.msg2597626#msg2597626

[DungeonJerk]

I tend to go in with ideas, and compensate for the terrain and area. It's really hard to get to building that Zombie grinder you have in mind when you can't finish your outer wall due to constant Zombie assault. And have to worry first about evil rain and or mist.

Of course, I can also say I have default plan's. Like I build an above ground fort, and one down below. Get the walls built, roof them. Dig out storage areas, work areas, rooms which I triple room for beds now that I vamps are a reality (and saves on space and time). And then I see about expanding the walls out and or adding other ideas in once secured.

[rtg593]

Spoiler: to shorten wall of text :p (click to show/hide)

 

Used to do 3 wide halls, this fort took it to 2 wide, not a fan, but doesn't seem to adversely affect them. Shops are grouped in 4's by function, so craft/mason/mason/mechanic, butcher/fisher/kitchen/tanner, etc etc.

Fort organized 2x1 groups, so 8x2 room blocks. Rooms are 5x5, stockpiles 11x11, fits in the grid pattern nicely and makes the shift move highly useful. Center tile between the 4 like rooms removed for diagonal movement, in the stone group there's a stone dump there. Food group, the diagonal is the only access to butcher/fishery to prevent miasma spread. Dining hall start 11x11, expanded to 11x22 as necessary.

Doors to shops staggered, so going down the hall, 2 doors beside each other on left, the a bit further on right, then intersection, the repeat. High traffic lane weaving back and forth avoiding the doorways.

Bedrooms are 2x2 rooms arranged in an 8x2 pattern, stairway in the middle for access. Built above/below main halls on a low traffic side.

4 breweries in an 11x11 plant stockpile across the hall from 9 3x3 farm plots in a 11x11 seed stockpile, 4 plots outside plants. They seem to keep pace with each other nicely, 200 dwarfs fort, currently 3,000 drinks and rising. 1,000 lavish meals and rising.

Dwarves are fairly specialized, 2 of each main skill focused on only that job, currently 10 military in training, will break into 10 squads to train new recruits when they are finished (accidentally embarked with no goblins, all friendly civs; training to do battle in hell). The rest as haulers, all hauling enabled, plus mason/carptenter/plantgatherer/miner. Mason/carpenter shops set to proficient and above so haulers won't interfere, but can still very quickly build... Anything. There's 80 of them :p Architecture, As well.

3 doctors, haulers act as nurses, a few specialized nobles. Everything engraved, all furniture masterwork, so even though I just lost 30 dwarves to mining accidents, I only had 5 tantrums, then 4, then 3, etc, etc. Still need to set up mist generators.

All incoming dwarves are stripped of labors and borrowed into a locked room for the hunger/thirst test. Most become haulers, unless I need something one is good at. I generally run about 30 idlers, all haulers with nothing to do, so they part and have babies.

Most of my haulers are mining out a 146 z-level magma piston, hence the recent deaths. Most will become military once I have enough metal gear, once fully trained, I will lay siege on hell. 100 legendary warriors in all masterwork gear is the goal, plus seige engines and traps, etc, etc. As many as possible with candy, but only the front lines if necessary.

This is generally my plan for any fort :p

[WaffleEggnog]

My pan is mostly: Looking nice<Working