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[Ashery]

-snip-
@KainInt: One of the few central stair/rectangular forts that I find aesthetically pleasing. Can't really comment much more as that design philosophy is pretty much the antithesis of my own.

It's a large change in design compared to my previous forts.
I basically went into it thinking of it as a chapel design.

A big portion of it is still left undone. The top floor is eventually going to resemble a bird. (food stockpiles will have a second floor, acting as shoulders, rooms branch off made to cascade as feathers)

*Girlish squee*

Keep me updated/post it on DFMA regularly. I love watching those types of forts evolve.

[KainInt]

-snip-
@KainInt: One of the few central stair/rectangular forts that I find aesthetically pleasing. Can't really comment much more as that design philosophy is pretty much the antithesis of my own.

It's a large change in design compared to my previous forts.
I basically went into it thinking of it as a chapel design.

A big portion of it is still left undone. The top floor is eventually going to resemble a bird. (food stockpiles will have a second floor, acting as shoulders, rooms branch off made to cascade as feathers)

*Girlish squee*

Keep me updated/post it on DFMA regularly. I love watching those types of forts evolve.

Will do, once I figure out how to use DFMA. I'm very new to DF, my first fort being ~3 weeks ago.
This is what i consider my first mega-project.

[Lordraymond]

@Ashery, yeah, the bedrooms were mostly based off a random design I had for efficient 3x3 housing, focused more on making dwarves happy than looking nice. Aesthetic halls and such are already demanding enough to designate as it is, making 100 rooms would be a nightmare. Maybe over spring break or something when I have a LOT of spare time on my hands. Anyway, the top and bottom rooms would have been the dining hall and bedroom respectively, with the main room being the actual throne room. I probably would have build a straddling tomb added on once I actually got nobles in the fort.

Anyway, thanks for you comments!

[Ashery]

@KainInt: It's fairly simple, actually. Export the images in DF (Selecting the layers that you want images of. It defaults to every layer a dwarf is currently on, iirc, so you might need to tweak the selection a bit) and then use the compressor from the DFMA site (http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php) and upload. Definitely spend some time setting up points of interest when you upload, though, as they add tremendously to the upload (I hate having to randomly search forts for interesting elements). Some back-story to recent events is also useful, but there are some stylistic options there. Some favor a more, well, LARPy style (Many LPs use this) while others prefer a more simple, albeit rather dry, rehashing of events.

Really impressive for only being three weeks in, though. And here I was thinking that I was one of those that graduated to form over function quickly.

@Lordraymond: It would've probably helped to see the large rooms with furniture as well, but meh, heh.

Any plans on adding water(falls)/magma? (Oh god...Why can't I stop thinking about toying with your designs?).

Oh, and if you really want to be masochistic, try creating those odd shaped rooms in above ground towers. Thank god I was using manufactured obsidian (Even if it was well over 10k+ made in batches of only 100...*sob*...). Yea, there's a reason I was lucky to play a year in a day. Or is that Aurora that I'm remember that timeframe for...Maybe my goal was a season in a day/year in a week for DF despite being unemployed...:x

[KainInt]

@KainInt: It's fairly simple, actually. Export the images in DF (Selecting the layers that you want images of. It defaults to every layer a dwarf is currently on, iirc, so you might need to tweak the selection a bit) and then use the compressor from the DFMA site (http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php) and upload. Definitely spend some time setting up points of interest when you upload, though, as they add tremendously to the upload (I hate having to randomly search forts for interesting elements). Some back-story to recent events is also useful, but there are some stylistic options there. Some favor a more, well, LARPy style (Many LPs use this) while others prefer a more simple, albeit rather dry, rehashing of events.

Really impressive for only being three weeks in, though. And here I was thinking that I was one of those that graduated to form over function quickly.

I've always been a fast learner, and a flashy guy. The last mechanic I really needed to learn before going for pretty forts, was that electricity traveled through machinery to other machinery. I spent a long time in my third fort setting up ridiculous axle assemblies to power a pump stack.

After that it was basically just nailing down efficiency/learning how to survive while still being able to get ridiculous builds done quick.

[Ashery]

@KainInt: It's fairly simple, actually. Export the images in DF (Selecting the layers that you want images of. It defaults to every layer a dwarf is currently on, iirc, so you might need to tweak the selection a bit) and then use the compressor from the DFMA site (http://mkv25.net/dfma/index.php) and upload. Definitely spend some time setting up points of interest when you upload, though, as they add tremendously to the upload (I hate having to randomly search forts for interesting elements). Some back-story to recent events is also useful, but there are some stylistic options there. Some favor a more, well, LARPy style (Many LPs use this) while others prefer a more simple, albeit rather dry, rehashing of events.

Really impressive for only being three weeks in, though. And here I was thinking that I was one of those that graduated to form over function quickly.

I've always been a fast learner, and a flashy guy. The last mechanic I really needed to learn before going for pretty forts, was that electricity traveled through machinery to other machinery. I spent a long time in my third fort setting up ridiculous axle assemblies to power a pump stack.

After that it was basically just nailing down efficiency/learning how to survive while still being able to get ridiculous builds done quick.

Pretty forts come with water/magmafalls. That's when the mistakes get interesting, too, hehe. You'd be surprised at how much fluid a single pump stack can move.

Be ready to keep making mistakes, though, as DF has a lot of counter-intuitive/unexpected quirks. Make sure you have multiple fail-safes if you want to (nearly) guarantee a potential recovery.

Efficiency is overrated, though

[Lordraymond]

Well, any plans I had with that fort are, unfortunately, dashed. The entire save pretty much sh^t the bed from reclaiming like three times in attempts to clear out other bugs. There are fifteen friendly goblin swordsmen, every dwarf who was part of the fort when I abandoned is counted as missing, but every one who was alive was idling in the corner, with their description saying only "A stout creature, fond of drink and industry." as well as a size description and "His/her upper body is gone". On the wounds screen, every body part is grayed out as if it's missing, and the ghosts are unremovable. So, sour about that.

But I'm making a new fort, and might be masochistic enough to try at least making some roundish rooms, or maybe giant round blocks of rooms segmented into personal dorms! Brilliant!

Also my new map has a river with a waterfall, and it's dropped my average FPS from about 250 to about 110, so I don't think I'll have any waterfalls any time soon.

[Frogwarrior]

Sounds like the stuff of which bug reports are made, with an uploaded save as a case example?

[Ashery]

But I'm making a new fort, and might be masochistic enough to try at least making some roundish rooms, or maybe giant round blocks of rooms segmented into personal dorms! Brilliant!

Also my new map has a river with a waterfall, and it's dropped my average FPS from about 250 to about 110, so I don't think I'll have any waterfalls any time soon.

Take that leap of faith and go for non-uniform

Unfortunately, I don't currently have access to the old .bmp files I used for planning my fort so I can't illustrate my process explicitly (I used Paint and had the zoom at 600-800% with the grid enabled).

I never noticed a huge drop in fps with my waterfalls in 40d, but I tend to play at a slow pace anyways so the drop wouldn't really have be noticeable. The closed system might've helped as well, but I don't have any type of numbers to back up that theory.

[Crossroads Inc.]

One of my first (successful) forts ever!


Check that out mang, that was back when we had ECONOMY! when we weren't all filthy Commies like today!

And compare with one of more advanced forts (this is all in 40d bare in mind)

[wanzerm23]

All these forts pretty much make mine look like crap.

I love it!

[Johuotar]

Hmm, my forts are lot more chaotic. I like building them in organic manner, Ill have to post some of mine when I get home.

[Grax]

Can't post mine as it consists mainly of shaft-like stockpiles.

[Flying Fortress]

I'll have a few pictures up in a bit, but mine are never on the same level (different level for trade, workshop/storage, food prep/dining, bed rooms (usually a few levels to keep the beds close to the dwarves.))  So it may be a little hard, right now though I'm finishing smoothing everything so it looks good for pictures lol.

[KainInt]

Not a major update, but I've decided on the wing design.
It's only one unfinished side, but I'm excited about it, so maybe you guys will be too!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Due to the fact that I like bedrooms to be 3x3, I've decided to build those elsewhere.
The wings will serve as catacombs, representing my 200+ dwarves belief in a phoenix-like revival after death.

At the moment, I like to think of the random twirly bedrooms at the bottom to represent the tail (and the bottom two clusters the claws), and the dining room representing the chest. Seeing as the dining room serves as the heart of any good fortress, I thought it fitting.

I'll be carving another diamond into the floor (possibly a little smaller) as well.