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[talysman]

I may wind up changing my basic design soon because of stuff in this thread, but what I typically do is:

• (optional) 5-wide ramp down to temp farm/living area with room for a temp depot, if I'm expecting my final depot location to take a while.
• Exploratory 2x2 or 3x3 stairwell down a couple z-levels, mostly to figure out if there's an aquifer in the area.
• If area looks good, 5-wide main entry will run past that stairwell, but I don't dig it all yet; I plan it out, with a couple twists, and figure out where the (real) depot is going to be; leave a 9x9 area for the depot.
• L-shaped stairwells bracket the depot at the corners; need about 12 to 16 z-levels.
• 3-wide hallway makes a square around the stairwells.
• Workshops and bedrooms are around the perimeter of the hallway.

Currently, I'm doing bedrooms as 5x9 areas with a 2x3 "room" in each corner and two "dining rooms"   of one table and one chair each in a line down the middle of the large room. I don't do any pre-testing of vampires, so I figure four dwarves eating and sleeping in the same room is a good security measure. I can put 12 of these rooms on one level, for a total of 48 beds. On residential levels, the central area surrounded by the stairs is dug out to form a food stockpile.

Workshops go on another level, non-food stockpiles on the level above or below. Where these are depends a lot on where my soil layers are, and how many there are. I want those for farms and (eventually) underground pastures. An ideal arrangement is depot level, finished goods level, workshop level, raw materials level.

Forges and smelters go on another level, with ore and bar/block stockpiles above. If I have a volcano, I used to put magma channels below, with floodgates to prevent magma flooding the fortress. However, flooring over a volcano seems to be a better plan. On the other hand, if I dig spiral ramps down many z-levels, I could put the depot below the magma channel and flood it as a last-ditch defense.

Once I have a comfortable amount of work done on the fortress and I'm producing necessities and exports, I go back to the exploratory 3x3 staircase and dig way down to find the caverns. This way, if anything invades from the caverns, it goes through the same defenses as surface invaders. I usually dig out at least one area of underground pasture before I breach the tunnels, to get it filled with moss and fungi as quickly as possible.

I've only pierced an aquifer once. I usually pick embarks where I can go around them, so that's an as-yet undeveloped skill. I might have to modify my plans to get something like the central waterfall mentioned above; I haven't worked much with mist, so it's intriguing.

[SRD]

Why do people make rooms so huge?? I have 1x3 rooms (excluding doors) with a bed, cabinet, and coffer and they're ecstatic.

And with aquifers, they're actually quite easy, just find where the damp stone is, and channel out a 6x6 square (so the water starts pouring in) and it will stop at 7/7 (it won't overflow so dw.)

Once you've done this, you'll need to channel AROUND the 5x5 square of dirt above the aquifer, to act like an island, when you've done that, detach it from the edge and boom, just build a floor over to the island and stairs down, if it has more than one layer than repeat with a 4x4 block, then 3x3 if necessary.

[talysman]

Why do people make rooms so huge?? I have 1x3 rooms (excluding doors) with a bed, cabinet, and coffer and they're ecstatic.

Technically, the bedrooms are 3x3, with only 2x3 as actual open space and a 1x3 wall. It's just that I've clustered four of these bedrooms in a large 5x9 room with two tiny shared dining rooms and no interior walls so that they can keep an eye out for each other.

2x3 actual bedroom space is better than 1x3 for me because I have more floor for smoothing/engraving. If someone gets elected mayor before I've dug out a level for noble's quarters, a quick smoothing and engraving of the floor and wall can bring the mayor's room up to a decent level in an emergency.

And with aquifers, they're actually quite easy, just find where the damp stone is, and channel out a 6x6 square (so the water starts pouring in) and it will stop at 7/7 (it won't overflow so dw.)

Once you've done this, you'll need to channel AROUND the 5x5 square of dirt above the aquifer, to act like an island, when you've done that, detach it from the edge and boom, just build a floor over to the island and stairs down, if it has more than one layer than repeat with a 4x4 block, then 3x3 if necessary.

That can require multiple levels above the aquifer, though. And usually, when I collapse something, the miner in question chokes to death on dust. When I pierced an aquifer, it was with pumps, which takes more time, but it's less dangerous.

[eataTREE]

Why do people make rooms so huge?? I have 1x3 rooms (excluding doors) with a bed, cabinet, and coffer and they're ecstatic.

And with aquifers, they're actually quite easy, just find where the damp stone is, and channel out a 6x6 square (so the water starts pouring in) and it will stop at 7/7 (it won't overflow so dw.)

Once you've done this, you'll need to channel AROUND the 5x5 square of dirt above the aquifer, to act like an island, when you've done that, detach it from the edge and boom, just build a floor over to the island and stairs down, if it has more than one layer than repeat with a 4x4 block, then 3x3 if necessary.

I don't understand the "hollow out huge rooms and put everything in them" aesthetic either. The only huge hollow rooms I make are for storing food, wood, refuse, or furniture. Everything else goes in irregularly (but pleasingly) shaped rooms where form follows function. Making use of negative space is an important design principle!

[Itnetlolor]

I try to cram as much as I possibly can in 1 Z level, primarily in the style of Vault-Tec vaults. There seems to be a certain charm to how they're designed.

EDIT:
Just came across this. Anyone up for the challenge?

http://thedailywh.at/2012/04/18/underground-hotel-of-the-day/

[expwnent]

I always put my z-levels with content 5 z-levels apart so that I can put in a waterworks and magmaworks but I never get to it.

[Ifeno]

profiled

[MisterMoxxie]

EDIT:
Just came across this. Anyone up for the challenge?

http://thedailywh.at/2012/04/18/underground-hotel-of-the-day/

O.o I love it. I'm gonna start working on this

[brennenderopa]

I seriously admire those neatly planned forts. I make it all up as I dig down. I dig into the hill, to have the trading depot inside and a 3 tiles wide stairway down. Everything I need gets clustered somehow around it. Which leads to a rather chaotic design, I have empty rooms where I always think "why exactly did I order those to be dug out?". And the hauling jobs and traffic jams are annoying. But it works somehow, and that is what counts

[FalseDead]

My basic rule is that entrance level is military, Basement level is civilian housing/Dining, 2B is farms/hospital , 3B is workshops/storage

all the little things are inconsequential

[rtg593]

3x1 ramp descending off one side of a volcano, turns towards it, space for depot. 3x1 ramp drops from there, circling the volcano, rooms coming off every z-level or two. Farms up in the soil layers, brewer level below that, kitchen/animal storage, mason level, mechanic level, craft level, forges and furnaces, then living quarters, dining room, and refuse levels. Appropriate stockpiles on each level. Bottom landing has a
Triplet of stairs dropping to the mining levels, caverns, and hfs, if my fps holds up.

[Gizogin]

I try to cram as much as I possibly can in 1 Z level, primarily in the style of Vault-Tec vaults. There seems to be a certain charm to how they're designed.

EDIT:
Just came across this. Anyone up for the challenge?

http://thedailywh.at/2012/04/18/underground-hotel-of-the-day/

In a bizarre coincidence, I actually just finished an underground hotel of my own!  It's completely hewn out of the earth, and it's in a sort of dwarf-made cavern (really just a big box) which is completely full of water.  There are windows in the bedrooms which look out into the water, and the entrance is a green glass tunnel, so my dwarves get to see the thin glass ceiling that is the only thing between them and the crushing pressure of all that water.  I haven't furnished it yet, but it'll eventually have enough bedrooms for 60 dwarves to live in comfort, with its own legendary dining room and other things I haven't decided on.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the ground floor, located at z-level 95 (or -15).  The four floors above it are almost identical, but the first and third floors have windows in the bedrooms.  The fifth floor will eventually become the dining room.

The water goes down one more z-level, where I've put a drain in case of emergencies (a tantruming dwarf breaking a window, perhaps).  It extends up 3 levels above the top of the hotel, as well.

[Broseph Stalin]

My above ground entrance, workshops, varies but this is what the meat of the fortress looks like. Centralized floorplan is job-efficient

Spoiler: quarters (click to show/hide)

This design holds eighty bedrooms, fort of 163 is totally boarded with rooms to spare. Every dwarf has a private chest, cabinet, table, and chair.

Spoiler: kitchen,dining hall, prison, infirmary (click to show/hide)

Dining hall is 11x5, spacious but compact enough to ensure social skills develop quickly.

Spoiler: dump,stockpiles,trainingzone (click to show/hide)

Stockpiles with labors that constantly run have adjacent workshops to cut down on travel time between jobs. Dogs are housed in the pens until they reach adulthood and are trained to serve as sentries.

[xmakina]

Why do people make rooms so huge??

For the bestest reason ever: it looks pretty

[SRD]

Bigger rooms = More stuff strewn everywhere = Less FPS = Less pretty,