I'm just kind of curious what ideas everyone else has come up with, for just different, non-standard things to put into your fortresses. (I also might just mine this thread for some ideas myself >_>)...
I mean yeah, everyone has the standard work areas, stockpiles, bedrooms, dining halls, etc. But what about just weird stuff?
The ones I have that's probably the most common (from what I've seen) are the zoo and the arena. The zoo is of course just a dug out room (which I make into a meeting area with the (i) zones command), where I build one cage of each creature/hostile that I capture. I count different goblin types as different "creatures" for this purpose, just to display them all. :p This is actually somewhat functional, since dwarves can admire the cages if they're well-crafted, and might enjoy seeing the animals if they like them.
The arena is of course a large room dug out, with a lever out near the stairs. I build up any cages of extra hostiles, wild animals I'm not training, etc. inside, link them up to the lever, then when I have as many as I want for one bout, send in my squads, lock the doors, and pull the lever. I have cage traps lining the hallway leading to the arena just in case of escapes, and I have a secondary dining hall above the arena with big square of the floor channeled out, to let the dwarves view the festivities below. (And no, this isn't really functional, if anything it's dysfunctional since the dwarves trying to eat might get scared of the hostiles below and flee, but it pleases me.) I might also start pitting hostiles vs. some extra tame animals or something, next time I have a catsplosion or whatever.
Aside from those, I have an aquarium (in the larger building sense), which is a room like the zoo (made into another meeting area), but instead of building cages with animals, I build terrariums, convert them into aquariums, then stock them with fish I catch live using the fishing workshops. Each type of fish gets its own aquarium. Sadly, there aren't usually a huge variety of fish on any given map, so this isn't as grand as I'd like. The aquarium and zoo are on the same level by the way, along with a communal statue garden. It's my "leisure" level.
Oh, I don't know if this counts, but I have one level (below my hospital/living area level) that's dedicated to water channels and such... so that I can not only channel water to the cistern below my hospital's well, but also use the same system to have water in four "bath" areas leading off in each hallway direction, so that almost all the dwarves going off to their bedrooms will walk through and clean themselves of contaminants. But I think that's at least semi-standard?
Most of the other areas I have are fairly straightforward... trading zone, graveyard/tombs, etc... so I'm kinda looking for more ideas. And just curious what others have come up with. So what are yours?