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[mek42]

I'm also a hobbyist wood worker (with the labors wood hauling and furniture hauling enabled as we move into our new house with the speed of a teetotaling dwarf) and I prefer broadleaf forests to coniferous.  In fact, I'm strongly considering an 8 by 8 embark just to get some hardwoods on my map, so I can make hardwood beds and use softwoods for bins and burning.

This would actually be a micromanagement challenge for me to segregate hard and softwoods by task - I suppose I would need to have different stockpiles.  I could manually order bin production at the carpenter's workshop near the softwood stockpile.  I suppose the military could use softwood beds so I could (m)anage bed production.  Then the apprentice carpenters would be limited to the softwood workshops and then graduate into hardwood carpenters.

Anyhow, do you folks have any preferences that influence how you play the game but that don't really impact the gameplay?  (Preferring iron to exist at embark doesn't count because that effects the gameplay).

[Drazinononda]

I prefer rooms in odd-number dimensions so that they have distinct one-tile central axes/points. I also prefer to make items of clothing out of sensible materials, i.e. no silk shoes or leather dresses or anything silly like that.

[MrWillsauce]

I never dig rooms out of sand or soil. Everything must be carved from raw stone.

[ExecratedDwarf]

I always design forts in a manner I think the dwarves would "like." I'll sacrifice efficiency and ease for aesthetic reasons. I build passages that twist and curve. I design apartments and multi level houses. I just like my forts to be both visually appealing for me, and to make sense as if I was walking through them.

[TheDarkStar]

I want to engrave everything, even if it is not in a room that needs value. I don't like to have bare walls in my fort.

[Tevish Szat]

1: In the vast majority of cases, I work on odd numbers.  Halls are 1, 3, 5, or so on squares wide, rooms are 3x3, 5x5, 11x11... you get the idea.  The lone exception: 2x2 bedrooms are employed if I'm afraid of vampires, though more often I'll use 1x3 "hall" bedrooms
2: Workshops are built in "Cozy" rooms -- ones that fit them directly, so most shops go in 3x3 rooms with siege workshops on 5x5's.  They have one entrance in the center of a single side, and a door is placed in the entrance.  I started this practice because of failed moods, but even now that it's a really, REALLY rare event I keep on with it.
3: NOTHING is built in soil if I can avoid it, with the following exceptions: Farm Plots, Farmer's Workshops, Screw Presses, and Querns/Millstone for actual buildings, along with pastures and digging out soil layers for tree farms
4: I don't do metalworking without magma if I can avoid it.  Non-magma smelters & forges are only built if I decided to embark with tetrahedrite instead of a pick, or if a metalworker moods before I can set up magma industries.  In either case, they're promptly deconstructed when no longer required.  The same goes for Glass and Ceramics.
5: Everything gets smoothed.  If it's practical, everything is engraved too, but if I hit soil on a layer where I wasn't expecting it () I'll just keep it smoothed for the looks, since constructed floors can't be engraved.
6: Basic Dwarven amenities are a 1x3 or 2x2 room with bed, stone cabinet, and stone coffer, and a 1x1 tomb with stone sarcophagous.  Dining halls are communal
7: Elves are treated decently when they come to the fortress.  They may be horrible, hypocritical, people-eating maniacs, but they let me turn my XXclothesXX into Giant Monster Cage (Highwood) (or a bin of new cloth), with is too useful to pass up.

[Sutremaine]

This would actually be a micromanagement challenge for me to segregate hard and softwoods by task - I suppose I would need to have different stockpiles.  I could manually order bin production at the carpenter's workshop near the softwood stockpile.

You can set workshops to take from only designated stockpiles. Unfortunately, you can't select a workshop to use when using the job manager, so you'll have to create jobs at the workshops themselves (use a hotkey to get to the area quickly).

[Keome]

I use a more sensible and aesthetic design layout.  It's not efficient, but it works well enough.

Farms and food production are in the lowest dirt/clay level above the stone.

Storage is in the first stone level.
Workshops are in the next level.
More storage on the next level.

Workshops are linked to the storage levels by stairs so that the stockpiles are closer.  Mason workshops are built in the middle of a stone stockpile, etc.

Forges are located over stockpiles for the metal bars and fuel.

Under all of that is the first habitat level with rooms, infirmary, dining hall, bedrooms.

Levels under that have more stuff, depending on my needs.  More housing, more storage, whatever I need.

[VerdantSF]

My wells are always built over artificial waterways with a separate entrance and exit connected to a river.  I know it doesn't make a difference with flow, but I don't like the idea of dead-end water sources.  I also give wells for the hospital and the wells for the general public separate sources.

[heritage727]

I never reclaim goblin loincloths. Gross.

[PDF urist master]

clothiers and farms at soil lvl, stone processing and metal at pre-cavern stone lvls, charcoal at ground lvl.

[Urist MacNoob]

I never reclaim goblin loincloths. Gross.

You're denying yourself a hefty profit from those stupid humans. Coins are only as permanent as the ore veins and minting presses of the world. Loincloths are as permanent as the immortal goblins of the world, and humans recognize their value.

[mek42]

I never reclaim goblin loincloths. Gross.

Thank you.  I have this mental image of Sumo dwarfs wearing only reclaimed loincloths.

[dbay]

I pretty much always dig my hallways 3 tiles wide, and *always* smooth *everything*. I usually engrave it, too, even when there's no real reason.

Also, I almost always try to embark on an area as flat as possible. Hills really annoy me for some reason

[cue]

My fortresses always have a "pipe" level, where I run Magma to my forges, and water to my wells. All of the pipes have to be engraved before I can allow flow(since I'll never be able to engrave it later). This actually provides good training for my engravers, so it's not too bad.

The first layer of my fortress MUST be in soil, while the second must be stone. I'll spend stupid amounts of time making this the case with cave ins and channeling before beginning construction.