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[Grey Goo]

Yes, mining, an important of DF. Thing is, I do not like designs for mining shafts which DF wiki offers. While effective they are also quite dull. So how about planning more interesting shafts? Something resembling real life mining shafts. A guide to create interesting mining shafts which also doubles as mine fortress and not traditional DF ones?...

[escondida]

The nice thing about wikis: you, the reader, can edit them. (-:

Personally, when I've gone for the "we dug a big hole in the ground to find ores, and now we will live in it" look, I've found that following veins and clusters makes for nice room shapes, that leaving in pillars here and there looks neat, and that asymmetry (yes, asymmetry) is your friend. Oh, and your dwarves will never notice and some of them will probably die if you try this, but making rooms two storeys high is also a nice touch.

[Baffler]

Not really close to RL mineshafts, but I typically channel a big hole with a staircase in the middle, with little catwalks off to the side if I see something interesting or I feel like doing it, and continuing horizontal tunnels from there. If I want to get really fancy, I'll carve minecart tracks around the wider or richer sections of tunnel.

[Verjigorm]

For a while I would dig a stair down, then on the next level dig 10-15 urists in the four cardinal directions, with a downstair at each end of those four tunnels.    Then down to the next level, where I would repeat the same process.   It doesn't explore a lot of the first two levels, but by the 3rd and fouth levels, you're crisscrossing a lot of the map.   

I usually try to find the first cavern layer first though, because I don't want to accidentally mine into a nest of fun.   

[Symmetry]

Personally, when I've gone for the "we dug a big hole in the ground to find ores, and now we will live in it" look, I've found that following veins and clusters makes for nice room shapes, that leaving in pillars here and there looks neat, and that asymmetry (yes, asymmetry) is your friend.

Asymmetry is not your friend, he's an idiot.  Trust me, build circles.

[Rum]

If you dig out mineral veins you get some nice looking "natural" cavern shapes.   Often I will also channel a big vertical shaft with ramps and stairs haphazardly constructed and connect by a series of catwalks and balconies.

[Spacespinner]

Personally, when I've gone for the "we dug a big hole in the ground to find ores, and now we will live in it" look, I've found that following veins and clusters makes for nice room shapes, that leaving in pillars here and there looks neat, and that asymmetry (yes, asymmetry) is your friend.

Asymmetry is not your friend, he's an idiot.  Trust me, build circles.

I concur with our amusingly relevantly named friend here.

[GhostDwemer]

Disagree about symmetry, it's boring. It's also not very dwarfy. Dwarfs are not logical and they do not plan things. I follow ore veins and fit rooms off of those.

[CatButcher]

Disagree about symmetry, it's boring. It's also not very dwarfy. Dwarfs are not logical and they do not plan things. I follow ore veins and fit rooms off of those.

Absolutely incorrect.  Dwarves are very pragmatic, logical creatures, they are hard and unyielding like stone.  They carve that which is chaotic and natural into that which is controlled, dwarf-made.  Dwarves impose order upon that which is chaotic.  You must be confusing them with your countrymen, the emotional, chaotic, nature-loving elves.

[Maska]

Disagree about symmetry, it's boring. It's also not very dwarfy. Dwarfs are not logical and they do not plan things. I follow ore veins and fit rooms off of those.

I disagree about dwarves not planning things. My dwarves always tend to build highly symmetrical and modular forts. Completing a pre-planned structure never comes second to mining out a valuable vein or a cluster. They have a strict set of rules and safety regulations to follow when carving their mountainhome. That's just how they like to do things. And why it takes a dreadful amout of real time to get just a few things done in the simulation.


On the actual topic, mineshafts, there are also standardized solutions my dwarves use. To best understand the patterns of their exploratory mining shafts, their motives need to be explained first. After bureaucracy, they hold the metal industry in the highest esteem – even higher than the elf/goblin bone industry. When mining, they only look for veins of metal. Any kind will do, for the industry must be both running at 100% and growing as fast as possible.


To find veins, my miners mainly dig in grids, leaving behind untouched areas of 11-by-11 blocks. This falls between the 7-by-7-block and 15-by-15-block designs presented in the Wiki. Why do they use a grid and why is it 11-by-11? The answer lies in the principles stated above: A grid of that size finds most of the worthwhile veins and looks organized. Also, the gridsize is standard in the whole fortress for all rooms of the same purpose, tombs.


Those 11-by-11 blocks not mined through for metal ores will be carved into designated 7-by-7 tombs for every laydwarf in the fortress. For them, there is no place more honorable to be buried than in the very heart of what they sacrificed their entire lives for.

[JoeJoe]

Oh, and your dwarves will never notice and some of them will probably die if you try this, but making rooms two storeys high is also a nice touch.

If I know beforehand which rooms I want to be double high, I would designate it to be dug our with (r)amps, which should be pretty safe.

[Gentlefish]

I'm always a fan of the "borehole" method. I take a large circle (Yes a circle it's really hard to do right now without DFhack) and bore straight down the middle with a 2-wide ramp down the side. I often leave the lower five level inaccessible except through a lever-controlled bridge and install spikes down there so my main entrance is also my trap hall.

So much gib these days, plus they're so pulped after the fall that they couldn't be raised by zombies even if they wanted to be. It's also a problem that the death scares the everliving hell out of my dwarves now.

[Maolagin]

Disagree about symmetry, it's boring. It's also not very dwarfy. Dwarfs are not logical and they do not plan things. I follow ore veins and fit rooms off of those.

I disagree about dwarves not planning things. My dwarves always tend to build highly symmetrical and modular forts. Completing a pre-planned structure never comes second to mining out a valuable vein or a cluster. They have a strict set of rules and safety regulations to follow when carving their mountainhome. That's just how they like to do things. And why it takes a dreadful amout of real time to get just a few things done in the simulation.

Ah, but you can see for yourself the true spirit of dwarven architecture in the forts they build during world gen, free from the meddlesome interference of us overseers.

I suppose this could be called modular, but if there's a plan it is beyond my reckoning.

Spoiler: Main world-gen fortress levels (click to show/hide)

Every one of those workshops is a forge built from an iron or steel throne. Hundreds of "forges" in all.

[Grey Goo]

The nice thing about wikis: you, the reader, can edit them. (-:

Sadly, I am not good to design anything nice looking. I can only make boring designs. However I may have one small design for mine shaft. Nothing fancy however and very slow to mine...

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On other hand trapping this design is quite easy and if you have gone deep enough, well, anything which dodges your weapon in wrong direction... Either way that one is good only if you are into more natural looking designs. Also how you mine walls is your own choice. Just do not mine that one pilar...

[Maska]

Disagree about symmetry, it's boring. It's also not very dwarfy. Dwarfs are not logical and they do not plan things. I follow ore veins and fit rooms off of those.

I disagree about dwarves not planning things. My dwarves always tend to build highly symmetrical and modular forts. Completing a pre-planned structure never comes second to mining out a valuable vein or a cluster. They have a strict set of rules and safety regulations to follow when carving their mountainhome. That's just how they like to do things. And why it takes a dreadful amout of real time to get just a few things done in the simulation.

Ah, but you can see for yourself the true spirit of dwarven architecture in the forts they build during world gen, free from the meddlesome interference of us overseers.

I suppose this could be called modular, but if there's a plan it is beyond my reckoning.

Spoiler: Main world-gen fortress levels (click to show/hide)

Every one of those workshops is a forge built from an iron or steel throne. Hundreds of "forges" in all.

You make a fine point. I hadn't considered the observer effect at all. That is, me overseeing the fortress causes the dwarves to behave in a different way than in the non-observed worldgen fortresses. The one you provided as an example is truly awesome, though. Everything is neat and organized... and those hundreds of forges, amazing. That really demonstrates the dwarves' fondness of steel and industry.