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[Artinnio]

Hello everyone, so I was pondering on designs for the entrance to my fortress but I cannot think of any. I was curious if anyone has any designs to share, because if you're like me, you like your fortress to look grand and aesthetic design is important.
I usually use a double helix ramp that descends into a defense courtyard, topped with a dome, statues and engravings etc. welcome the new arrivals.

[Tacomagic]

Well...

[ragincajun]

Wow..lol

[Skullsploder]

It depends... can you carve into the side of a mountain, or are you just building it on a flat plain? I like having a 5 wide by 7 high arch if the cliff is sheer enough, with the pillars engraved etc. Also, having the entrance to your fort be the gap between a humungous statue's ankles is pretty cool too.

[RocheLimit]

I prefer building on plains. 

Until recently, I went with a series of ramps that go down away from my fort, then split and loop back towards it connecting with a large entrance hall where my military spar.  I usually do not put much effort into making it look aesthetically pleasing (though I do try to make it look nice initially), but sometimes I wind up with spare blocks, completed projects, and 50 idlers so...

Brassfigures would probably be my nicest fortress entrance to date.  Pity it fell to save corruption...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://imgur.com/a/C1lBp#0

Lately, however, I have been building circular above-ground entry-ways that double back to ramps up to an above-ground dining room and ramps down to the farms, bedrooms, and storage.

[TheHossofMoss]

This will be a good thread, i can feel it.

[Kneenibble]

Right now I have a fortress 16 years old carved into the base of a very steep mountainside.  The entrance and the upper levels are all left over from the awkward and indigent first years of the fort, and they badly need renovation.  I'm hoping to landscape the whole front of the mountain into a sheer cliff with a facade of something colourful, plus high intimidating walls and towers around the actual entrance.

I shall be watching this thread for ideas.  There is no habit I really have about entrances, since this fort is the first and only one I have ever kept alive long-term.

Ah yes, I'm also trying to get rid of a bunch of murky pools cluttering up the front area.  But fluff me if a gang of trolls doesn't come a-clubbing as soon as I have the machinery set up to bilge them out.

[RocheLimit]

Ah yes, I'm also trying to get rid of a bunch of murky pools cluttering up the front area.  But fluff me if a gang of trolls doesn't come a-clubbing as soon as I have the machinery set up to bilge them out.

A nice magma pump stack aimed at the front of your fort should solve both problems.   

[LMeire]

The prettiest, most well defended fort facade I've ever made was in the middle of a scorching swamp in the crook of a river. Basically, I channeled out a giant rectangle 7zs down with a ramp leading down to my entrance from the opposite side. The bottom of the pit was decorated with several lines of 3z high engraved pillars, just far enough from each other to allow wagon passage to the depot. The river had been hooked up to an aqueduct system that dispersed the water to 5 pairs of parallel waterfalls along the sides and a big one right in front of the entrance, so everyone going in, out, or around the fort got misted. Along the edges of each pillar, there were 4 floor grates that allowed the water ample passage underground both to fill my cistern and to flow off-map. Lastly, I had rigged flood gates in the off-flow pipes to a lever, allowing me to cut it off and completely submerge the entrance whenever I felt like it, drowning whoever was unlucky enough to find themselves in the courtyard when it happened. For challenge reasons, I didn't use any doors or a bridge, just a pair of diagonals to keep the water from rising inside the fort while letting invaders freely path into their doom.

[puke]

Once place to start:  http://mkv25.net/dfma/browsepois.php?searchValue=entrance&searchArea=title&submit_search=Search

I'll submit a few classics here:

Orbinches:  http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-1782-entrancehall
Copperblazes:  http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-291-thefrontgate
Sigunlokum (shameless self plug):  http://mkv25.net/dfma/poi-640-entranceroad

[Aslandus]

I have a trade depot left out in front of the outer gate, because the traders can sit in the rain for all I care. Next to the depot is a refuse stockpile and corpse stockpile, because I like to welcome migrants with a look at their future in the fortress, followed by a bridge as the gate in case things get hairy. The walls are one z level high and topped with fortifications to allow crossbow dwarves to shoot at invaders.

There is typically a statue or two next to the gate on the inside, and two weapon traps on the outside surrounded by blood and body parts from those two goblins who tried to sneak in...

Actually, the fact that those migrant waves were so small makes more sense now...

[Chaine Maile]

I generally have my entrances take the form of a marble or obsidian 3 tile wide "bridge" across a volcano. I build in 2x2 holes covered by retracting bridges, which will force a serpentine 1 tile wide path if a lever is pulled. Serrated weapon traps and a minecart cannon add to the aesthetic quality of the engraved smilies in the marble. The entrance to the bridge is usually some kind of twin towers or Arch.

[Chief10]

W = Wall
G = Gate (bridge)
X = Stairs
<-- into the fortress


WWWWW
         X W
            W
WWWWW
GGGGGGGGGG
                    G
 <--              G
                    G
GGGGGGGGGG
WWWWW
            W
         X W
WWWWW

A drawbridge with 2 guard towers. The towers have ammo stockpiles on the 2nd floor, and fortifications on the 3rd floor, plus a roof.

Very simple, very aesthetically pleasing and symmetric, very efficient.

[fourpotatoes]

I usually end up with an unassuming hole in the ground and sometimes a small tower to defend it. A tunnel goes around a curve or down ramps to the reception area, a large chamber that usually has the trade depot & staging for aboveground work. From there, ramps or stairs lead down through an inner gate, and rough stone gives way to the polished floors & wide halls of the opulent fortress proper. I like the thought of a traveler entering a muddy hole and following a rough stone tunnel which suddenly opens into a cavernous meeting hall covered with masterful engravings and packed with life.

I do sometimes build extensive aboveground works. Sometimes these fall into the category of traditional castle / walled city architecture, with a curtain wall around a central building (which is sometimes just my usual hole + tower). Gatehouses in the outer wall use a drawbridge over a moat or an elevated drawbridge to a freestanding external structure.

Spoiler: East gate, The First Inn of Wanderers (click to show/hide)

At this site, visitors cross the dry moat on a drawbridge under fortifications flush with the curtain wall. They pass through a short dark hall before emerging into an open courtyard surrounded by arrow-slits on all sides. Leaving the gatehouse, they cross the broad courtyard before going under the white structure at the top of the picture which shades the entrance to the fortress.

The biggest deviation from my usual habits has to be Babinusan, "Friendlymurders". There are no outbuildings, no curtain wall, no courtyards, just a single huge marble & obsidian building that sprawls atop a bluff in the swamps. The structure towers over visitors as they come up the hill towards the main gate, concealed by a bend in the wall. Going around the corner, our guests cross a drawbridge and descend a ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, several stories underground, are more drawbridges that control whether they get a direct route in or cross a dodge-me trap over magma

Beyond the main drawbridge, the hall curves several times as it passes the primary military killing zone. It then curves 180 degrees down more ramps to the trade depot. One level below the trade depot, it finally opens out into an industrial area of the fortress proper.

Beyond the dodge-me trap are cave crocodiles.

Spoiler: Approaching the main gate at Babinusan (click to show/hide)

Note the lava dispenser covering the approach to the gate and the black tower containing the magma pump stack.

[Artinnio]

I've yet to figure out pump stacks and magma pumping etc. but when I do, I intend to make the tip of the domes into a sort of lava fountain, caught by channels and an outer wall.
Okay, what about the rest of the fortress? I for some reason love the idea of multi-level corridors, grand dining halls with mosaic floors with underground heating (pointless I know, but it seems like a cool addition
I keep meaning to design a bathhouse sort of thing with waterfalls, but again - pump stacks...