I try to plan as far ahead as finding the right terrain and subterrain setups (preferably a good enclosed area, like a river with a waterfall in it that I can box myself in on; rich in minerals I can process, as well as plentiful trees in it). I then establish a basic understanding of my surroundings for a good few minutes so I can plot how I want to initiate my fortress (or just get started with the front gate immediately).
As I do that, I begin immediately with building some wheelbarrows, and setting up a central MASTER-IN stockpile for all my crap. But this time around, I took to understanding the weights of things more clearly, so I can make my resource collecting more efficient. Tedious to start, but worthwhile when complete, after I finish expanding my MASTER-IN from a single 5x5 + quantum-compressor to a 8x(5x5)+QC, then the real profit comes rolling in.
The initial 5x5 is to clean out the local areas as well as my wagon into a safer area. The QC is there to condense it into a much tinier stockpile for trade and otherwise, until my industries kick in. Once they do, that's when the expansion into 8 5x5 grids comes into play, with the new trade depot center to it all. Down the line, I will specialize my IMPORTS/EXPORTS (MASTER-IN is always step-1, then sub-divides to specialized (If: FROM-M-I) occur post-compression)) so not all the heavy stuff is always clustered into the MASTER-IN pile. Upon expansion, my 8 piles get split into 4 piles, 4 for light stuff, and 4 for heavy stuff (which require 3 wheelbarrows per-pile (100 units of space, 12 WBs in full-cycle; the other, 100 units of space, all available haulers in full-cycle; same haulers for heavy to QC). If anything, the quantum compressor is probably the most useful bit of it.
You can see that all the other piles had their own QC assigned to them. Except I refined it to sort by weight first, then the rest down the line.
In my new setup, all the light stuff can be cleared away in a jiffy, depending on # of dwarves. The heavy stuff will take longer since it is limited to # of wheelbarrows; but quantum compressing is bare handed as to keep that pile always empty. Brief inconvenience for the immediate party, but it always leaves hauling duties available for the wheelbarrow teamsters; and given the popularity of mining, this is necessary. I can always expand the piles to 6, taking away 2 of the 'light' piles, if it means more efficiency.
A further refinement to my sorting system would relocate industries and their supply lines more directly. So naturally, my woodcrafting and carpentry industries will be closer to the surface and main pile (more like taking from it post-processing; same would be done with the initial farm & fishing industries); whereas my stonecrafting industries would be deeper underground, until materials have been processed; in which they would be sent to specialized stockpiles found throughout the fort (especially now that they're lighter blocks, and not boulders, and stored in bins, and many can be hauled at a time now. Great for walls and improvised building implements), whether in development or not. In essence, taking from the factories, and plopping them just outside of it for general perusing (for the moody), like a mini-marketplace of all raw uniques and the like (forbidden until mood hits); yet not interesting enough to be snatched by a goblin thief. Similarly, I would have QC stockpiles of individual color sortings depending on the factory in use, and even control materials to be used pre-processing (mostly so I don't accidentally process magma-safe materials for something that doesn't need it, and the like; same applies to making featherwood (Nerf) training weapons apart from oaken spiked balls of death (before being replaced with green glass versions, which are far cheaper to produce, and still just as nasty)), which can also hurt like hell in training.).
SUMMARY:
Basically, I would start off with a rudimentary master stockpile, and the further my fort develops, the more refined the MASTER-IN and other similar stockpiles become down the line (especially industrial ones). That's my main central focus (even barrels and bins will have their own condensed vending machine zone for my food&booze sector)). Once I have that efficiency down, the rest would follow. It can be accomplished within the first year, and become exponentially more useful as time passes; the initial setting up is what's generally tedious, especially with such few hands working on it at first. To get a basic build and easy-access square setup would make things magnitudes easier at the start, and safe from those damned keas (thieving little squawky bastards).
SUMMARY OF SUMMARY:
Vending machines... VENDING MACHINES F***ING EVERYWHERE!!!!! MWUAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Furniture to weapons, you can find them at deposit zones I establish as the fort develops.
EXAMPLES OF IT IN ACTION: (Caution: It's a far-less refined version of it, so it's much more sluggish than the recent improvements (One major (15x15 - 5x5) stockpile, instead of the 8 divisions of 5x5 I concluded was far more refined, despite exact same area occupied). Still quick for a prototype, though.)
http://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-2472-centralhubinactionminingexpansionandetchttp://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-2475-speedycleanupservicehttp://mkv25.net/dfma/movie-2476-speedycleanupservicepartdeuxI suggest playing at 3x (300) speed so you can watch it as quickly as it happened on my machine.
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Topic: How far ahead do you plan? (Read 4547 times)