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[k33n]

So for my latest fort I am attempting to implement a caste system. I basically want all my craftsmen tucked away in a safe area, my military living lavishly and training all their life, and everyone else an underclass used for construction, hauling, and resource gathering. I have been changing everyone's first name to their class to make burrowing and room assignment easier.

The classes so far consists of classes so far:

Ontak (Arm): The military upper class.
Ottan (Mind): The crafting class.
Urnut (Servant): Haulers and builders
Torad (Body): Miners
Adur (Soil): Woodsmen, hunters, and anyone else who requires above ground.

I am attempting to create separate living areas but I am rather new at this type of structured living for a fort. Any ideas or tips about any of this I would like.

Thanks!

[krenshala]

Make sure to disable the new construction job assignment for those that won't be building the walls.  And I'm curious to know if it actually changes whether or not they try to build walls/floors/etc, as my limited experience with disabling that (my expedition leader of a new embark) it appeared he still build walls with the rest of the dwarves.

Not sure about anything actually useful to you, though, as I haven't tried to structure anything as strictly as it looks like you are attempting.

[vjmdhzgr]

I've noticed you don't have any food producers listed. No farmers, butchers, tanners, cheese makers, milkers, shearers, plant processors, probably some other jobs I'm forgetting. Unless you count those as craftsmen which I certainly wouldn't. As for implementing it I really don't know as I avoid burrows entirely, I just noticed that problem.

[k33n]

I've noticed you don't have any food producers listed. No farmers, butchers, tanners, cheese makers, milkers, shearers, plant processors, probably some other jobs I'm forgetting. Unless you count those as craftsmen which I certainly wouldn't. As for implementing it I really don't know as I avoid burrows entirely, I just noticed that problem.

I count those amongst the 'Adur' class.

[Sadrice]

I've messed around with these sorts of forts before.  They're fun, though some of the micromanagement can be annoying.  I like to do it with burrows and minecarts.  Ideally, craftsmen load the carts at their end, etc, so no one ever needs to leave their zone, aside from certain odd hauling tasks.  Ideally, every product goes to a nearby stockpile, and is carried by carts to the relevant shops.  The next shop in the chain is either nearby, or connected with another cart route.  Eventually, a cart route takes it to the final destination, whether it be the depot stockpile, the armory, the larder, or the central warehouse.

It's easiest to make a separate burrow for your food and clothing stocks, and put everyone in it.  They can have their own burrowed dining and meeting areas, to prevent inter caste socialization, but this prevents headaches with trying to keep everyone's food and booze full at once (inevitably one of your burrows will die of thirst).  You might want to separate clothes stocks, as this would allow you to give caste appropriate outfits.

[Diamond]

I always use caste systems on e way or another. Over the years and countless forts I used 4 castes, changing names from time to time:
nobles - monarch, duke, any consorts;
professionals (sometimes "patricians") - dwarves dedicated to a certain skill, usually 15-20% of population;
soldiers (or "defenders") - every non-specialized male dwarf, trained to high master in pump operator to give them civilian profession;
workers (farmers, plebs, peasants, etc) - all non-specialized female dwarves, doing farming, wood burning and furnace operating;
sometimes also a "police caste" of 1 or 2 squads worth of marksdwarves for simplicity.

As for living, my current for can be an example (I can't export it to map archive properly for some reason, I just exports ASCII without graphic set (obsidian), anyone knows why?).
It's an above-ground fortress, with central large tower: 1st floor - trading depot, statue garden in future; 2nd - legendary dormitory, dining area, stockpiles of booze and prepared food; 3rd - workshops and 4th - offices/jail/hospital.
And than there are 4 smaller towers around it :
southern is for soldiers with barracks, training areas, also the only entrance to fortress is through this tower;
western is for workers, with 11 3x3 rooms per floor, for 44 workers (I have 42)
eastern is not built yet, but will have rooms for 20 professional workers
northern is unbuilt too, it was supposed to be queens and nobles personal tower, but I decided to build queen's tower using gold on top of the main one isntead, so this tower will be a masoleum/cryps.

So all castes are somewhat spread out, using the main tower as central hub for work and food/drink.

[Uronym]

If your goal is to keep the castes physically separate, you can use minecarts.

Code: [Select]

caste area <-- ===^+^=== --> another area
Try using push orders. A door physically separates the two areas, and is controlled by a minecart-activated pressure plate in each direction. There is only an extremely short time within which a dwarf could try to escape to the other side, especially if you have multiple such doors (like an airlock).

For instance, perhaps your lower classes (Urnut, Torad, and Adur) could send products from the outdoors to the crafting class (Ottan). The crafting class could return trade goods (for the caravans), waste products, or simply push the cart back empty so it could be reused. For occasional access between caste areas, include a few multi-door airlocks elsewhere for the dwarves, or maybe even a raising bridge.

Before jumping and climbing, you could have used a 1-tile-wide pit between the areas, which minecarts could generally cross. This is only viable now if your dwarves choose not to climb everywhere (they will).