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[ExuberantFouine]

Hey there, i wanted to know how you build your fortress. I mean, not the way you do them, but the way you drop this around. Do you begin big? Or begin small but in a way you can expand? Im really curious. I never had contact with this community outside of the wiki and I don't know how other people do this.

Heres my recurring pattern that I use for almost all my "normal" fortress :
(For exemple, i'll take my older fortress for the moment, which looks like any of the others)

THE ENTRANCE



A long corridor. I think its pretty common since you can drop a large amount of traps. For this fortress only, I went for a more military-based defense with 20~ speardwarf rolling every year and a HQ squad - I love Warhammer - composed of my Elite Swordsman and my Baron. The only thing in this floor is the archery range, barracks, and fortifications, fishery, and the melee barracks next to small armor/weapon stockpiles. (PS : I used Bridges as drapes)

A HUGE ASS STOCKPILE



An entire floor dedicated only for stockpiles OF EVERYTHING. I changed it in my next fortress, separating Finished goods from Raw materials. You can also see the refuse, at the bottom, which is not linked with the inside.

KITCHEN + FARMS



Dropped my farms and food just below the stockpiles, and it works on the same expendable pattern.

WORKSHOP + VOMITS



Originally, i went for a large empty room filled by workshop. But then, my non-dorf brother came into my room, and said it looks horrible. So I devided everything by industries. It was my first fortress to have all the possible industries, that I know, at least. (I also had so many dog that I decided to compress them all in the kennel. Im a horrible person)

ABANDONNED-EARLY RESIDENTIAL AREA + THRONE ROOM + 1st DINING HALL



Made a fucking gold throne incrusted with amethist, thing that i've never done before. All the bedrooms are empty, I just lack the willing to remove them.

ABANDONNED-EARLY RESIDENTIAL AREA 2 + GOOD AMOUNT OF DINING HALLS AND GARDENS



Same here, bedrooms empty, but the gardens were also rooms before.

RESIDENTIEL AREA + USELESS NOBLE ROOMS + HOSPITAL



Nothing really fascinating to say here. I went on a compact design, but not very efficient. Its the end of the centralized stairway, and it has two stairways, one leading to catacombs and the other to the jail which I won't show because I never use it.

WHAT I UPGRADED AFTER THIS ONE

- Bigger centralized stairway
- One floor between two floors for water/magma circulation
- Sometimes changing organisation of workshops and stockpiles (multiple floors, immediate stairway between workshops and stockpiles which didn't passed by the central one)
- I tried various things, such as water wheel, which even with the help of the wiki I couldn't make work, and the construction of towers onto the fortress for my archers.

NOW YOUR TURN !

[Zarathustra30]

My fortresses are usually quite claustrophobic. Even the grandest of my dining halls are only 15x15. However, for big rooms, I try to make them at least 2 z-levels tall, and quite often with balconies.

I try to avoid stairs whenever possible, preferring to have large networks of ramps. Most of my forts nowadays center around a large 7x7 spiral ramp (so the caravans can get to the interior trading post) with most rooms being expansions of one of the landings. Additionally, I like to use minecarts, even when unnecessary or even inefficient, so my mature forts are honeycombed with track chutes. It sometimes leads to great ‼fun‼ when I make a mistake in my bridgework and a titan paths through the network and into my kitchens.

I try to design for expansion, but often fail, leading to sprawling, inefficient labyrinths of workshop.  My latest experiment has been a 3D "woven" pattern, with a grid of 7x7 workshop rooms with each side being a ramp up or down. Going in cardinal directions leads you to stay on the same(ish) level, while going diagonally leads to either descent or ascent.  I have had problems integrating magma distribution.

[ExuberantFouine]

Could you share screenshots? I never tried minecart :p

[Working Ogretime]

Though I never got any pictures of it, my fortress was more or less "put shit wherever there's an open space.".

[Chevaleresse]

Though I never got any pictures of it, my fortress was more or less "put shit wherever there's an open space.".

Pretty much. I try to put workshops on one side, bedrooms on the other, and communal areas in between. Catacombs go to the remaining edge of the fort, and I dig an entrance ramp specifically for caravans that can be sealed off at will.

[utunnels]

Recently I've been playing 1x1 maps.
Usually I just hollow an entire level and build everything there. I no longer carve rooms because I always feel I want to change things. So by putting everything in a big room I can make changes much easier using constructed walls and windows.

[mndfreeze]

I always do my forts in 2 stages.  First when I first arrive as a temp, few year but fully functioning setup that once its up and running I start my main real fort. 

I use the central staircase method, 3x3.  Everything in my fort has to be symetrical or very close to it

First stage is a average 3x15ish hallway for traps with bridge to raise and lower at entrace.  Standard stuff.  3x3 staircase down, then the same length hallway back for more traps. End of this is where the main 3x3 staircase goes all the way down however far I need. 

The temp fortress takes place in the first soil layer on the main staircase and has 2 11x22 rooms on each side, (two shift arrow rooms, everything I do is roughly based on that)  One room is for nest boxes, other is farming.  I usually do 9 farms, all 2x3, then make half the room seed storage.  Then above and below the staircase and those 2 rooms I do big 3 SHIFT by 3 SHIFT cut outs, basically the max size for a storage or pasture.  One will become pasture when I crack a cavern, other is where all the dwarves live and store and work until I build the real fort.  I carve 3x3 spots into the side of each all the way down for all the workshops and at the top of one I carve 3 even rooms, one for meeting/dining, one for dorm, one for noble desks needed to function/work like the book keeper.

I just started a new fort so maybe when I get it mostly settled into its final look ill get some screenshots and post.  Otherwise I find it to hard to describe and to much to type for people to want to read.

[endlessblaze]

My fortress designs vary. Though at my latest fort I'm trying to do more experimentation with above ground structure.

I will get some images when I get home. Maybe....

Mmmmmm......I wonder......

[Dirst]

Like mndfreeze I start with a central 3x3 central staircase, from a mining designation that 5x5x15ish tall, then a 3x3 stair designation inside that.  This thing often goes UP into soil layers, just be careful that your top floor below the surface has only down staircases.

Around that central feature I'll designate 8 5x5 similar regions for workshop space, only connecting the ones I need to avoid endless partial-room mining.  Undesignate anything that pierces the surface.

That whole thing can be repeated to get more rooms on a level, and reduce congestion on the main staircase.  Stockpiles tend to be 11x11 rooms diagonal from a staircase, and dining hall will usually connect two staircases.  Have yet to come with a housing solution that fits well into this grid, for now everyone gets 2x3 rooms until I get needy types who demand more.

The trade depot and giant finished goods stockpiles are near the entrance hallway.  Trade depot is in front of all the traps.  I usually also lose a lot of a level routing some water underground near the rest of the fort.  Hospital gets dibs on being closest to the wells.  I build water wheels and almost never use them 

[SMASH!]

Here is mine design, various modular 9x9 rooms.

1) Top level, entrance, some farms + big walled off garden for fruits/pasture offscreen.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2) Dungeon entrance, barracks, armoury, hospital, jail.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3) Farming level, slaughterhouse, breeding rooms, subterranean plants. Dwellings for farmers/gatherers/fishers/hunters etc.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

4) Dining hall, kitchen, dwellings.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

4.5) More dwellings, 1,2,3 are VIP apartments.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

5) King's empty palace.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

6) Wood, textile, leather industry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

7) Stone, iron, glass, ceramic industry.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Erkki]

I like the combination of functionalism and aesthetics myself.. So no random forms. Central spiral instead of staircase to avoid the falls(happen once in a decade or so, but still), help with pathfinding(presumably) and to get even more space for storing booze and roasts.

I have changed my fortress layout and floor planning since this old fort I happened to have uploaded, for example I now prefer to have an entrance/airlock level below which are accommodation and certain industries, while farming is above. Notice that some areas such as a the above-ground wall are still under construction: http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-12117-watchedsyrups There were 5 dragons in the jail but they dont show up. 

Some people like to use stairs and other vertical pathways everywhere, or at least within industrial areas, but I prefer to keep them to the minimum to help with pathfinding and FPS...

[evictedSaint]

Is anyone else ever disappointed that generated fortresses look nothing like player fortresses?  It's too bad you can't mod it...

[endlessblaze]

well im on a different fort now with a different above ground experiment. i embarked in a heavily forested area and im building a tower. also i-wait....

....is that a kea? (checks)
HA! i built the tower around the wagon! and my stock piles are insi- WHAT!?

i think that kea....just flew up to the top of the tower were my dwarves were adding walls...and flew down the stairs into my stockpile....it stole the dagger i got from a kobold......CURSE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!

[Bearskie]

Most of my fortresses tend to be rather vertical.  I just can't stand inefficiency T.T. However, I also don't use stockpiles unless they are necessary (eg. food, ores), since then my dwarves will end up hauling more than they are doing my mega-mega-projects.

Is anyone else ever disappointed that generated fortresses look nothing like player fortresses?  It's too bad you can't mod it...

Toady did mention once the current generated fortresses would look rather sparse to an experienced players, but we should just take it as if we are revolutionizing fortress design from their traditional inefficient designs.

[Boltgun]

Is anyone else ever disappointed that generated fortresses look nothing like player fortresses?  It's too bad you can't mod it...

Those are complete mess (messes?) with no sense of geometry and symetry so it does look familiar to me.