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[tranquilham]

I've been playing dorf for a bit (although in no way am I experienced) and I have made (and lost) a couple forts. And here's something I've wanted to do: Make it actually look like a proper fortress, not a dank, dark cave with rocks lying everywhere.

And this brings me to my main question: How do you guys make your fortress clean and smooth? I've tried just smoothing the walls, but they smooth the ore deposits too, and that looks ugly as heck imo.

Thanks for your advice!

[Detros]

See http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Style_project for some tips.

[NedeN]

Honestly if smoothing gems and ore, different colored walls are ugly to you. The only suggestion I have for you is to dig deep until you hit dolomite or slate. I think thats when there is pretty much one single rock and not many (or any) ore/gem. Other than that, I've just built my first above and underground fort. Sure it looks sloppy now, but its my first. IMO it looks better than just underground.

[tranquilham]

See http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Style_project for some tips.

Thanks. Will take a look at that right away.

*snip* dig deep until you hit dolomite or slate. I think thats when there is pretty much one single rock and not many (or any) ore/gem. *snip*

Two questions:
1. How deep are these layers, usually?
2. I'm playing on a world with lots of ore. Will that meaningfully effect anything?

[PatrikLundell]

Much ore means more ore and gems within the rock, so you're more likely to get your tastes offended in more places...

If you want it to look medieval fortress like you should build it above ground, with a careful selection of the stone used. Using rock blocks provides a smoother look, provides 4 blocks out of each boulder, and the blocks are lighter, and thus easier to haul (but they still have to be hauled to the mason to be produced. Wheelbarrows can help hauling the stone to a stockpile near the mason). Note that constructed walls and floors cannot be engraved, but they do provide a smoothed look.
Of course, you can do the same underground by either digging out an area and build walls and build floors on top of whatever is there, or you can dig out the ores/gems and replace them with walls.

If you're building above ground you run the risk of getting attacked (especially from the air), but you can treat that as an extra challenge.

[tranquilham]

*snip*

Thanks for the advice. I started a world with less ore, and I think I found a layer of granite with (almost) no stuff in it. As for building aboveground, how would you go about building a murder death tower to position your dorfs on to shoot at the gobbos? I heard that it works pretty well, or at least according to one source. Would it even work?

QUICKEDIT: Can you mass-dump items without having to select each one? It tends to strain my typing fingers.

[PatrikLundell]

Quickanswer: d-b-d.

Boiling oil isn't implemented, so you'll have to upgrade to magma

I won't comment on X-bow dorfs as I basically don't use them. Let someone who does do that.

[tranquilham]

Quickanswer: d-b-d.

Boiling oil isn't implemented, so you'll have to upgrade to magma

I won't comment on X-bow dorfs as I basically don't use them. Let someone who does do that.

Thank you.

Miscellaneous question: Since I'm pretty new to this forum, I have to ask: who are the "important" members? Like, who should I know? (I always like to get acquainted with the community when I go to a new forums.)

[PatrikLundell]

I just watch and see who seem to know what they're talking about and who's just guessing. Also, the people tend to shift over time, with a bunch of "new" people appearing after the new release (some of those have actually been active for many years, just not very active while I've been here).

The forum is rather friendly, so don't be shy to ask questions, but try to check the forum for others asking the same thing first. Also, your first stop is the wiki http://dwarffortresswiki.org/, so search there first.

[Detros]

Quickanswer: d-b-d.

Boiling oil isn't implemented, so you'll have to upgrade to magma

I won't comment on X-bow dorfs as I basically don't use them. Let someone who does do that.

Thank you.

Miscellaneous question: Since I'm pretty new to this forum, I have to ask: who are the "important" members? Like, who should I know? (I always like to get acquainted with the community when I go to a new forums.)

Getting big area of same coloured stone that can be engraved the dwarfy way:

• mine everything there, leave just few supports
• get water and magma above it
• combine those two, filling it with obsidian
• dug out your fort in it
• smooth and engrave everything
• enjoy

You can look into Members and sort according to posts though some of them maybe offline for long time these days: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?action=mlist;sort=posts;start=0;desc
Bug report system used is Mantis for which there are managers: Footkerchief, Dwarfu, Logical2U, Knight Otu, lethosor (according to http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63640.0)

[joeclark77]

For an archer tower, just build a staircase up a couple of levels and build some space on an upper floor for archers to stand.
If you want them to stand adjacent to the turrets in the wall, don't give them a lot of space in the middle of the tower to stand on.  A rectangular tower with a 1x1 staircase at one end and a 1x8 hallway or so is fine.  That way they're forced to stand next to the turrets.

Remember to build a roof on it!  To accomplish this, build a ramp in place of one of the wall tiles on the top floor.  Then build floors on the upper level (the roof).  Then deconstruct the ramp and build the final wall tile.

The biggest problem with this kind of tower is that when you give the archers a (s)tation order, they feel free to stand 3-4 squares away from the mark you ordered them to go to.  This can have the effect of idiot marksdwarves walking out the front door to stand outside the tower.  I believe the best solution to this is to create a burrow defined on only the inside of the tower, and send the marksdwarves there.  I haven't tried this since DF2012 though, so test it out yourself before a siege arrives.

[greycat]

Getting big area of same coloured stone that can be engraved the dwarfy way:

• mine everything there, leave just few supports
• get water and magma above it
• combine those two, filling it with obsidian
• dug out your fort in it
• smooth and engrave everything
• enjoy

I don't think it's possible to top that.  That's exquisite.

But if you aren't quite dwarfy enough to cast an entire fortress in obsidian, you can dig your fortress normally, then dig out the impurities (gems, ores) and replace those particular walls with blocks of the correct type.  The combination of smoothed natural stone and constructed stone block walls is seamless.  You simply can't engrave on the blocks, if you're into engraving.  Which I'm guessing you're not, if the juxtaposition of two different stone types disturbs you.

[greycat]

The biggest problem with this kind of tower is that when you give the archers a (s)tation order, they feel free to stand 3-4 squares away from the mark you ordered them to go to.

I think the limit is 3 tiles away, but it's been a while since I tested.

This can have the effect of idiot marksdwarves walking out the front door to stand outside the tower.  I believe the best solution to this is to create a burrow defined on only the inside of the tower, and send the marksdwarves there.  I haven't tried this since DF2012 though, so test it out yourself before a siege arrives.

I prefer not to have any walkable tiles on the other side of the fortifications at all.  If the other side of the fortifications is simply empty space then no dwarf will choose one of those spots for his station.  They'll only stand on walkable tiles.

[Skorpion]

Build it with style in mind. Construct over ore/gem floors, or turn them into feature rooms. Nothing like an ore seam to make a dining room that bit fancier.

Otherwise, just build it to a design rather than ad-hoc. Wheelbarrows and minecarts mean you can stockpile rocks and ores easily and relatively quickly so they're not laying about. And you can always construct walls later.

[tranquilham]

Thank you everyone for the advice! So far, I've got a small place of 16 beds, and I'm aiming to dig down into the gabbro for DIAMONDS! Also, how would I know if a place has caves or not? Does every embark site have caves? Or is it just certain ones?

More questions, also:
1. Is there an estimate for about how deep the magma sea and cavern levels are? Is it even possible to estimate it?
2. Is there a way to transport rocks faster?
3. I used a quantum stockpile. Is that bad?
4. When do the invasions and megabeasts come?
5. Whats so dangerous about building above ground? In world gen, the above ground settlements don't seem to be murdered ruthlessly by gobbos.

That's all of my questions for now, but feel free to use this post to share your building style or whatever. I'd love to see how others plan out their things.