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[Elu]

Let's imagine for a moment that some entity exist, immortal, invincible, and with extremely advanced technology at its disposal.
Such a life sooner or later become boring, and so that entity decide to travel the galaxy insulting people the multiverse, looking for the remains of our lovely bearded forts and comparing the layouts, trying to pin diverse forts to the same architect, analyzing the many style currents, pretty much what our archaeologists do(or I think they do) when they uncover a ruin.

So, what would your fortresses main defining feature be, if any? Are there anything that sooner or later, consciously or unconsciously, emerge in nearly every fort? Would the Eternally Prolonged, Multiverse-hopping Archaeologist find an easy to recognize mark of your hand in the ruins? And would it be delighted or disgusted by it? Or maybe it will be baffled by a completely chaotic style?

Share your findings, I'll start:

I recently noticed that every fortress of mine is built in a mountain side, with the entrance conveniently guarded by stone spurs, and there is some sort of Endless Staircase, a 3x3 up/down staircase that goes from the hot stone depths up to the mountain pinnacle(with all the bother of going through caverns).
The general layout varies a lot, but the staircase remains constant through the forts, and many of those forts appears to have been abandoned after such staircase pierced a cavern layer full of hostile monsters which overwhelmed the still immature military...

[Metalsoul212]

I love to channel a 3-5 wide entrance into the first stone later then have a 3-4 high staging area with a large perimeter of around 60 by 30 or so with a line of 3x3 pillars evenly spaced. I like to think it looks like the mines of moria. At the end of this huge hall is the proper entrance the the fort. The entrance opens immediately to a trade Depot followed by a large 2 story high tavern flanked by large stockpiles for wood and stone. The entrance is flanked by two military training rooms which have sleeping barracks and archery targets rooms branching off it. The staging area has fortifications on the higher z levels allowing marksdwarfs the rain down hell with the military has quick access. This prevents cave adaption from being a problem during sieges. The rest of the fort spans z levels usually lower level contain large apartment areas and the upper level contain stockpiles and workshops. The wood stockpile has a tunnel leading to a huge several Z level area that fills with cavern trees and plants. This design has always works wonders for me!

[Fleeting Frames]

There's nothing only I have done, and always have done in all my forts, but... somewhat vertically stacked partially floating workshops for the purpose of faster production seem rather uncommon elsewhere, I guess.

Still, that, and everything else, I've learned by imitation.

[Sanctume]

A team of our civilization combers have gathered many evidence of these types of early settlers.

They lack a common architecture for they have no buildings established except the ruined wagons. 

A common theme of the site near water is noted.  Trace evidence of ravaged remains of either party indicate a nearby creature to the settlement has surfaced out of the water. 

There are a couple of rare occasions where the water elements in play has rapid change from solid ice to flowing deadly liquids. 

The team dubbed them, "the doomed expeditions."

--

In circa 2010, many investigation sites discovered a vast number of naturally occurring flat volcanoes have been inviting cities of the past. 

The entrances bodes grand bridges into the main halls and commerce district. 

Upon further studies reveal engineering feats the astound the mind and quaver fears to realize those bridges can drop unsuspecting visitors into the volcano caldera. 

The grand views above the bridge are murder holes for crossbows to rain upon anyone on the bridges.

The artistic engravings reveals stories of battle, horror and death.

Living quarters are also quite generous with minimal 3x3 floor spaces.
--

Since circa 2012, a "pattern of great forge setup" have been deduced from data of countless of settlements with deep earth excavations. 

These civilization has discovered the convenience of thermal power using channels of magma. 

The pattern of these great forges is setup to have nine production smelters and between six to twelve forges.

One would think that working conditions are horrendous, but many cases reveals large dinning halls with large stocks of food and drinks and living quarters not far from the great forges.

Many large rooms filled cache of armory and weaponry are also found in these sites, but those rare items have long been looted or smuggled by the natives. 

Living quarters follow a "matchstick" patterns, there a room is dug in straight, enough room for a door, a chest, and a bed.

--

In circa 2014, there are sites discovered to share a common theme dubbed as "minimalist." 

These settlements can support hundreds and even two hundreds in population, but they living footprint seems to be smaller compared to older sites. 

A phenomenon called quantum stockpiling is applied to all items that do not use barrels or bins.

Instead of finding great forges, a compact but highly efficient forge is established near the surface while using the minimal amount of magma for fuel. 

The matchstick patterns for living quarters are replaced by more efficient shared bedrooms with seemingly private storage of chest and cabinet behind interior doors. 

--

After circa 2016, the civilization sites found underground are quite rare.  Many sites are now above ground and mimic human castles.

[bloop_bleep]

I, too, use the "central 3x3 staircase" design. Can be a PITA sometimes though, since if a hostile gets to any level of the central staircase, it immediately has access to the entire fort.

I pretty much always have the same design for the food industry level of my fort:

Code: [Select]

█ -- wall
X -- up-down staircase
= -- food & drink stockpile
¶ -- goblet stockpile
≈ -- farm plot
┼ -- door
╥ -- chair
╤ -- table
/-\
|W| -- arbitrary food-related workshop
\-/

███████████████████████████████
█                             █
█ /-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\/-\ █
█ |W||W||W||W||W||W||W||W||W| █
█ \-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/\-/ █
█                             █
███████████████ ███████████████
              █┼█
████████████ ██ ██ ████████████
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ █¶¶¶█ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ █¶¶¶█ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ █¶¶¶█ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ █¶¶¶█ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ ██ ██ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█  █┼█  █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ ██ ██ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈█ █XXX█ █==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈███XXX███==========█
█≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ ┼ XXX ┼ ==========█
███████████████ ███████████████
              █┼█
███████████████ ███████████████
█                             █
█ ╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥ █
█ ╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤ █
█ ╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤╤ █
█ ╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥╥ █
█                             █
███████████████████████████████

Also, I always give my dwarves separate 5x5 bedrooms, complete with:

• Smoothed & engraved walls
• Bed in the middle
• Masterwork statue next to bed
• Cabinet
• Two chests
• Chair next to table

(All furniture with the exclusion of beds is made from stone.)
This satisfies almost all noble requirements. However, for the king, I usually like to make a room with 4 times the size and 10 times the furniture, preferably made entirely out of gold or platinum. Also a magma tube coming in from the side, y'know, just in case.

[KittyTac]

A large fortress stockpile with workshop rooms going outwards from it. In the lower corners, there are either offices, or stairs to more stockpiles. Individual rooms nonexistent, just a smallish room chock full of beds.

[Baffler]

I almost always have a 3-tile wide entrance corridor, with ramps to get down to stone if needed, terminating at an 11x22 hall with a row of columns arranged against both of the longer edges. The depot goes in the middle of the room. The route into the rest of the fortress is on the side opposite the surface entrance, with military barracks arranged on either side and stairwells up or down to stockpiles containing the fortress' supply of trade goods. Separating very large rooms like stockpiles from the corridors using columns instead of a wall with a door is also a common theme, as is channeling out large rooms on the z-level above them if there's nothing of importance up there. I also build 3x3 personal dining rooms with stairs up or down to that same dwarf's bedroom.

To make space for all this I tend to skip every other z-level where major constructions go; and put in waterworks, machinery, minecart tracks, and other stuff like that into the utility levels.

[Grimlocke]

Overall layout varies, but I have a recurring theme of multi-z-level rooms with buttresses and pillars here and there. Large rooms get narrow walkways on the very top level to accessible from a separate route, to pelt at locked-in invaders. They are connected through 3-wide, 2-tall hallways which are locked off with fortifications at the top level in case of climbers and fliers, or just located somewhere in an artificial cavern. I dig those caverns with large open spaces and irregularly shaped pillars, cavern walls are kept rough except for engravings that are done on all ores/gems and randomly sprawls on uniform sections. Other discolored walls are either engraved, or replaced with matching constructions.

Living quarters are clustered around separate courtyards, usually 2x2 but sometimes larger. Dining halls are reasonable large and have a plenty of guest quarters surrounding it.

I imagine this style as cavernous, vaguely horrifying halls and hallways interspersed with caves filled with insane scrawling, some of which have the bottom level littered with skulls and bones. I can only hope the inter-dimensional horror looking on approve.

[steel jackal]

there are two things that i do frequently.

1: four hallways in a + pattern with stairs in the middle, hallways branching off of those, and rooms branching off of those. its not the most efficient design, but im not one to squeeze every last drop of efficiency out of my designs.
the only time i deviate from this is when im doing a high security design or im making really fancy apartments where everyone gets their own bedroom, dining room, and study.


2: murder halls. a long hallway with a single raised platform and a ballista at the end.

usually something like this


XOXXXXXOX
XOXo>oXOX
XOXBBBXOX
XOXBBBXOX
XOXBBBXOX
XOXFFFXOX
XOZZZZZOX
XOOoooOOX
XZZZOZZZX
XZZZOZZZX
XZZZOZZZX
continue as needed
XZZZOZZZX
XZZ>o>ZZX

X is a wall
O or o is a floor (lowercase thrown in to help space things correctly)
F is fortification
B is ballastia
Z is an open space to a lower Z level
> is stairs

the idea is that they will either dodge the ballista arrow and fall off the path then have to walk back to the start and have to keep going around and around until they get hit.

or put some spikes in the pit and demoralize the enemy as they see the corpses of their comrades impaled on giant spikes in a pit deep below them as they walk across a tightrope while ballista arrows are being shot at you



but yeah, those are the only things that seem to happen frequently in my forts.

[Skorpion]

My forts are basically stamped out to a standard design.
Entrance: Sunken tunnel under a curtain wall.
Trade depot: Sealable and equipped with water pumps.
Location: By sources of infinite water.
Standard architecture: Rooms built in single-level underground caverns, big central staircase to get access to the forges, forges built down at the level of the magma sea, minecart track drops ore and metals down to the forges via a big shaft into a sealable room with only one door, to prevent injuries.

[oldmansutton]

Let's imagine for a moment that some entity exist, immortal, invincible, and with extremely advanced technology at its disposal.
Such a life sooner or later become boring, and so that entity decide to travel the galaxy insulting people

Love the reference to Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged   

[Madrigal]

My recent forts have tomb areas with several long four-tile-wide hallways. In each hallway, coffins are placed in a row beside each wall, and the aisle in the middle slowly fills up with engraved slabs as the coffins are occupied.

They also typically have a level with a roughly oval dining hall to the west of the main staircase. On the same level there's usually a temple, a hospital with wells and small lockable rooms (ever since that little werehedgehog problem), and a library or lever room or both.

[Feathermind]

My forts always have a single central staircase (in older forts 1x1, newer forts have 2x2 or 3x3 ones) extending from the highest point of construction straight down without deviation through all three caverns until it hits magma or bedrock.  Everything branches out from that central staircase into spiderlike hallways with doors leading to the various stockpiles, workshops, dining rooms, bedrooms and so on.  Every entrance save for the caravan's has a bridge-sealed tunnel(usually retracting over a ramp) lined with 5 rows of cage traps.  Caravan paths usually use bridges to create a sealed tunnel connecting to the edge of the map.

Stone doors and hatchways divide everything into sections and if there is glass it will be the chief material of everything else that can be made from it, with a number of dedicated glass workshops.  Bedrooms branch from a central hallway into a straight line with door, bed, cabinet and chest in that order.  If the fort isn't built on a volcano there will be a dedicated magma collection area double-sealed with bridges with a grated minecart stop between them.  The longer the fort's been active, the more likely everything has been smoothed or failing that, replaced with a constructed wall, including the tunnels for magma and water.  Spacious underground fungus gardens are common in areas with deep soil.

Trained animals are plentiful and there are always seven trained wardogs (or their entombed bodies) whose ages predate the fort. A cage somewhere near the fort's central hub will be stuffed with an improbable number of creatures of all kinds, mostly dogs.

[Eater of Vermin]

Almost every one of my long term fortresses since DF 2D (?0.23?) have had suspended Trade Depots... 

...generally suspended over circular pits that reach from the surface all the way down to whatever was the equiv of the magma sea, only accessible by my version of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm and with some form of menacing contraption suspended overhead.

(I've tried the full gamut from early boulder traps thru to magma showers. One simply having a caged insane vampire hanging overhead; oddly enough this is still the Number One deadliest Depot I've ever had!   Even if only to my own dorfs...)

These Depots are also the only access from the surface into the fortress proper.

[blapnk]

Although my forts have had a gradual evolution in features, there's now very little in common between my current forts and my earliest ones. Except perhaps the tombs.

It's not that they follow a strict set pattern, but when one is is used to the procedurally generated world of dwarf fortress it's easy to imagine there exists an algorithm that could describe almost all my tombs. Most commonly accessed through a hatch, located in the temple where they exist. The tomb contains a series of rectangular 3x5 and 5x9 rooms, with 3x3 dead end off-shoot rooms. The rooms may be symmetric or they may be arranged in a maze. There are two subcategories that share the same nasic structure. The first type alternates between coffins and statues in the images of fallen heroes. Squads have their own halls with empty coffins waiting so that comrades will get buried together. Members of the founding seven dwarfs have tombs in a prominent position even if they don't have a full room to themselves.

The second subcategory is much like the first, except with no statues and every available floor space is filled with coffins. The coffins are getting over-turned by clowns or forgotten beasts. There is screaming.