Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[RezBerry]

Feel free to share your tips, tricks, and screenshots of your fortress. Details (such as screenshots of your status screen) also welcome.

[Leonidas]

I've been enjoying my first all-ramp fortress. It's based around two adjacent vertical planes of ramps that form a long east-west axis. One plane runs down and left; the other runs down and right. Then I dig out living and working space six squares north and south from the axis.

So far it seems very efficient. A dwarf who needs to move east or west can at the same time move up or down without any extra effort.

These are consecutive layers. You can see how the ramps make little patterns, which makes the digging much easier. So far I have way more space than I can use, but I'm keeping my wealth down until my soldiers are ready.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Telgin]

Imgur is probably the easiest way, but Dropbox is another option that I use a lot.  You have to fiddle with the share URLs to be able to link directly to images though.

In any case, I don't have screenshots to share right now, but I build a lot of above ground forts.  I tend to make 4x3 houses in blocks so that some of the walls are shared, and if space runs short I tend to add a second or third floor.  I tend to build a nice office for the leader near the tavern, which has a single level cellar for food storage and processing.  I tend to also build strip mines.

Defenses usually consist of a curtain wall with a one level dry ditch around it, usually 3 squares wide.  I have a single drawbridge over that, with the trade depot near the entrance.

Bear in mind that the last time I made a serious for was in .34 I think, well before climbing was implemented.  I'm currently tweaking a mod to allow me to play some modified kobolds in fort mode, and I'll probably have a hybrid above and below ground fort with them.  Once I get somewhere with it I'll try getting screenshots.

[Baffler]

I have some common design elements, but I like to experiment a lot. This fort for example I've been playing with not having any dedicated 'housing sector' at all, and just setting people's homes into the floors of corridors in little box formations. Something like this for commoners, inspired by the Living Pods design on the wiki:
Z+1 or Z-1

Code: [Select]

╔═══╦═══╦═══╦═══╦═══╦═══╗
║+++║+++║+++║+++║+++║+++║
║++┼╩┼++║++┼╩┼++║++┼╩┼++║
╠══╣X╠══╬══╣X╠══╬══╣X╠══╣
║++┼╦┼++║++┼╦┼++║++┼╦┼++║
║+++║+++║+++║+++║+++║+++║
╚═══╩═══╩═══╩═══╩═══╩═══╝

Z=0

   Various Other Stuff
══════┼═════════════┼═══
++++++++++++++++++++++++
0+<+0+>+0+<+0+>+0+<+0+>+
++++++++++++++++++++++++
══════════┼══════┼══════
   Various Other Stuff


Then I just put a big room at intersections and corners, if anything down there, which can be used for noble quarters or maybe a small stockpile. It alternates up and down on the main level to make room. Stairs or ramps down to proper lower levels just go in the rooms off to the side, or put in one of the intersection spaces, or a length of corridor that's too short to fit the above but long enough to fit something into it. It's extensible up or down pretty far, although I often skip levels to make room for things like water/magma works, minecart routes, big stockpiles for stuff like stone, and other things like that.

[snow dwarf]

ptw

[strainer]

That ramping system is intriguing and the spacious design very tidy and massive. 

Here is my latest 3 years into a 4x2 embark that has two sinister squares where interesting dead stuff occurs. The roof is three stories up made from 4 bridges built off a little tower with a shooting room on top. This seems much easier to build than a big floor ontop of the outside walls.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ive gone for double thick ground floor walls because its easier to build the 2nd floor wall on top of it, and might be useful to delay things bashing their way in later. There are experimental sunken fortifications at the bottom of the walls too.
Entrace to below is a three wide ramp that travels down through the sand and clay.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Two levels down the ramp goes through this clay level with refuse, butchers and stuff.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the bedroom level one level above the main level where the
entrance ramp ends. Kids have their beds in nooks as they seem have that affinity for playing in corners.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the main level here, gaurd dogs and a barracks at the entrance, public
areas on the right tavern, library and temple. Depot is there about 20 steps
away from most trading stockpiles and workshops below.
The water pool there in the hospital comes in especially handy. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The level below has most of the industry. The embark has marble, tetrahedrite and gold so they mostly churn out electrum for furniture and bronze and steel for metal gear ( cassiterite and iron ores coming in from trade). Items mostly pileup inside the workshops until a stockpile is permitted to take certain things out. Gold and electrum mechanisms easily pay for everything including dubiously priced exotic instruments for the musicians.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fortress has some more bedrooms upstairs and a well and hospitality area in
the mines and couple more stockpiles but those screens covered most of it.
A grand museum will be a future project.

On the subject of status screens, excuse me showing off my mangler tool where dwarves personalities and problems can be browsed with ease - makes examining and designing fortress society distractingly practical. Since its not about the physical design I wont go on. Here's its own thread  for any questions.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sarmatian123]

My favorite fortress is military citadel / top side bunker. Partially underground and partially above ground. With 110 pop => 100 militia/craftsmen or with 220 pop => 100 military/peasants.

I am not building walls inside fortress.
I am using trackstop-minecart automated quantum stockpiles.
Pastures need walls to stop auto-generating jobs.
Refuse gets walls, because of security concerns.

x-floor, s-up/down stairs:
xxxxx
xxsxx
xsssx
xxsxx
xxxxx

Why cross instead of a single point in the middle for stairs? Path finding algorithm seems to work faster this way. Don't ask why. I was experimenting a lot to find walls and narrow stairs a no go with current algorithm, because of fps. Contrary to logic wider z-levels with longer walking paths generate faster fps, then higher towers with shorter walking paths. Don't ask why. I found out this through experimentation too. I guess the path finding algorithm for some mysterious reasons, is penalizing crossing too many z-levels in walking paths.

Pit and water cistern is underground bottom.
Then I keep above pit and cistern a hospital with wells, animal storage, under ground farming, brewing and alcohol storage.
Magma forges, other workshops, above farming and pastures on surface level.
Next level locations, legendary dining room, food storage, kitchen, some workshops and barracks.
Beds and private offices and diners on the very top floors.

One entrance without traps guarded with dogs with Depot access. Cage traps between Depot and the rest of the fortress.
One entrance with traps using a chained dog bait.
One entrance with traps down into mines/caverns/lava/fun.

Double exterior walls.
Because of how archery works in DF currently, no fortifications are used.
Access to roof is on outside by stairs.

[Mechanoid]

A recent favorite of mine has been recreating the designs found in older DF versions:
23a (aka '2D') Since this ancient version doesn't have diagonal movement (orthogonal only!) the generated DF forts are very simple, almost a basic roguelike in layout and style. The "staircases" are really just doors that will rotate your view when you pass through them and the map is effectively "flat" Though the most striking feature however is the smooth walls on the cliff face entrance to the fort, which is exactly one tile more than the view distance a dwarf has (25 tiles from the character's position) that creates a nice effect with the end pieces. (visible because continuous walls are programmed to be visible at the edge of sight distance) I have never actually seen a 2D generated fortress reach the cavern river, likely because the river starts at 48+ tiles from the mountain face... Additionally, knowing that the game maps are partitioned into region tiles of 48x48 regular tiles, this fortress design is basically a nano-fortress fitting within 1 embark tile in modern DF. (Thus why i never saw a generated fort reach the river.) Fun fact: the total embark area of a 2D player fortress map is roughly 10x10 when fully explored (ie: to the adamantine)

40d One of the much more rigid generation styles, fortresses obey strict templates that are all 16x16 tiles, or 1/9th the area (1/3rd the width/length) of an embark tile. The fortress is sectioned into only a couple such templates, which are in the spoilers below:

Basic main hallway layout, straight piece with side hallways... Which they basically always do, unless it's a corner or edge of the fortress map or would intersect a map feature (though map gen "mistakes" do happen and parts can breach features, but very rarely)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

######|..|######
######|..|######
######|..|######
------+..+------
................
..#..#....#..#..
................
................
................
................
..#..#....#..#..
................
------+..+------
######|..|######
######|..|######
######|..|######


The same main hallway design as a dead-end, but also with a ramp on it. Fun fact: I've only ever seen ramps be placed next to the left or the right pillar pairs, never the north or south pairs. (The x's mark the alternate ramp position, which would have a wall between the two pillars most adjacent, so the ramps would work) They also always face towards the center of the template; this is so there's always open space above them and can also be walked around in case of the infamous 180-turn on the next z-level down.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

######|..|######
######|..|######
######|..|######
------+..+-+####
............|###
..#..#x..^#.|###
......x..^#.+---
......x..^#.....
......x..^#.....
......x..^#.+---
..#..#x..^#.|###
............|###
------+..+-+####
######|..|######
######|..|######
######|..|######


What does a main hallway "corner" look like? Take the dead-end, paste another on top after rotating it 90 degrees, subtract walls that intersect with hallway floor space.

Basic side hallway layout, but with all four rooms added:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

+-----|..|-----+
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
|..............|
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
---.--+..+--.---
................
................
---.--+..+--.---
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
|..............|
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
+-----|..|-----+

"Corner" side hallway, with three rooms:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

+-----|..|-----+
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
|..............|
|.....|..|.....|
|.....|..|.....|
---.--+..|-----+
.........|######
.........|######
---.-----+######
|.....|#########
|.....|#########
|.....|#########
|.....|#########
|.....|#########
+-----+#########

... And really, that's all the templates there are. No furniture or shops in these fortresses either, despite the rooms obviously being the perfect size for them, or for workshops and surrounding stockpiles. The primary entrance to the fort is really nothing to talk about; it's literally very often as if someone designated a 46x46 up/down staircase pit in the middle of an embark tile (so if it was a nano fortress, it would be THE ENTIRE NANO-SIZED EMBARK) and then placed the ramp-hallway in the middle of it once it was all dug out, with a ring of up/down staircases along the perimeter. Sometimes the entry pit is smaller (1/3rd as wide; a rectangle instead of a square) but not usually; only if some other feature forced it to do so.

The actual fortress generation rules are really very simple, and can be copied very easilly by a human:
- Make the entrance as described above; First template placed is always a dead-end ramp that leads to this entry.
- Pick another space some non-zero distance away in 16x16 chunks, and draw a "line" of hallway templates towards that point, and put a dead-end downward ramp template there if there's still more z-levels to go through; otherwise just dead-end the hallway.
-- Never ever place a downward template and upward template on the same 16x16 chunk, the shortest hallway possible is an up ramp template and a down ramp template.
- Place down the 4-rooms template out to a distance of 2-3 from the starting, ending, or every hallway segment. Turn the outside pieces into corners or 2-rooms if the site edge is reached.
- Try really hard not to put any templates intersecting map features like chasms
- Fail to avoid intersecting the templates and chasms, and cause the fortress to flood with water or get murdered by inhabitants that spawn around the chasm.

It's a very nice and straight-forward method of fortress building, and thanks to the 4-wide main hallway is actually time efficient by giving dwarves sidestep space (even though the 2-wides are often shortcut through rooms) Building supports between the stone pillars, and statues or windows between the pillars and walls (and one of the two doors of a room) and shrinking the rooms to a 4x4 so the walls will have engravings on the proper side (the room side!) are really all that needs to be done to "fix" problems with the design.

Modern Embark over an existing dwarf site and don't worry about it.

[TD1]

PTW. Nice to get some new ideas. My fortresses have fallen into the same old design rut.

[Werdna]

To break from a rut, try developing 3D fortresses underground.  What I mean is, most of my fortresses were designed as series of 2D layouts simply layered on top of each other, but the only 'connection' from level to level was the usual ramps and stairways.  This is fun to tweak to create cool and efficient layouts, but its not terribly hard once you get a favorite pattern down.  Get that pattern into Quickfort and suddenly, all of the challenge is kind of gone!

The ones I try to design now have vaulted ceilings, domes, galleries, balconies, multi-level mansions carved from the rock, etc.  It's a good mind exercise, particularly if you're using vertical curves across z layers (ie domes and arches).  I typically try to find a strata of layers that are the same stone type and no/low minerals for color consistency, then start at the top and channel downwards.  I plot it out on engineering (tiny square) graph paper so I minimize screw-ups!  It takes forever, so another challenge is creating a 'temporary fort' and finding a way to integrate that seamlessly into the final fort.  I find it injects a lot more fun and challenge back into the 'fort' part of the game.

[Yami]

I'm actually a big fan of the Interior Trading Depot, and the 3x3 Fortress of Doors. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

+-d-+-d-+-d-+
|___|___|___|
d___d___d___d
|___|___|---|
+-d-+-d-+rrr+
|___|xxx|___|
d___dxxxd___d
|___|xxx|___|
+-d-+-d-+rrr+

|, + and - being walls, _ being open space, (For bedrooms, workshops, studies, Storage, whatever etc..) d for doors for all you micromanaging needs.  xs for the central 3x3 stairwell to !Fun! and r for ramps so that you can deposit your Depot as far down as you wish.  (I usually place it between crafting levels right in the heart of my fortress.)

The design actually works best for crafting when you take out a door and put an up/down staircase in it's place to put workshops directly above/below their resources and finished produces storage.  But then you miss out on my favourite feature, the ability to lock down a workshop the moment you get a mood and micromanage their available resources.  It's also great for just locking in a vampire and setting them up with a room, workshop and lockable finished goods section so they can still produce whilst quarantined.

~Yami

[Werdna]

I like this idea, Werdna, as it's how the Dwarves would actually build their fortresses. I'd like to see some screenshots of some of the finished product sometime.

My current one is only about 33% complete (it's big) but one corner is almost done, and is enough to give an idea.  Screenshots don't do it justice because it covers a lot of z-levels and the fort is larger than a screen.  I've been meaning to put the fort on DFMA, here it is:

Graniteramparts

On the year 139 map, the lower "3D" fort starts at level 144 and goes down 7 levels.

[bloop_bleep]

PTW

[TheEqualsE]

Here's my fort in picture form

Swampcavern level by level 1

https://imgur.com/a/TTNDy

2
https://imgur.com/a/Sib9t

3
https://imgur.com/a/HvcRB

Swampcavern Stuff
https://imgur.com/a/fa16y

[Mastermind]

This was my Alathdum, my latest work in progress.

Forge layer of awesome creations:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Gem and crafting layer of uncountable values:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bedroom layer of sleepless nights:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Dining layer of continuous drunkenness:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Noble seating area of great overseeing:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Entrance and food production layer:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

What do you guys think?