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[Maloy]

I've noticed I have two settings and rarely drift from these extremes

1. I am building a paradise for my dwarves to raise children. Attracting residents of other races and letting them have families too as we tame and breed legendary animals to distribute. Slowly delve the depths and climb the heights as our population expands and finishes small tasks. Ensure every citizen leaves a mark on history so we can look back on their achievements fondly after they have long passed

2. Tear every valuable resource from the planet, build massive projects that terraform the entire region, drive merchants mad with a sea of corpses, work citizens to the point of madness and then send them to war or exile them to a throw-away hillocks, and send out armies to conquer the inferior non-dwarves and introduce them to our superior civilized ways

How about you guys?

[FantasticDorf]

I don't stick to any particular plan (the old saying goes "no plan survives first contact with the enemy") but i do lean into a utilitarian No.2 based on productivity (the sick often end up exiled and euthanized) until i can float a stable economy and then relocate my fort a cavern level down or up every so many years comfortably.

Then i get distracted by modding or simply *the thought of modding* and take like a month hiatus.

[Thisfox]

I start out wanting to have a working self-sufficient fort with a small aquifer-waterfall and dwarf-wash, at least one cavern walled off for use, and defences for winter.

Once I've achieved that, I make surface forts, build roads around to let the caravans have safe passage, breed amazing beasts I bought from the humans and the elves, make far too much glassware, build greenhouses with glass walls and ceilings, and dig to another cavern and destroy us all by finding a forgotten beast made of something indestructible that spews disease dust and tears down walls and doors, and eventually my fort dies of fps death. Somewhere in there I have epic battles with werebeasts, unicorns and alligators, build elaborate magma forges and churches, and hire all the bards in the world for my tavern.

More recently I've started colonising human-built dirt roads in order to pave them and put a wall along them and pretend to be toll-takers on the road, or built and garrisoned sections of an "Hadrians Wall"ish sort of thing in various interesting places. Wall-forts are my new megaproject.

[Maloy]

I start out wanting to have a working self-sufficient fort with a small aquifer-waterfall and dwarf-wash, at least one cavern walled off for use, and defences for winter.

Once I've achieved that, I make surface forts, build roads around to let the caravans have safe passage

Glad I'm not the only one who keeps a surface fort
Mine are usually uninhabited and just serve as a military location during invasions, but I always have them
I also love to build outposts in each cavern layer. Just several layers of airlocks, maybe a barracks, and sometimes a hunters guild for roleplay

[Loud Whispers]

I'm a sucker for pretty fortresses, so if I've got a flat land I'll build up, otherwise I'll carve down. Even if the Fort is entirely subterranean I'll try my best to carve out a huge interior fortress which is a lot harder to defend but it looks better in my mind - the scale has to be worthy of a true Dwarven fortress otherwise I'm discontent. That's about the only thing I do consistently, though I usually try to also get a masterwork set of armour to bequeathe to adventurers once the fort is done

[pamelrabo]

Most of the time it ends up being "the sims". Prettyfication of the fortress, micromanaging the citizens' tastes in furniture, etc.

And having the most whooping tavern in the continent, of course.

[delphonso]

I tend to turtle - as soon as possible, get a small bunker with a gate up and a lever near the tavern to ignore and not participate in any threats. I enjoy the connection between the dwarves and managing their moods, making the best possible rooms for each one individually (I tend to play on pop caps sub 40), so it's not uncommon for me to never breach the caverns, or if I do, immediately seal them back up and don't go out there.

Lately I've been more experimental - cavern-rushing, warrior-training, magma-spewing maniacs. I'm planning to make a fortress on the bottom cavern layer quite soon - we'll see if that is...a good idea or not.

[anewaname]

5x5 embarks, terrifying ocean on 3 sides of the map, pop cap raised to 600 and invader cap raised to 1000, 20x20 circular towers linked by walls to form a castle on the beach.

[Maloy]

5x5 embarks, terrifying ocean on 3 sides of the map, pop cap raised to 600 and invader cap raised to 1000, 20x20 circular towers linked by walls to form a castle on the beach.

I tried my first game with 300 pop and it was one of the slowest games I've ever played in my whole life

respect for your ability to do this lol sounds incredibly epic

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

Rude surprises by werebeasts and dragons make me generally turtle up with a fireproof raised bridge until I have the numbers to train my dwarves outside to negate cave adaption. My military dwarves get to a comfortably high skill level while I make booze supplies varied and plentiful from outside plants. Almost always, I make a giant cistern and use running water and floor grates to simulate some kind of indoor plumbing. I've been a lot more interested in improving my dwarves' qualities of life. I also really like island forts and valley forts.

[chaotic skies]

Currently I'm turning a volcano into my fortress, generally I go for silly projects like that. Usually pick whatever seems the coolest, and then try and make it functional. I need to figure out how to defense from flying invaders....

[Staalo]

I'm mostly option 1 in the opening post.

I play DF mainly for the stories; I generate worlds until I find something that resonates with me in the Legends, and then build multi-generation forts in those worlds to continue the stories. I tend to ignore megaprojects and pretty architecture and concentrate on cultivating legendary heroes and unusual individuals. On especially successful worlds I might build multiple forts and watch all the old friends immigrate and continue their lives.

Even if my methods have sometimes been a bit harsh *cough*dwarvenchildcare*cough*, wellbeing and happiness of my citizens come (nearly) always first.

[brewer bob]

I generate worlds until I find something that resonates with me in the Legends

Me too. Sometimes it might take a week or two before I find the world that fits my picky tastes (or more often: I give up and just take what the game throws at me). Then I have some grand plans of populating the world with different kinds of forts, each with their own goals and so on... But usually I just end up playing one fort in the world until quitting after getting a "better" idea or deciding to spice things up with some modding.

[Hans Lemurson]

I spend my time fretting over what the right kind of wood is to use for furniture and temporary walls.

[Iamblichos]

I ended up not playing for several years as I always seem to end up making the same fort over and over again.  I embark with nothing but 2 picks and an anvil, gambling on getting to water and/or plants before everyone dies of thirst.  If I can make it through the first year I'm usually good to go, but I always seem to end up with the same general layout around maximum efficiency, magma forges, etc.  I get bored with the fort around 130 dwarves, once my militia has chewed through a couple of FBs and/or goblin raids and I've exterminated a few of the smaller goblin pits.

Since coming back, I've had fun learning the new mechanics around guildhalls and such though it took a while to remember all the bits and bobs of the military screens.  I keep meaning to explore different ways of doing things or arranging my fort, but somehow I always seem to end up with the same old thing