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[DeathOnJuice]

I am a fairly new player, but I have two (completely unrelated problems), and would love to get some help so that I may get into this game without my OCD killing me.

First of all, could someone show me a very good fortress layout? As I said, I'm OCD about this sort of thing; I don't just want a good layout, but one of the best, in aesthetics and efficiency. It can't be too hard to make, and aesthetics are slightly more important. Without a good design, I find it really hard to work, as I always worry that I am doing something incorrectly.

Secondly, I have started a fairly prosperous fortress (but it has no sedimentary layer/iron, so I'm starting a new one). I've run into a problem in that I'm out of wood and barrels. I have seen something about this problem before, involving balancing barrels between food and drink stockpiles. Can someone refresh my memory?

Thanks.

[Warlord255]

I couldn't tell you what to do about running out of barrels, but if you want aesthetics and function in one, go for symmetry as much as possible - strip mining operations nonwithstanding.

[inaluct]

Well, if you were in a woodland biome you could just set a bunch of peasants on making barrels in your sweatshop, but you might have a problem if you're out of wood. Try to make sure you don't have any empty barrels sitting around anywhere, and if needed, reserve barrels for alcohol only.

Also, about the fortress layout, I have a suggestion:

Just make wide hallways and put related workshops together. Build bedrooms and dining rooms on the same level, in a stone layer. By related workshops, I mean things like a wood furnace, a smelter, and a metalsmith's forge. Just put them in nearby rooms. Other sets of related workshops include things like a butcher's shop and a tanner's shop, although putting those two outside might be a good idea if you have a lazy butcher.

If you can, make the halls 3 squares wide. Try and make it so each workshop can be sealed off in case an Ultra-Mighty carpenter claims something and wants crystal glass. Make a very large (think between 30x30 and 90x90) room in a stone layer. Build bedrooms around it, branching off from it. Make sure the walls between the bedrooms are two squares thick, so they don't overlap (overlapping decreases value sharply), and make sure they all have doors. Smooth and then engrave the whole thing, put decorated tables and chairs in the center room, and make it a dining room and meeting area. If possible, build a well in it. This configuration works very well if you want happy dwarves.

Also, try and capture large animals alive. Don't declare things available for adoption. Get a herd of about 10 to 30 large animals (camels, elephants, whatever your map has) and then use them for food and skins. This can really be a big help early in the game, before you can buy so much leather. If you have a map with spiders on it, leave parts of their habitat untouched so you can harvest their webs at a steady pace. If you don't have webs, farm some plants you can make thread out of and some you can make dye out of. Getting a stable cloth or leather industry pays off.

A good way to make money is with prepared meals. If possible, try and get very high quality ones made with things like Dwarven Syrup. Otherwise, expensive meat (elephant meat and things, not cat meat) will do fine too.

[DeathOnJuice]

Thanks for the advice. Can I get any pictures of a really good fortress?

[Spoggerific]

Yup. You can. Check out the Dwarf Fortress Map Archive. It has a bunch of maps of all kinds of different fortresses. Just spend a half hour browsing through fortresses and their points of interest. You'll get some great ideas.

One of my favorite fortresses is mountainbanners. It isn't exactly practical, but it looks very, very cool.

EDIT:Fixed a link.

[nirodragon]

Well, if you were in a woodland biome you could just set a bunch of peasants on making barrels in your sweatshop, but you might have a problem if you're out of wood. Try to make sure you don't have any empty barrels sitting around anywhere, and if needed, reserve barrels for alcohol only.

Also, about the fortress layout, I have a suggestion:

Just make wide hallways and put related workshops together. Build bedrooms and dining rooms on the same level, in a stone layer. By related workshops, I mean things like a wood furnace, a smelter, and a metalsmith's forge. Just put them in nearby rooms. Other sets of related workshops include things like a butcher's shop and a tanner's shop, although putting those two outside might be a good idea if you have a lazy butcher.

If you can, make the halls 3 squares wide. Try and make it so each workshop can be sealed off in case an Ultra-Mighty carpenter claims something and wants crystal glass. Make a very large (think between 30x30 and 90x90) room in a stone layer. Build bedrooms around it, branching off from it. Make sure the walls between the bedrooms are two squares thick, so they don't overlap (overlapping decreases value sharply), and make sure they all have doors. Smooth and then engrave the whole thing, put decorated tables and chairs in the center room, and make it a dining room and meeting area. If possible, build a well in it. This configuration works very well if you want happy dwarves.

Also, try and capture large animals alive. Don't declare things available for adoption. Get a herd of about 10 to 30 large animals (camels, elephants, whatever your map has) and then use them for food and skins. This can really be a big help early in the game, before you can buy so much leather. If you have a map with spiders on it, leave parts of their habitat untouched so you can harvest their webs at a steady pace. If you don't have webs, farm some plants you can make thread out of and some you can make dye out of. Getting a stable cloth or leather industry pays off.

A good way to make money is with prepared meals. If possible, try and get very high quality ones made with things like Dwarven Syrup. Otherwise, expensive meat (elephant meat and things, not cat meat) will do fine too.

Overlapping floorspace does smash value, but shared walls do not.

[Ezuku]

Just thought I'd add.

Due to a slightly odd quirk in pathfinding, iirc dwarves prefer moving to get things directly above/below them, even if the stairs is way out of the way. Because of this, it's best to build stockpiles directly above/below your workshops. This works even better if you can position it so that the stockpile is in a soil layer, as it's easier to dig out/no stone to remove.

For beds and bedrooms, if you're really OCD, try to position them far, far away from everything, as sound goes quite a distance with the extremely basic model for sound set up (it's just by distance, and vertically is as hard to pass through as horizontally). I also have to disagree with what was previously posted, as if you make all your bedrooms too nice, most of your dwarves won't be able to afford them and they'll end up sleeping in the barracks once the economy kicks in.

I'd like to also stress the importance of wide hallways. Wide hallways seem to reduce lag, which is the bane of all fortresses.

Regarding running out of wood, consider ordering it from a caravan. They're a steal at only 3g base price each, which means that you can get dozens for each stone mug you produce.

[Spoggerific]

Due to a slightly odd quirk in pathfinding, iirc dwarves prefer moving to get things directly above/below them, even if the stairs is way out of the way.

This is true. Dwarves look for the nearest item "as the crow flies", so to speak. They don't care if they have to walk a thousand squares to get to the other side of a wall if the item is only 3 squares away with a wall between them and the item.

For beds and bedrooms, if you're really OCD, try to position them far, far away from everything, as sound goes quite a distance with the extremely basic model for sound set up (it's just by distance, and vertically is as hard to pass through as horizontally).

Sound travels 15 squares horizontally and vertically, I believe. Fifteen squares isn't much, so they don't have to be placed that far away.

I'd like to also stress the importance of wide hallways. Wide hallways seem to reduce lag, which is the bane of all fortresses.

This is also very much true. At least 3 wide for all 'major' hallways. At least two for all others, with few exceptions. The only 1-tile wide tunnels I have in my fortress are the ones I use to funnel invaders through, if I ever do that. (I usually don't, as it makes sieges too easy.)

Regarding running out of wood, consider ordering it from a caravan. They're a steal at only 3g base price each, which means that you can get dozens for each stone mug you produce.

This is true, and I do it myself, but wood is heavy, so it leaves less room for other things, such as booze and food.

[Nilus]

Fortress layouts are really simple, just make sure everything is connected to 3-5 tile wide corridors that act like roads and that stockpiles are close to what they're needed for, like wood stockpile close to carpenters workshop.

About the barrels, start somewhere with plenty of wood and get separate people working on chopping wood and making barrels. Also using two workshops speeds it up greatly.
You could also try to not make more food than you need, either by making small farms or by only farming on 2/4 or 3/4 seasons.

[Ezuku]

Due to a slightly odd quirk in pathfinding, iirc dwarves prefer moving to get things directly above/below them, even if the stairs is way out of the way.

This is true. Dwarves look for the nearest item "as the crow flies", so to speak. They don't care if they have to walk a thousand squares to get to the other side of a wall if the item is only 3 squares away with a wall between them and the item.

If I recall, the issue is worse than that. My understanding is that they don't take into account "vertical distance" at all! Hence, they would rather take something 10 floors up, then right next to them. I may be wrong however.

Regarding running out of wood, consider ordering it from a caravan. They're a steal at only 3g base price each, which means that you can get dozens for each stone mug you produce.

This is true, and I do it myself, but wood is heavy, so it leaves less room for other things, such as booze and food.

True, although it's not like booze and food is in short supply in a typical fortress Besides, if you're out of wood and you need more, you really have no choice (3 metal for 1 barrel doesn't really count).

[Greymane]

Just to add to what inaluct has said, I'd note that it can be difficult, but often worthwhile to position your dinning/meeting hall in such a way that you can dig out the z-levels above it to let in sunlight. This will help ensure your dwarves do not start suffering from cave adaptation, which is a somewhat minor but never the less very messy problem.

To ensure that flying animals or ambushes can't just attack your dwarves from above, you can layer constructed floors over the opening (placing a wall around it as well can help though is not as important as simply covering it). Glass floors for this are a nice touch, but at the moment ANY manner of stone will let light through and, as glass is hard to come by in many biomes, feel free to just use whatever you have in abundance.

Additionally, it can also be of some help to ensure that your bedrooms and your workshops are a good distant apart on both z and y axis. Noise from workshops, smoothing and engraving, and mining will disturb your sleeping dwarves and give them unhappy thoughts. The noise radius for workshops is fairly low compared to that of mining (I believe workshops are only 6 tiles in all directions compared to mining being something like 9, but someone can correct me on this), but typically your workshops will be a more consistant noise source than mining.

Balancing how far your dwarves need to travel between work areas and rest areas can be a little hard, but every bit of extra effort can pay off when dealing with the fuzzy little psychotics.

[Hyndis]

This is one of my older forts, apologies for the poor resolution, but its an overview of the entire area so you can get the idea.

I have a large meeting hall in the center of the fortress. Out from there are the various wings of the fort. The barracks is at the entrance of the fort, such that everyone entering must first go through the barracks, then the meeting hall, which makes you immune to thieves.

Off from the meeting hall I'll have my food/booze/dining wing. Then a residential wing. Then an industrial wing.

You can see here that I was using an open floor concept for my industrial area, which I've since improved on to make it more efficient. I also had the storage across the main hallway from the industrial area. Using stairs to put storage above or below the production is a better space saver, and I now use the Z axis for storage but keep the inhabited sections of my fort on the same level just for ease of keeping track of everything.

The entrance has a clever arrangement of constructed walls and channels to fort invaders to go along a shooting gallery, and you can see the results there on that screenshot.


One very important thing is to make wide hallways. Very wide. Like 4 tiles wide. At first it won't be a big deal, but once your population starts to increase, those hallways will turn into traffic jams, and since most of the time you'll be building rooms off of those hallways, you can't really just carve them wider to accommodate the traffic without destroying all those rooms.

[LegacyCWAL]

Secondly, I have started a fairly prosperous fortress (but it has no sedimentary layer/iron, so I'm starting a new one). I've run into a problem in that I'm out of wood and barrels. I have seen something about this problem before, involving balancing barrels between food and drink stockpiles. Can someone refresh my memory?

A sedimentary layer is nice, but isn't really necessary.  The other layer types can still have Hematite and Limonite (the other two Iron ores), and if you have magma, you can melt down all the crap the goblins drop.

Sound travels 15 squares horizontally and vertically, I believe. Fifteen squares isn't much, so they don't have to be placed that far away.

It depends on what's making the sound.  IIRC, workshops only make noise out to 4 tiles, so it's best to check on that before getting too paranoid about noise and putting stuff on the far end of the map.

[Spoggerific]

Sound travels 15 squares horizontally and vertically, I believe. Fifteen squares isn't much, so they don't have to be placed that far away.

It depends on what's making the sound.  IIRC, workshops only make noise out to 4 tiles, so it's best to check on that before getting too paranoid about noise and putting stuff on the far end of the map.
[/quote]

My source was http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Noise#Noisiness_of_various_jobs which seems to say that only placing furniture and siege engines generate that much noise. I guess I was being paranoid, a bit. Oh well.

[TantiaTope]

I always use the GnomeChomsky's Tessellated Apartments from the wiki, stacked one upon another, with some adaptations.

Surface - Trade Depot, finished goods stockpile (on bins)
Z-1 - Farms and seed-only stockpile, no barrels
Z-2 - Farmer's Workshop + Looms, and empty barrel + cloth stockpile (on bins)
Z-3 - Clothier + Kitchen + Still + Butcher, and food stockpile taking only dwarven syrup + cloth stockpile taking only cloth from the stockpile on Z-2
Z-4 - Ligth workshops, like carpenter with an small wood stockpile, mason and mechanic's with a stone quantum garbage zone, and crafter with refuse stockpile set only to take bones, skulls and shells. A furniture stockpile, excluding bags and barrels, taking also blocks.
Z-5 - Dining hall, with a drinks-only stockpile in the outlying small rooms, taking from the stockpile on Z-6
Z-6 - Food and drink stockpile, taking all except seeds, plants and syrup
Z-7 - Drink stockpile and food stockpile taking only cooked meals
Z-8 to Z-10 - Rooms
Z-11 - Empty area for miscellaneous storage or occasional workshops (jeweler, leatherworker). If I am in a map with sand, for instance, I use this area to hold only empty bags and sand bags.
Z-12 - Minerals ready for smelting
Z-13 - Magma Forges, normally 4 smelters, 2 forges and 2 glass furnaces, and a bar stockpile.

Z-1 (Farms) looks like this:

Code: [Select]

W=Wall
X=Up/Down Stair
1, 2, 3, 4= Distinct farm plots
s= Seed stockpile, barrels set to zero

       WWWW
       WssW
       WsWWWWW
     WWWsW111W
  WWWW.WWX111W
  W4444441111WW
  W4444441111.W
WWW4444441111WWWWW
WsWWX44441111WsssW
WsssW33332222XWWsW
WWWWW3333222222WWW
   W.3333222222W
   WW3333222222W
    W333XWW.WWWW
    W333WsWWW
    WWWWWsW
       WssW
       WWWW

I use a rotating pattern for planting, letting always one farm plot to rest each season. If I want to be extremely picky, I plant one type of crop exclusively in a given plot, and I set the nearest seed stockpile to that type of seed only.
I farm pig tail for alcohol and thread, cave wheat for alcohol, sweet pod for alcohol and syrup and plump helmet for alcohol and food.

Z-2 (Farm Processing) looks like this:

Code: [Select]

F=Farmer's Workshop
O=Loom
Q=Plant Quantum Stockpile
b=Furniture Stockpile, Barrels and Bins only
c=Cloth Stockpile

       WWWW
       W..W
       W.WWWWW
     WWW.WFFFW
  WWWWcWWXFFFW
  WOOOcccbFFFWW
  WOOOcccbbbbQW
WWWOOOcccbbbbWWWWW
W.WWXccccbbbbW...W
W...WccccbbbbXWW.W
WWWWWccccbbbFFFWWW
   WcccccbbbFFFW
   WWOOOcbbbFFFW
    WOOOXWWbWWWW
    WOOOW.WWW
    WWWWW.W
       W..W
       WWWW

The produce of the farms above goes to the Quantum Stockpile. This is a one-tile food stockpile set to take only plants, zero barrels, and a refuse zone on top of it. I don't have any other plant stockpile on the whole fortress so, when one of the farm plots has been harvested, the plants remain there, blinking. When all the plants in a plot have been harvested, I mark them for dumping and they end in the Quantum, safe from spoiling. It is important to set this zone inactive when dumping anything else (see below).
Every plant goes here and gets processed in this level or the next one. Here, pig tails are turned into thread, and sweet pods into dwarven syrup. In this level the thread is also processed into cloth.
All the seeds, by-product of the processing go to the stockpile above, conveniently close.
The outlying L-shape rooms are useful for non-processable refuse (chunks and dead vermin) or other miscellaneous and transitory need.

Z-3 (Food, Drink & Clothes) looks like this:

Code: [Select]

Z=Kitchen
L=Still
K=Clothier
y=Dwarven Syrup Stockpile
c=Cloth Stockpile, accepting only cloth and taking from the cloth stockpile above

       WWWW
       W..W
       W.WWWWW
     WWW.WZZZW
  WWWW.WWXZZZW
  WLLLcccyZZZWW
  WLLLcccyyyyyW
WWWLLLcccyyyyWWWWW
W.WWXccccyyyyW...W
W...WccccyyyyXWW.W
WWWWWccccyyy...WWW
   Wcccccyyy...W
   WWKKKcyyy...W
    WKKKXWWyWWWW
    WKKKW.WWW
    WWWWW.W
       W..W
       WWWW

The dwarven syrup produced above is cooked here into roasts, to be sold each stack by  25,000 monies or more to traders. Note that when the syrup is cooked and the barrel holding it is emptied, the barrel is hauled back upstairs, to be reused.
The still here takes plants from the Quantum and barrels' stockpiles above (or from the  kitchen if both operations are on at the same time and the haulers are not fast enough to clear the kitchen of used barrels), and produces alcohol. Seeds go just to steps upwards and a few more to the stockpile by the farms. The alcohol-filled barrels are moved deeper in the fortress.
The clothier's workshop just takes from the cloth-only stockpile and produces any piece of cloth or bag as needed. They can go to a finished goods stockpile taking only cloth items, set in the nearby L-room.
The empty 3x3 area can be used for a related industry, for example dyeing or butchery, the adjacent L-room set to dye or animal stockpile, respectively.

Z-4 (Light Industry Workshops) looks like this:

Code: [Select]

M=Mason
C=Carpenter
R=Crafter
T=Mechanic
u=Furniture Stockpile (no barrels, no bins) combined with Block Stockpile
w=Wood Stockpile
Q=Quantum Garbage Zone
r=Refuse Stockpile taking only bones, skulls and shells and corpses

       WWWW
       WrrW
       WrWWWWW
     WWWrWTTTW
  WWWW.WWXTTTW
  WCCCwwwwTTTWW
  WCCCwwwwwwwwW
WWWCCCwwwwwwwWWWWW
WrWWXuuuuuuuuWrrrW
WrrrWuuuuuuuuXWWrW
WWWWWuuuuuuuMMMWWW
   WuuuuuuuuMMMW
   WWRRRuuuuMMMW
    WRRRWWQWWWW
    WRRRWrWWW
    WWWWWrW
       WrrW
       WWWW

The Quantum Garbage Zone receives all dumped stone produced by my miners. It is turned into furniture, blocks, crafts or mechanisms in the nearby workshops.
It is important to keep this zone inactive when dumping anything else (i.e. plants from the farms).
The carpentry churns out barrels and bins on demand, that get used immediately for storage, or moved upstairs to the bin-barrel-only stockpile.
Note that the miasma produced by the rotting corpses on the refuse areas don't spread diagonally out of the L-rooms. No doors needed.

Z-5 (Dining Hall - Meeting Area):

Code: [Select]

D=Door
d=Food stockpile, drinks only
T=Table
C=Throne
S=Statue

       WWWW
       WddW
       WdWWWWW
     WWWDW...W
  WWWWSWWX...W
  W..........WW
  W...TC..CT.SW
WWW...C....C.WWWWW
WdWWX........WDddW
WddDW........XWWdW
WWWWW.C....C...WWW
   WS.TC..CT...W
   WW..........W
    W...XWWSWWWW
    W...WDWWW
    WWWWWdW
       WddW
       WWWW

Dwarves relax and drink here, their alcohol conveniently at hand.
This drinks-only stockpile takes from the storage area immediately below.
The doors and walls define a Dining Room area that can be smoothed, engraved, laid on gold blocks or decorated with statues or artifact furniture, to reach Legendary quality.

Z-6 (Food & Drink Storage):

This level has exactly the same shape as the others, but all the open space is half a food stockpile taking all except syrup, plants, seeds and cooked food, and half a food stockpile taking only cooked food, no barrels.
The Dining Hall drinks' stockpile above takes from this, and the dwarves can just step downstairs for their pick of cooked meal.

Z-7 is the same as above.
Both levels, full of food and booze can last years.

Z-8 to Z-10 - Rooms

Note that two levels of food storage above provide enough noise insulation from the workshops further up.

Code: [Select]

W=Wall
D=Door
.=Floor
X= Up/Down Stair

       WWWW
       W..W
       W.WWWWW
     WWWDWD..W
  WWWW.WWXWW.W
  W..W..DWDWWWW
  W.WWWWWW.W..W
WWWDWD..W..W.WWWWW
W.WWXWW.WWWWDWD..W
W..DWDWWWW.WWXWW.W
WWWWW.W..W..DWDWWW
   W..W.WWWWWW.W
   WWWWDWD..W..W
    W.WWXWW.WWWW
    W..DWDWWW
    WWWWW.W
       W..W
       WWWW


And every individual L-room is furnished like this:

Code: [Select]

B=Bed
H=Chest
C=Cabinet

WWDW
WWBW
WCHW
WWWW

This packs 16 dwarves per level in individual rooms.
Different levels of smoothness/engraving and furniture quality provide the necessary room quality level.
I try to house the upper industries workers on the Z-8, haulers on Z-9, and lower industries workers on Z-10. For example, the Mason on Z-8, and in a room adjacent to the stairwell also adjacent to the Masonry.

Z-11 and Z-12 are generic storage space, same shape as all other levels. I keep here sand bags, gems or minerals, to be used in the lowest industry. Occasionally, they house a Tanner, Jeweler, Leatherworker or other odd workshops.

Z-13 (Heavy Industry) looks like this:

Code: [Select]

S=Magma Smelter
F=Magma Forge
G=Magma Glass Furnace

      WWWWW
      WS_SW
      WSSSWWWW
      WSSSFF_W
  WWWWWWWXFFFW
  W_SS....FFFW
  WSSS........W
WWWSSS........WWWWW
WFFFX.........WSSSW
W_FFW.........XSS_W
WFFFW.......GGGSSSW
WWWWW.......GGGWWWW
    WSSS....GG_W
    WSSSXWWWWWWW
    W_SSGGGW
    WWWWGGGW
       WG_GW
       WWWWW


Smelters are feed by the ore in storage above.
The central area is taken by a bar stockpile, which fed the forges.
The product of the forges -furniture, weapons, armor- is immediately put to use in rooms, or the military. Metalcrafts go to the storage area in the surface level.

Z-14 has a branching magma tunnel feeding the forges, connected to the main magma supply in the map.

For the military and nobility, I usually stack 4-5 floors on the Z+ levels, separating the L-shaped outer rooms in individualised towers, Isengard-like.

Code: [Select]

       WWWW
       W..W
       W..WWWW
     WWW..W.>W
  WWWW.W.<W..W
  W>...WDWW..WW
  W...........W
WWWWWW......WWWWWW
W...<W......D....W
W....D......W<...W
WWWWWW......WWWWWW
   W...........W
   WW..WWDW...>W
    W..W<.W.WWWW
    W>.W..WWW
    WWWW..W
       W..W
       WWWW

Or

Code: [Select]

       WWWW
       W>.W
       W..WWWW
     WWW..D.<W
  WWWW.D..W .W
  W<...WWWW .WW
  W.        ..W
WWWDWW      WDWWWW
W....W      W...>W
W>...W      W....W
WWWWDW      WWDWWW
   W..       ..W
   WW. WWWW...<W
    W. W..D.WWWW
    W<.D..WWW
    WWWW..W
       W.>W
       WWWW

For example:
Z+1 is a Fortified Marksdwarf Station, with Archery targets and bolt stockpile
Z+2 is Training barracks
Z+3 has four state bedrooms, one each for mayor, sheriff, or any other noble
Z+4 has four dining rooms
Z+5 has four offices

Then I add other features to this framework, like a perpetual motion engine in a mined-out mineral vein adjacent to the stacjed tower, or a underground tree farm in an adjacent mined out magnetite deposit.