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Author Topic: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...  (Read 3135 times)

darkedone02

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Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« on: October 09, 2008, 11:49:22 pm »

In games like Garry's Mod and Dwarf Fortress, I always like to make things Symmetric, like making a box fort, and make sure that each and everything is put in right. Here in Dwarf Fortress, Each and Every bedroom, offices, and whatnots are 5x4, my halls are 3 wide, and stops at end.

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S = Stairs #= Stone Wall

Do you have symmetry stuff in fort? Do you always do just to make your fortress look beautiful?
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Jude

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2008, 12:12:24 am »

I actually prefer a totally sloppy, organic, asymmetric fort. I just add things on as needed and let it develop naturally. Results in a totally inefficient design, of course.
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Terry von Feledae

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2008, 12:43:53 am »

The funny thing about my playstyle is that while most of my fortress is sloppy and asymmetric, as I expand it as needed without worrying too much about shape, the area containing the dwarves' personal rooms is always perfectly clearly laid out, planned ahead and nicely tidy - an interconnected 2x2 office, dining room and bedroom for every dwarf, with the furniture in the very same position for each room, with hallways inbetween creating groups of six 3-room "apartments".
Funnily enough, the living quarters are also the only place where I bother smoothing/engraving the walls.
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theubie

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2008, 12:58:09 am »

I do try to lay out my below ground fortresses with some eye for how it looks.  I have a few basic "blocks" of rooms that I tend to make, and the housing area for my dorfs seems to always follow the same pattern.

My above ground, however, usually depends on the terrain a lot more and tend to look more like a frontier settlement.
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Tubi2b

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2008, 12:59:51 am »

im creating a pyramid right now so its gonna have to be symmetric. but yes, i generally like to keep the colors of walls and things symmetrical too.
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Tiler

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2008, 01:04:44 am »

I have the pathological urge to plot every single little detail out in advance.

It's very frustrating and tedious.

Which is probably why I've only had a single fort last long enough to get a baron.
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Batta

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2008, 01:22:06 am »

For everythin' below ground I usually stick to perfect or near-perfect symmetry, barring unexpected or later events such as addin' in my lakebound prison/arena and having to connect it to the bedrooms on account of some flooding due to water pressure that I hadn't counted on.

Everything above ground is pretty much made up as I go along and as such looks like a huge mess. Oddly enough I prefer to idle on the ground floors instead of the lower areas, though, so that probably says a lot about how much I care about symmetry.
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Micro102

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #7 on: October 10, 2008, 01:30:42 am »

symmetry is useless if the mountian itself is not symentrical. i base my designs so i can balance out where the rooms and workshops go. sand=food  Z levels with highest mountian=rooms leading up to kings chambers   everything else= workshops.
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Alex Encandar

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #8 on: October 10, 2008, 01:56:39 am »

Yep, i always go as symmetrical as possible.
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pushy

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #9 on: October 10, 2008, 02:49:30 am »

symmetry is useless if the mountian itself is not symentrical.
Not necessarily. It makes it harder, but you can still construct floors/walls beyond the natural boundaries the mountain provides in order to get symmetry :)
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Qmarx

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #10 on: October 10, 2008, 03:26:50 am »

symmetry is useless if the mountian itself is not symentrical.
Not necessarily. It makes it harder, but you can still construct floors/walls beyond the natural boundaries the mountain provides in order to get symmetry :)

But constructed walls look different than natural ones. 
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sneakey pete

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #11 on: October 10, 2008, 04:14:09 am »

Only if you want to engrave them, which i never do.

I'm more of a standardization person than a symmetry person. I'll have a standard hallway size and shape etc., but each block of things is always a different size, never symmetrical.
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Guy Montag

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #12 on: October 10, 2008, 04:48:10 am »

I kinda build my fortress off of pre-planned modules. A block containing 8 apartments, or a block for 4 workshops. 4 Offices in a module, ect. Those are more or less symmetrical, but I stick them wherever I can fit them. I also mine out any veins, even if it destroys the symmetry of the base, I work around that to make the fortress look interesting. I just convert it into a hall way or foyer.

I don't plan out other things, like the noble's quarters or graveyards and most everything else I kinda stick them wherever. I only plan out a rough idea of how things will be laid out, and then roll with it.

I also leave empty space for rooms I suddenly decide I need.

Thing is, most of my fortresses are awfully alike and I'm trying to break out of the rut of making the same sorts of block areas. With my next fort I think I'll try something different by building my base around a bottomless pit, with apartments with windows looking into the open space. That'd be neat.
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Morberis

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #13 on: October 10, 2008, 05:00:31 am »

I like to make things symmetrical when possible but that usually doesn't go out, so I go standardized - 3 wide hallways for high traffic 2 wide for else where.

I also always make my mines on a separate level of my fortress, unless their is a vein of something I *really* need in which case I construct walls to make it all regular again.
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MetBoy

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Re: Symmetry, Symmetry, Symmetry...
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2008, 06:31:59 pm »

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Behold my workshop floors; wide halls, easy access to the central stair, and directions to expand in.
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