Print

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

[Suriastrasz]

I just applied one of the 'square' tileset, which made me take a bit of a fresh look at fort design. I've played quite a few forts, but I tend to abandon when it gets frustrating, re: resource management failure or low FPS. I don't have much experience with 'dangerous' maps, (a siege every year or two, after a few years, with maybe a max of 5 gobbo squads is my combat experience) and any of the mechanical stuff -- pumps, pressure-plate-sprung-traps, or extreme building projects. I tend to churn out piles and piles of cheap stonecrafts instead of making valuable things.

I tend to organize everything around a central staircase, farming in a soil layer, then below that most workshops, stockpiles, common and noble housing, the dungeon and coffins/tombs below. I'm getting BORED of this fort style.

That being said, what are the design elements you can't do without? Especially re: passive defense, or limited-resource maps like -treeless or -magmaless. What should I try out as a newbie to pumping? Anything you learned from experience I should know?

[PencilinHand]

Add [NOFEAR] to goblins so they don't chicken out when you have killed 3 or 4 of them.  Steady supply of iron and trade goods guaranteed.  Though, in my latest fortress I have had no end of trouble getting the wiggly backstabbers to show up in force!

Otherwise, leverage what you have for what you don't.  Example, I always find myself importing about 80% of my wood and most of my metal except for iron and copper.

[Sevrun]

Ahhh, screwpumps...  Make use of a U-bend just before the pump to ensure you don't get flooded.  there are a number of ways to power them, from dwarven sacrifice (pump operators) to windmills or waterwheels.  I tend to have problems with waterwheels because they take a bit more foresight than I tend to put into the game.  However with Windmills remember to cut a channel at the center of where the mill will be, that way you can put the gearbox underneath to transfer power.  VERY important.

Defenses...  I tend to go relatively light on defenses, just a U shaped tunnel with a fortified "bunker" for a couple crossbowdwarves.  other than that, I rely on skilled Axes, don't even bother with moats or the extensive traps some prefer.  I don't knock em, just not my style

[greggbert]

I like to dig down into very flat ground, and I like to have as much as possible on one single level.  THat way I can see the action better without flipping between z-levels.  Because of the ups and downs of the terrain, and rivers, etc..   I build the main fort about 4-5 levels below the surface so I can be gauranteed a full z level.

I'm doing a design now where I have only one entrance to my fortress and a trade depot directly next to it.  Then I build a tiny keep (about 10x10) around the entrance/depot with four drawbridges, one on each side.  The only other thing in the keep is ammo storage and practice targets.  And a 4x4 booze stockpile.   The keep has fortifications one level above all the way around.  Beyond the drawbridges, dogs are chained to detect/slow anyone attempting to enter the keep.

Underground I have my downstaircase, a little gauntlet of traps, and then dig down deep to my main fort.

My Main fort takes up the entire Z level (or it will grow to do so and it is laid out in Quadrants off the center)

CENTER = Dining Room, Main Hall, Wells, Barracks, Finished Goods Storage, trash disposal chute (with atomizer at the bottom), Zoo, Garden, etc..
NW = Food and Clothing production and storage
NE = Crafts, Gems, Masons, Carpenter, Control Room, etc…
SW = Residential sprawl and offices (Might go down or up a z level if I run out of room)
SE = Armor Prod, Weapons Prod, Smelters, Furnaces, Blacksmiths, ore Storage

in the NE portion of the fort is a large control room with a small-scale model of everything outside with levers positioned that control the drawbridges above. 

I always make a small storage area for each thing, and then when I need more storage I just build a downstair with identical storage right underneath.  THat way I can scale almost unlimited my storage.  With the exception of my tomb, and my plumbing,  I never put anything new on a different z level.  The only time I ever utilize z levels is when I run out of storage space and I need to extend my stockpiles downward or upward.

On the lowest level, I clear out my tombs.  That's in the center of the fortress at the very bottom z level. 

I only do surface farming, I create FULLY WALLED farms directly above my seed/food storage and they only way to get there is by using the up stair from my food storage.  That way the farmers can work during a siege. 

On the surface, Outside my smaller keep I have a larger wall that claims a good deal of territory.  That wall also has 4 drawbridges, two of the drawbridges have roads that lead directly to my smaller keep.  The other two have gauntlets of traps and cages.  When friendlies come the safe drawbridges are opened.  When enemies come, I start opening and closing drawbridges, causing the enemies to constantly reroute, or go through my trap gauntlets.  Each trap entrance has a main section and then individual sections controlled by more drawbridges that can force the enemy through weapon traps, spike traps, cage traps, all depending on which doors are opened and closed.   All are controlled by levers in the control room downstairs, which contains a mini-replica of the outside. 

[Solarn]

I usually embark on mountain maps and pick a deep valley to put my main entrance in. Inside, it's usually one main corridor with branching corridors if necessary. I utilize z-levels mostly for storage and living quarters and often anything above my main fortress level gets dug out and used for whatever I can think of. Later, when I've built up the basic facilities, I sometimes carve fortifications into the walls of the valley and build a trap-ridden secondary entrance for the gobbos' benefit.

[Homez]

On my latest map, I went with a 3 bridge walk-of-death design, an idea I got from the DFwiki.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here it is color coded.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The three bridges are circled in red. The blue represents the path invaders will have to take if the middle bridge is closed, this will run them over tons of traps, and past the Fortifications (pink) which could have archers or ballista behind them (yellow). The red represents open space where invaders cannot walk.

Inside my fort, I have three levers (one for each bridge). By toggling these levers, I can let everyone into my base easily, such as traders (main path), I can raise the middle bridge, forcing enemies along the blue, or I can close all of them, effectivly keeping enemies out of my fort.

Hope this helps.

[Gertack]

In your shooting gallery it's useful to have the back/outer wall (the one your marksdwarves hit when they miss the goblins) be a channel down to the level below so that the errant shots hit the wall, drop a level, and are thus reusable.  This does, however, cause lots of 1-bolt stacks which aren't quite as useful with the lack of restacking.

[pushy]

That being said, what are the design elements you can't do without?

Magma and sand are usually a must for me - I'm fond of having four levels of housing: Haulers and the like get plain rock furniture (value modifier x1), dwarves with proper jobs get green glass stuff (value mod x2), legendaries get clear glass stuff (value mod x5), and nobles get iron stuff (value mod x10)

Especially re: passive defense

Moat + drawbridge is about as passive as you can get. I like having rather overly complex entrances, though. The one I'm currently in the process of building up, once I get the trade depot set up, will have no fewer than FOUR entrances, though one will be permanently blocked off at one end (trade depot) and two others will be very heavily trapped (one with cage traps, one with weapon traps). Idea is that goblins will come in through the main (untrapped) entrance. They'll be funnelled through a single 1-tile-wide section of this entrance, where they'll be spotted by a restrained animal (primarily there for kobolds, who can avoid all of my traps) and then trip a pressure plate that'll close a drawbridge behind them. They're then stuck having to fight my guards and have just two options available to them when they choose to flee - go back the way they came, through the entrance with cage traps (they'll then be sent down to an arena)...or fight their way through my guards and through the entrance with weapon traps. In the event of sieges or multi-ambushes where an early group of goblins trigger the bridge and leave other groups of goblins outside the fort, those later groups can still plod their way along into either trapped entrance.

What should I try out as a newbie to pumping?

A really simple thing might be to try making an artificial pond by draining a real pond or taking water from a river/brook and channelling it to its intended destination. A small project like that will teach you the basics of pumping, and this can have practical uses such as teaching you how to channel water for use with a well or as a safe, indoor fishing source

[kefkakrazy]

Alright.

I build around a central shaft-when I start my fortress, I have my miners plunge a straight up/down stairwell, and tend to build all rooms off of pathways to that shaft. I tend to either put the shaft in an enclosed area dug out of the side of a hill, or if the area's too flat, to build (as quickly as becomes possible) walls around it. Even on peaceful maps, I'm paranoid dammit.

I don't know if dwarves have to slow down going up/down stairs the same way they do for corridors-I tend to build additional shafts connecting extreme high-traffic areas to ameliorate the traffic on the stairs. For example, with my current fortress I have one level with all of the high-traffic goods (all food, all drink, wood, cages, bones, etc). There are additional stairwells connecting this room to the production level (all of my workshops are clustered in a fairly small area, with a legendary dining room connected as well). The additional stairwells continue one floor down into a smaller bulk-storage room, which holds things that don't get as much traffic (like finished goods). I later dug a HUGE room that is now nothing but a furniture storage.

The enclosure around the shaft is the core of my defense. I tend to build a wide wall around that (generally more of a courtyard-the keep enclosure is at the rear of the surrounding wall instead of in the center). This gives me a nice wide area to work with, keeping things like refuse stockpiles out there instead of exposing my dwarves, meaning that the only people that need to go outside are woodcutters, herbalists, and corpse looters.

I do not overuse traps-an army does have to go through one layer of weapon traps (single wooden corkscrews), one layer of stone traps, and then my army. Breaks in the outer wall are generally one space wide and filled with single cage traps (to capture sneaking thieves).

The main shaft, keep, and curtain wall are mainstays of my design-I have them virtually no matter what else I'm doing with the fort. I get fancy depending on what else is around-I almost always ensure that I have a brook, because I am fond of deadly explody traps featuring water (and besides-no matter what else you happen to be doing, it CAN be suitably enriched by adding neck-deep water. Room filled with upright spikes that are automatically extending and retracting? Just add water! Inescapable pit? Just add water! Noble rooms? JUST ADD WATER!)

[Stelknecht]

Howdy! First post, 3 month-lurker here. Love DF. Can't stop. Stelknecht stops job: Playing Dwarf Fortress. (I wish)
What I like to do for flat ground entrances is a 3 square wide spiral design around the main stairwell. Then, on the Z level one up from the walls, I build a raisable(?sp) bridge that extends past all the spiral walls, and put ramps on the outside of the walls that match the end location of the bridge. When the bridge is down, derfs walk up the ramp and do a short straight shot to the stairway. When it's up, they (and enemies) have to go around about 15 times as far as the bridge. Fill the spiral with traps, guards, spikes, pressure plates, magma moats, etc etc death mayhem ad infinitum. Sometimes a central tower with fortifications and a pile of ammo and marksdwarves, sometimes I build gatehouses at the entrance to the spiral, accessible from beneath.
This way when enemies come, I raise the bridge and my outside dwarfs coming in run the spiral, trailing enemies behind them, who are gently rocked to sleep by whatever killing devices are in the way.
Anyhow, that's what I like to do. Seems to work ok, although a really heavy attack can sometimes overwhelm the passive defenses and require some derf involvment to stop them.

[AncientEnemy]

I'm obsessed with symmetry.

Generally my forts are based on 9x9 square rooms, arranged in a cross, with meeting halls in the center and my bedrooms in the corners. I start 7 or so Z levels below ground and work down, with a spiral 'staircase' (ramps actually) connecting it to the surface, to allow for caravans, and room to place traps/constructions later on (right now my fortress has no passive defenses, just my soldiers who have a barracks to spar in right in front of the entrance on the surface.


here's my latest fort Ilontirist, 'Moonrim' (from top level to deepest):

multiple images

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Top floor: (clockwise from the north, bedrooms in the corners:)
/ Wood stockpile
/ farm + well
/ depot & assorted stockpiles
/ food stockpile + refuse pit

2nd floor: Carpenters, ashery, wood furnace, furniture stockpile
/  magma forge, magma smelter, magma kiln, magma glass furnace, ore stockpile, bottom of well
/ masons, mechanics, clothiers(needed it for a mood, stuck it there) bar&block stockpile
/ kitchen, still, butchers, food stockpile 2, refuse pit

3rd floor: craftsdwarf's workshop, furniture stockpile 2
/ magma for the furnaces
/ bone & ammo stockpile
/ food stockpile 3 + refuse pit

4th floor: more bones and furniture
/ kennel and animal cages
/ ammo and archery ranges
/ stone stockpile and garbage disposal at bottom of refuse pit

bottom floor: leader's office, leader's dining room
ammo retrieval
under construction

each level allows for 16 modest rooms (haven't gotten around to furnishing them yet, but I did put a team of migrants to work as full-time stone smoothers). I really like this design because I can constantly expand downward in the same format, with the bedrooms and central meeting halls expanding as my population does. i've also gotten pretty lucky and hit quite alot of metal ore just in the digging out of my fortress.

[AtomicDragon]

I tend to develop my fortress in wings and levels
My exterior will usually have a small keep with my trade depot and a secured, outside refuse pile.  If I have a cooperative stream, I'll have a secured fishing area and waterwheel house as well.

First level down will be have farms and craftshops, and usually the archery ranges. 

Next floor down is residential, with on wing leading off to bedrooms for everyone, another wing leading to the food/booze prep and storage, usually right below the farms.  I always dig a daylight-shaft over the only way in and out of my dining hall to help prevent adaptation.  This level will also usually have a well with some beds around it to act as a hospital.  A small wing will contain a furniture crafting area.

Third floor down will be the heavy industry area with smelters, forges and furnaces.  The entrance to the exploratory mines will be located down this hall as far from the bedrooms as possible.

Everything below that is exploratory mines and plumbing.  Maybe an obsidian factory

[zorp]

I tend to use the central staircase theme as well.
First floor down- Farmplot
Second floor- Stockpiles
Third floor- Workshops
Fourth floor- bedrooms/dining rooms/meeting halls/etc.
Fifth floor and below- Random mines/dungeons/(up and coming) Arena

Exterior- Often situated next to a river (or in a fork in the river), where i then procede to make a moat, wall inside the moat, and make refuse stockpiles as needed, trade depot, etc.

Another soon to be added feature is my Volcano fort.
Diverted brook + Magma pipe = tons of obsidian...
Im going to try and build an inverted tower inside the volcano.

[TinyPirate]

I am obsessed with pits, massive big pits leading to the dining area, with refuse at re bottom as well next door to the dining room. No miasma, no cave adaption, short walks to toss food. Floor over the top to keep rain out.

[LegacyCWAL]

AFAIK, cave adaptation is only prevented and/or cured by being outside, not just aboveground+light.  But making a roof by flooring over the top makes the stuff below it inside, so dwarves will still suffer cave adaptation.

It's been a while since I tested it though, so there's a chance I might be wrong.