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[Heron TSG]

Well, seeing how the wiki doesn't have much for exciting layouts...

post your epic designs and mad plans here! I'll start off...
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Meat cube-

Level 1-
XXXXX
X___X
X_O_X
X___X
XXXXX


Level 2-
XXXXX
X___X
X_O_X
X___X
XXXXX


Level 3-
XXXXX
X___X
X_O_X
X___X
XXXXX

etc.

KEY: O-bull
        _=floor
        X= Cow

Top/bottom floors-
_____
_xxx_
_xxx_
_xxx_
_____

_=floor
x=butcher's shop

[AncientEnemy]

you can build walls out of cows now?

[Xehon]

you can build walls out of cows now?

I bet that just got into the future of the fortress

[FoboslC]

A cow factory! Nice, I'm going to build that now. AS I understand, cows and bulls chained?

[Mulch Diggums]

Of course. Great idea there, I generally just let the cows out for a months time, then stick them all back in untill they've had their babys and repeat.

[Heron TSG]

well, yes. they are chained animals.

the walls would be outside that area, not made of cows.

As far as I know, this is the most efficient method of producing beef in irrational amounts.

[Untelligent]

Fully automated cat dumper. Completely theoretical for the moment, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Code: [Select]

# #
#^#  -  Pressure Plate
# #
# ########
# +      #
# ###### #
# ###### #
# ###### #
#o###### #
#+###### #
#o###### #
# ###### #
# ###### #
# ###### #
# +      #
# ########
# #
#^#  -  Pressure Plate
# #

The shorter hallway on the left is marked as low or very low traffic, so dwarves will always take the longer hallway on the right. All three doors are marked as "no pet." Due to animals not following pathing restrictions, and being unable to tell that there's a door in the way, any pet will get stuck behind the door in the middle until its owner returns. When the owner (or any dwarf) steps on either pressure plate, hatch (or whatever) opens, and the cat (or whatever) falls into my garbage disposal system.

Doesn't require any interaction on my part beyond the initial construction, and should be completely safe for the dwarves. I'll probably have the cat dumper hall lead to a legendary dining room, so that any unhappy ex-pet owners will quickly forget about it.

Some objects are more responsive than others, so I might have to test whether hatches, grates, or bars respond the fastest, but I think that only bridges and doors have a delay.

[Heron TSG]

okay- dwarven showers!

top holding tank- just a 7x7 layer of water. (any shape, connects to lower level)

second highest holding tank- a 50-length tunnel that drains into 10 rooms that are each 5 spaces apart

one more level down-
XFX
X_X
XDX

X= wall
D= door
_=floor tile beneath a floodgate in the ceiling
F= floodgate leading to the drainage tunnel, which is re-pumped back into the top tank.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pros-
~no more vomit covered blood all over your military.
~slightly realistic
~with this format, each shower would get 3-4 units of water, not letting the dwarves drown
~losing is fun!

Cons-
~have to run all showers at the same time
~may flood the fortress

[Forumsdwarf]

I'll admit off the bat this isn't really "impressive" per se, but it leads to happy thoughts in the Dwarf Fortress player when you never see a dry pond on a map with an aquifer.

This is a side-view:

Code: [Select]

M (Windmill)
_%X~ (Pond)
 %%_
   7(Aquifer)

No mechanisms, no wasted energy, just a simple pump that keeps your ponds filled.  ("X" is a channeled tile to communicate power to the bottom pump; "M" is channeled to connect the windmill.)
The mouth of the uppermost pump is watertight, at least while it's running, so the channel under it isn't a problem.

Access is via a ladder which I seal with doors to help prevent flooding of the bottom ladder room (real floodgates would be safer, but we're going for "simple").
Top view, middle level:

Code: [Select]

       X
       + ~~~~~~~~
      .%%~~Pond~~
         ~~~~~~~~


[Foa]

When making a Magma camp, make sure to have an aquifer, and wood...

Okay, 'Drop the Hammer', just build a 5x5 tower that is 5z tall, excluding the bottom floor, reserved for the supports.

'Fill the Forges', you need to make sure to place floodgates before the fortifications, and hallways, and other places that you don't want lava to flow into.

[AncientEnemy]

Fully automated cat dumper.

this is brilliant. i may have to steal this design. i think i'm gonna use upright spear traps in mine rather than hatches

[Cheshire Cat]

the cow farm is cool.

but oh, the automatic cat dumper. ive been wondering what i can do along these lines for ages, my forts get so slow due to the number of pets.

the only problem i can see is that from the pets i have watched, they often just follow their owners movements exactly, simply sitting at a pet forbidden door wondering what the hell to do, even when there are other routes around they dont follow them. this was several versions ago, when i had a passage across a chasm with tightly closed doors at either end, and alternate longer pet friendly routes around, so things may have changed since then.

[Wolfius]

A more reliable pet culling method, albeit a manual one, is a hallway of upright spear traps operated by a lever in a room at the end, with doors at either end of said hall. Order the soon-to-be-greiving pet owner to pull the lever on repeat and lock the doors around the pet at it follows.

Tho for population control issues, you only have to cull female cats, and can still retain vermin control. You could keep the females and kill the males, but all it'd take is a newly arrived immigrant's pet male cat to pop spores befor you can kill it, and they're all preggers.



On a different note, I like to build little jail cells.

Code: [Select]

█╫┼╫█
+++++
█╫┼╫█
█θ++█
█§+≈█
██████[/color]

The ≈ being prisoner access to a water line under the cells, fed by the stream at the surface through an air-lock system measured to fill the pipes about half way per cycle.

I was going to replace the doors with a third grate, operated by a lever, but I decided it wasn't worth it. There's also an evaporation chamber and multipule doors to protect against flooding, and allow simplified recovery if I decide to execute the prisoners.

[Heron TSG]

nice ideas, everybody! well, here's one for surviving in a brook-less area with only a few murky pools to keep your wounded alive.

(side view)
BBBBBB <-- drawbridge on top
I          I\
I          I- Walls making up the sides of the tower
I          I/
|_____| <-- murky pool

when it's raining, open the bridge, allowing rain to fill the pool, and by extension, the tower, which will eventually fill due to the murky pool holding water and overflowing up into the tower

when it's not raining, close the bridge to prevent evaporation.
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for bonus points, build the fortress around the 'water bucket' with wells on the edges on the upper (presumably never to be filled) levels, allowing for instant wounded-hydration service.

[Akhier the Dragon hearted]

On a different note, I like to build little jail cells.

Code: [Select]

█╫┼╫█
+++++
█╫┼╫█
█θ++█
█§+≈█
██████[/color]


thats awsome but i would add a one square farm plot and have the inmate grow a plump helmut and see if it can survive on the water and that alone.