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[gordy]

Hi guys,

This is a question mostly for those epic Fortress makers but really for anyone, I'm asking, what do you do in the first year of your fortress in order to secure it for the future? Whether you set out to design a massive mega-project fortress or just a replacement Mountainhome, what are the steps that you always, always take? Are there aspects of Fortress building that I am making too complicated, for example, will dwarves who are forced to live on nothing but Plump Helmets and dwarf wine do just fine if you build them legendary bedrooms and dining halls? How much effort are you making in your design of workshop areas and stockpiles and areas to mine out in that first year, or are you continually building and rebuilding as the fortress grows? Do you punch out fortress areas to start with only to tear them down and replace them with more aesthetic walls of your own construction? I guess I'm asking for your tips and tricks for the first year,

Regards,

G

[kalida99]

1. Dig out basic operations: i dig out basic farming and storage that usually will stay there the the entire life of my fortress

2. GROW
3. EXPAND
4. CONSUME

[Jim Groovester]

I plan.

But first I make a few beds and an above ground hovel that can be taken down without scarring the land and set up a few basic industries, like the food, the booze, the masonry, the carpentry industries. I just build as I need it. This above ground hovel usually gets expanded as more dwarves arrive. I don't care too much about their happiness. I let the expedition leader console or pacify anybody who gets unhappy.

And then I plan. For the real fortress. The project worthy of my time. And I begin the first steps in executing my plan.

[Martin]

I generally don't worry about digging out more than the equivalent of 2 9x9 rooms plus a 9x9 underground farm area. Once I have that much, I have space to store all of my food, grow food, get the first workshops up and running and stash a few beds. Bedrooms rarely get dug before year 3.

I send one dwarf out to clearcut the map. Better now than when the gobbos are stalking you.

I get one dwarf farming/brewing/cooking.

I get one dwarf working up to legendary mason.

3 dwarves alternate digging/hauling critical items (food, wood).

The last dwarf usually gets the first traps up and running - wood spikes or obsidian swords in weapon traps, cage traps, etc.

Then just steadily build out.

As for the design, I plan out the fortress right when I start and just build some defensible subset of it that will accommodate the trade depot and work forward from there. As the needs of the fortress grow, I dig out or build a bit more. Mostly, be patient - don't try and do everything at once.

I never worry about dwarven happiness. I've had them living in a handful of beds in a corner of a room for 20 years. By the time they really start to get upset about anything, the cook is turning out exceptional meals and nobody gives a damn any more.

[HAMMERMILL]

I plan and dig out as much of the fortress as I can. Set up workshops and mass produce stone trinkets and furniture. I dig out and get beds all my bedrooms and industry areas, stockpiles, ect. I build walls around my entrance to keep it reletively safe from early threats untill I get a military up and running.

I usually embark with plenty of booze and food to last my 7 dwarves the entire year. I make the first wave of migrants the farmers/brewers/cooks/butchers/engravers/ect rather then wasting the talents and time of my original 7 with stuff that doesn't take skill to master. I don't bother breaking down the wagon untill I have plenty of haulers.

[Glowcat]

My strategy is similar to Jim's.

Once I've determined the location is suitable for my desired project I establish a temporary bunker with all the basic necessities, a few industries to produce trade goods, and plenty of stockpile space. The location is always something that can be torn down later without a hassle or will be converted into a part of my project: a small cave where my entrance will be, the hollowed interior of a hill I plan to flatten, etc.

If possible, I establish a walled outdoor farm to produce different booze depending on the season. I get my food by buying out a caravan's meat and cheese.

Then I begin working on the true fortress. One worthy of a mad scientist's dwarf's vision.

[Beanchubbs]

I cut down all the trees within a 40x40 area of where I plan to begin the entrance. I dig out the first floor, which is food/booze/wooden furniture production. Usually I put my temporary meeting hall and all of the cheap rooms up there too. I go down a few more levels. Dig out a very large area for trade good/weapon & armor/stone furniture etc. production. Then I do some exploratory mining looking for gems and leveling the miners. Meanwhile, everyone else is:
Moving stuff
Making food
Making trinkets to trade for cheap food/anvil/other stuff in first caravan.
Making furniture to furnish everything.

[Flaede]

I subscribe to the paranoia model:
I dig a moat.
or take all the ramps off the side of a huge hill. 
basically I completely isolate my dwarves from all but flying creatures.

If flying creatures are an issue, I dig a hole, move everything into it, then buld a pillar underneath the entrance.

THen I set about doing all those "get a viable fort" things everyone else has mentioned.

[Duke 2.0]

 Dig storehouse. Cram everything inside. Make basic necessities.

 Once there are a good twenty bedrooms and reliable farms, onto quarrying massive amounts of stone and digging out my megaproject.

[dragon0421]

1. Make sure I'm bringing enough food/booze. My latest fort has gone 4 years (47 dwarves currently) without planting a single crop or hunting a single animal. I've survived completely on trading.

2. Designate almost my entire fort. My current fort has a 5 by 30 by 3z entry hall leading to a 30 by 60 by 5z dining hall, flanked by two 2z tall future merchant areas and the kings throne room. Above the merchant areas are 2z high throne rooms, offices, and a barracks near an armory, shooting range, pump gym, and entry fortifications. The entire fort is linked by 4, 3 by 3 stair cases, 30 apart. Below the hall is a food storage floor, then a farming floor, main storage floor, workshop floor, magma floor, magma drain floor, and obsidian mine floor. 3 floors down are 4 floors for housing, designed in a 16 gear shaped fractal pattern around the 4 stair cases, capable of housing 384 single dwarves (more if married). Below that are two double z high large gear shaped large housing areas capable of housing 40 nobles, founders, and legendary dwarves. Below that are two floors devoted to the king's bed and dining rooms. Finally the last two floors make up the tomb, shaped into a huge hammer, built for expandability and capable of holding literally thousands of dwarves while still keeping the same shape. Needless to say, I spent an entire day designing this thing (being unemployed and between college semesters helps)

3. Dig out the entry hall and build an airlock defense. Easily the most effective defense and the easiest to build. Your dwarves are cut off from the outside world, but traders can still reach you. The only vulnerable moments are when immigrants and trade liaisons need to get in, or when you need to chop wood. In those cases, I have 15 stone fall traps built outside the entrance. Chop down about 500 trees, build 5 beds for my starting 7, and start churning out rock crafts.

4. Finish digging the dining hall, barracks, and food storage floor. By now I should have had my first big wave of migrants who help me dump all of the stone in the storage floor (I'm not a fan of soil forts and like building into cliff faces). Cross train everyone in wrestling. Move 500 logs indoors.

That's about it for my first year/year and a half.

5. Dig out the other industry floors, dump the farming floor stones, find the underground river/lake and magma pipe.

6. Muddy the farming floor, set up farms. Build an aqueduct to power 3 pumps at a "magma pipe sweet spot" tm. Build multiple, redundant drains and floodgates for the magma. Pump the magma below the workshop floor (if you do this right, it will flow across a map faster than water).

7. Build farming industries. Build armor and weapons and train up a proper military. Dig out housing areas and tomb and move civilians out of the barracks. This is where I am now.

8. Grow population, get nobles and king. Set up all industries. Put doors in all entries, coffins in all tomb spots, and furniture in all rooms. Smooth and engrave all walls/floors and remove scaffolding.

9. Decorate everything. Search for HFS and begin mega project: sealed temple. Turn adamantine into nifty items.

10. Think of a new mega project and/or enact dwarven apocalypse.

[Wooty]

The first thing I do is dig out an enormous room, and then build everything I need in that room. Once I've dug out the startings of a real fort I move everything out of that room and turn it into the main stockpile.

[Rowanas]

I build a central stockpile and surround it with walls. Then digging is done, animals are set as guards and everything grows from there. The basic industries are first to start, but I usually have 2 years worth of bedrooms built before I have a single bed. Farming waits a little while, but both overground and underground are done pretty much simultaneously.

[Vester]

If I embarked on a plain, I dig a z-level down, dig out stockpile and workshop rooms, and find soil for my plump helmet farms and build a well. Then I dig another z-level down and dig out the first bedrooms. After I get a food surplus I start working on my fortress walls. 

[Jeff Carr]

I almost always have a single entrance to my forts that forces the enemy to enter either through or right beside the barracks.  My ridiculously large and opulent barracks is the first thing that I dig out, and where I have my entire fort living for the first couple of years.

During that time, I build out my defences, clear cut the woods, and dig out the entire rest of my fort.  As I finish digging out areas, I relocate my industries to their final locations and move those dwarves down to their living quarters.

During the first year I always set up my farming/brewing/cooking and my barrel/bed/bin manufacturing.  I also set up my dog breeding, and start collecting other livestock to breed.  I also buy out all the raw materials from every caravan, and request more raw materials of every sort.  By the end of the first year, I'm set up to start any industry I'd like, with the frequent exception of smithing, due to a frequent lack of wood during the first year.

[Quatch]

Eh, I dig into a hill, carve a starting fortress, dig to some soil, make a farm. Build a depot, and some floodgates to seal myself in (orcs).

My fort evolves from this small core. I don't plan the whole thing out ahead of time. Makes it interesting later trying to route around my current bits.

In order of survival:
shelter (against raiders and sunlight, for dwarves and supplies), 7 beds, build tradegoods for fall caravan (I dont bring an anvil). Farm.

Expand, consume, repeat. Megaproject. Fun.