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[DoX]

I'm not talking about cross breeding Hobbits and Rabbits right now,

No, I'm asking what're some of the things you do when you're building a new fortress, always. It doesn't need to be about functionality, it could be for the sake of style, or realism, or whatever. Can't have an entrance without a bridge? Always need more then one well or it doesn't feel complete?

For me, I always have to make the jails on the very bottom Z level. Always. It just feels like the right place for punishment. Also, the graveyard is always one level higher then that. That's right, Prison beneath the graves.

[darius]

Circular places, Underground cavers (naturally looking) with artificial rivers and forests, recently started building towers but that's not that dwarvenly. Also love to make complex (more complex than the fort itself) plumbing systems.

[Deon]

I always try to make a wide corridor, also I try to find a place with solid rock near soil to have an underground farm nearby.

The first thing I make is the barrack room, then dining hall, then workshops. Bedrooms come last.

I like to make a separate "prison" block near barracks, with a Sheriff office in it.

I like to make graveyard a few levels down, and then make an "old mine" coming out of it.

Also I love to build around magma pipes and deep pits.

[Diablous]

Hmm lets see. First off I always have this.

Code: [Select]

         d[dd
         dddd
         dddd
         d[dd
d=dig
[=rock wall

Basically I mine out four squares of the mountain my dwarves will live in, then two squares in the middle of the new cliff I've made, then a four square wide corridor; and I dig out a large square barracks on one side of the hall, and a large room for workshops on the other. And I always have my dining room on the opposite side of a central staircase from the food stockpile, which has a room coming of it where the stills and kitchens are.

More to come, maybe.

[Anamabir]

Tombs go at the bottom. Always.

[dogstile]

I'm about to embark on a map where my fort will have one entrance, to get to that entrance you have to cross a bridge that is patrolled constantly by marksdwarves. Inside will be a hollowed out cavern with towers spiralling down into the bottom of it, where a vast district of house's shall be erected.

If all goes well, i'll have magma too.

[dragon0421]

-I make a huge great hall that's 5 Zs high, and all noble rooms and the barracks are 2 Zs high.
-The bottom Z level is reserved for tombs; the most fitting final resting place is closest to the heart of the earth.
-I build columns to hold up the ceilings in any large room.
-I never use windmills; all power in generated underground from diverted rivers because my dwarves view anything built above ground as a weakness enemies will exploit.
-I never build topside farms for the same reason, but I import as much food as possible to give my dwarves that variety.

[JaaSwb]

- Never any exposed soil inside except for farming purposes. Natural walls are all smoothed.
- I tend towards rather vertical designs, with a lot of single-theme levels (storage level, noble suites, food and recreation level etc.)
- One or two central control rooms on the recreation level containing pretty much all of the levers (except the very scary ones, which get seperate rooms for safety purposes).
- A central staircase to which the entire fort is connected

XXX
X,X
XXX

[Laskuraska]

There is always one central staircase that starts where I first struck the earth. After I'm dug in, I build an inlet three tiles wide, dig a pit, and drawbridge over the pit. I then remove the up stairs and cover the hole up top by paving it.

[JamPet]

Dwarves love mineral veins most of all so whenever I build a long hallway I never make it straight, but give it bends and imperfections along the side to make it feel more like a natural, emptied vein.  I sometimes leave bits and pieces of rooms on-smoothed for the same reason.

In the same vein (Ha ha!) I like to bury my dwarves in cashed deposits I've found.  Rank and file get lined up in coffins along the walls, and nobles get the gem and aluminum pockets as their tombs.  The old sage-dwarves say that if one only waits long enough and re-breeches the tombs, one will find a veritable wealth of coal!  Ha, but that is just a crazy legend.

[NecroRebel]

I always channel out the square in the exact middle of my fort proper, making a single-tile shaft going from just below the surface to the bottomost level (or from the highest to the lowest level if I build a tower), put an repeater-powered atom smasher at the bottom, and use the shaft as a garbage dump.

My forts also always have at least lateral, if not radial, symmetry. I avoid having random protuberances that aren't mirrored on all sides, if at all possible, and even the interior floorplan is made up so that it is the mirrored in at least 1 direction. Which is another reason why I dislike nobles, because their needs often require an asymmetrical setup. Jerks 

[Slackratchet]

I build a 5x5 stairwell straight down from wherever I start. First is the barracks and next is storage for trade goods. I tend to stick with radial symmetry like many others but I tend to put my prison at the top of a tower and if possible I build the walls from glass, I feel it's the last place a dwarf would want to be.

[GlyphGryph]

My fort entrances are almost always long, winding, cavelike passages, usually with a water source creating some pathside lakes and winding occasionally back and forth under the path, occasionally running alongside behind it or disspaearing into the wall for a wall, and sometimes creating a place that needs to be bridged, and several muddied areas for mushrooms to grow, with a road for the caravan going through the whole thing. There will often be secret passages in the walls and defensive fortifications set up that can only be reached from the fort proper.

At the end will be the Trade Depot and the Fortress entrance, where the fort proper starts.

Also, I never ever use underground farms or drawbridges.

[jokermatt999]

Bedrooms always go at the very bottom Z-level. Dwarves sleep within the earth.

Other than that, I mess around a good deal. I plan my forts somewhat randomly, just building whatever I need at the moment.

[Rico21]

I always start out with a long corridor that leads to a trade depot.  Next I build a small room next to the trade depot which houses my stonecrafter.  Stonecrafter starts making crafts in preparation to buy out the first caravan while everyone else gets assigned to bring all the food and alcohol to the room.  Next I build the big dining room 1 level down, followed by the workshops.  Bedrooms are last.  I also like to build secret passageways and trapdoors to divert invaders.  Recently I just trade for all my food and alcohol, not feeling like dealing with planting and stuff.  Finally, all of the first 7 get special rooms which will eventually be paved with an expensive metal.