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[Shrike]

Upon embark, I first take a look around and get a general idea of what I'm going to try to do in the area. My first order of business is get to ground, get everything and everyone off the surface, putting things into stockpiles in areas I can either expand without changing the plan too much, or that I can safely get rid of later when I'm finalizing my work.

I tend to put in a decent size common dining hall and a good size barracks/sleeping area, which is sort of a bad idea because it's then so hard for me to actually give the hard working dwarves decent rooms.

I head for the magma as soon as possible and dig out three layers. The top is for the workshops, the middle for the lava channels, and the lowest is for stockpiles of goods used in fey moods, so the dwarves won't go nuts.

I also make a large boneyard to get more value out of orcs and goblins that come to visit.

The trade depot is recessed or surrounded by walls with a 3-wide channel leading in. Before the depot, there is a wider area, 9 tiles wide or so, that is used to station my military dwarves so they won't run around outside on their own because of how they follow their unit's leader.  No traps, I've stopped using them, but I do have a bridge lock.

If possible, I place the entrance to my fort in a place where I can have traders only come in from one area of the map, so marksdwarves can be stationed nearby in the event that the orcs follow the elves in again.


I start thinking about defenses once i have about 15 dwarves, so I can train my champions and have the proper turret placements.

[Sorcerer]

i usually prefer to build into the side of a mountain, 2d style, and then carve my fortifications out of that, with a curtain wall and sniper towers only enterable from inside the fort added later.

Outside that my forts seem to mostly be fairly OCD'y trying to build rooms for the dwarves that maximise floorspace and exactly match up with other passages mined earlyer, and perfectly placed workshops and storage piles. Lately tho, after stonesense i've been building what looks good instead, focusing mostly on the entrance hall and such, my latest one has a three story grand hall with engraved pillars/staircases.

[RichardTheWizard]

I always used to build the fortress into the side of a mountain.

However recently I have started to build outdoor fortresses, every workshop has it's own building with it's own underground stockpile, there is a keep that is built on top of a hill and the several different styles of apartment buildings.
It usually keeps me entertained for longer especially when all of it is made entirely of obsidian! It's nearly like a motte and Bailey situation, only everything is made of obsidian.

The first one I made I lost to a tantrum spiral, I'm currently on my second which looks nicer and is doing better.

[Eviltyphoon]

I usually start with an effiecient, but utterly horrible looking fortress design, so I can build op my population and get a head start. Then after a few years (when I get around 50-60 dorfs) I start laying out the design for a true dwarven mountainhome.

[Funk]

moated keep with mines and rooms in the end under it.

[chaos985]

typically i start with a 3x3 stair going straight to the bottom of the map.

First level down is a masivve storage cavern, with the trade depot in the middle.
then its crafts and stuff.

then its another storage cavern.

then its metal works

then plumbing.

then a couple of empty levels.

finally housing.

[Shinziril]

I use a square tower-fortress build that is dug down, into the ground, from a flat patch on a soil layer.

I refer to this as a "magmascraper".  Dwarves don't need no stinkin' skyscrapers!

[Spaghetti]

center of map dig straight down... yeah.

[Mapleleaf]

1. Find suitable mountainside (usually takes about 4 world gens/embarks)
2. Dig 3/5 tile wide entrance hallway, strategically so I can defend myself against the first few orc sieges with more ease. Usually quite aesthetically focused too
3. Main hall/Trade Depot (one of the two, never combined) with multiple paths leading to barracks and defences (fortifications etc)
4. Main Hall/extension of Main Hall.

After that I dig down where the housing and general civilian stuff is (safely deep inside the mountain), still focusing on aesthetics though.

My forts are all about being nice AND functional, not being dwarven.
Statues in every hall/gate, nice hallways and obelisks/pillars, luxury villas with small apartments around them, but most of all, a theme.

I try to come up with a theme every now and then, like certain shapes incorporated into the rooms;



The middle-right one is what I'm using in my current fort, Sumunmestthos, The Griffon Citadel. It's sort of chinese combined with western medieval architecture.

[NW_Kohaku]

oooOOOooo... That is inspiring.  Next fort, I should definitely go feng shui, and arrange my fortress according to some pattern, as well.

I think I'll work the walls in different materials, make a nice, massive three-dimensional art piece.

I'll need to go get used to stonesense to actually be able to see it, though... but I actually tend to like making three-dimensional projects I can only see through slivers one z-level at a time and my mind's eye, especially because that means the inside is patterend as well.

[Blargityblarg]

Aw. I thought the theme was Space Invaders.

[Awayfarer]

I tend to build into and around natural features. Malachite vein? No it isn't, it's the hallway for residential district #1. Magnetite? Nobles quarters. I dig out rogue gem clusters and engrave a single square on them. It's like have miscellaneous art exhibits everywhere.

My forts tend to go approximately like this...

Surface:
-Walls/courtyard
-Guard towers (only accessible from the barracks several levels below)
-Walled off farms
-Walled off fishing area
-Inn (made of wood. For humans. Maybe)
-Chimneys (Dug out for the furnaces below. Gotta let the smoke out, right?)

B1-2
-Workshops
-Furniture and finished goods stockpiles
-Farms

B2-3
-Barracks (And weapon/armor/ammo stockpiles)
-Captain of the Guard's office/quarters
-Farms (if there's soil)
-Office wing

B4-5+
-Residential district
-Food stockpiles
-Dining rooms
-Farming (if there's soil)

Bottom level
-Tombs
-Dungeon Masters quarters (often in the tombs)

Could be anywhere
-Prison (often only accessible through the barracks. Possibly through dungeon master's quarters)
-Statue Garden
-Zoo
-Indoor lake
-Well room (depends on where the water supply is)
-Arena (May be indoors or open-air)
-Archery Range

[Phil_Z]

I try to come up with a theme every now and then, like certain shapes incorporated into the rooms;

Brought to you by SPACE INVADERS!


my forts tend to be simple. 
1. Dig into ground, make hallway(2 wide) at the end put stairs going down again, another hallway
2.deconstruct wagon, make stockpile for wood, build carpentry shop start turning out beds, chairs, tables
3.make 90 degree turn in entrance hall, build barracks so one wall boarders entrance hallway(later, it will be smoothed out and covered in arrowslits, so archers can defend the fortress without leaving the barracks
4.  build ramp going back to -1zlevels, dig out biiiig room for farms.  start farmin'
5. dig out area near farms for food stockpile, some shops(kitchen, still, butcher's shop)
6. construct intial workshop area, build mechanics shop and mason;s shop, forge, craftdwarf's workshop
7.get mechanic building  mechanisms for traps.  dig out channel for water supply, grate it off.  sometimes turn it into waterfall within the fortress for happy dwarves.  also begin making trade goods(mostly to get rid of excess rock)
8. begin building mega dining hall, with smooth walls and engravings.

after that, I start to dig my underground caravan road and build a trading depot. If I have a lot of wood and some immigrant peasants, I build crossbows and start my army.  I build an archery range directly below the barracks.  At this point, I also do whatever extra projects I feel like: underground refuse dump complete with ventellation shaft, statue garden on a cliff, ect.  one time I dug into a cliff overlooking a river and started building apartments for my dwarves, but I lost that fort to a tantrum spiral caused by carp massecering half my fort, and make-work projects (stone stockpiles on the surface, anyone? no idle dwarves in this fort!) and trying to figure out how i'm going to kill my nobles/deal with all these freaking immigrants who only know how to cut gems.

[Spaghetti]

oooOOOooo... That is inspiring.  Next fort, I should definitely go feng shui, and arrange my fortress according to some pattern, as well.

I think I'll work the walls in different materials, make a nice, massive three-dimensional art piece.

I'll need to go get used to stonesense to actually be able to see it, though... but I actually tend to like making three-dimensional projects I can only see through slivers one z-level at a time and my mind's eye, especially because that means the inside is patterend as well.

feng shui?

i feel sorry for your dwarves. they need 100& earth yo.

[Retro]

I've come into a habit of trying to design fitting rooms for everyone based upon their job, and as a result I've ended up assigning many a useless dwarf to have a subservient job to an actual fortress one. As you might guess I use a lot of custom titles. What I end up with:

- An actual dungeon for the dungeon master, featuring a lot of magma and a lot of monsters/beasts that may or may not be tamed. Also has the kennels.

- A seperate dungeon for the hammerer that's more of a torture chamber. In contrast to the DM dungeon it tends to feature water, and has caged dwarves / elves / humans lined along it. The dwarves in question are not those who have failed their mandates but those who I feel have personally wronged me (ie. ran to an important lever then decided to get lunch just before pulling it).

- A jailhouse that's filled with the fortress guard. Has a waiting room with a desk/counter, seperate offices for each guard (if they're low-ranking it's cubicle style), and jails with actual iron bars for walls. Also has an illegal still. Generally the doors to the hammerer's dungeon are here, to contrast between the straight arrows and the seedy underbelly.

- A palace for nobility. Aside from rooms and all that nonsense, also has servant's quarters, a vault for artifacts, and a royal mint with the chamberlain's (tax collector) offices. I'm considering adding a kitchen and a royal chef once the king arrives in my current fort.

- Guilds for various professions. Miners have a dugout, the smiths have a factory, etc. Each worker gets their own personal office, with the head (either best or favourite) of each job class having a master office. Engineering usually ends up looking the coolest.

- A manor for the mayor. Their office is not located here - this is for entertaining guests only.

- The offices. Run by the mayor but also features a variety of secretaries, the broker's office, the manager's office, the bookkeeper's office... all that fun stuff. Has a lot of interns as well.

- A military facility around the entrance, featuring all weapon/armour/ammo storage, barracks, and great bedrooms for each and every soldier.

- Some kind of dwarf-made gardens.

- A graveyard with an undertaker's shack. The undertaker both lives there and builds all the coffins.

- An impressive entrance. I am nothing without impressive entrances.

- A hospital with a seperately accessible water access, doctors on hand, and free beds.

- The trade depot has to be made fancy somehow. The specifics often vary.

- Regarding things that are pretty standard, I've always done my best to add an arena, pub, dining hall, all that fun stuff.

Trying to add all this (plus other stuff varying from fort to fort) can keep a fella busy. It's really nice to have practically every dwarf have their own office themed after their job, though. I like to imagine they're all very satisfied with their role in the world.