Print

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

[Huggz]

Basically, the problem I almost always have is that my fortress ends up as a jumbled mess... I have been looking for good layouts but I cant seem to find any. Does anyone have a link or something to a place with a lot of layouts, or just a recommendation for someone who HAS to have a tidy fortress? Thanks

[Caesar]

I almost never make tidy fortresses, but I can spare an advice or two;

- Build your fortress in a cubical design, not just two-dimensional.
- Carve (a) central staircase(s).
- Segregate your industrial areas from the living areas.

[BigD145]

I almost never make tidy fortresses, but I can spare an advice or two;

- Build your fortress in a cubical design, not just two-dimensional.
- Carve (a) central staircase(s).
- Segregate your industrial areas from the living areas.

Modify:
-two cubes, side by side, with a central 2-3 wide corridor around 10-14 tiles long
-central stairway in each cube
-one cube for dining, bedroom, etc
-other cube for industry

It will not be as efficient as a single column type arrangement.

[Caesar]

I almost never make tidy fortresses, but I can spare an advice or two;

- Build your fortress in a cubical design, not just two-dimensional.
- Carve (a) central staircase(s).
- Segregate your industrial areas from the living areas.

Modify:
-two cubes, side by side, with a central 2-3 wide corridor around 10-14 tiles long
-central stairway in each cube
-one cube for dining, bedroom, etc
-other cube for industry

It will not be as efficient as a single column type arrangement.

I'd like to add one more point;

A way to dispose of excess stone, litter and junk.

[Retro]

It sounds like you're currently playing in a style where you dig space as you need it - a lot of players like this way, but if you're looking to change, rather than following any specific 'style' you simply need to give yourself more space. Start your fortress deeper, make the hallways longer, etc. You end up with more "this is the bedroom sector" stuff instead of "here are some bedrooms and there's some more bedrooms and there's even more way that-a-way" type stuff.

[pokute]

You can start to design your own layout by first identifying what functions/areas you need.

[smokingwreckage]

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Bedroom_design

Use the decentralised living layout with the decentralised workshops layout. It's a very good basis for your own design.

I use massive hallways to prevent collisions: 5 wide, terminating in two sets of double doors. Then I use big open rooms of "shift-arrow" width and depth. My central staircases ( I have two or more) are five up-down stairs across, broken by separate up and down stairs every 5 z-levels.

[shadowclasper]

my own designs end up a little jumbled, but generally stuff STAYS organized to the regions I designate.

Storage is always UP-DOWN from other storage.

Industry is always UP-DOWN from other industry
living-etc.etc

Really, I think a 3 pillar design is PREMIUM. These are Living-Storage-Industry. (A 4th tower designated "Crazy shit" is optional)

One is living, dining, etc.etc. Dining and such have their own designated areas near the top and they are linked to the Food Storage areas in the storage tower and the food-prep buildings in the industry tower (which is also linked to the food storage ones in the storage tower).

Below that are the statue gardens etc.etc.etc, which are on level with the masonry and similar industry levels of the industry towers (things for producing furniture and similar), and below that the bed rooms. Lower you go, the better the rooms.

Storage is the only way to GET INTO the actual tower. It is set up with the trade post on the upper most level. Below this is the Barracks region, since soldiers and their weapons are classified as "items" in this system and thus will sleep in the barracks like good boys and girls. They will be 1 level up above weapons storage, and 2 levels above food storage (weapons storage being on level with the blacksmith). Below food storage is the place for things like actual crafting etc-etc. Below that is the shops, below that offices.

The industry tower is set up to link up with the appropriate floors. Nothing more. Food production goes next to the dining level of the living tower and the food storage of the storage tower. and so on and so forth.

It should be noted that the biggest difference between the industry and storage towers from the living tower is that the sides are totally lined with up-down stairs. Or if you don't want to risk dwarves falling asleep on them and falling to their deaths, have them be alternating between up and down stairs.

[Jimmy]

My favorite design is this:



The central area serves as a stockpile, around which you can construct various workshops. The living areas serve 16 dwarves, with a 3x3 room on each layer too. This setup is, in my opinion, perfect for burrows. Also note the cages for justice purposes.

[Safe-Keeper]

I still follow the style in the Play-Along tutorial that's linked to somewhere on these forums - dig a 3 tiles wide hallway about 20 tiles into the fortress, and put stuff you need there and then on both sides -- indoor stockpiles, a small-ish room to house seven beds, that sort of thing. At the end of the hallway, I put a 3x3 staircase of Down Stairs, and behind that, I've taken to build fortifications with a ballista behind it.

The staircase goes some levels down, to another corridor with Down Stairs and a ballista at the end (and perhaps fortifications on one or both sides, with that can house crossbowdwarves). Once you're past this "checkpoint", the staircase continues down some levels more (at least until I hit rock, though I always have at this point), until it

So the vertical layout is:

Entrance (original rooms are given other uses once the depths are furnished and in use)
|
Checkpoint (with ballista or catapult, as well as ammo storage and food and bedding for siege operator)
|
| (perhaps even more stuff on the way down, like a hallway that can be flooded with magma or a natural or artificial obstacle with a lever-controlled bridge)
|
Stockpiles
Workshops (short way from residential area to workshops, short way from workshops to stockpiles)
Residential (bedding, dining room, food-related workshops, food stockpiles)
Workshops
Stockpiles
|
Tombs
|
Exploratory mining at lowest floors.

 basically first check how many tiles there are until I hit the bottom, and then build the residential level halfway down. Then I start exploratory mining at the bottom, and build a level for burial a couple of levels above that. I try to make it so that the defences on the way up are only accessible from deep within the fortress -- instead of there being a door leading the ballista at the entrance level, there will be a staircase going down to the residential area, and this staircase will be the only way to the ballista.

Each floor is symmetrical, built outwards from the central staircase. I don't think I'll ever need more than one floor each for Residential

A way to dispose of excess stone, litter and junk.

You can do what the play-along tutorial suggests - dig a shaft from the surface to the refuse stockpile, making sure to make a wall around it at its top so enemies can't fire down it. Miasma will escape up into open air.

[Huggz]

I have settled on a modified 35x35 design I found on the forums, I will post screenshots once it's doner if anyone is interested (Living space for 150, a LOT of mining to do )

[Torgen]

I usually follow a "get in the ground and get crops going ASAP" routine, followed by picking out an area to build the "real" fortress once the initial 7 dorfs are safe and food is being produced. I know how I want the living area, storage and workshops done, etc, but always get hung up on building the entrance. I never can decide how to do the entrance.

I suppose this is because I want the trade depot entrance to be floodable, just in case, so put it low enough for flooding, and build the "normal" entrance up-hill a few z levels.

[Lancensis]

I never find overly planned fortresses to be particularly interesting; they look too game-y and not lived in. It's the sprawling insane succession forts that are the coolest looking. Just make sure stockpiles are near the matching workshops, and paths are wide enough.

Oh and build the trade depot over a volcano, and make sure it can be collapsed with a lever.

[gtmattz]

Oh and build the trade depot over a volcano, and make sure it can be collapsed with a lever.

I know magma is awesome and all, but this is just wasteful...  Think of all the elf skull totems you are missing out on, not to mention the spiffy pets and random junk to decorate and sell to the humans.  Personally I prefer the trade depot a few z levels below the level of my water source with a pressurized cistern directly above.

[Lancensis]

Oh and build the trade depot over a volcano, and make sure it can be collapsed with a lever.

I know magma is awesome and all, but this is just wasteful...  Think of all the elf skull totems you are missing out on, not to mention the spiffy pets and random junk to decorate and sell to the humans.  Personally I prefer the trade depot a few z levels below the level of my water source with a pressurized cistern directly above.

Eh. They keep bringing dead pets in cages, which does not amuse me. Besides, it's a two drawbridge affair, so I can seize all their property without them escaping.

In all honesty, it's mostly just so I can keep traders on edge. And give them brain/lung damage from the volcanic fumes.