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[Krano]

A problem I've always had is deciding how to go about the first stage of construction. I tend to want to start right out and carve the fortress of my dreams, but provisions first need to be made for the seven dwarves. I often carve out a small, unsightly sector with tiny bedrooms and dining rooms and storing areas, with corridors that can't be expanded on. The issue is, it's difficult to start on a complex, efficient fortress with an ugly hovel of workshops and bedrooms right in the entrance. How does everyone deal with this?

[smjjames]

Well, before, I always got the food and booze production started first along with a couple of beds, a chair and table so that my bookkeeper can get started when he/she has free time, and of course, barrels.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I make a grid of nine 5x5 rooms. These house my early fort. When I decree that expansion is needed, I dig out and furnish the proper fort, and the rooms are reduced to a 5x5 trade depot room and a gigantic finished goods stockpile.

[Paul]

I always just dig out a big cluster of an iron ore and some flux on the first stone layer (I always embark on limestone, dolomite, or chalk) and set up temporary residence there. I then set up forges and make some steel equipment for my early military (drafted from the first migrants) while my farmer gathers plants for food and my miners dig out a proper fortress in the depths. If I have good roaming wildlife (like elephants) I'll set up a bunch of wooden cage traps (I build a trap fence, bunch of constructed wooden walls funneling animals to my cage traps).

The dwarves stay happy enough if you provide them beds and a decent dining room, even if the beds are communal. If I dug any out I'll use gold to make some tables/thrones to spice up the room, if I haven't unearthed any gold I'll just use some excess steel.

Usually at the start of the second year I have a nice fortress shaping up, a well equipped military, and a decent stockpile of food from plant gathering and butchering excess animals (it seems kind of cruel to tame creatures and immediately butcher them, but it works). As soon as I get a good sized space deep in the earth I start moving everything down there, and usually I'm underground with military or excess animals stationed (or chained in the instance of animals) at the only way in before any goblin ambushes arrive.

[Dorf3000]

If you have a small hill, it's the perfect location for your starting fort.  As long as you don't dig the z-level directly underneath it, you can collapse it all later and no evidence will remain.

You could also dig the fort as a long, 5 wide tunnel under the surface from where you start to the edge of the map.  Then it becomes a safe trade lane once you're done with it, and you can build the entrance however you like.  5 tiles is enough for a single corridor and 3x3 rooms for workshops, and will just fit a trade depot inside it.

[AncientEnemy]

I tend to dig a spiral of ramps down till i hit rock, then carve out some 9x9 or 11x11 rooms, linked by 3x3 passages. I use these for whatever i happen to need at the moment until my fort is going a bit better, then tear down the existing workshops etc and start re-purposing the rooms.

for example, this:


started life as this:


beds aren't actually all that important early on, I'll generally ignore them at first, then throw up a few communal beds, then much later actually carve out bedrooms. same with dining rooms

[Paul]

If you wanted a start that didn't leave evidence later for whatever reason you could just build an above-ground camp. Just gather surface seeds and farm surface plants, set up your workshops on the grass, and build any walls or rooms you need out of wood. Once you've moved underground send some dwarves up, deconstruct everything, and cart all the wood downstairs. After a few years the grass and trees will grow back and there won't even be evidence of your camp.

[KFD]

I usually start up with workshops aboveground and dont even both moving anything inside until my permanent stockpiles are dug out. However, in my most recent fort, I did a freezing embark in the middle of nowhere with no aboveground water, so i dug right down into the caverns, and simply set up workshops and temp stockpiles in my 5x40ish entrance hallway, and also in my 9x9 trade depot room and my 10x10 barracks. It seemed to work out nicely, and I always like to have a large entrance hall anyway. In theory, I put a balistae battery behind the hall, but before the trade depot(or sometimes i just leave the trade depot in the line of fire, jsut in case elves drop by), but my forts have just been going to shit so quickly in the new version...Not that im complaining mind you, i like the new challenge.

[darthbob88]

I prefer sites with magma and (UG) rivers, so first thing I do is use reveal to find the interesting sites, followed by forging picks and axes to find those interesting sites. Meanwhile, the farmers are determining what plants grow around the site and what I can grow above-ground. While all that's going on, I consult the revealed map to find good fortress sites, with soil available, easily defensible, and proximity to magma/river. First ground-breaking is a 3xN access tunnel, with farms and stockpiles immediately adjacent. Having accomplished that, I dig out the main arteries of the fort, a z-level-spanning 3xN hallway off of which everything sprouts; workshops, bedrooms, EVERYTHING, though it doesn't all get dug out first thing. I then dig out an area for magma shenanigans and the obsidian farm.

[Kanddak]

I tend to set up temporary barracks and dining rooms in my main hallways while I dig out actual rooms.

[Max White]

I  love leaving traces of previous settlement before constructing a real fortress! I don't know what everybody has against it.

[Box]

I would usually (40d) deconstruct the wagon, build a workshop with the materials and get some beds churned, dig out some temporary dorms and a stockpile for my wagon's stuff (learned on my first fort that rhesus masques are more annoying than any kobolds).  Next would be a farming area, stills for booze, a crafting area (wood, mason, crafts), followed by a meeting hall for when the migrants come and a good set of bedrooms (4x3, 7 on each side of a hallway, branching left and right) on the lowest z-level I could reach safely so they wouldn't be annoyed by sound.  Now I also make sure to get a hospital up quickly and get some mechanics quickly, since mechanisms are used in many more things.  A well is also a top priority, and is easy with the new stuff added.

From there on, I tend to play it by ear.  If there's a large migrant wave, next priority is a barracks.

[Klashus]

I tend to dig a spiral of ramps down till i hit rock, then carve out some 9x9 or 11x11 rooms, linked by 3x3 passages. I use these for whatever i happen to need at the moment until my fort is going a bit better, then tear down the existing workshops etc and start re-purposing the rooms.

for example, this:


started life as this:




beds aren't actually all that important early on, I'll generally ignore them at first, then throw up a few communal beds, then much later actually carve out bedrooms. same with dining rooms

what tileset ect is this ? looks cool with the bricks for walls

[Fullmoon]

Well, in 40d I usually start by building some defense - channel/wall around wagon (deconstruct with first migrants, due to massive spike of hauling jobs), then build w-m, w-c, w-t, dig out barracks and small dining room, build tables/chairs/beds/doors/stone traps,  next goes first stockpile 10x10, one of massive array, usually in soil layers, crafting area near quantum stone stockpile and depot with access and defense systems. After that I start food/booze industry.

Of course, in 2010, everything became messed up.

[Captain Xenon]

my recent designs, is to dig a deep hole via layers of ramps. this means the bottom is open to he sky. in one direction its nine squares across, and at the bottom its a 3-wide bridge with a 3 wide chasm to either side. the wagons go down the ramp some 10 to 15 floors, and then into the fortress. one of the upper levels of the back wall ends up an archers nest, far from the nearest threat with the ability to shoot intruders for some time. (now i just need to get some archers)

up top, i have a couple initial stockpiles. food, wood. get the basic wood/stone industry going fairly quick. when i get the rooms ready then i move in, usually by the time the first migrants hit.

then i start building UP, filling in the space above the trade depot. the main shaft searches down, finding the caves and then being walled shut- finding them makes the underground plants sprout anywhere there is soil indoors.

ive stopped digging down once i find the first hidden layer- lost too many forts to digging too fast. when the flying trap-immune building destroyers drop in uninvited, you really need to have a trained millitary. and im still trying to figure out how to train troops in this new version.