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[VerdantSF]

I've only had a few fortresses so far.  I haven't been able to tell any difference between dwarves scurrying back and forth on a 1-tile path/stair and those on a 3-tile path/stair.  Does this become more important with higher populations or is it purely an aesthetic thing?

[Squirrelloid]

Matters a lot at higher population.  Only one dwarf can 'stand' in a tile, so whenever two dwarves have to pass one of them will sit down and move slower.

Also, if you have multiple 1-tile ways of getting somewhere, a dwarf seeing another dwarf enter the 1-tile way of his choosing will try repathing through a different passage.  This can lead to amusing games where a dwarf continuously repaths back and forth between multiple routes as other dwarves occupy the passages.

[VerdantSF]

Yikes!  So should I also make double doorways, too?

[smjjames]

One tile wide passageways are fine for exploration, but you'll want to make wide passageways from  the start, although population growth seems like it's slower in this version. No more waves of 10+ immigrants during the first year or the following spring I think.

The advice thats been around since 40D and probably before is to make your main hallways at least 5 tiles wide or wider, which should still hold true.

As for stairwells, you're going to want a stairwell bigger than one tile because the dwarves will have to move out of the way of others that are going the opposite direction that they are. However, you can just experiement around with stairwell configurations and see what works best for you. I'm not sure what is THE best stairwell configuration and spacing and distance between stairwells.

Yikes!  So should I also make double doorways, too?

If its someplace that you're going to have alot of traffic through (workshops, etc), yes, for low  traffic stuff like individual bedrooms or noble suites, one doorway is fine.

[Hyndis]

Major traffic pathways should be about 4 spaces wide. My main halls area actually halls, with engraved stone pillars in the middle, Moria style. Leading off of it to different parts of my fortress are passages at least 4 tiles wide. Depends on the amount of traffic going there really.

Rarely used access tunnels are only 1 tile wide, they are only occasionally used for maintenance. Frequently but not continually used areas are 2-3 tiles wide. And continually used areas are at least 4 tiles wide.

[Shoku]

When your dwarves go looking for their route somewhere they will be deciding that the shortest path is a straight line along the wall. If there are enough dwarves that there is already one in the hallway on that wall or so that the dwarf runs into one when he gets there he will want to step diagonally into the middle and then back against the wall. If it is very busy 3 wide might even appear clogged.

I just go with odd numbers having 3 as the starter hallway and 5 if it is really high traffic. This lets me stick the same door wall door connector on everything and still have it be symmetric.

You can get away with 1 wide hallways for stuff that is only going to have the one way in and never many dwarves anyway, such as around ten bedrooms.

The one way ramp bug makes 1 width hallways a possibility though. If you construct a ramp underneath a constructed floor then remove it they won't think there is a down ramp there but will go up it fine. Obviously you would want another one allowing movement in the other direction. There is still some downside to this though as fast dwarves would end up making everyone using the hallway lay down so they could get past.

[Canalan]

I usually have all my main hallways 3 wide, and that works well for 200+ dwarves (40D). Military access and maintenance tunnels are 1 wide, and all my doorways off the halls are 2 wide.  My stairwells are all 3x3 for speedy.

[Daenyth]

Setting traffic designations helps too. 3-wide hall with middle "lane" designated for high traffic. I believe it makes them path a bit better, they will try to stick to that and step aside if needed.

[Urist McDepravity]

I have 'hallways' made of up/down staircases, and usually even 3-wide halls are more than enough, since most of moving occurs at z-plane. I just keep all of them 3-wide for symmetry and aesthetic purposes.

[0x517A5D]

I have 'hallways' made of up/down staircases, and usually even 3-wide halls are more than enough, since most of moving occurs at z-plane. I just keep all of them 3-wide for symmetry and aesthetic purposes.

I tried that.  It makes any objects in the hallway flash.  Drove me nuts.  It did teach me how important vertical connectivity is, though.

[Squirrelloid]

I also build my fortresses mostly vertical.  Since stuff sprawls in the X-Y plane, it allows the major fortress artery (the stairwell) to connect various sections far more efficiently, because you don't have to walk the length of a section to get to the next section.

[Shoku]

With the many levels of the new version we could technically start making the rooms vertically separated by as much as we usually separate them horizontally. This would make shafts of up/down stairs not that much faster.

Ramps can sort of get them moving around twice as fast though. Diagonal movement doesn't take any longer than straight so diagonally down can get them going a significant portion of a horizontal hallway before they are even on its level. Technically you could do it with up/downs too but they would have to be 50x50 or otherwise give a diagonal path.

[Squirrelloid]

With the many levels of the new version we could technically start making the rooms vertically separated by as much as we usually separate them horizontally. This would make shafts of up/down stairs not that much faster.

But why would you?  I mean, yes, you could design the absolutely least efficient fortress ever.  But that would be user stupidity, not a problem inherent in some particular aspect of what you were doing (like using a vertical artery to reduce transit times).  You *can* space things out vertically, but you *must* space things out horizontally.

If you're going to build a vertical fortress, you want to take advantage of the ability to cluster things more tightly.  Its possible to build a 200+ dwarf fortress where no two points in the fortress are more than 60 tiles from each other.  Actually, you can almost certainly do quite a bit better than that, but it would require quantum stockpiling and the like. And of course you can take advantage of the fact that certain dwarves will only need to visit certain places in the fortress to improve efficiency.

[Lord Darkstar]

I use 3x3 stairways, and 5 wide hallways. I find this layout allows for the least amount of recurring path collisions once the fortress has dwarves scurrying around.

Access halls I'll make either 1 wide (ie, aqueduct and related maintenance halls). Permanent low traffic areas (access to burial chambers or the last hall branch of dorms) I'll make 2 wide. Works well for me so far...

[Shoku]

With the many levels of the new version we could technically start making the rooms vertically separated by as much as we usually separate them horizontally. This would make shafts of up/down stairs not that much faster.

But why would you?  I mean, yes, you could design the absolutely least efficient fortress ever.  But that would be user stupidity, not a problem inherent in some particular aspect of what you were doing (like using a vertical artery to reduce transit times).  You *can* space things out vertically, but you *must* space things out horizontally.

If you're going to build a vertical fortress, you want to take advantage of the ability to cluster things more tightly.  Its possible to build a 200+ dwarf fortress where no two points in the fortress are more than 60 tiles from each other.  Actually, you can almost certainly do quite a bit better than that, but it would require quantum stockpiling and the like. And of course you can take advantage of the fact that certain dwarves will only need to visit certain places in the fortress to improve efficiency.

BALDERDASH

You could have a horizontal hallway with every other wall tile being a door to a set of stairs to just the one room. If you had squares jutting off the sides of your vertical column and any kind of horizontal hallway at all it would work out very similar. You could even actually get certain sized rooms closer together with stairs in the middle of the hall and hatches instead of doors.

Seeing as your columns still use horizontal space I don't see why a sideways hall shouldn't get to use vertical space.