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[TheMirth]

Love the Ideas.

 

[Jude]

Mine usually grow organically and sloppily. I like it more that way.

[zecro]

tl;dr: I munchkin'd a fortress design for efficiency: enjoy your Dorf Cylinder.

I had a fortress design I was messing around with, but never actually got around to implementing (I just like reading about DF and designing forts). It's highly vertical, very flexible, and extremely efficient, stepwise. This was designed for the older version, but is actually more applicable now that there are more Z-levels and burrows.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Green = Stairs
Blue = Doors
Red = Magma/magma access

B is Bedroom level, housing 17 Dorfs each with 3x3 rooms.
W is Workshop level, with 5 3x3 shops, 4 *x* shops, and 8 3x* shops.
MW is Magma Workshop level, as above, but with magma.
M is magma distribution level/stockpile level. Access shafts are designed in.
S is stockpile level

The M-level needs to have magma pumped in. It's not on the chart, but use (one of) the four diagonal squares that are jutting out (if you want to pump from the magma sea now... that's kind of why the design is a bit outdated).

I've been working on designing a pressurized water-delivery system to each room, which would involve more pump stacks/access tunnels/machine rooms. It would also need more Z-levels, but oh well. Burrows would work ideally here, but you'd have to link them every so many z-levels in order to connect the burrows. Hauling is hilariously easy, because most trade goods are within 20 steps of the trade depot, put on the ground level next to the stairs. Anybody in a workshop should never be more than 10 steps away from whatever they need to make stuff. You kind of have to watch out, because building 3x3 workshops in the 5 central 3x3 rooms can block movement. You can just knock down those walls and use the space as more stockpiles instead.

The four main stairwells are up/down stairs, use hatches on all levels. If you want larger bedrooms, dig out further. 12 bedroom levels will house 200+ dwarves.

The one thing that's not designed is some sort of "grand entrance" but that's the place for your aboveground building skills to shine.

Another thing: more than 20 z-levels for this, and the design starts to become less efficient. You can solve this by either burrows or by casting an obsidian tower aboveground and building up. Ideally, the entrance needs to be in the center of this stack.

(Theoretically, the most efficient design you can ever have is a sphere with the center being the warpgate entrance, covered by a shell of stockpiles, then a shell of workshops, and then a shell of bedrooms.)

Hope it made sense, lol.

[TBot Alpha]

I used to just clump everything together, in the name of efficiency. But now, with how many layers there are to work with, I intend to build every fort as pointlessly large and vertical as possible; digging out atriums and huge interior spaces for no reason other than it feels more dwarfy that way.

Also, I plan to recreate Zion from the Matrix films at some stage. 

[Lord Shonus]

Currently, I use the following layout for all my workshops. Generally, I put three related workshops on the upper level, and a materials stock on the lower. For example, I might put a mason's, mechanics, and craftsdwarves workshop on a top level, and a stone stock beneath. It's also great for keeping dwarves from napping in the hospital. If you put the hospital on top, and a dorm below, hospital beds will almost never be the closest ones available.

Lower Story

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Upper Story

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[wrajjt]

I try to go in for "realistic" fort rather then Uber Efficient forts.  I tend to design mine more like cities then cubes.

Jesus christ. How long does it take for you to dig out all that? Or even just designate that? Consider those blueprints dwarfnapped. And the second screenie, is that the bottom floor or just another design?

[Djohaal]

http://mkv25.net/dfma/viewmap.php?view_mapid=8025

I plan on making a very different fort style soon though.

[zagibu]

You all have so cool forts. I always end up with the same boring central stairway-cube design...but next fort will surely be different. Maybe.

[Iapetus]

I'm starting to experiment with different designs, but in the past most of my forts have followed the following theme:

The fort has a basic "T" shaped layout.


I dig a long, 3 tile wide tunnel into the hill-side (or down a ramp if there is no suitible hill), with a crosswise corridor at the far end.

I'll put a barracks and an archery range near the entrance on one or both sides of the tunnel, so there should always be guards near the entrance.

After the guard rooms, I'll put a depot on one side of the entrance tunnel, so that no intruder can reach it without first going past the guard rooms.  (Right-hand side in the diagram, although it could be either side).

The main "industrial area" will be built around one half of the cross-piece of the "T", on the same side of the fortress as the depot.  Finished goods stockpiles will be placed between the depot and the workshops, to make for efficient transport from workshop to stockpile and stockpile to depot.

Workshops that use similar materials (mason/crafts/mechanics, smelters/forges, etc) will be clustered together, with raw materials stockpiles close by (usually on the levels above or below the workshops that use them).

Bedrooms, nobel quarters, and most offices go on the opposite side of the "T", usually using the "living pods" bedroom layout, as it is space efficient and can easily be extended up and down.

The dining room goes at the junction of the "T", with food and booze stockpiles above/below/behind it, and kitchens, farms, and related workshops close to them.

If possible (and safe) I'll leave the food and/or booze stockpiles open to the sky to reduce cave adaptation.

I may also put a sky-light in the main corridor (either in front or behind the guard rooms), so that when "Dwarves stay indoors" is declared, they do the entrance dance some way into the fort, rather than at the actuall entrance.

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████████████████████
██Br █o█DRm█w w█w w█
████ █o██ ███ ███ ██
██                ██
████ █o█   ██████ ██
██Br █o█   █PPP█w w█
████████   ███P██ ██
████████   Dp█P█w w█
████████   █████████
██████A     B███████
████████   █████████
████████SkL█████████
████████   █████████
████████   █████████
████████   █████████

SkL = skylight
A = Archery range
B = Baracks
Dp = depot
P = stockpiles
W = workshops
Br = bedrooms
O = offices and noble quarters
DRm = dining room


The workshops themselves will each have their own room (with a door so moody dwarfs can b locked in if necessary) either side of a three-wide corridor (two-wide would probably be sufficient, but designating an 11x11 for mining then dividing it into 9 3x3 blocks and linking them is simpler, and makes for a more regular fortresslayout).

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█████D█D█████
█www█   █www█
█wwwD X Dwww█
█www█   █www█
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█www█   █www█
█wwwD X Dwww█
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█████   █████
█www█   █www█
█wwwD X Dwww█
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█████D█D█████
W = workshop
X = up/down staircase
D = Door

At junctions between corridors (or at intervals along long corridors), I'll put doors (or doors and pillars in wide corridors) to stop the spread of miasma (or floods, magma, goblins, etc).


I find this layout works very well for small and medium fortresses, but becomes unwieldy when they get larger, so I'm starting to experiment with other layouts.

[LordBucket]

What kind of layout do you use for your forts?

Take a look at levels 9 and 10 of Helmsline. That's the basic design I tend to use, though Helmsline is only 2x3 and I usually use a 3x3 grid.

Basically, 17x17 blocks separated by 3-wide corridors. Use shift-arrows to move, and every two keypresseswill put your cursor in the middle of the corridor. It's both convenient and aesthetic. 17x17 is a good size to build just about anything, and it nicely aligns the corridors with the edge of the screen.

[darthbob88]

Will probably have to change now, but it used to be that my fortresses were all based around a 3xN corridor running the length of the fortress; workshops would sprout off of it, as would bedrooms, stockpiles, and whatever else I needed. I've flirted with more efficient space use, like having bedrooms sprout off secondary corridors which sprout off the main, but that's what I've usually used. Probably going to have to change to accommodate the new cave systems.

[Eric Blank]

I almost always build a vertical shaft of stairs around a square room, and build out from that with 3-wide halls in a cross formation. I built several with halls surrounding a large (30+ each axis) pit on every z-level. Even built one based around a conical pyramid with a hole in the middle.

[lanceleoghauni]

Mine tends to be a bit of a cyborg. Lots of organic structure based on need to begin with. then I slowly replace it with planned structures. I'm fond of small rectangular/square antechambers between larger, circular rooms. especially for public areas. Bedrooms are the typical 3X1.

[AxisofLint]

Very interesting how different everyone's designs are. Mine tend to revolve around a long entrance tunnel, and the basis of my fort is a 5 z-level design that I usually change each time, depending on how the embark location looks. Slowly each time, I tend to experiment with something new (for me) (like tower cap farms etc).

[ReverseWill]

My forts always start with a 5-tile-wide entrance hallway, terminating with my Trade Depot at the end, and with two smaller stairs off each side. Those stairs lead to my central staircase, a 5x5 square with the corners removed. I always dig my "workshop levels" closest to the surface, and as you go downward, you'll hit [in more or less the same order]-

-Farming/Dining/Cooking
-Hospital/Storage
-One intentionally empty level
-Lodging
-Empty again
-Nobles' rooms

After that, it's all based on what I want/need. Sometimes I construct towers for my prison, sometimes I just dig it really deep. My actual design tends toward straight hallways, with each workshop having a separate room with a door. Inefficient, perhaps, but I like the look, and it's served me fine. I never expand too far out from the main shaft, opting instead for multiple, smaller levels, making a sort of cube design.

My dwarves always have 2x2 bedrooms with a bed and a cabinet. My nobles' rooms are always more ornate, usually large circles going down one level for each room.

Can't really think of anything else to say about my design, save that I always have a room dedicated for a POW pit.