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[ThaMuzz]

Post your architectural style!  How do you design your fortress.

Personally, I favor the vertical shaft design.  Everything in the fortress grows out of this central shaft, with an eye to the compact and aesthetic.  For instance, the workshops take up 3 z levels, with the top and bottom layers having 8 workshops each, arranged as a rosette around the shaft, and the middle layer having 2 5x5 workshops and 4 3x3 workshops.
I can generally fit everything in 13-14 z levels, although the most recent civforge might require me to expand.

So, how do you arrange your fortresses?  Do you follow an ordered, preset pattern or do you favor an organic design?  Rounded corners or sharp edges?

[Rose]

I generally go for above ground.

my curent fortress is an experiment, whering I'm embarking in a desert, and importing all stone and wood.

[Kogan Loloklam]

I prefer a branching approach. A entrance area that splits into a decorative area, a living area, and a working area. The decorative area splits into tombs, throne room, and noble quarters. Living area splits into jails, dining hall, and bedrooms. Work area splits into workshops and stockpiles. There is usually a mine or something coming off the living quarters branch. I generally don't work to "mine out" any area, so it generally looks pretty chaotic, wandering through veins of ore and heading off in strait lines.

[Indricotherium]

In a nutshell, a horizontal hall leading to a Shaft of All Things. Above-ground structures and secondary shafts added as I go for whatever reason. Living areas are often mined out, smoothed veins to up the happiness quotient.

[Asehujiko]

A vertical shaft with all common areas around it a few Z levels deep.

[SkyRender]

I tend to use a Greek cross layout.  It's laughably easy to designate, too: a 3x3 staircase array in the center, with each arm of the cross being a single Shift+direction x 3 hallway.  I can even use Shift+direction to define the rooms.  And I make massive stockpiles in each of the corners, so I never run out of space for things.

A visual example of my layout:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Lasander]

I used to do the Shaft Of All Things style of building but now my layouts are more organic.  Basically sprawled out wherever things fit.  Messy as hell but I cant be bothered to make intricate designs.
I've experimented with spiral ramps and such but they are such a main to designate.


Been messing with a more decentralized design but havent got the hang of it 

[zxcvmnb]

Lately, lots of open space, open multi-z-level hallways, with ramps to other levels running parallel, and large, pillared dining halls. Not very efficient, but good to visualise.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

####...#▲▲▲#...#...#...#...#        # = wall
............................        - = open space
............................
............................
####...#▼▼▼#...#...#...#...#
####...#---#................
####....---.................
####....---#................
####....---....#...#...#...#

--------

==\===
   \
    \===


[Urist McDepravity]

Large cube, which is divided into 19x19 squares on each layer. Between each 19x19 block there is 3-wide up/down stair, which goes from top of cube to the very bottom.
Such design is less optimal than sphere, but easier to make.

[abculatter_2]

I tend to use a Greek cross layout.  It's laughably easy to designate, too: a 3x3 staircase array in the center, with each arm of the cross being a single Shift+direction x 3 hallway.  I can even use Shift+direction to define the rooms.  And I make massive stockpiles in each of the corners, so I never run out of space for things.

A visual example of my layout:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I like this design...


Typically I never play a fort long enough to actually make finished architecture, but this is what I usually designate:

I ramp down until I hit stone (or just mine into a cliff/mountain) then make a long 23-33 tile long corridor large enough for a wagon, which loops around so that the trade depot, which is after that, isn't as vulnerable. I have a drawbridge between the corridor and the trade depot, with another drawbridge plus two doors in a short 2-tile wide corridor which leads down straight into the barracks (which has fortifications on the level above to allow marksdwarves to shoot down, and I link these fortifications to others at the end of the outside corridor). I also make the entrance to the mines just inside the barracks, in case of Fun. I then make another drawbridge, then a long 2-tile corridor, then I use a simple lobby-room design with a large dining room in the center and 2x3 rooms coming off it, with up/down stairways leading to food stockpiles, workshops, and farms.

[tfaal]

I go with a highly modular design. Every room, including apartment complexes, are eight-by eight and laid upon a grid, with stairways in the middle and two by two doorways leading between rooms, like so:

Legend:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stairs
Hallway
Wall
Workshop/Stockpile
Dining room
Bedroom
Better bedroom
Opulent bedroom

Every workshop room has its input stockpile directly above it, if possible, and it's output directly below. This results in large "industry towers" running through the fortress, leading from raw materials at the top down to finished goods at the bottom.

I find that this design is quite efficient, and requires little planning. Even if something goes wrong, most of the rooms are interchangeable, making fixes simple.

[Jimmy]

My fort design uses a spiraling central ramp with large amounts of open space and branching zones for specific industry (link).

[nbonaparte]

I usually make one massive center hallway with rooms off of that, one of those being the central staircase shaft.

[Urist McDepravity]

Design scheme:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Each 'module' can be sticked in any 19x19 block, so its quite universal. Workshops usually have input/output stockpile blocks on z+1 and z-1 levels.
Plus theres module for royal quarter, where whole block is divided into 3 rooms for single noble.

[Retro]

90% of this thread is rephrasing "I like to have a square/circular design with a central staircase/rampway that everything else branches off of." This is something that's always kind of annoyed me when I skim the DFMA - regardless of the specifics, the general designs are always the same. People also seem to repeat the same kind of designs across their own forts as well. I don't really come across really interesting, unique designs very often any more, probably about once a month. I'd like to see more gentle curves and sprawling organic waterways, that sort of thing. All this modular design is efficient and all, and no offense to those who use it because it's a good tactic and I completely understand why, but frankly I find it really damned boring.