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[Retro]

How are we supposed to create "just down" and "just up" staircases?

d-u, d-j, b-C-u, b-C-d <-- like that!

What I mean is, you can use stairs to go up or down one level by connecting an up-stair and down-stair, but the lack of up/down-stairs means no ubershaft.

and designate your rooms with your mouse.

My mouse doesn't work in the new version.

Bollocks, forgot that. I'd noticed it myself. No harm in doing your best to create curving walls and whatnot with the keyboard though.

[ECrownofFire]

Okay, so I make a spiraling ramp-staircase instead of just straight staircases
I like Up/down-stairs for quarries though, you basically have flying dwarves. Has anybody made a fortress that only has up/down-stairs except where needed for buildings? That would be cool.

[TheCze]

I've gone away from the giant staircase design and try to keep my forest as flat as possible nowadays.

My fortress design has become pretty dynamic, though I always build my bed rooms in tens (5 3x2 rooms on each side of a corridor branching of from a main corridor) just so it's easiert to count them and calculate how many I will need

[Nihilist]

I'll admit to being a shaft of doom builder, Though my latest fort involves a more interesting design.

I started at the top and built a castle like fortress downwards. Eventually I'll be digging out the surrounding rock to expose the structure.

[ECrownofFire]

Digging out around the walls is always pretty cool, makes it harder to expand though.

[RCIX]

Ok, i accept! in fact, i'm going to be starting a succession game with this fortress, and i might as well share it out to others to help them regain their honor

Only problem is i already have a few square rooms, but i think i can fix that with some, er, "decorative" mining

Edit: i also used a few up/down staircases but i'll rip them out soon as i can.

[Nivim]

 I don't have a screenshot, but I'd like to describe a fort of mine that fits the bill. It was shaped kinda like a combination of the gravity gun and a flintlock pistol.
 The entrance could be considered the flintlock hammer, with four stairs to the surface in the center, and a cemetary branching off of it like the piece of flint. The entrance connects with a lesser meeting hall (that would be the hinge of the flintlock or the core of the gravity gun), that has statues and such because dwarves pass through it so often. The branch from there going down the "barrel" includes all the housing, and the same blocky pattern of the gravity gun barrel (25 tile rooms, with three smaller exceptions). The branch going down the "trigger/greeble" curves into the meeting hall of the "handle". The branch strait towards the "handle" goes through the farming, butchery, and kitchen sections before the meeting hall (farming makes up the largest portion of the "handle"). Right below the "flintlock hammer hinge" and some of the "handle" butchery section is the workshops of the fortress, organized kinda randomly with stairs going up in strange places.
 There's another one that's a lot more ~"chaotic" and utilized a meeting hall full of levers behind doors. I'm not sure what basic shape would describe it.

 My main problem seems to be taking advantage of the multiple z-levels.

[ECrownofFire]

What. I don't get what it's supposed to look like. Do you still have the save? Just put it up on the DFMA if you do. Put the other one up too.

[Nivim]

 I think I just might still have the same world, so I might be able to bring an adventurer there once I get back to the DF computer. Then I'll figure out how to use "DFMA" (I can't actually view those).
 To get a better idea from those pictures. Rotate the gravity gun so the handle points (down or up) and the barrel points right. Then bend the handle of the flintlock more downward, and a combo would be that fortress layout.

[ECrownofFire]

It's simple to use, you can just reclaim the fort and then you just export the local maps. I forget the keys right now, but it's simple enough, just follow the instructions on the site. http://mkv25.net/dfma/

[Kay12]

I tried a ramp-only fortess once, to avoid dullness caused by a vertical supershaft.

I had a "circular" "stairway" made out of ramps. Basically a supershaft that was slightly less effiecent.

[sonerohi]

Depends entirely on the terrain. I like to conform my defenses around rivers though.

[Osmosis Jones]

Above ground castles all the way. I wall off a good region tile or so with a channel/wall combo, then once I get my obsidian factory up, I steadily convert my walls into buttressed cliffs of obsidian blocks. Meanwhile, my dwarves generally live in a little hovel I carve into a convenient terrain feature, usually only 2 z-levels high, containing the legendary dining room, 20 bed dormitory (sleeps about 60), office, and then with pretty much everything else underground being food storage.

The plan is to replace the warren with proper housing reminiscent of medieval europe (keep/bailey, manors for the nobles, and progressively worse accomodation for the bourgeoisie and peasants), but I usually get bored, or switch to a new release before that happens. Due to depth I like to set my magma level, I haven't actually gotten past the creation of the 70 z pump stack yet in the new version. 

[snelg]

Above ground castles all the way. I wall off a good region tile or so with a channel/wall combo, then once I get my obsidian factory up, I steadily convert my walls into buttressed cliffs of obsidian blocks. Meanwhile, my dwarves generally live in a little hovel I carve into a convenient terrain feature, usually only 2 z-levels high, containing the legendary dining room, 20 bed dormitory (sleeps about 60), office, and then with pretty much everything else underground being food storage.

The plan is to replace the warren with proper housing reminiscent of medieval europe (keep/bailey, manors for the nobles, and progressively worse accomodation for the bourgeoisie and peasants), but I usually get bored, or switch to a new release before that happens. Due to depth I like to set my magma level, I haven't actually gotten past the creation of the 70 z pump stack yet in the new version. 

This was usually how I built my 0.28 forts. Been having a bit of trouble pumping the magma in the newer versions as well. Haven't had a fort running long enough yet to actually have anything interesting built in the new versions. However I think a volcano would help out so you don't have to bother with all the pumping just to get the magma up to ground level. But I'm not sure I like all the cliffs (slopes) they come with.

[Rasta69]

I tried a ramp-only fortess once, to avoid dullness caused by a vertical supershaft.

I had a "circular" "stairway" made out of ramps. Basically a supershaft that was slightly less effiecent.

I always build my entrance  hall + depot as a giant ramp. The rest of the fort then ramps down behind it like a / or \. Not very efficient but it is nice to allocate the slums to the bottom of the heap.