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[Zaerosz]

I now need to create a new fortress.

4x4 embark. Left half of the map, the Big Room. Industry everywhere. Roof 3 Z-levels high. No caverns. A set of ramps on the top right going down to the magma sea, where all the magma-operated buildings get planted.

Right half of the map, there will be virtually no layer stone mined. Following ore veins and gem clusters as closely as possible, downward ramps in random locations in attempts to find ore on the next level. Hopefully I'll eventually close off my fortress and make the only entrance through one of these veins. Perhaps a trade depot in an ex-magnetite cluster?

And when I eventually turn invaders back on, the veins will be littered with weapon traps. Full of wonderfully sharp *enormous steel corkscrews* and other wonderful stabby-rippy-cutty things. And cage traps for the lulz.

[Solace]

So far I've been making fortresses based on how easy they are to build quickly... generally I dig out a hallway to put a bridge in, dig a few levels down for general dwarfyness (and to be able to drop water from above for eventual irrigation), then shoot out some cardinal hallways. Hallways are lined by workshops, and behind those are areas for raw materials. Finished materials go by the trade depot. A central area gets a barracks and the massive dining hall of awesomeness; behind the dining hall is food storage, behind that is farms, and to the side of food storage is food prep workshops. Pretty much a big ugly mess. I guess I need to make more z-level based plans... I like being able to see my whole fort at once, I guess.

[DDR]

Hm, I seem to have an odd variation on a theme for my standard (look me up in the wiki, I made an AHK script to dig it out) fortress. I notice most people seem to build around a single shaft, but I build an industry/work/rec block like so:

Code: [Select]

X---X---X
|   |   |
|   |   |
X---X---X
|   |   |
|   |   |
X---X---X, with industry and stockpiles located in the 11x11 squares in the centre of the passageways. Doorways occur in the corners of the blocks. Each block is designated as 'low traffic' to keep dwarves from walking diagonally if it becomes a problem. X stairs are 2x2, passageways are 2 wide, and my normal fortress will have a block of these things stacked near the top with the central 4 X stairs extending down into the Fun of the caverns. Sleeping quarters are dug a good 30 to 40 tiles away from the main block. Normally, the entrance is merely a 3 or 4 wide passage which connects up to one of the 11x11 blocks. Small offices and various misc. rooms are dug out along the exterior passageway at convenience, and at random.  These rooms lend the fortress a touch of organicness, without which the fortress would be too utilitarian for my tastes.

Oh, a word about a wholly organic fort. I tried, about half a year ago, to make a fortress following no rules. I simply dug where and when I needed room, in the general direction I felt like. After a mere half an hour, I could not tell you how to get from room a to room b, even if they were side by side (in some cases). My dwarves could get around just fine, of course, but travel time, worst-case, could be about half the map to get to a tile 10 tiles away and through a wall. I abandoned fortress after my dwarves were just stuck hauling stuff around the passageways.


Irrelevant Plans:

I embark now to make a huge open underground recycling waterfall, complete with fortress inside and a tremendous anti-invader magma and water battery.
"Eh, what's that great tank up there, Crag Incest?"
"I dunno, Torcheredfang. One side is dripping, and the other is glowing."
"Hey, is that spigot moving?"
"Nah, it looks like it's made of solid steel - and it's 4 meters high. Nothing could move it."
"No, it's... oh, Armok! I'm knee deep in magma! Hip deep! Aw, shi--"
*Hissssssssssssssss*

[Flying Carcass]

One of my two preferred architectual styles pertains to my above-ground-ish forts. I tend to build around interesting natural features, such as water or whatever, and try to keep my trade-related buildings, such as workshops compact and close to defensive structures, such as castles and forts.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I also like to move my trade depot behind my defenses.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Right below my aboveground structures I like to put stuff like infrastructure, plumbing, farms, ect. Stuff the fort needs in order to function.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With how channeling works now, I like to make my underground mine seperate from the fort, though connected by an underground passage, and consist of relatively random channels.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Beeskee]

I was doing a central staircase thing, I'm trying a spiral ramp one now.

Rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise for each level down. (And clockwise for up )


The cluster of connected rooms are meant to be workshop/stockpile rooms and bedrooms for the dwarfs who work there. Though I could dig out the whole kit and kaboodle for a huge L-shaped dining hall or whatever.

The designated rooms are bedrooms. They can be dug smaller - split the rooms in half - or larger - knock out some dividing walls.

The room on the right connects to the workshop room above it.


The ramp chamber could be larger. I was kinda winging it when I designed this.
It's fairly fast to go down since they move along the inside of the spiral. Which is an excellent spot for traps.

[Mush]

I build three seperate skeletal staircases, The Halls, The Depths, and The Catacombs. Each staircase itself is merely a simple one that digs straight down.

I start with The Halls which is my main fort, consisting of bedrooms, dining rooms, workshops, and stockpiles, each taking their own level. This one is located in the middle of the staircases. The bedroom layout is usually cascading and may depict patterns I find appealing, though not space efficient.

The Depths consists of prisons, check points (training rooms), and trap-like levels, which eventually pierce into the caverns below.

Lastly, the Catacombs is built last, and is the most complex. I design a walkways, dead-ends, and holes (which reach far down) lined with indentions in the walls for coffins. The whole catacomb is a uniform square on every level that only has one path which goes to the bottom, then to the top again where the noble's coffins lie, along rooms for artifacts around. Merely carving it out has resulted in many trapped dwarves, most of which died.

Finally, after all these are built, I build spiraling, hollow towers over each of the staircases, and connect them a few floors above ground. The Depth's tower slightly differs to allow the dropping of prisoners through the middle. The Depths also have another connection into The Halls deep underground, which is lined with traps, drawbriges, moats, and a "check point".

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

What style?

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-6555-inkdepths

[Beeskee]

Spoiler: Pic (click to show/hide)

I improved my spiral design a bit.

I usually have an extensive above ground fort to go along with the underground part.

[Starver]

I'm repeating a number of ideas (some boring, some less so) than already mentioned here, but for my two-pennorth...

I tend to go with 5x5 rooms for everything, at the moment.  If it gets used for a 3x3 workshop, I can place that centrally and use the 16 surrounding squares as at least temporary end-product storage (although it might be more efficient to make that the raw-material store, I know, if I have constant haulers rather than ones that work in spurts).  I have tried to work in the Z-dimension for such things.  Raw material stockpiles (and larger end-product ones) often also featured immediately above and/or below the workshop (though there is a need to walk to one side to find stairwells).

Corridors, I used to go with 1-wide, and enclosing four 5x5s (or a single 11x11) within a 'block' of streets, but recently have been turning to 3-wide corridors.  And I can put nine 3x3s or 16 2x2s within that space, if I so want.

I've recently been rethinking my vertical (and diagonal) movement strategy, so that where I previously would have a 'framework' of vertical stairwells, alone, I've been workin with ramps.  Especially since I've had room.  There's two designs I've been toying with:

Code: [Select]

..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
###...#############...###
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
###...###=#####=###...###
.........................
....X..v.......#^...X....
.........................
###...###=#####=###...###
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..

or (subsampled)

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..#...#.....#.....#...#..
..#...#.....#.....#...#..
###...###=#####=###...###
.......v.......#^........
....X...............X....
........^#.......v.......
###...#########=###...###
..#...#.....#.....#...#..

Note that I've put both ends of a ramp-stack in the above examples, the true slice is as follows:

Code: [Select]

___X___v____________X____0
___X__#^v___________X____-1
___X___#^v__________X____-2
___X____#^v_________X____-3
___X_____#^v________X____-4
___X______#^v_______X____-5
___X_______#^v______X____-6
___X________#^v_____X____-7
___X_________#^v____X____-8
___X__________#^v___X____-9
___X___________#^___X____-10
... although if I have the vertical space, I wouldn't mind laying diagonals over diagonals, herringbone-pattern or otherwise.


Also, the side-of-corridor version (featuring opposing diagonals) means that at least some doors need around to different walls, or elsewhere (e.g. from north facing from western south-of-corridor room, seen to be filled in the subsample plan view).

But if I go for just a single ramp, I'd lay it out in a way to make it efficient for cross-zone travel, thusly... compressing the blocks down, and hoping it's still understandable:

Code: [Select]

Xv^X^vXv^X^vXv^X
vv.^  v  ^  v.v^
^.^v  ^  v  ^^.v
X^vXv^X^vXv^X^vX
^  v^.^  v.^^  v         
v  ^.vv  ^v.v  ^
Xv^X^vXv^X^vXv^X
v  ^  vvv^  v  ^
^  v  ^^^v  ^  v
X^vXv^X^vXv^X^vX
^  v.^^  v^.^  v
v  ^v.v  ^.vv  ^
Xv^X^vXv^X^vXv^X
v.v^  v  ^  vv.^
^^.v  ^  v  ^.^v
X^vXv^X^vXv^X^vX

Note the adjacent (north-south, east-west and, across select 'blocks', diagonalNE-SW or SE-NW) ^ and v indicating direction of ramp.  And even when using up the diagonal areas (which I might craft out as totally open, apart from ramp intrustions) this could easily be an area with 16x(2x2) blocks that would give 64 5x5 bedrooms, per level as well as possible things done within the 'spaces' of the diagonal cut-outs.
If it's a residential area (which I'd have single-product trade-good storage areas buffering from workshops and other noisy activites, well, except from the continual diggin-out of further levels of this area) it could house 64 5x5 bedrooms (or more 3x3s!) on one entire level, or if I worked vertically along one edge for the full 11 levels (0..-10) 132 separate rooms... Plenty enough for immigration waves, and giving a good selection of raw stone.  (Read: a pain in the arse to shift out, but I put up with it).  And the whole construction would be city-sized, with city-sized problems in management long before it became full!


But, I must admit, I've not yet gone to that extent, this is just an aesthetic ideal (if you like blocks of rooms, and or are The Borg), and I must admit that I always go more organic through sheer necessity, anyway, so while I'll have mapped out corridors and actually made raised platforms to let some rooms poke out the sides of inconveniently rounded hills, etc, there's always an environmental factor involved.  Especially now that there's not so much unlimited digging space below the surface, before hitting 'inconvenient' voids.  (Long before the definitely not convenient ones!)

Not counting 'special' parts of my fortress, e.g. the Trade Depot area and its defensively-equipped access tunnel (and/or above-ground construction).

Plus, for a while I did work a lot with towerblocks (blocks, indeed... they used an awful lot of stone ones, if I was strict about that!) with my "5x5 theme" mixed around a still mathematical relationship but a offset look...

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            #######
            #.....#
            #.....#
            #.....#
      #######.....#
      #.....#.....#
      #.....###.#########
      #.....#.....#.....#
      #.....#.....#.....#
      #.....#...........#
#########.###.....#.....#
#.....#.....#.....#.....#
#.....#.....##.##############
#...........#...#.....#.....#
#.....#.......X.......#.....#
#.....#.....#...#...........#
##############.##.....#.....#
    #.....#.....#.....#.....#
    #.....#.....###.#########
    #...........#.....#
    #.....#.....#.....#
    #.....#.....#.....#
    ##########.##.....#
          #.....#.....#
          #.....#######
          #.....#
          #.....#
          #.....#
          #######
That was giving four 'wings' of three-room 'suits': either for deserving dwarfs (bedroom, dining room, office) or doing something interesting with workshop interdependency, depending on the use I put the building to.

Having a different core size and room size makes for different layout, of course  But I didn't use to mix and match in the same tower...

And, as already stated, building materials (block ones, at least) get consumed a lot.  Although I often put large windows in, if I had enough glass as well...

[Austinthecat]

Long time lurk, first time post.
Most of my fortresses end up being pretty haphazard regardless of what I had originally in mind. I stick with wide passageways and place lots of dormitories, though. I've tried my hand at building a few above ground fortresses modeled after human towns and I've built a few Dwarf Fortresses in abandoned dark towers as well.

[ECrownofFire]

Taking over non-dwarf places is always fun. Especially when you collapse and/or flood them.

[nbonaparte]

Organic challenge

I may just take you up on that.

[Servu]

More or less organically grown underground establishments usually with at least one very large room. Paired with overground forts.

Here is my most successful one, with a large overground fortress housing military personnel and an overground lava lake. Along with a sprawling underground area that houses the rest.
dfma

edit:typo

[cephalo]

I always start with a horrible starting fort dug in haste to get my dwarves safe, and to minimally support the labor force needed for the 'real' fort that takes shape over the coming decades. The result is that all my forts have this ugly scar on what would otherwise be a nice fort.

My current fort will also have this scar, but someday I'd like to make a starting fort that can be incorporated into the final result in a nice way.

Also, everyone should listen to Retro, he makes nice forts. Up/down stairs are for industrial use only! Never let your king step on something that is only fit for a mineshaft!

[Johuotar]

I usually create fort where upper levels are ugly and chaotic but lower levels are better designed and beautiful. Efficiency usually aint good though. I usually use block or cross style but now I started using much less blocky design with walls going in angle of 45. Even though they dont go straight like that, they look better than just blocks. Dining rooms are expanded as much can be without breking natural outer walls, and usually lose their shape. (in upper levels only though, later in game I create multiple medium sized or one huge with mayby 1-3 tiny)

Every dwarf whines about not being able to sleep due to noise during first 3 years. After that I move to lower levels with smoothed walls and everything. Building overground feels so un darwenly. I have been planning building castle into cavern like it would be built overground. That would be epic, independent castle in natural cavern. So Dwarwenly.

First level:total chaos, many long passages.

Second level:nice order usually, but when room end its gets chaotic too, with random long passages going to other side of map ending in single medium sized rooms.

Third and all lower levels: All levels are usually very unique in shapes, but every level is reversed from the middle. (mirror image)