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[Direwald]

Well, yesterday I started playing DF and holy smokes, I gotta say I never expected that the game will keep me awake the whole night, until I looked on the clock and saw 6 am. The best thing about that is, that even when I cuddle my fortress for like 5 hours straight (which I'm pretty sure is nothing compared to you, but for me it's like half of the time I spend playing DF), trying to get the best result, I don't feel no regrets when in the end I just abandon it and start again on different place ^^ The biggest reason why I usually abandon the fortress is, that when more and more migrants arrive, and I built more farms and more everything, it just get so messy I don't even wanna look at it. Stockpiles that I don't know what they contain, the table with goods is not a good help too, is the white number what I have and the red what I need or the other way around? The rooms that I dig for new ppl are all in wierd places, because the rest is already filled workshop rooms, bedrooms etc.
So, I wanted to ask, does your fortress get messy or do you plan it all ahead with building enough rooms in advance and then just filling them with stuff as needed? ^^

[Jelle]

It pays off to have a temporary housing block for early game to house say 50 dwarves. Before that though I usually have a design in mind, and once I'm set to handle more immigrants I start constructing the real deal.

So nope I manage to keep everything tidy. I usually abandon because of FPS issues.

[zwei]

So, I wanted to ask, does your fortress get messy or do you plan it all ahead with building enough rooms in advance and then just filling them with stuff as needed? ^^

I do this in the begining:

 * Workshops and temp stockpiles get built on surface under clear sky
 * Small dormitory with ~9 beds on surface - it can last well till 50 dwarves
 * Small 3 tables / 3 chairs dining room, it too can last till 50 dwarves.

Dwarves are quite able to put up with theese conditions for long time and it gives you all the time you need to get real-deal planned, dug and built.

[Dwarfu]

Welcome to the wonderful world of DF.

Don't get discouraged.  As you learn new things, tips & tricks, you'll incorporate them into your design and your sites will become more and more satisfying to you.  The forum is a good place to ask questions as different items become important to you.

For stockpiles, 'q' over them after they are built and hit 's' for settings.  It will tell you exactly what is allowed in that stockpile.

For the stocks screen, the white number is what is available to use in your fort.  The red number are items that are in your fort, but are not able to be used for some reason or are already in use (such as a rock block that you used to construct a workshop).

There are many threads on fortress design, bedrooms, noble's quarters...read through them, some of them play host to many fantastic stories and pics of great fortresses.

As for your planning ahead question, I'm pretty much at the point of knowing about what I'll need from the get go and have a general idea when I start of where all of the different rooms will go.  You'll get there.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

So, I wanted to ask, does your fortress get messy or do you plan it all ahead with building enough rooms in advance and then just filling them with stuff as needed? ^^

I do this in the begining:

 * Workshops and temp stockpiles get built on surface under clear sky
 * Small dormitory with ~9 beds on surface - it can last well till 50 dwarves
 * Small 3 tables / 3 chairs dining room, it too can last till 50 dwarves.

Dwarves are quite able to put up with theese conditions for long time and it gives you all the time you need to get real-deal planned, dug and built.

Ditto

[forsaken1111]

If you want, you can set the population cap in your ini file to something like 20 to keep your population low.

[MadJax]

Before I even unpause after embark, I designate about 20 tree's for cutting (If available), set my engineer to be a miner too, then designate my main entrance, stockpiles, well, workshops space and living/dining area. (Entrance and well on same Z level, 1 below surface, stockpiles and the wells water chamber below, workshops below that, and dining/living after that). After that's all complete (I usually grab a snack while my dorfs begin), I just dig out whats needed at the time. Yeah it makes my forts look messier than most others, but I'll be damned do they look lived in and homely.

[expwnent]

Here's what I always tell myself I'm gonna do, but always end up being too lazy to implement:

1. Build a basic, crappy-looking fort "as you go" first.
2. Build up a massive stockpile of food and drink.
3. Design actual fort.
4. Build actual fort without worrying about dwarves starving while it's being made.

So far I've never gotten to step 3.

[mnjiman]

You dont need alot of farms, maybe a 6x6 plot of land for farming and that will be enough.

[forsaken1111]

yeah I do a 5x5 farm plot set for plump helmets, then a stockpile in a 1-tile ring around that farm that takes only seeds, then a 4-tile-wide stockpile around that which takes food and booze. Kitchen and still off to the side converting plump helmets into meals and booze.

This will keep a good sized fortress for a long time.

[Particleman]

Here's what I always tell myself I'm gonna do, but always end up being too lazy to implement:

1. Build a basic, crappy-looking fort "as you go" first.
2. Build up a massive stockpile of food and drink.
3. Design actual fort.
4. Build actual fort without worrying about dwarves starving while it's being made.

So far I've never gotten to step 3.

I think very few players have.

[Jordrake]

I generally tend to mine out areas and build stuff as I need it. The only time I ever have a design in mind at least partially for aesthetics (Besides megaprojects) is the entrance to my forts. I find if I leave plenty of room in places I think I might need later, everything fits together nicely, if not beautifully.

[vogonpoet]

Make everything huge, leave space for stuff.

I plan my forts from the get go, and tend to use at least 5-tile wide corridors, with rooms accessed by paired sets of double doors. Effectively my entire fort for the first year is future corridor, with one food stockpile, one everything else stockpile, rooms and workshops just plonked wherever. As rooms off the corridors are mined out, and different industrial areas begin to develop, new (still temporary) dedicated stockpiles are setup, and the entrance corridor begins to clear...

So I frequently tear down 'c'onstructions and 'b'uildings, but never mine anything that isn't part of overall design.

[puke]

never mine anything that isn't part of overall design.

yeah, me too.  even since 2D i've had the unshakeable habit of digging out part of the enterance way to setup a temporary microfort, and continuing to expand it and move elements of the fortress back deeper as things take their final shape.

sometimes its not perfectly planned or it might grow organically, but i try to never waste space or dig things that wont be used.  i might start with workshops and beds all in the enterance hall, and then move them back as i widen the hall, then move the workshops into what will eventually be a central farm or stockpile before shifting them into their final positions.  beds might move from the main hallway to rooms that eventually become common spaces before actual real bedrooms take shape.

Its usually a dynamic moving process, but i'm always carefull that the final shape of the fort should be pleasing and not have little atrophied abortions hanging off in places where i started to build but changed my mind.

[xdarkcodex]

If you want, you can set the population cap in your ini file to something like 20 to keep your population low.

Or if you want to keep your FPS alive