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[Tsarwash]

I know that there's a thread about it, but it died in May, and I didn't want to ressurect it because it..I don't know...It just looks too untidy, ok ?? 

Anyhow, on these boards there is a lot of talk about OCD in our dwarven maintenance and care. Maybe the style of the game tends to attract the most OCD of us, or brings that side of us out. So how OCD are we all in our dwarven daily life ?  Myself, I'm not too sure if i'm afflicted so bad. I let the veins of ore and stone dictate the shape of my levels to some extent. But I do tend to tidy up stone when there is no real purpose to doing it. I usually atomsmash or melt all Gobbo clothing, because I don't like the idea of my dwarves wearing second hand Goblin clothing. Above ground constructions are always made of blocks not rough stone, but there is method behind that. Nowadays I try to only carve out just what space is necessary for my fort to thrive. I don't like to see lots of untidy, unwanted space. I always make my hospital furniture out of microline and featherwood, becase it's a nice clinical colour.  Uh,, I take back what I said about not being afflicted too bad.

[Brandedahall]

i usually have my fort one whole color for some reason, also i try and have it as symetrical as possible, even to the extent of getting rid of rooms for dwarfs

[veok]

Zinc barrels and featherwood bins, dump / burn / atomsmash any barrels or bins of offending materials. Or else.

[Moonshine Fox]

Speaking of block vs rought stone *thread hijack* Is there really a difference when you make constructions out of it?

[veok]

Speaking of block vs rought stone *thread hijack* Is there really a difference when you make constructions out of it?

Blocks are worth more, architecturally.

[ungulateman]

I will not embark without a completely flat site.

Ever.

[KillerClowns]

While it's not a hard and fast rule, I always end up with two groups of carpenter's workshops, each with its own pile.  Workshops building bins and barrels aren't allowed black-cap, birch, oak, maple, glumprog, or blood thorn, while furniture workshops are denied feathertree cedar, and alder.  Also, I empty out communal dining rooms of stone, no matter how long that takes.  Finally, my housing complexes always use the same pattern, regardless of how much sense that makes in the terrain.  Except when I'm building above ground, of course.

[Tsarwash]

Speaking of block vs rought stone *thread hijack* Is there really a difference when you make constructions out of it?

Blocks are worth more, architecturally.

And it trains your masons up, without producing lots of low quality furniture.

[Dok Enkephalin]

They're always the same size, shape and weight, and they stack in a way that's sure to please the OCD.

[Xenos]

I refuse to dig holes in the sides of my rooms...unless it is cotton candy.  then i get a cotton candy floor in one lucky dwarfs tomb

but other than that, i leave native aluminum and platinum walls in my hallways, i have had star sapphires camping out next to a door because i dont want to throw off the symmetry of the room.  Also, I have begun making circular dining rooms for some reason...with two large public diners on the east and west of my shaft, and two smaller more private dining areas (or well rooms) to the north and south.  this is one z level under my food storage (no seeds allowed.  ever.  unless i am trying to cook them away.) which is 20 squares in every direction around my stairway.  which is directly under my food processing center (4-5 farmers workshops, animal pens, butchers shop, tanners shop, 3-4 stills, 2-3 kitchens) which is directly under my farm (and seed stockpile.  who doesnt put seeds w/farms?) zone.  This is usually in the first layer but if it isnt then i have another layer for above ground farms.   under the dining area, is my residential zone, for about 3 z levels.  I am still toying with patterns of 2x3 rooms surrounding the staircase.  then i go down a few more levels and hit my barracks/dormitory/central hub.  there is a ramp leading from the surface to my trade depot near the hub, and connecting to the hub is the end of my long, windy, heavily trapped corridor which sieges path through when the several bridges guarding my depot retract.  (also, the cavern entrance must path through that long trap corridor as well.  or have a separate one.  depends on how efficient/lazy i feel)  then i have a separate stairway to lead to the industrial zone, which is a ways away from the residential (dont want noise complaints now do we?) here i have several warehouse levels between workshop levels and raw material piles between workshops.  i always will at least double or triple each workshop (even the bowyers and dyers and ashery and soap makers shops) regardless of how my economy goes.  if i get 3 fey soap makers at once, I AM PREPARED! 

tldr:  my walls are sacred, and must be natural stone.  everything must go through my barracks to get into my fort.  probably not very effficient for a design, but it is safe...ish...

[Arbitrax]

I will not embark without a completely flat site.

Ever.

This.  I always build on the lowest above-ground z-level and flatten the rest of the map, and atomsmash the stone.

[Namfuak]

Personally, I'm not that OCD.  I'll try to keep my rooms in-line when possible, but just as easily I'll dig in such a way that it conforms to the outside of the mountain for maximum space.  I personally like it when there are hills, though it can get annoying with very steep mountains (just because of all the z-levels), since I prefer digging into a mountainside over channeling in the middle of a field.  When I visualize the front of the entrance, a hole and entrance hallway in a mountainside are always more appealing to me than simply a hole in the ground.  Of course, if that entrance is at the top of a huge mountain, it can feel even more epic, and if you have to go up a smaller peak in order to take a bridge that goes to a flat part 2 z-levels before the highest peak where the entrance is, with sheer cliffs around the high peak (because I took out the ramps, of course), it gets even more epic feeling.

Anyway, back to the original point, I don't care about color or anything, though if I have one kind of material that is abundant I'll make sure to make all of my bridges out of it, both for practicality and for look.

[Xenos]

I always coordinate bridges with buildings they are near or the function they serve.  for instance, bridges near my trade depot are built out of a rare, semi-rare, or uncommon material the same color or material as my depot.  Serpentine, Kimberlite, petrified wood work for this, I also like obsidian (i know it is very much not rare) because it is more valuable and an obsidian bridge is an amazing mental image.  If a bridge were in a wall, i would craft it out of metal because that makes sense for my main draw bridge.  walls for my above ground fortresses, windmill farms, above ground farm ceilings etc. are all made of my most common stone (preferably a dark grey, white, red, or black stone.  if my fortress isnt imposing and threatening, it will be pure.  )  (i have lots of these little quirks) OH!  i also like putting my entrance as a hole in the ground which is fortified.  bonus points if i can put my residential in the mountain side overlooking said hole in the ground.  (I am also working on implementing the toilet trap magma varient (TTMV as opposed to TTWV) but magma takes a long time...and i made a mistake killing my miners...so time to try again...but thats off topic)

[gtmattz]

Some things that happen in all of my forts:

I always embark on perfectly flat terrain with a brook and sand.  All other features can vary, but the brook and sand are must-haves and it must be completely flat, if there is even one 1x1 'hill' somewhere I savescum and re-embark somewhere else...

I always completely wall in my embark with either marble or obsidian, leaving a 5 tile wide space between the edge and the walls(where you cant build walls anyway) which I build paved roads on, also in marble or obsidian.

My trade depot is a drowning chamber 7 levels below the surface... no less no more, and serves also as an airlock(more like water-lock, but yeah...) on my entrance hall.

I think those 3 situations are the only ones that are consistent between all my forts...

[Bronze Dog]

Currently, my OCD is hexagons: I've got a honeycomb layout I'm going to be working with for a while (which probably uses too much empty space, but I don't really care that much). The cells are big enough to contain 7 regular workshops with a tile of open space around each. Originally, I went that way so that I would be able to wall in moody dwarves likely to go berserk, but an alternative that comes to mind is using them as custom stockpiles for high value materials so moody dwarves will more likely pick them out.

Each workshop cell will be surrounded by 6 stockpile cells for raw materials and/or finished products. I have contemplated changing that by having those stockpiles placed above and below, though.

Each honeycomb layer is separated by a largely untouched layer in between to prevent (unlikely) cave ins from traveling all the way to the bottom of my fortress. I'll probably use some of them for water and magma pipes... If I can somehow make sure the water pipes won't get clogged up by cavern trees. I'm making a new surface entrance design that'll involve an emergency method of dropping a glass ceiling on the nastier sorts of invaders, so the top layer of soil underneath it will need to remain solid.

I'm working my way towards a giant (hexagonal base) clear hourglass tower with obsidian caps, so I tend to favor mostly flat sections of sandy desert with a river and no aquifer, since I don't know all the methods of punching through those. I'll get the wood by cultivating an orchard of cavern plants.

For workshops, I think I might try color coding the final arrangement in some way or another.

...Is there a way to specify what kind of rock blocks/mechanisms/floodgates you want made? I tend to have to play with probability with some starting stones for my irrigation system.