So, plan it out. If no plans are made, It'll just be as it is now.
(Please note, this edit represents a change in the image. The bottom right corner was off a bit, and now its fixed.
Hmm... here's what I think:
We keep the lake gate as a chokepoint (rats will make a siege harder).
Bottom two entries can be turned to gates and chokepoints.
Top right can be used as a mushrum farm, so we have an unlimited food supply in case of a siege. Part of it can be used for dining hall and food. Animal pen would have to be moved, because it'd get in the way of traffic. Maybe further back into the fort. I suppose it would be fun to have a side pen with Rars and troll eggs and other vicious creatures to injure those who breach the walls.
I'd suggest making the place in the bottom middle as the new temple to Gaia, placed right in the bottom middle of the fort. We could move the bedroom complex to the west of the fort.
Workshop could stay where it is now.
Armory and treasury should be kept where they are. It's a good rally point and gives dwarves a place to run off to rally and collect weapons, and they can move from the lower left to lower right gate and vice versa.
Or another option is to move it to the bottom right of the map. That way, dwarves will trap themselves in a corner, fight harder to keep the fort, and be forced to fight to their death to keep it.
On the outside, we change the current farm to a training ground. Instead of having people patrol the west/east gates, we can have people train just outside the gate.
We'll still keep a smaller farm, for Phluf and vegetables. Trading post would still be there, visitors can step on the front lawn and trading post instead of being locked out of shouting range and being tempted to break down our front gates.
I'm not so sure about the guest rooms, though. They seem a little underutilized, and a bit tough to maintain.
Does anyone else think this game would be ten times better with permadeath? Imagine how differently the orcs would treat us if they knew a war with us meant something real...
Not really... permadeath makes people really cranky. I'm quite happy with the atmosphere, don't want the elitist crud you get from RPIs with permadeath, and there'd still be the hassle of griefing. And I've died like 12 times in this game so far
I do think it'd be better without totems and those safe points. Totems are lame, IMO. They should be deactivated when the person who creates them logs on. So it's good for keeping people from burning your house or breaking your walls and stealing stuff when you're away, but not good for permanently keeping people out of an invincible, tight area.