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[sadron]

Hi, I was wondering if any of you guys would be able to provide some suggestions on what I could build to make my fortress more "fortressy". For the most part my games have been pretty plain, I dig out lots of bedrooms over time, I dig out usually 3-4 big rooms to stuff the workshops in, a big dining room, and then a room for a barracks to train in. But there's so much mountain to dig in and I'm at a loss of the kinds of rooms I could put in there to make it more comfy and fortressy as I have said. I want to make it less boring!

[Organum]

I tend to have the same problem you have, but I know that some like to make arenas and other things that are useless from a gameplay standpoint.

[ZetaX]

One option would be to dig out some huge area (over at least 5, better 25, z levels) and build something (completely unnecessary) there. Some obsidian underground castle (including moats, towers, gates, ...), or the hanging gardens of Babylon. Or build some vault to store all your precious artifacts in it; and by vault I mean that type behind traps, labyrinths, riddles, dangerous animals (dragons are the perfect choice if available) and combinations of those; some emergency lever which dumps everything (at least the treasure) into magma is a bonus.

For all of these, try adding as much useless features as possible!

[RedWick]

I'm a fan of building elaborate crypts and temples to each of the gods my dwarves worship.

[Nameless Archon]

I designate multiple gatehouses, with all of my dwarves doing all work underground and the only purpose to each gatehouse being access control. In the end, a fortress will have its surroundings dotted with small 'watchtowers' that are only accessible from below, and provide a place to store arrow-attracting kittens or station marksdwarves to harry intruders.

Do you have a zoo?

Do you have a secure fishing area, complete with grates to keep dwarves out of the water?

What about a statue garden?

A memorial hall filled with slabs commemorating dead dwarves?

A dining room with artificial waterfall?

Forges operating off magma power?

A magma cistern that vaporizes enemies automatically when they try to sneak in?

[Girlinhat]

The most fun comes through Stonesense.  Build something that's visible and outstanding, walls and towers, or go experimental and have a long narrow bridge, made of floor and wall, not actual bridge, and then build living quarters hanging on the underside of it like christmas lights.  If all else fails, spires are fun.

[Anathema]

When I get all the underground stuff finished, I like adding a functional aboveground human-style "fortress" to act as the entrance to the underground. Make it all of one menacing color - bauxite is great if you can find enough of it, obsidian also works - extending as many z-levels as possible. Bonus points if you can build it into the side of a mountain, Minas Tirith-style. Of course it needs plenty of fortifications backed by siege weapons and siege ammo/bolt stockpiles. Upper levels can be barracks and everything else your military needs (archery training, dining, sleeping, food/equipment/etc. stockpiles).

Most importantly, it needs a moat filled with preferably magma (well, I guess water will do as a substitute, if you're satisfied with a merely human-quality fort). Also a large entrance hallway, overlooked by more crossbow dwarves/siege weapons, capable of being flooded (and drained! drainage is important I've discovered) with magma or water from the same source as your moat.

Edit: and, of course, Stonesense is a must for admiring and sharing your craftsdwarfship. That's really the main draw for creating it aboveground, it's much more difficult to represent the awe-inspiring vastness of your sprawling underground fort graphically.

[Urist Da Vinci]

Non-standard rooms in some of my forts:

-animal control (cages, breeding, milking, butcher, tanner, bones, etc.)
-pow camp (cages, gear removal zone, military training pit)
-power plant (dwarven water reactor)
-hospital (each patient can be isolated)
-superweapon control room
-3x3 archery towers in the field with a 1x1 spot to stand at the top, and fortifications (accessed from underground)
-booze room (because dwarves eat in the dining hall, but drink in the booze stockpile)
-artifact display room (display case mod)
-temple (statues of dwarven gods worshipped in my fort)
-party rooms (with flashing gem windows and a mist machine. think saturday night fever!)

[sadron]

One option would be to dig out some huge area (over at least 5, better 25, z levels) and build something (completely unnecessary) there. Some obsidian underground castle (including moats, towers, gates, ...), or the hanging gardens of Babylon. Or build some vault to store all your precious artifacts in it; and by vault I mean that type behind traps, labyrinths, riddles, dangerous animals (dragons are the perfect choice if available) and combinations of those; some emergency lever which dumps everything (at least the treasure) into magma is a bonus.

For all of these, try adding as much useless features as possible!

This all sounds awesome, but I feel like, I have a lack of creativity. Like, I want to be more creative, but my mind doesn't necessarily spring the ideas to mind. I don't really know how to build proper traps and get animals to defend a place for me. Are there some helpful articles on the wiki that I could use to maybe break the dam that is blocking most of my creativity? Because my creative ideas (not even necessarily for DF itself, but in other things) at most seem to come at a trickle.

[Girlinhat]

Check the wiki for "Stupid Dwarven Trick" and read the DF2010 and 40d articles, they vary slightly and should help get you thinking.  Also, any of the breeding threads, particularly the 40d mermain farm and the DF2010 sea serpent farm.  If that doesn't get you thinking, then you are most certainly an elf and should come to terms with this.

[Minnakht]

There has been someone wanting to dig out a big hole in the ground, leading down as deep as to the magma sea. Dig it, then make rooms in the sides of the hole, maybe build some platforms on the circumference to get above-ground space. Make it out of obsidian for above-ground farms.

THEN STRING A LOT OF 1-TILE WIDE CATWALKS ACROSS THE CRATER.

And build a giant iron anvil in the middle of the hole

...since this idea is stuck in MY head, I'm obliged to do it, right?

[Girlinhat]

If only you could build rope bridges, like proper rope, and be able to cut one end so that it falls (and converts into a ladder against the wall) so you could have a new, fantastic way of killing goblins.

[Minnakht]

And worst of all, that can't be modded in...

...I haven't ever seen Toady.

[Duntada Man]

One major thing you need is an arena to train your fighters in. This should be at least 6 z levels down, and have a gathering hall overlooking a pit that is at least 3z's deep.

Furthermore, the king's/duke's/mayor's chambers and office should work as an adjacent viewing pavilion just for them. (Bonus points if you rig a system to throw unruly nobles into the pit so he can watch goblins destroy his political opponents.

As for housing, I was inspired by a few apartments I see on my delivery route. One has a singlw walkway shared by two houses that leads to 2 seperate gates, each leading to a yard. You can use this by putting a statue of high value, or a waterfall or something at the end of a hallway that leads into 2 different dwarven dwellings. It's more asthetic than a long series of rooms off of one hallway, and each dwarf gets to see something that gives them a happy thought without you having to make one for each dwarf.

Sometimes I also like to make verticle dwellings that house people of each job-class in a ring arounf workshops. Masons, stoneworkers and  such on one floor around those workshops and a storeroom there for their goods.
Above them, charcoal and ash makers for better access to trees. Just below them my forges, so that my masons can be kept warm by the forges and so forth.

[obeliab]

One option would be to dig out some huge area (over at least 5, better 25, z levels) and build something (completely unnecessary) there. Some obsidian underground castle (including moats, towers, gates, ...), or the hanging gardens of Babylon. Or build some vault to store all your precious artifacts in it; and by vault I mean that type behind traps, labyrinths, riddles, dangerous animals (dragons are the perfect choice if available) and combinations of those; some emergency lever which dumps everything (at least the treasure) into magma is a bonus.

For all of these, try adding as much useless features as possible!

This all sounds awesome, but I feel like, I have a lack of creativity. Like, I want to be more creative, but my mind doesn't necessarily spring the ideas to mind. I don't really know how to build proper traps and get animals to defend a place for me. Are there some helpful articles on the wiki that I could use to maybe break the dam that is blocking most of my creativity? Because my creative ideas (not even necessarily for DF itself, but in other things) at most seem to come at a trickle.

You should probably not be too worried about making interesting things until you get all the game elements down and know what you'll be working with.  My first few forts (and probably many others') were blocky, boring, and highly inefficient.  Then you start having those realizations like, "Oh, Z-levels!" and "I probably don't need space for 4 Jeweler's Workshops," which allow you to design better and incorporate the game elements into something aesthetically pleasing and useful.