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[Shmo]

What are some things that absolutely must, without exception, be true in any fortress you play?

There are, of course, the big hitters like colour uniformity (or otherwise arrangement) and symmetry. But what about the little things?

For instance, all soap I make must without exception be forgotten beast soap, no matter how many have to die of infection before I can get some.

My captain of the guard and all other police-dwarves must be equipped with silver whips, whether bought or mined from goblinite deposits.

[Ravenkana]

I always have an outdoor courtyard, complete with walls and a roof.

[nordak]

Magma Forge, valcano or pumpstack fed, doesn't matter.  Outdoor Courtyard complete with towers at each corner (who needs a ceiling, how else are dragons going to visit the dining room?).  Lots of draw bridges... ...makes for cleaner reclaim when your dwarf powered atom smashing hallway kills all the witnesses.  Aquifer fed and drained *Moat of drowning* with a dodge trap walk way ledge above.  A special room built to contain the depot... designed to deal with !!Traders!! and their non magma proof XXGoodsXX.  A long 3 wide hallway incase I decide to put in ballistas.

[Girlinhat]

Giving my soldiers cloaks and hoods, midnight blue if available.

[darthbob88]

I always have an obsidian farm and magma forges in my fortress, an above-ground keep which serves both as marksdwarf platform and mass storage site, and usually make a giant pyramid outside my fortress. Every non-interim building is made out of blocks, preferably glass or obsidian or ceramic, since it's been added. Levers are close to their machine and/or colour-coded; the levers for my obsidian farm are blue for water and red/yellow for magma, the levers to cut off my water system for cleaning are near the floodgates that cut everything off from the river, etc.

[elf-fondling human]

I always build a 5-tile thick wall, with towers at each corner and entryway.

It completely surrounds every build-able inch of my embark site, and makes hunting surface stuff really hard, but the protection is unmatchable. It really only loses to flying mounts when seiges show up.

[612DwarfAvenue]

Putting two Craftsfdwarf's Workshops next to the Trade Depot, since i sell rock crafts, and digging out a large area beneath the Workshops and putting stairs leading up to them so the Stonecrafters have easy acess to stone. And with the Workshops next to the Depot, that means when i designate the dozens of crafts to be sold, there's basically no time waiting for the Dwarves to get from one place to the other. They pick up a craft, and two steps away is the Depot to drop them off at.

Also, somewhere there's soil, i just dig out a huge area for plants and Tower-caps to grow unimpeded, and then every few ingame years i check down there to see what i can harvest from the area.

[nordak]

I always build a 5-tile thick wall, with towers at each corner and entryway.

It completely surrounds every build-able inch of my embark site, and makes hunting surface stuff really hard, but the protection is unmatchable. It really only loses to flying mounts when seiges show up.

Set layers above surface to 5 and build the wall to 5 high to stop flyers if necissary. 

[Aachen]

I simply cannot have walls till I have blocks.

Constructions nearby volcanoes are made from glass.

Really long stairwells.

Airlocked work stations. Those moody dwarves are given the materials the administration decides they deserve.

Multiple-z-level rooms. Damn the heat bill!

Always have a proficient siege engineer along for the ride. The fact remains that it's a rare fort to have any siege engines ever set up.

[Astronomygoon]

I always designate a little, out of the way place in the fortress for a dedicated pet cemetery.

[612DwarfAvenue]

I always designate a little, out of the way place in the fortress for a dedicated pet cemetery.

I have a pet cemetary too. It's called a Butcher's Shop.

[FluidDynamite]

Stuff I do every fort:

All Dwarven Children are renamed "Useless" and profession set to "Brat" upon entering the map.

7 legendary tombs for the starting seven dwarves with manually planepacked statues and stuff. Dwarves that achieve legendary status also gets a tomb. Rest of them goes into the refuse pile. (Yeah, I tend to get a ton of ghosts...)

12-z execution tower for captured goblins. Bonus points for menacing spikes at the bottom, preferably out of glass.

[orrey]

I don't allow bins in stockpiles, except for bars and blocks.  Makes it a little easier to visualize supplies quickly, and a little more aesthetically pleasing than crates everywhere.

[jamesadelong]

The entrance to my fort always has a loophole like this:
(Upper level)
< > = ramps
.... = floor
X = fortification
+ = Lever for the drawbridge
                ..........................
............>X...........................<
............>X..........           +.....<
............>X...........................<
                ..........................

(Lower Level) | = drawbridge

>...............|....................<
>...............|....................<
>...............|....................<

This allows me to station marksdwarfs on the upper level, constantly watching the passage into my fort, any enemy attacking has to get past 3+ crossbows, constantly firing at them and then work out how to get through a drawbridge. I also have one that goes down into the caverns to defend against any nasties that try to come up. If the fortress survives long enough, I ussually build an airlock system so I can train and throw out squads of soldiers without compromising the fortress' security.

So far it's been fairly effective.

[AutomataKittay]

That eventually every bins and barrels are made from tunnel tubes, beds made from it also. Though nethercaps are preferred, I don't usually find them in my embarks, when I does find them, I makes them out of it, along with obsidian furnishings. Every wall and floor made out of obsidian block eventually. All the other woods get turned into ash for further processing or get used up for obsidian shortswords.

Blackcaps or tower caps are used as part of mechanical system to make contrast or blend in with obsidian surrounding, as desired 

Also, everyone get a uniform of clothings and high boots ( robe, mittens, cloaks, hoods at very minimum, civvies get leather shields, plant cloth outfits and cheap armors eventually. Military get kitted out in all leather. )