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[Zigzom24]

I am starting a new fortress that I am planning on streaming. I want it to preferably be mainly on 1 z-level with a few exceptions (i.e. magma forges and smelters will be on bottom levels, and farm level will be one below main fortress)  I had some ideas, but does anyone have any well designed fortresses that are visually pleasing and mainly on one z-level? The reason for this is when streaming, it can get very confusing for viewers when you are changing z-levels. It was hard enough for me to grasp the concept while playing it, and I've seen videos of people playing where they jump around, and quite simply, it makes me wish to apply magma directly to my brain. This embark has a lovely mountain that covers about 1/3 of a 4x4 embark, and is right next to a brook. The rest of the area is a flat woodland. Any ideas/help would be appreciated!

[Senty]

You could construct things 1-2 levels below and have them visible from the first, making transitions easier.

[Diamond]

My old fortress. Not very pleasant, but nice.
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-10208-treatyspreads
Or you can get inspiration from old-time classics, like
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-1280-vabokmeborbinchesfinal
http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-309-copperblazes

[thedryness]

flat forts are inherently less efficient and it seems to me the sprawling nature of a large one would confuse more than a multiple z-level one. realistically i think you could have your audience follow along just fine with multiple z-level forts as long as the narration was fairly thorough in describing in detail what you are doing as you build the multiple levels and switch between them. keep the different z-levels fairly organized. this z-level is the housing, this is the workshops, this is the meeting hall... etc. i think it's probably helps more to keep very distinct areas and narrate what they are well, rather than clutter one z-level beyond quick recognition of areas.

something i personally find helps immensely with my own traversal and recognition of z-levels is to build the fort in the dead center of the embark area (F1) and make each z-level only as wide as the screen displays at once. this way all i need to do to look at any particular area of the fort is go up or down, which i can do with ease. its also a very efficient system in that almost any area in my fort is only a few steps away from any other given area. this is sort of the opposite of what your looking to do... but i feel like if you narrated it well it would work perfectly.

but that all being said, it is an interesting constraint to challenge yourself with. I haven't ever tried that out myself, but i might do so now just for fun. my initial thoughts would to be to plan far in advanced for LARGE stockpile areas where they will be relevant in the future. IE; having to put food far away from the meeting hall because there is no more room near it would be a pain. also I would make a point to make the fort entrance and meeting hall in the center of the map with the fort sprawling out in a semi spherical shape from the center.

but as i said before i believe it would be fairly difficult to create a fort with any efficiency, let alone readability on just one z-level.

[kotekzot]

I'm with thedryness on this. You could also try styling your z-levels to make them more distinct and interesting. Or, at the very least, make the stairwell change colors depending on level.

[Sutremaine]

You could use the space-saving method of having input, workshop, and output on different levels, but have all the workshops and living areas on the same level. That way you'd have a tidy-looking fortress on one level, with the relatively unimportant stockpiles invisible most of the time.

In a 2D fortress I had a modular layout with the butchery fanning out into the leatherworking and boneworking rooms. Close to the butchery was the kitchen, which occupied a central position within a butchery / farm / mill area. Overall distance doesn't matter as much as keeping the skilled dwarves moving within one small area and the haulers rapidly shuttling back and forth between workshop and stockpile. It might take them a while to get there from their rooms (unless you give these their own level and have them 'invisible' like the stockpiles), but they work fast once they do.

A task at either the butchery or the still will generate many hauling jobs. If slaughtering and brewing are both being done at once, haulers finished with either meat or seeds can be pulled away to the other job instead of remaining on standby for the skilled dwarf to finish and generate more hauling tasks.

[dwarfhoplite]

Here are some of my forts

http://postimage.org/image/2ttrcrsec/

http://postimage.org/image/j3p4c1yc/full/

http://postimage.org/image/2p93rw0h0/

http://postimage.org/image/xx756n8/

[dwarfhoplite]

Here are some of my forts

http://postimage.org/image/2ttrcrsec/

http://postimage.org/image/j3p4c1yc/full/

http://postimage.org/image/2p93rw0h0/

http://postimage.org/image/xx756n8/

YOU ARE NOT A DWARF!!!!
YOU ARE A HUMAN!
GET OUT!

OT: look at old 23a (or whatever it is) forts. they will give you good ideas as they are from when there was only 1 Z level.

who are you to say I play "wrong"? I build what comes to my mind and these fortresses were only experiments on fort design and warfare. This thread is supposed to give ideas after all

[Tharwen]

Wait... you people plan your fortresses?

[dwarfhoplite]

Wait... you people plan your fortresses?

I'm usually too perfectionist to keep unplanned forts going. fortresses with strict planning are boring though. recently ive been playing unplanned forts and it's awesome

[Lectorog]

I usually run a semi-flat fortress. Nothing visually pleasing, though. Certainly not well-designed.

I just dig in, make a 5x10 temporary store room for food, dig out some farms and kitchen space across from it. From there, I make more stores to the side. Dining room off of those. Across from the dining room and food stores go the main workshops, primarily masonry, crafting, and carpentry. Old store room gets tranferred into furniture and/or craft stores. Then I start digging the dwarves' rooms. Any digging or "advanced workshops" like metalworks go below. Refuse usually gets its own third floor. That floor doubles as a stone mine.

If you want something efficient and one-floored, you're basically out of luck. Best I can think of is a main dining room with three wings coming off of it: one living, one living/food, one working.

You could also color-code your levels, though that'd be hard if there's little diversity in stone color at your site.