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[jamesadelong]

So I was watching a number of let's plays earlier on today and I couldn't help but notice a dependance on the idea of a central, 2X2 shaft being both the first and primary utility for the fort with the rest of the fort built from there. To me that concept seems foreign and almost a little obscene. I find the idea that you would rely on a single downward shaft to be almost naive regarding defense.
However, I also recall that magnificent fortress BoatMurdered (cue epic trumpets and the sounds of screams) used a horizotal shaft with an almost immediate barrier, admittedly defeated by a butterfly, to defend against the swarms, so perhaps there is merit in the direct design.

Recently I have started experimenting with an S-bend main entrance, usually by flooding a murky pool into the hole I just carved out. It essentially protects me from anything that can't swim. Further on, when I have developed mechanics and an energy source, I tend to create a pump group to pull the water out. Think of it essentially as a liquid gate. From there i move to have a looped defensive point that allows marksdworfs to fire down the horizontal shaft with impunity. After that, a basilica defines the upper and lower levels with the upper left hand side used for storage, the upper right for workshops and farms, the lower left for residential and the lower right for barracks, meeting halls and the various offices and official dining halls.

So my questions are these;
How do you set up your forts?
What do you think are the advantages of your fort setup?
How quickly can you develop your fort?
Is there any major disadvantages to your fort design?
What calibrations do you intend to do in future?

Feel free to present examples and interesting concepts of other fort designs.

[acetech09]

My entrances sometimes consist of a 3-wide horizontal tunnel into a mountainside/3 ramps down to a 3-wide tunnel. Dig a 2-deep pit in the tunnel, build a raising drawbridge over it, raises facing inside your fort. It's a pretty cool city gate thing that isn't real exploity. Then I have my trade depot 'round a u-bend, then another one of those gate thingies. My depot is inside an airlock.

After that, I usually build around a central stairway with hatches on the stairways so I can lock out things coming up from below.

[jamesadelong]

My entrances sometimes consist of a 3-wide horizontal tunnel into a mountainside/3 ramps down to a 3-wide tunnel. Dig a 2-deep pit in the tunnel, build a raising drawbridge over it, raises facing inside your fort. It's a pretty cool city gate thing that isn't real exploity. Then I have my trade depot 'round a u-bend, then another one of those gate thingies. My depot is inside an airlock.

After that, I usually build around a central stairway with hatches on the stairways so I can lock out things coming up from below.

Do you do anything with the pits?

[Alastar]

My forts used to follow this model: vertical shafts (staggered to cut down on possible falling accidents). Access is restricted via a drawbridge to the outside, closing the main entrance opens up an alternate one which is a containment area that'll eventually feature a fully automated meat grinder, obsidian casting chamber and miscellaneous less efficient nastiness..
There are backups: Hatches and a plumbing system with fine-grained pressure control lets me seal and selectively flood slices of my fortress from otherwise civilian water/magma fixtures when the need arises. Also, there's a weapon trap at the entrance of most rooms - dwarves love them.

These days, most forts have some sort of theme that trumps efficiency.

[Diamond]

However, I also recall that magnificent fortress BoatMurdered (cue epic trumpets and the sounds of screams) used a horizotal shaft with an almost immediate barrier, admittedly defeated by a butterfly, to defend against the swarms, so perhaps there is merit in the direct design.

Boatmurdered was built in a version that had no z-levels, and therefore no vertical shafts possible.

[Namfuak]

The fortress I am making now is basically a big sandwich based around a 2x1 staircase, with hatches that are closed to animals between the fortress and caverns.  Although I usually go with raising drawbridges, I decided to go with retracting for this one since I have a wet moat and it is more fun to watch goblins drown than to throw them at my military.  My trade depot is airlocked, although I decided to put my prison and barracks inside the trade depot airlock.  I'm still deciding on a way to give that a secondary entrance into my fortress without just using a raising drawbridge, since that is a little exploity and boring to me. 

I embarked in with no goblins in the world though, so I'm really not expecting too many frontal assaults.

[i2amroy]

I tend to start with a 3 wide path that goes straight into the side of a hill and then uses ramps to loop downwards and around until I hit stone. Then I set up a split in the path, with about 3-5 Goblin Grinders on the main path and an alternate 3 wide path that loops around them but can be sealed with a drawbridge for when merchants get wagons again. Then on the other side of the grinders I have my trade depot and and then my barracks, which is separated from the spot by a 3 wide double door system.

Code: [Select]

XXX
D.D
X.X
D.D
XXXThen on the other side of the barracks I finally have my 1x3 staircase running up and down my fort. If invaders attack, they will have to go through any entrance traps I throw up, through the grinders (which is nigh impossible for most things, even building destroyers simply destroy the grinders, trapping themselves on the outside side of them), through any merchants and their guards who happen to be there, through an easily lockable door system, through the assembled might of my military, and then and only then can they reach my main staircase. Also I tend to throw up double doors at junctions of the various wings of my fortress with the main staircase, so in a worst case scenario I could probably lock those as well.

[Tryble]

I like the concept of avoiding central shafts, but I can't stand having unsymmetrical designs, and always end up using vertical fortresses where each floor is radially symmetrical. 
I've got a handful of Quickfort blueprints that can crank out my standard favored design for each level, so creating the fortress innards is quick and easy, unless I feel like doing something fancy instead.  It's always the gates to the outside that have me scratching my head.

I don't think it's 'naive' to use a vertical shaft--I feel that if the enemy pierces into the heart of the fortress then you were probably done for anyway.  I prefer to use a sort of aboveground airlock when creating defenses, where there is an inner and outer wall.  Inbetween is where the military hangs out.  Lock the inner gates, open the outer, and sieging forces will walk into your military while the civilians remain safe; as a bonus, the inner walls can have marksdwarf fortifications for firing support.  I LOVE marksdwarves.


I always dig to the caverns from outside the fort, so that all nasties from down there have to travel the same gauntlet to attack the fort.  Plus, there's the occasional bonus where a siege will get wasted by a forgotten beast.

[scapheap]

mine tend to random based on my mood that day (I need a new farm/a better office for the mayor/the bedroom spell my name) the only theme of my fortress is the entry
"outside"
    |   |
    |   |____
    |____    |
 ______|   |
 ___X____|
the X is the military save from arrows and bolts waiting for elf/goblins/everything else

[Oaktree]

My fort is essentially two parts - an inner core and then outworks.

The inner core is essentially 7x7 or 8x8 blocks around a central 2x2 stair shaft with additional 2x2 stairs on the corners.  Some auxilary rooms like archery ranges, magma reservoirs, poultry rooms, storage, can extend out further, but that is the general design. 

Outworks are either the shaft (or two) going down to access magma and caverns, or my surface works.  The surface works generally turn into a set of roofed areas forming a keep that hold some pasture, barracks, and workshops that benefit from light exposure (like a butcher).  The Trade Depot is gated off from the main area and then connected to areas outside the Keep via access tunnels.  Access to the mining galleries also has a gate built at some point for emergencies - though it is rarely used since I'm careful about breaching the caverns without having additional security already in place.

The access tunnels are generally 3-wide and extend in multiple directions from the Trade Depot location.  They have inner gates, middle gates to force attackers into side tunnel "grinders", and an outer gate near the exit to allow maintenance or trap attackers inside.  These tunnels also tend to accumulate additional traps as the fort matures, or features such as fortifications for the marksdwarves to shoot through.  I also tend to run the tunnels on a stone level to avoid having to pave them at a later time.

And "gate" in this usage is a drawbridge over a dry ditch that raises inward to block off the tunnel.  The levers are centralized in a room or area near the main dining hall.

An access tunnel with a set of gates can go up fairly quickly - less than a year to get one fully dug out and operational.  Installing the traps and especially a fully-functional grinder takes longer since it is pretty labor intensive on your mechanics and you also need to have the weapons and trap components available to install.

The main reason I like the tunnels is *control*.  You get migrants or a caravan into a tunnel ASAP so that they are less likely to go fleeing all over the map if goblins appear.  You get goblins or other attackers into a tunnel where you know what their paths are, can trap them inside, or trap them outside, etc.  And often you can trap a bunch of goblins in one tunnel and let the caravan depart via another tunnel.

[dreadmullet]

I always use a 2x2 vertical shaft. It extends from my entrance to my magma forges, avoiding caverns on the way. I make sure it's not connected to the caverns, and I make sure the only way in is from my entrance defense.

Other than that, my fort entrances are different every time. Before my last fort, I set up a realistic castle type of thing, with a hollow wall surrounded by a dry moat and drawbridge, protected by archers on the walls. That fort died spectacularly after some flying mounts from a siege killed everything.

Here is my latest fort:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's carved into a mountain, and allows two ballistas to fire at the massive sieges Fortress Defense sends at me. Theres also an acher tower/bridge some z-levels above. When sieges get to my doors, I send my warriors to clean them up. The left door leads to the main shaft, the right door leads to the barracks.

[Delta Foxtrot]

My forts follow a fairly standard 2x2/3x3 central staircase, usually located near the embark point. To defend my central staircase I try to wall it and roof it up as soon as I get some blocks produced. As my fortress gains migrants, allowing me to allocate more dwarfs to block production and many more still to mason/hauler brigades, I start constructing ever more hallways that I later on fill with traps, bridges and staging areas for my militia. Nothing too fancy, it's not too pre-planned and it looks just like that.

A good example of my surface design here

The main problem here is the aforementioned lack of planning, which may cause some inefficiency. But as it stands, the bridges allow me to regulate the amount of siegers I let into my fort at any one time. I could also easily dig few levels down below my microcline bridges and set up some upright spike traps for added defence. I could also easily build another floor up at the very front of my fort and build fortifications and station marksdwarves in there. Currently it's an ok set up. And I can see many ways I could improve it without drastically erasing any of the current features in it.

Still could use a little pre-planning though.

[acetech09]

My entrances sometimes consist of a 3-wide horizontal tunnel into a mountainside/3 ramps down to a 3-wide tunnel. Dig a 2-deep pit in the tunnel, build a raising drawbridge over it, raises facing inside your fort. It's a pretty cool city gate thing that isn't real exploity. Then I have my trade depot 'round a u-bend, then another one of those gate thingies. My depot is inside an airlock.

After that, I usually build around a central stairway with hatches on the stairways so I can lock out things coming up from below.

Do you do anything with the pits?

I sometimes put cage traps down there, and repeatedly flap the gate to cage goblins.

Yes. Flapping the gate.

[Garath]

I usually quickly dig down to make storage and plots. My workspaces and storage tends to be a bit haphazard, but i have never encountered severe problems due to a lack of efficiency yet. My entance consists of a long corridor, 2 wide, with a bridge at front and back. Every 2 tiles there is a wall or just the natural soil or rock segment, creating a 1 square that you HAVE to step on. These are usually trapped, early on only with cage tras, 3, since i havnt seen more than 3 snatchers in a group yet.

At this stage i rely on elaborate traps to defeat attacks. When too many traps are stuck/full, the outer bridge is raised and the inner bridge is lowered for a cleanup crew. The find only mild hindrance from the bottlenecks along the way

As sieges become more eleborate, I'll build walls here and there and create a winding corridor. By this time i will also have started to build a fort above the (regular) entrance. Its purpose is mainly as archery platform and siege engine practice, but it will be big enough to feature above ground plots. Worth mentioning is that the stairway is a 2x2. An up going dwarf encountering one going down in the same square still has to lie down, just like in any corridor. Since my vertical axis is traveled quite regularly, its worth the space

at some point i will construct a floor to encompass the imediate entrance area to my fort. Its connected by just 1 floor tile and the "outside" tile is blocked by a wall, so that if that 1 tile is destroyed there will be a "cave" in, without killing the dwarf doing it. This is used solely against extreme enemies (FB and titans)

bedrooms are 2x2, in groups of 2x3, no large dormitories, basice chest, cabinet, bed, door. I dont go further than about 100 beds on one level (thats not a really big area), then i move up or down and start a new sleeping area

If i havnt mentioned yet, i always dig down fast to the first cavern. It allows me to pasture animals inside. I do not dig down straight, but in a back to forth pattern, allowing me to construct bridges and traps for the possibility of an underground attack/siege. I started doing this after a water blob with wings flew into my fort once. This way i dont have to mess around with stair or hatches. Just back up a few levels and seal the entrance.

worth mentioning, i dont yet try to control material for artifacts, meaning i have no storage around workshops. They are in a corner of 4x4 rooms, exits at corners where there is no chance of the workshop blocking the way. lots of doors to lock failed moods in until i know if they will go berserk or crazy (shells is a big problem sometimes, cant get it through traders, or bring it with you, only catch)

[Shmo]

I never have staircases that are wider than 1x1, I just have them all over the place. Also I have a fervent hate of up-down stairs and only use them in the deep mines.

Generally I have a big wide hall that leads into a foyer, which branches out into the barracks, trade depot and my main hall. Then the sprawl begins. I have corridors leading out of every side of the main hall, with stairs in each of them leading to the level below (as well as stairs in the main hall itself, usually leading to the booze stockpile and pantry), which is usually an "organic" network of workshops, littered with staircases into the interconnected storage layer below them.

It's hardly a pretty sight but it's fairly efficient. That being said, even when I was enamoured of the inverse-skyscraper type of fortress design I used only peripheral staircases. And never, ever, ever! up-down stairs. They are an abomination.