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Author Topic: Fort design, how do YOU roll?  (Read 10155 times)

Urist_The_First

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #45 on: January 09, 2012, 11:46:14 am »

This is sweet - thanks guys.  Plenty of ideas for next fort.  I particularly like the re-purposing/organic growth ideas but may still have to throw in some giant, impractical towers etc.

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jamesadelong

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #46 on: January 09, 2012, 12:55:01 pm »

Organic towers?
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Wastedlabor

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #47 on: January 09, 2012, 04:51:01 pm »

I make kraken forts.

1. Several long roads reaching to the borders of the map, to get traders and invaders underground asap. I always hate cleaning the surface (in one of my previows forts, I built a walled town that spewed magma to cleanse the map). Through service tunnels, animals are placed at the beggining of the road to spot ambushes.

2. Migrant reception hall, where migrants are held before opening the inner bridges. Food and a well are available there. It also serves as storage when pariahs are sent out to collect corpses and litter.

3. The reception hall leads to the death room/s. The path zigzags to delay invaders and try to capture as many squads as possible. Magma is favoured for its cleanliness, and bridges can be opened to make a shortcut when sending dwarves out.

4. The depot. An animal is chained here to attract invaders. Access can be forbidden from the interior, so it can remain accesible without dwarves running out.

5. Barracks and arena right after the depot.

6. Long corridors leading to interesting places for particular sections of the fortress; i.e. fishieries near the river, masonries near stone dumps. Because of the sprawl, designated dwarves are burrowed in some sections, with their own rooms and whatnot. Mostly on the same level (in a 5x5 map), unless there is a reason to use a different one.

7. Long plumbing running over the fortress so I can make waterfalls where required; i.e. over jail cells.

8. Long, long mines worming around caves and other features to reach veins. Here and there I place food and small dormitories and dining rooms.

9. Massive noble palace level to put artifacts, statues, etc. Massive graveyards with mausoleums.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2012, 04:53:42 pm by Wastedlabor »
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He stole an onion. Off with his head.
I wonder, what would they do if someone killed their king.
Inevitable, who cares. Now an onion...

catenate

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #48 on: January 19, 2012, 10:38:45 am »

Outpost Emallikot, Felsite 251, Reg Okoldomas

From a strange mood, our building designer Avuz Adildolil brought us
new plans for an overall layout of workshops, which we approved.
This works within our halls: slightly overlapping, open 11x11-urist
areas, with staircases in the four corners.

Around a wood pile we will have workshops for the carpenter, crafter,
bowyer, and wood burner, and piles for wood furniture, crafts, and
crossbows.  Between the wood area and the metal area we will store
charcoal, and bituminous coal and lignite if we find any.

Below the stone workshops we'll pile interesting stones, near doors
and hatches to the mines.  Around a magma-safe stone pile will be
workshops for the mason, jeweler, mechanic, and crafter, and piles for
stone furniture, encrusted furniture, mechanisms, and mugs.  (The mugs
don't really need to be magma-safe, but it's not worth setting up a
stone feed to an isolated craftsdwarf.  We can set up crafters in
areas where the magma-safe stones are gone.) Between two staircases
we'll put cut gems.

From the charcoal between two staircases we'll locate three smelters,
then three bar piles, then three forges.  Dedicate one smelter, bar
pile, and forge to weapons, armor, trap components, and ammunition of
weapons-grade metal other than iron and steel.  Another for iron and
steel.  The last for forge-crafting other metals, except adamantine.
The remaining margins fill with weapons and trap components, armor,
and ammunition and crafts.

Adamantine will have its own workshop area down by the magma, using
microcline as our building material.  Around a pile of fuel we'll arrange
a crafter, two smelters, and a forge, and piles for adamanite threads,
wafers, wafers again, and weapons.  In three margins we'll store armor,
and the fourth the raw adamantine for which we praise the miners.

We'll make clothes and soap in the same area.  Around a pile of cloth,
the loom for the weaver, workshops for the dyer and clothier, and a
pile of clothes, with thread and dye in the margins.  Fill out the
remainder with a pile of ash, the ashery, a pile of lye, and the
soapmaker, with tallow and oil in the margin.

We'll have to leave a wall around corpses, the butcher, and skins.
Outside the miasma-room we can put the tanner, a pile of tanned hides,
the leather worker, and a pile of leather armor.

X         X
 %%%%%%%%%
 %cccBBBs%
 %cccBBBs%
 %cccBBBs%
 %%%%%%%+%
 LLLhhhTTT
 LLLhhhTTT
 LLLhhhTTT
 lllllllll
X         X

Also together will be glass and ceramics.  In the middle a pile of
bags, between two piles of fuel.  To one side, sand bags, a glass
furnace, and a pile of glass, with pearlash and rock crystal in the
margin.  To the other side, clay, a kiln, and ceramics, with ash and
cassiterite in the margin.

In a farm area, we'll have space for two 7-urist furrows for each of
the four undergroud-plant arrangements (pig tails, and plump helmets
in the off-season; cave wheat and dimple cups; sweet pods and plump
helmets; and quarry bush and dimple cups).  A furrow-sized pile of
seeds, and another of plants, between the two farm plot sets.  Farmer,
kitchen, still, quern and screw press.  Raw food pile in one remaining
margin, and edible food pile in the other.
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Couverture: A chocolate-covered mod brings you a dark chocolate figurine of the deity of agriculture looking offended.

aban avuzsazirmafol tunur … kib saziradilîton kezkďg ugoshódkelid shatagistrath … kirondatanavuz ustosteshkad angngotololum―Bomonolthîkut fragments

the woods

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #49 on: January 19, 2012, 11:45:26 am »

Outpost Emallikot, Felsite 251, Reg Okoldomas

Cool. Hope you post pictures and little progress reports sometime.

My favorite part of designating a huge plan like that is getting a tenth of it dug out and finding out most of it would be embedded in
* a cavern
* damp stone
* magma
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Vrakanas

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #50 on: January 19, 2012, 02:51:38 pm »

Totally gonna do the whole venetian thing, up till now I've been doing massive Resident evil style "Hives" full of angry axedwarves.

Sadly I am yet to master pumps and powersources so I have yet to try using the magma.

Also...clowns...so many fucking clowns.
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Nobbins

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #51 on: January 19, 2012, 03:15:53 pm »

Function follows from form, fact. At least for me. I always try to go with repeating designs and I've recently gotten into curves and circles (the huge kind), and it all looks really nice and works amazingly.

I'm actually in a fort with another person, trying to make it an adventure fort. I got the first year and load out some pretty nice looking shit. on the other hand, he's more of a function over form person and just fucked up the look, but got most of it working so we can at least live. So meh.
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Ferozstein

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #52 on: January 19, 2012, 05:02:44 pm »

I start with finding a nice spot in a cliffside to dig an entranceway, ideally the cliff should be as high and steep as possible to allow later sculpting and beautifying. There should also be a stretch of reasonably flat land outside, for the pastures/refuse pile/early trade depot. I dig the entrance corridor about 15-20 tiles long and ending with a 3x1 stairway (out of habit mostly, I know 3x3 is much more efficient, but I'm just really used to 3x1 design). Then it goes more or less like this:

- the farming level (dug in soil), with a room large enough to accomodate two 3x3 plots for each underground plant I can grow, irrigated by an underground channel dug from the nearest body of water (preferably a river/stream/brook) and paved over in order to prevent trees growing inside; the irrigation is controlled by a few levers and floodgates. If the water source is a river of any sort, this is also the start of the whole fort's waterworks (expanded downwards as necessary). The seed stockpiles are also located on this level, as are the eventual tree farms. Most often I don't bother with aboveground farming.

- the kitchen level, where I put - you guessed it - the kitchen(s), still(s), butchery and tannery. Also raw food and barrel/pot stockpiles. Usually placed directly under the farming level, for obvious reasons.

- the commons level, usually directly under the kitchens (or a bit further down, depends on how high and grand I want the dining room to be). Huge, communal dining room (designated as a meeting hall), often with a waterfall at the entrance to provide happy thoughts and a decontamination shower. Stockpiles for prepared food and booze. The hospital (with a separate soap stockpile) and prison are also located on this level. The dining room, hospital and prison each have a well (sometimes the dining room gets more than one).

- the waterworks level, the heart of the fort's plumbing system. It receives running water from the waterfall in the dining room above (sometimes also from a second source, to prevent the contaminants in the water from getting to the wells).  This level consists mostly of a long, winding corridor supplying water to the wells on the commons level. Any waterwheels I need are also built here, or on the level below (in case I need a bigger power plant). The pipe ends with a fortification draining the water off the map. A few strategically placed floodgates linked to levers control the flow.

- a few (2-3) levels with basic workshops, grouped by the raw materials they use (rock/bone/gems, wood/ash, thread/cloth/leather) with appropriate stockpiles. Note: I prefer to build stone stockpiles instead of quantum dumping everything in one place. There are some quantum dumps here and there, but they're temporary, used mostly to clean the floors of excess rock.

- the main stockpile level, with a huge stockpile for everything other stockpiles don't cover, but mainly furniture.

- the bedroom levels, divided in three tiers: commoner dormitories, gentry quarters and noble apartments. The first one is exactly what it says: a series of dorms with 10 beds each. The gentry quarters consist of clusters of individual 2x3 rooms, each fitted with a bed, cabinet, chest, armor rack and weapon stand. The noble apartments have two to three rooms each, and get (in addition to the gentry pack) offices, private dining rooms (with a separate stockpile of prepared meals and booze), a chest and a cabinet in each room, valuable statues and decorations to an individual dwarf's liking. When I get a king or queen (which is pretty rare), they get even more opulent quarters, most often located on a separate level, with perks such as private waterfalls, gold/platinum/aluminum statues, artifact furniture and so on.

I divide my dorfs in social classes as follows: the noble class are the actual nobles, legendary dwarves and any of the starting seven that do not fall into the previous two categories. The gentry consists of all useful dwarves who do not meet the requirements of nobility (e.g. miners, crafters). The rest - the rabble of common haulers, potash makers (those who do not actually work in the soap industry) and the like - fill the ranks of the commoner class. All ordinary soldiers belong to the gentry, and the officers to the nobility, but they are housed near the barracks, and not on the bedroom levels.

- the military base, usually in a citadel built on the surface in order to prevent cave adaptation. Has a huge training area, gentry/noble quarters for all soldiers, a mess hall with prepared food/booze stockpiles, an armory (weapons and armor stockpiles), an on-site smelter (solely for the purpose of melting goblinite and the like) and an arena with a shooting gallery, a goblin chute above and an animal stockpile nearby.

- the deep forges, built over the magma sea, with magma smelters, forges, glass furnaces and kilns, complete with stockpiles for ores, metal bars, fuel and flux, a dining area with prepared food/booze stockpiles and gentry bedrooms for the smiths and furnace operators, carefully placed to allow further expansion to noble apartments should their owners ascend to legendary status.

- the graveyard, divided by social classes like the bedrooms. Commoners get simple niches with iron (or stone, if iron is scarce) sarcophagi, the gentry get individual 3x3 tombs with silver sarcophagi and adorned with statues, and the nobility get opulent mausoleums with golden sarcophagi and small treasury rooms to equip them well for the afterlife. The baron/count/duke receives an even bigger mausoleum and a platinum/aluminum sarcophagus, and the king/queen a whole tomb level complete with an artifact coffin (if I get one), deadly traps, multiple treasure rooms, precious statues, a small temple for their veneration and perhaps even magma pools.

When I have everything above set up and running fairly smoothly, I proceed to building fancy additions, such as:

- a magma pump stack, which allows me to abandon the deep forges and relocate them closer to the surface, usually just below the workshop levels. Also allows construction of an obsidian mixer, plugged to the waterworks. Also, magma waste disposal.

- a colosseum replacement for the arena, ideally with red stone decorations and an option to flood the floor with water/magma.

- the temple level, with a temple of every deity venerated in the fort, decorated accordingly and fitted with trapped treasury rooms for the relics.

- a foreign quarter located just inside the entrance (heavily fortified by then), with a new depot, warehouses and an inn (who cares they're not functional yet).

- any mega/semi-megaproject that strikes my fancy.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2012, 05:13:51 pm by Ferozstein »
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catenate

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #53 on: January 19, 2012, 05:26:36 pm »

Outpost Emallikot, Felsite 251, Reg Okoldomas

Cool. Hope you post pictures and little progress reports sometime.

My favorite part of designating a huge plan like that is getting a tenth of it dug out and finding out most of it would be embedded in
* a cavern
* damp stone
* magma

Will do, to show what I mean. :)

I recently had a weird (to me) embark like that, on an otherwise ordinary area with shallow and deep metals, and flux, but no aquifer. Within 5 levels of the surface was the first cavern, at about 130, which totally screwed up my plan.  Magma was as high as level 110 or so, and within 5 levels below that  I breached the ampersands just because I didn't want to play it (they didn't bother to come up). So I drained the brook into the various cavern levels, just to see what would happen.  I also found out that the starting six (minus the one caught unawares) can take down a blind cave ogre with no losses or serious injuries.
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Couverture: A chocolate-covered mod brings you a dark chocolate figurine of the deity of agriculture looking offended.

aban avuzsazirmafol tunur … kib saziradilîton kezkďg ugoshódkelid shatagistrath … kirondatanavuz ustosteshkad angngotololum―Bomonolthîkut fragments

domomaster

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #54 on: January 19, 2012, 07:37:27 pm »

[[
« Last Edit: October 18, 2019, 09:36:02 pm by domomaster »
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Vehudur

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #55 on: January 19, 2012, 07:50:03 pm »

my current fort is so large and winding that when I breached hell, a bunch of the demons got lost and I still occasionally have demons pop up in unfortunate places - like my former king's bedroom, out of his well.

It keeps things interesting.  It lacks the epic grand halls you'd expect to see in such a place, as the main body of the fort itself is relatively tight and efficient...   but most of it's huge network of winding passages and stuff I used for mining, and covers ~50 z levels on a 6x6 map.

I literally never need to mine again, so I walled most of it off, but it's so complex I am constantly finding spots I missed.  My bar stockpiles have 9,200 bars of steel, 1200 candy wafers, 1900 bronze bars, 6200 gold bars, 4,000 silver bars, 600 aluminum, 350 platinum and 820 iron bars.
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schismatise

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #56 on: January 20, 2012, 07:31:59 am »

Ushrirothos *Quakewilts*

_ top 149
X
X trade 142
X barracks 140-135
X
X hall 133
X hospital 131
X
X housing 128-124
X
X cavern #1 121-113
X
X tetra mine 118-114
X
X workshops 112-104
X
X cavern #2 109-93, downpass x 2
X
X cavern #3 87-12, magpipe x 1
X
X smelting quarters -3
X smelting -5
X
_ magma sea -8, candy x 2



For room design, i generally pick a sort of shape or pattern, a square or a rectangle for example, and then "copy/paste" the shape, and often varying sizes of the shape, around a central staircase, usually following some kind of rotational or reflectional symmetry or asymmetry. Each fort is different, partly so things don't get boring, and partly for the fun of creative expression.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2012, 07:43:15 am by schismatise »
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catenate

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #57 on: January 20, 2012, 09:23:42 pm »

Outpost Emallikot, Felsite 251, Reg Okoldomas

Cool. Hope you post pictures and little progress reports sometime.

Will do, to show what I mean. :)

Nearly half through first year. Clockwise from top: wood, stone, dorm, dining room in keep. Barracks center.

http://twitpic.com/89p9i2

I have a detailed progress report that I should probably post to the "What's going on in your fort?" thread, instead of here.

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Couverture: A chocolate-covered mod brings you a dark chocolate figurine of the deity of agriculture looking offended.

aban avuzsazirmafol tunur … kib saziradilîton kezkďg ugoshódkelid shatagistrath … kirondatanavuz ustosteshkad angngotololum―Bomonolthîkut fragments

Raven Corp

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #58 on: January 21, 2012, 06:42:03 am »

I build 3x3 halls surounding 11x11 cubes with stairways going up and down in evry corner.

Within the cubes I have 9 workshops, stockpiles, noble housing, peasant tower dorms stretching down and up.

I usually build a little base up top to keep the first waves alive while I dig out the main home for the dwarves by the magma sea.

Many layers up I have the barracks and depot protected by traps and bridges.
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albatross

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Re: Fort design, how do YOU roll?
« Reply #59 on: January 22, 2012, 01:43:18 pm »

Entrance: huge square yard surrounded by a wall. Idk why I even built a door there. I never trade or go outside.
Subterranean levels: Clover design. 4 rooms per z-level, stacked on top of each other. Stairway at the center. Quick access to everywhere. Tapping the benefits of 3d.

Maysomething tileset. The three long grey wavelines along the north wall are slabs. In memory of the fallen ones. Or squashed ones, rather. Plenty of elf, dwarf and goblin parts to go around outside the walls. Note that each room can be expanded. I prefer 6x6 - two workshops per wall. The 9 tiny circles in a straight line at the entrance are cage traps.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 22, 2012, 02:02:25 pm by albatross »
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