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Author Topic: Show us your entrance  (Read 5508 times)

LMeire

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #15 on: February 03, 2017, 10:02:00 am »

I tend to base fortress aesthetics on whatever random name I'm handed, I've only just started it, but here's BridgeChannels.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: February 03, 2017, 10:13:02 am by LMeire »
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Ulfgard

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #16 on: February 14, 2017, 08:37:33 pm »

General disclaimer: I play a fairly heavily modded version of DF, which includes the excellent All Races Playable mod. All non-dwarf content is based, of course, on my experiences with the same.


As a general rule, the race I play defines what manner of settlement I work on setting up and the primary defensive works of the settlement.

 For example, I try whenever possible to settle Dwarves in such a position that there's a significant cliff-face to carve into; in fact, my Dwarves almost always settle with access to a volcano, because I can't be bothered with traditional wood-burning metal industries. The entrance is always several layers below the highest point at which the magma/lava fills the volcanic tube, and the layer immediately above is usually reserved for a series of magma channels with lever-linked hatches for use as murder-holes. The layer above that is typically reserved for trade good manufacturing and storage. As for the entrance itself, it is rarely more than 3 tiles wide, regardless of whether I'm lazy and run a straight path or decide to put a few twists and turns in it; the idea is that it's just wide enough for a merchant to get his wagons to my depot (just outside the outer gate), but narrow enough to be able to send a melee squad to repulse attackers without fear of them getting surrounded. If I'm honest, I rarely ever employ the murder-holes, just because the rarity of attacks on my fort mean I'm more eager to pit my dwarves against incoming foes rather than deal with them in a more controlled-yet-hands-off manner.

Regardless, the depot typically has a series of six deep alcoves (three either side) in which I chain three hunting beasts and three war beasts, mostly to release against potential thieves, but also in the event that I need to loose them on attackers. The depot chamber itself follows a similar philosophy to that of the entryway tunnel: just big enough for the trader, or in this case the depot, at 5x5. Also traditional in my builds is another long hallway leading from the depot to the true entrance to the fort itself. The first proper gate* is always fort-side of the depot, such that the gate can be sealed if needed but merchants can still attempt to come and go if they're dumb enough to show up in the middle of hostilities or just before them. In the same vein, of non-interference with traders, the first defenses on the level are typically two or three rows of cage traps on either side of the outer gate. From this point, there is another length of 3x(X) tunnel, where (X) is the length as primarily determined by how much time I have on my hands before my dwarves are in danger of starving to death or dehydrating, again for the purposes of tying up invaders in a tunnel fight. This tunnel terminates with an optional second gate before opening into a large V-shaped chamber no less than 20 tiles long from the narrowest point to the shortest. The widest end is always carved into fortifications at the earliest opportunity and is the site of the marksmen's barracks. Passage into the fortress proper is only possible through the marksmen's barracks. As such, the function of the second gate is less for repelling attackers and more for trapping them in the killing chamber to be potted at will by marksdwarves, with possible melee support. The marksdwarves' barracks almost always begins its existence as a single chamber before being expanded into a complex including as many as possible of those industries and ancillary structures which support ranged combat. Commonly, but not always, the first melee barracks adjoins the ranged one, though whether adjacent or on the next level below is dependent on how much space remains available after the completion of the aforementioned outer defensive works, killing chamber, and ranged troop complex. One thing is always true: the rest of the fort can only be accessed once one has passed through both barracks complexes to reach the Grand Stair.

The remainder of the fortress is then laid out more or less organically based on the events that occur and the needs of the fort. Grand, spacious, and open chambers are not uncommon, but chokepoints and defensive works figure heavily into the design of my dwarven forts ever few z-levels or wherever else it seems appropriate. Any point that even looks as though it might represent a vulnerability to the fort's defense is kept under watch with guardhouses and similar sorts of fortifications; this is particularly true of any well rooms, as I discovered early on in my DF career that even if enemies won't show up at the main gate, you can never be sure what's going to find its way in from the caverns by way of a poorly-defended well.

*Gates are, of course, bridges in DF's terms. Honestly, I think I've only ever used bridges as bridges all of about... a half dozen times, maybe?


By contrast, human settlements tend to vary widely based on whatever cultural theme I've assigned them. I've actually yet to do a proper castle build, with the majority of my human forts taking on something of a cue from historical hill-forts with a bit of motte-and-bailey styling to them. These I tend to situate near rivers where possible, such that they can be manually diverted into a moat with fairly minimal effort. Due to how time-, labor-, and resource-intensive such builds are, the actual defensive works are laughably primitive and typically consist of a simple drawbridge and gatehouse, attended by towers at arbitrary intervals. If I can be bothered, I construct fortifications at the top of the walls, and a platform around the inside on which archers can stand, but frankly... it's usually far more of a p.i.t.a. than it's worth.

I've also experimented with a variation of this plan wherein I settle humans at a river junction, or perhaps more accurately, on top of one, in such a way that the settlement resembles a fortified tower surrounded by the river itself which has been expanded as much as possible without toppling the tower into the flow.

(Oh Armok, I'm running out of time to detail all this. I have to leave for work soon. Please excuse the abbreviated explanations.)

Goblin settlements also tend to be built into cliff faces, riddled with traps (following the "don't block the merchants' path exclusion, of course), but are notably different from dwarven settlements I design in that they are defended by chasms and retracting bridges. After putting in all the time to engineer such affairs (typically by excavating the lower levels and then dropping the uppermost on all the lower ones, of course), I should like to think that the goblins typically caper around the precipice of the pit and cackle at any creature who's fallen 20 or so z-levels to be crippled if not outright killed.


Please forgive the lack of pics, I've only just got updated to the most recent version and got the mods re-installed over the top of them. If the thread's alive long enough for me to get a decent example of each, I'll return with demonstrative images. Please also forgive the increasingly-abrupt explanations for all races other than the dwarves. Like I said, I have to leave for work soon, and am rapidly running out of time.

I look forward to seeing what you all have to say, and looking at your varying design philosophies.
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Chase

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2017, 03:52:56 am »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Where the mechanic is, is where my door is. Sorry for lacking a texture pack/bigger window. This is how I play, and how i see my entrance.  ::)
« Last Edit: February 18, 2017, 06:58:03 pm by Chase »
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snow dwarf

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2017, 12:06:56 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Where the mechanic is, is where my door is. Sorry for lacking a texture pack/bigger window. This is how I play, and how i see my entrance.  ::)
Is the floor made from actual wooden floor or is it some kind of stone?
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da_nang

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2017, 05:13:25 pm »

Just a single small tower built over the central staircase.

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Nilbert

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #20 on: February 23, 2017, 05:38:54 pm »

I always channel to a hallway where the depot is located or dig it into a cliff side and then smooth out the cliff so it isn't jagged.  From there a 2x2 or 3x3 hall goes to a stairwell leading to the fort proper.

That is the only part of my entrance that has been consistent across forts.  I've done big surface fortresses, above ground towns for the non-dwarves, little wooden forts, nothing but a hole in the ground, etc.  I like experimenting with the surface and entrance, but after a while, the FPS loss of focusing on the surface vs. below ground drives me crazy.

Right now my fort has a second hallway with a huge room with retracting bridges.  I use this to drop invaders a good 10 z levels into an arena to fight my militia (no crossbows or traps allowed).  The arena also is made out of retracting bridges that drop the remains into my forges so goblinite can be melted down.  This too has a retracting bridge setup that drops the leftovers into the tombs.

The rest of the fort is pretty basic and boring...  I'm seeing how long the fort can last with constant battle via the great retracting bridge, steel, and grit.
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Chase

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #21 on: February 23, 2017, 08:42:13 pm »

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Where the mechanic is, is where my door is. Sorry for lacking a texture pack/bigger window. This is how I play, and how i see my entrance.  ::)
Is the floor made from actual wooden floor or is it some kind of stone?

Combination of stone and wood flooring, and smoothed stone. Thanks for the question :)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This is it now.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 08:51:30 pm by Chase »
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Untelligent

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #22 on: February 26, 2017, 12:56:47 pm »

This is a real old one.


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Thisfox

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #23 on: March 10, 2017, 03:30:30 am »

A few years back if you had two levels dug out one on top of the other, and they were both made of dirt, trees could grow up through them and put a hole in your fort. I don't know if that's still the case, but my fort entrances now are always two levels below ground level. I make a nice fancy 5-wide ramp down two levels, and make a nice wide area to put in a Trade Depot, and put down a stone floor for neatness, with a side room of stockpiles for storing trade goods I don't want to cart downstairs again if I didn't trade them. A small passage away from the depot, on the same level, is a 2x2 staircase downward to the stone levels, and further into the depths. Some pretty formidable doors and traps and more doors and more traps are placed between the trade depot and the staircase down. A side passage near there goes to the underground farms and seed storage areas.

Above ground, there's the ramp entrance to the underground, and a few fields for animals, and some above-ground planted farmland, and a spare wood stockpile which feeds into the underground stockpiles. There is usually a stepladder stockpile up there too, so that dwarves don't have to carry the bloody things down 20 flights of stairs every time they're finished with them. I don't usually bother with a tower, but I'll put in some stone roads to the edges of the map after a few years.
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avdpos

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #24 on: March 10, 2017, 05:34:57 am »



My top entrance, just in the start.
Everything is spread outside and a few stockpiles on the topfloor.
I like to have things clean around my entrance (not trees and stuff), so the top floor just enters into my great tunnel to "proper fort".

Fort proper is placed under/around the third cave, just above the magma forges.
So the tunnel for the trade caravan passes down about a hundred z-levels.
Farms and animals are in placed in the third cave.
Industries are both up and down from the pic below.

Main dinning hall/soon to be tavern is just a z-level down.


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muldrake

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #25 on: March 10, 2017, 06:56:01 pm »

My top entrance, just in the start.

Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but what tileset is that?
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Thorfinn

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #26 on: March 12, 2017, 09:54:48 pm »

My top entrance, just in the start.

Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but what tileset is that?
If it's not Meph, it's really close.
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azrael4h

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #27 on: March 13, 2017, 12:48:12 am »

First is Rumored Meadows. This is only a year in, and only barely scrapped together enough food to last until now. It will be a surface city, but due to a lack of population, it's going slow. The plan is an inner city with a cross shape. This will hold the taverns, temples, barracks, and manufacturing base (other than the magma forges and glass furnaces, which have yet to be built and by necessity, can't be built in the 4 layers of ice the town sits on).



Next is Reward Pages, which has been left sitting due to a loss of interest and a seemingly bugged siege condition. I have two main entrances to the fortress proper. First is the main trade entrance, located on a northern wall. You can see the non-dwarf residences (I have enough underground for 250 Dwarves, plus these) as well as an open tavern, an incomplete drop tower, and the incomplete Iron Duck.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e45/azraelck/RewardPagesCentralStair.png[/img]

This pattern repeats all the way down, breaking only once for the tombs (and my inability to designate worth a flip). Originally, the fortress was going to wrap around this shaft, but reality hit, and I built most of the fortress on two levels. Pop was at 240 or so at peak, around 100 children and 140 adults (or so it seemed). But I took some heavy losses in the last few sieges and megabeast attacks.

The southern entrance is trapped, and only leads to the corpse pile and the arena. There is fortress entrances there, both in the guard tower and in the arena, but it's mostly for east of access in hooking up levers to cages for demonstrations, and to allow troops access to the staging area/corpse pile.

Most of the green, by the way, is vomit. I've never been good at fighting cave adaption.

 

The Arena. Complete with blood stains from the very first demonstration, and corpses being carried out to the corpse pile. Eventually, I'll toss them down the magmachute for disposal.



The siege condition has been around for a year, and there are three gob crossbowmen down to the south east. But they refused to move, whether I opened the gate or closed it, and no others are spawning. At time of the screenshot, I closed up to clean the arena out some, and realized I had forgotten to disarm my captives. Cue several recent recruits being killed, after a bad run with two sieges and a Hydra that had decimated my military already. So I only have about 6 trained dwarves left with any real combat skill, and only one with significant experience; the Commander.

Siege has lasted over a year. RewardPages is over a decade old.
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avdpos

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #28 on: March 14, 2017, 03:46:07 am »

My top entrance, just in the start.

Sorry to be a bit off-topic, but what tileset is that?

it´s Meph´s tileset, just as somebody else mentioned
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Thisfox

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Re: Show us your entrance
« Reply #29 on: March 21, 2017, 03:15:33 am »

Most of the green, by the way, is vomit. I've never been good at fighting cave adaption.

I always assume that my dwarves are vomiting fertiliser on the farms. It's the only explanation. And green roads, they're just pretty, right? Oh, dammit, perhaps we can just live totally underground after we start being able to harvest cave trees....
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Mules gotta spleen. Dwarfs gotta eat.
Thisfox likes aquifers, olivine, Forgotten Beasts for their imagination, & dorfs for their stupidity. She prefers to consume gin & tonic. She absolutely detests Facebook.
"Urist McMason died out of pure spite to make you wonder why he was suddenly dead"
Oh god... Plump Helmet Man Mimes!
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