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[socially_inept_butterfly]

- Massive trap and treasure filled catacombs, all dwarves are buried here. This is the only reason I make coins.
- Elaborate defensive structures with little need to go outside. I might never fall under seige but by god we will be ready.
- Each dwarf has a guard animal. Each. Dwarf.

[TettyNullus]

-Every soliders get their own coffin, and when I do have Dungeon Master, I gives him one.

-Always open-air meeting spot, cave adaption is bad mmkay.

-Fair trades for traders ( expect elves, not enough useful stuffs, at least my current world never had one ).

-Disabled artifacts, too many deaths due to un-met demand for materials and lack of supplies.

-No jails and hammerer's hammer's stolen, and occasionally sold off. No need for death by idiot nobles and waste of labour time due to broken mandate system.

-Industry dedicated to building the fortress up (masons) and equipping the military with best possible equipments (mostly leather and bone workers, and later metalworker) ( Clothings don't works properly, though would like it to be, so I can finally clothe my dwarves properly )

-Plenty of traps, just in case and to preserve my dwarves' lives.

-When supply of wood allows, each dwarves gets their own room allocatment.

-Occasionally, when I'm feeling generous, coffins for legendary workers that supports the fortress.

[Hectonkhyres]

1) I am driven to keep the core of my population, the bastards who can actually do things, as happy as I possibly can. And not just in the 'throw down Legendary Dining Room and keep walking' way: I mean do the things that would actually make a colony of dwarves happy if I were actually overseeing a real colony of dwarves. A wider variety of really good food and booze than I really need, massively blinged out multi-room suites to live in, beautiful floor mosaics and canals by the walkways, windows, etc.

2) Anyone even vaguely important (not a space-wasting plebeian with no job skills) gets a crypt. I have massive mausoleum-complexes built aboveground to house these honored dead. Honored enemies are given a dignified cremation via magma.

3) I smooth and engrave my mines (hollowed out ore veins separate from my main citadel) one section every year to act as a diary of my fortresses activity. The extra surface area also helps train up my peasants a bit before they get drafted but thats not why I do it.

4) I tend to build the area around my barracks out of metal I loot from the gobbos and humies: I rationalize it as a morale booster (how awesome is having a sparring area literally forged out of the armor of your fallen enemies?) despite the fact it does nothing.


Huh. You might think me a nice guy if you only read this post and skipped the one where I gave a description of a nightmare fortress over in adventure mode discussion.

[d3c0y2]

if I find two magnenite pockets i turn the second pocket into a tomb complex, dwarves should be buried in iron atleast, if i find alot of gold veins I may make a few choice tombs in them

[Jack_Bread]

-I try to keep every dwarf alive. And if any of the first seven die before the migration wave, abandon...
-I can't keep focus on one fortress for crap!

[cowofdoom78963]

-I ALWAYS have a legendary dinner room near the entrence of my fort, well engraved and with plenty of chairs and some pretty things.
-I give each dwarf a home(eventualy)
-I never butcher tame animals(will sell them though)
-My dwarves never eat anything but fish, and get no beer (Im horrible at farming in this game) but I always have more then enough food for the dwarves.(they DO get beer from merchants, I forgot that.)
-Legenderys usualy get some slight improvment to their house upon reaching the rank, like a engraved dinning room or something.
-Every dwarf gets a grave. The Outpost leader gets a nice tomb.
-I dont use wells, but I do put a swamp that comes off the river or stream inside my fort. So the dwarves are never thirsty
-I dont abuse the traders becuase they are usualy the lifeblood of my fort(although they do tend to abuse me)
-If there is plenty of food and no noticable future problems I let my dwarves idle
-I try to keep my dwarves in cloths
-I make sure that noise wont wake my dwarves
-Insane dwarves are put to rest for their dignity.
-oh and, try to keep the dwarves at least content and healthy at all times. Unless someone died, they should have no reason to be sad, and unless their defending other dwarves(or possibly in the future are nobles hurting other dwarves) they should have no reason to be dead.

So yeah, I have lots of moral things I usualy consider. I havent yet encounterd nobles.(I dont see why, I have enough dwarves) and Im not so sure how I will treat them, especialy considering that I rarely have any other metal then iron. And that I dont have many dwarves that could work on metal.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

Whenever I use a door to seal an underground cistern or something I'll use a copper door for that authentic sealed door feel.

[jaked122]

whenever an immigrant dies because of an "accident" I make a  note telling me NOT to fix it.

[jarathor]

So yeah, not the quirkiest player, but...

I always make a really complicated entrance with curving hallways and my barracks are positioned for quick access to the gate.
I always make an arena, at least 3 z-levels deep and fully engraved with seats at the top level.
I turned off the economy so every dwarf gets at least a 2X2 fully engraved room.
Every room/chamber is built around the main shaft.
Every time I'm sieged I throw all the corpses in a grisly pile (poor haulers) outside my entrance to rot - when they do, they are dragged inside to make thousands of bone bolts to train my marksdwarves.
For burial, I usually build a huge complex and every dwarf gets a statue next to his/her coffin (I like to imagine that it is them in some sort of heroic pose).
I always build some sort of memorial to the dwarves - current one is the ubiquitous giant hammer which also serves as execution tower and archery tower.
I usually end up with HUGE round warehouses (fully engraved, of course) full of food and booze.
I go through the personalities of each dwarf and name one of them after myself (he gets the best room).
I try to focus more on the aesthetic end of fortress design.
Nobles only die when I don't like them Suprsingly not too often I have to kill em off).
If more than 15 dwarves are idling, I designate a whole bunch of junk hauled someplace else.

[Slappy Moose]

Theses are my sentimental habits only, no gameplay style stuff:

I give every dwarf a nice room (bed, cabinet, coffer and engraved, 3x3).
I also make sure that every soldier gets a smoothed burial room, and if they die in battle they get an extra big engraved room with a statue. The better the soldier or the braver they were, the bigger the coffin room (read my Zaneg Thazor story in my signature for an idea of how far I'll go).
The initial 7 dwarves usually get a nice coffin as well.
I never do anything to endager non-noble dwarves.
I always try to decorate things with statues and such to keep my dwarves happy, artificial waterfalls are occasionally made as well.
I give my dwarves the best food I can as soon as I can.

[Splendiferous]

I nickname my original seven and give them preferential treatment throughout the game

I give every dwarf a unique profession name, and a nickname if they become important to the "plot"
I make taverns and put 1x1 alcohol stockpiles around tables and against a bar, behind which sits the still, and I make several all over the fort. I can't stand watching my dwarves sit in a musty stockpile drinking with whoever happens to be thirsty.

I always put first priority on a crazy-huge legendary dining room for my all hard-working dwarves(and I assign each dwarf a table) which It usually seats about eighty. and a truly imposing throne room for my expedition leader/mayor/baron. both rooms with statues, waterfalls (when possible), exotic animals chained to the walls, masterwork furniture, and floor mosaics. nobody ever goes insane in my fortress. ever.

I make sure every dwarf gets a 3x3 room with at least a bed and chest.

I always name the first fortress born baby something inspiring, to keep morale up.

I always put in an impressive looking central staircase going all the way down the z-levels to the crypts.

and, call me corny, but I sometimes keep a game log in the voice of the expedition leader with imagined plot line and rational explanations for bugs and implausible events(a la Nist Akath). but I write professionally, so I am excused from any and all ridicule.

[Splendiferous]

if I may interject once more, I also have a penchant for making a small, unassuming (but still unbelievably valuable) cluster of seven tombs, far removed from the rest of the fort. the final resting place for my founders.

And then your efficiency fails due to your squishy, organic brain, and you have nothing left at all. Thus, it is more efficient to have sentiment as well, in that it cannot be destroyed by error alone.

If someone dies of a failed mood, they go into a special burial area. Clear glass coffins, and as soon as I accquire a sample of the thing they needed, it goes straight to the side of the coffin. Those who needed something that couldn't be provided go into opaque green glass coffins, with empty coffers or boxes. In the event I lack sand, silver and iron are substituted, or materials of equal value. The workshop demanded by any future mooding dwarf has a slot for it in the center of the room, with a single precious material block reserved for the workshop's building, in the hope that those who went before will guide the dwarf in their task.

Every dwarf gets a real job once the economy sets in, even if it's just churning out blocks or cutting wood. Hauling is designated by suspending the workhall workshops. Haulers going outside the fort get armed escorts.

Also, every deity gets it's temple, and particularly feverent followers get tombs in the temple. If the leadership is leaning strongly toward one deity in particular, activities are focused on those spheres for a while.

I almost cried at this, haha.

[SirHoneyBadger]

I decided that dwarfs are likely claustrophiles (the opposite of claustrophobic), when I was first deciding how to design their individual rooms, so dwarfs always sleep with their beds facing atleast 2 sides of stone, and their private quarters almost never have open spaces, or more than 1 space between the raw stone.

Every dwarf (or dwarf couple) eventually gets their own room, atleast 3x3, complete with a pillar of raw stone in the center, and a door for privacy.

I like to design complex labyrinths, so my entire fortress tends to become one huge maze, with multiple entrances and exits. Everything gets guards/traps, but my soldiers go out and fight, or stand guard over workers. They don't hide behind traps, the traps are just there to avenge soldiers and protect against thieves and kid-snatchers.

Fortresses will be enclosed with stone, and guarded. Nobody gets in or out without passing checkpoints.

I always build my fortresses in maximum-size areas, and one of my priorities is building a grand road for the caravan, from the bottom of the map, right to the fortress.

I don't clearcut tree areas, some trees of each type present are always left alone.

I like to build hidden temples, and secret little areas. Even if they'll probably never be used, there will always be atleast a tightly guarded, secret temple to the forge-god, with a working forge.

My captain of the guard gets assigned several war dogs, sometimes all of them, and will be trained up to Legendary in crossbow, even if already legendary in another weapon type . His/her function is basically as a first response problem-solver, aside from the regular army. The Captain goes in first, comes out last, and other dwarf soldiers will gather around the Captain in times of war. The Captain's quarters are always as good as anybody else's, or better, but are designed for function over form, and the toughest dwarf in the fortress gets the job.

Dungeon Masters get not only nice quarters, but a working private zoo, all their own.

Gems stuck into walls that I don't intend to mine out will commonly be left in their raw state. If possible, I like to build my Fortress's main living quarters in a gem area.

Gardens/farms, and animal stocks are continuously guarded by soldiers, even if they're completely safe from attack. No exceptions. If the walls are soil, they'll be lined with cut stone or bronze as soon as possible.

Outside areas will always be incorporated into the overall fortress, and, whenever possible, there will be several tightly guarded water areas.

Garden areas will also, if possible, function as nurseries for dwarf children.

Wounded soldiers, including guard-dogs, are guarded until they get convalescence, or they die.

Legendary dwarfs are always part of the military, and always have solders under them. It's good for the soldiers to see what they're fighting for, and to have good role-models.

Soldiers, even if they have their own private quarters, also get beds in the army barracks. Army gets it's own kitchen, storage areas, etc.

Masterwork items are never sold, and unless they're weapons/armour currently in use, are usually displayed prominently, often in a museum-type area right outside the crafts area, or otherwise in a public area.

Dignified funeral areas are a must, but I tend to make them more communal affairs, with long rows of niches, built around several magnificent central shrines. I'll vary this though, so some dwarfs will get more elaborate personal crypts, when I feel like making them, or feel that a particular dead hero deserves a singular resting place. They may be buried with a palette of collected goblin weapons.

Walls are almost *always* atleast 3 stones thick. Very few exceptions, and these are always done out of absolute necessity.

[Aristoi]

Everyone gets leather armour to keep them safe.

Do you set all your dwarves to Hunting once you've cleared the map of animals (or just let the blacksmith wander a bit outside....)?  Or is there some other way to force civilians to wear the leather?

[LegacyCWAL]

I think setting them to Hunting is the only way to get them to wear outright armor.  However, some items of clothing have surprisingly high block ratings: shoes, socks, gloves, mittens, and a coat+cloak combo have the same total block rating as the "real" armor of that body area.  The "real" armor has other benefits (such as covering more area) even when made from leather, but protection is protection.

Of course, that leaves the problem of getting your dwarves to actually wear the damn stuff.  About all you can do on that front is to make only those items of clothing and wait for dwarves to pick them up, if they ever do.  It's also not as good as that clothing PLUS "real" armor, but it's something.

There may be other ways, but that's all I can think of.