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Author Topic: Quick modular fortress design.  (Read 20025 times)

Raging Mouse

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Quick modular fortress design.
« on: January 18, 2010, 07:57:04 am »

Over their iterations, my fortresses have evolved to utilize a common , specific floor plan. Reason for this is the designate tool; this design evolved to be as easy as is practical to create using the current keyboard commands (direction keys, shift + direction keys). I do use the mouse for the fiddly bits, but it's a great timesaver and a really simple layout. I thought I'd post it here for general commenting if you are so inclined.

The basic block is a square 41 tiles (starting tile + 4 * [shift + direction key]) wide; I outline it by designating the area around it to be dug out, with stairs at the corners (I usually dig roads that are 3 tiles wide, but that is mere laziness / preference). The resulting square of rock I divide into nine smaller squares by digging out four intersecting tunnels, like so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

That gives me exactly 11 x 11 squares, or exactly the starting tile plus one shift + diagonal direction key, of floor space in nine rooms to designate for digging. I use either the mouse or the keyboard again (there is an easy layout for those too) to designate doorways. If I want stairs inside the rooms I designate them with the mouse.

This 11 tiles of floor space in a room can be all one single room, or further divided into four 5x5-tile or nine 3x3-tile rooms (if you want them all the same size) simply by undesignating with the keyboard commands and then using the mouse to place doorways.

This used to be the basic design for everything, but the residential area has slightly deviated from this basic floor plan. I used to lay out the residential area with the same basic design, making the central 11x11 -tile square a market or a barracks and have the four adjoining squares be hollowed out as living cubicles by having a 3-tile wide road in the center, from the edge of the block to the central square, accessed by small 3-tile rooms (coffer, bed, cabinet) branching off it (this gave me 12 rooms per 11x11 square) This gave too cramped access to some of the hallways, so I flipped the design of the cubicle areas, positioning them in the center and making them access the much widened side hallways instead, also adding two additional cubicles per square like so:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The central room is a dining room / meeting hall with a prepared food stockpile. The lower corner rooms are part of the baroness' and the baron consort's apartments, and the upper corner rooms are being prepared for the royals. Only counting the commoners' rooms there's 56 apartments in this block, so 4 of these blocks would house a fort that has reached its immigration cap -indeed, there are three additional floors like this one, all stacked on top of each other.

Aboveground, I do this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The 41 tiles long walls are great here too, since walls can be designated in rows of up to 10 tiles wide currently, meaning that ideally (if it weren't for the intruding water that I don't want to wall over right now) I'd get by with 16 total 10-tile wall designations to wall in the entire yard, leaving a quite safe area of the surface for my dwarves to utilize as they like.

So. Pros are the minimal effort needed to designate for excavation, the accessibility (pathing lag only becomes noticeable when I designate a couple hundred rocks for dumping) and the total disregard for any and all natural features you can display by extending this design to the surface or through a chasm.

Cons are that it's, well, unimaginative. It also takes some extra digging compared to a typical branching fortress -but "dwarves" and "complain about all the digging" do not ever meet in a sane sentence.
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expwnent

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2010, 01:04:32 pm »

I love it. I'll experiment with this in my next fort.
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bluea

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2010, 01:22:50 pm »

I do something similar, with the main difference being that I allow all corridors to be two wide - and the staircases are all 2x2 at the intersection. I also like the 11x11 rooms, so the outer dimension of 41 has to grow to accommodate the extra walkways.

Alternating floors are completely open other than the staircases passing through, and doors and walls encircling each staircase to prevent FUN and use up the ridiculous number of low quality doors I always have.
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Qwernt

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2010, 02:50:12 pm »

I do a very similar thing - and this is how I do all my exploritory mining.
Another con I have noted with this sort of system.  It seems that dwarves require more thinking (ie CPU) to do pathing if there are multiple ways to get the the same spot.  With lots of dwarves this can become a problem. 
Once I noticed this, I quit making full loops and started leaving undug spaces to get rid of loops.
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SkyRender

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2010, 02:58:22 pm »

That's pretty interesting, though not the most space-efficient or movement-efficient.  I still prefer my own design.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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winner

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2010, 04:12:57 pm »

This is my usual design, the halls run alternating directions as you go up or down layers.


# # # # # . # . # # # # #
# . . . # . . . # . . . #
# . . . # . . . # . . . #
# . . . . . . . . . . . #
# # # # # # # . # # # # #
# . . . . X X X # . . . #
# . . . # X X X # . . . #
# . . . # X X X . . . . #
# # # # # . # # # # # # #
# . . . . . . . . . . . #
# . . . # . . . # . . . #
# . . . # . . . # . . . #
# # # # # . # . # # # # #
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Sysice

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2010, 07:36:49 pm »

What about "dwarves hate those who complain about all the digging?"

I like the design, and use something similar myself.
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Calenth

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2010, 11:13:20 am »

That gives me exactly 11 x 11 squares, or exactly the starting tile plus one shift + diagonal direction key, of floor space in nine rooms to designate for digging. I use either the mouse or the keyboard again (there is an easy layout for those too) to designate doorways. If I want stairs inside the rooms I designate them with the mouse.

This is exactly what I used to use. In more recent forts I've upgraded it slightly, though, to this:


X.........XX.........XX
.#########..#########..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#########..#########..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#...#...#..#...#...#..
.#########..#########..
X.........XX.........XX

(place doors as you will. Design repeats -- always double hallways, throughout, never single hallways).

Room for eight workshops or large bedrooms/offices, infinitely expandable in all directions and z-levels, and the double hallways prevent traffic jams. If for some reason you need a larger room (kennels) you can center it in one of the 9x9 subsquares. I've found a fortress of stacked squares like this to be *very* efficient (although noise can be an issue if you aren't careful).

That said, I think I'm going to try a different design in my next fort with the new release. This design is max for efficiency, but somewhat soulless -- the cubicle farm of the dwarf world.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2010, 11:15:21 am by Calenth »
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freeze

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2010, 12:55:03 pm »

Mies came to me one night as I dreamt. He stroked his beard and said, "Vee heff to moof pest dis hallvay paradigm."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This works for me because the corner and wall blocks between open spaces can hold workshops, or power conduits, or aqueducts, or..

It's just great for me plus it's super simple to lay out.
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Martin

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Re: Quick modular fortress design.
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2010, 04:06:58 pm »

That's pretty interesting, though not the most space-efficient or movement-efficient.  I still prefer my own design.

That's a very nice layout. I think I'll have to give that a whirl.