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[Metal Chao]

I always name the trader/bookkeeper after myself and then also employ him as every noble after that that is possible too >_>
If I have obsidian, I make everything out of it.
I rewall all the rooms with it just so it looks nicer in adventure mode.

[Istrian]

I always build EVERYTHING above-ground. That takes an awful lot of time. The deep underground always ends up as my necropolis. The upper levels are cellars, sewers and emergency communication halls.

I always give a custom profession to all my dwarves, even if they already have the profession tag I want them to. That's why I have an army of haulers (about 50% of my fort (25% are children)).

[Norrock]

EVERYTHING MUST BE SYMMETRICAL DAMMIT

What? He dug a FIVE BY SIX ROOM?!

Oh Hammerer, I have a job for you!

[Vugor]

for me

symmetrical rooms
atleast 3x3 bedrooms
the lowest level i can go to is always home to the dead

always start off with a sh*t load of stonefall traps everywhere but take them away whenever i eventually remember to make a military

[numerobis]

My quirk is colour.

Any large floors I build have patterns of colour.  Checkerboard, lines, concentric rings.  Small floors are monochrome; I try (but not very hard) to use the same stone even.  Constructed walls and floors and fortifications and bridges where fighting happens are kaolinite or bauxite, if I have any.  Pets get one colour of coffin, dwarves get other colours.  Tables and chairs match.  The throne room has a succession of ever-nicer matching statues: grey stone, white stone, obsidian, metal.  Until we get to the matching thrones (his and hers).  When placing furniture in a room, I go for contrast with the native stone.  And so on.

[Helmaroc]

quote:Originally posted by benoit.hudson:
<STRONG>My quirk is colour.

Any large floors I build have patterns of colour.  Checkerboard, lines, concentric rings.  Small floors are monochrome; I try (but not very hard) to use the same stone even.  Constructed walls and floors and fortifications and bridges where fighting happens are kaolinite or bauxite, if I have any.  Pets get one colour of coffin, dwarves get other colours.  Tables and chairs match.  The throne room has a succession of ever-nicer matching statues: grey stone, white stone, obsidian, metal.  Until we get to the matching thrones (his and hers).  When placing furniture in a room, I go for contrast with the native stone.  And so on.</STRONG>

You should be a designer  :roll:

[Nesoo]

Heh, I see a couple of mine above...

 

quote:I always plan it out completely with hallways and all rooms designated for mining before I unpause the game...

Yup. I can spend an entire evening planning out a fortress, then saving and quitting when it's time to go to bed, without a single frame ever passing.

 

quote:I buy turtles by the metric ton, because I'm paranoid about shells. Like, I never set out without at least 50-100.

Yup. I request it from caravans all the time as well. Of course, I never cook booze, so having other food items available is a necessity. Not that I couldn't do it with plump helmets and assorted berries, but the bone and shell are too good to pass up.

 

quote:Everything that can be made out of blocks or raw stone, I make out of blocks

Yup. It bugs me to think of dwarves working in shops that are basically just a few rough stones stacked up. Give them nice smooth surfaces! Same goes for roads, walls, bridges, floors, etc.

 

quote:if I'm building a double door I'll try to have both doors of the same kind of wood/stone and preferably the same quality

This too. If I have to, I'll wait until a second door of the same material and quality is made, even adjusting the stockpile settings and workshop profile if I have to in order to nudge things in that direction.

 

quote:I always build roads out of blocks of the same material where possible

Same with walls, floors, bridges, etc. While a road made of, say, marble and obsidian might look neat, there's no real in game representation of that (at least, not that I'm aware of), so I just use one material.

 

quote:Can't stand loose stone. CANNOT. STAND. LOOSE. STONE. I'll spend YEARS clearing it and manually dumping it all. I don't care.

Need I say more?

Lyrax's "necropolis" sounds like it might be similar to my mass tomb design, aside from the central square. It always goes like this:

code:

 ╔═╦═╦═╦═╦═╗
╔╝8O8O8O8O8╚╗
║8         8║
╠O         O╣
║8         8║
╠O         O╣
║8    O    8║
╠O         O╣
║8         8║
╠O         O╣
║8         8║
╚╗8O8O8O8O8╔╝
 ╚═╩═╩═╩═╩═╝

I've used 8's for the coffins so they stick out a bit better. There are also coffins arranged in the central area, but that depends on how the mood strikes me; I have no set preference for them. It's easy to designate: it's just a shift-diagonal, then remove every other tile around the edge and the center tile for a pillar. The hard part is remembering to space them far enough apart that their walls have at least 1 blank one between them, as I absolutely hate the

code:

O╬╬O
8╠╣8
O╬╬O
8╠╣8
O╬╬O
8╠╣8
O╬╬O

look that results if they touch (and that goes for any area with smoothed walls: if they don't share a wall, there has to be a blank one between them). Connections are made using the central passages along the edges.

quote:When placing furniture in a room, I go for contrast with the native stone.

Ooh, this too! I leave the walls and floors their natural color, so I can end up with some interesting rooms that are, say, koalinite floors and walls with limestone furniture on one half, and limestone floors and walls with koalinite furniture on the other!

[ April 07, 2008: Message edited by: Nesoo ]

[Impending Doom]

* I always cap my magma vent with a large stone dome.

* If a corridor is ever wider than four tiles, I increase the height by one level for every two squares of width over four.

* Every corridor intersection has a set of retractible bars or doors, which can be activated by a 'panic lever' in the barracks.

* My residential areas are divided up and color-coded by dwarf proffession.

* I always try to catch and ame a few foxes right after I embark.

* Said foxes are chained up in the more heavily trafficked areas of the fort.

* Whenever I can help it, rather than building a single, unbroken bridge span, I build it in two halves raising in opposite directions.

[ April 07, 2008: Message edited by: Impending Doom ]

[ShunterAlhena]

Wow, some very nice ideas here that I'll make sure to employ myself! (For example the stone dome over magma!)

I'm a military fanatic. So far I had two fortresses, so I'm still a DF newbie, but about a good 40-50 quality manhours went into these two. The first was goblin-slaughtered, so in the second and now in the third I maintain Prussian military discipline and level of training.

I assign ranks to soldiers (profession names) to see at a glance what the army's state is.

ENLISTED:
Recruit - until normal skill
Private - from normal to legendary
Corporal - legendary

Heroic battlefield deeds earn a field commission.
Recruit => Hardened Recruit (Hard Rcr)
Private => Hardened Private (Hard Pvt)
Corporal => Sergeant

So a "Sergeant Marksdwarf" is a badass legendary soldier.

OFFICERS:
Officers are selected based on personality traits (fearlessness, bravery, leadership skills are sought after), or promoted up from enlisted. Like in the real world it might well happen that a Lieutenant is actually of lower skill level and with less experience than his Sergeant.

Ranks:
Lieutenant (Lieutn) - probation time, recently promoted
Captain - "regular" officer
Major - distinguished officer, usually Major of the Marksdwarves, to denote him as the military commander of the entire army

This is one tedious bit of micromanagement, but I love to do it, and simply looking at the [m]ilitary screen sums up our state in a glance - having a lot of Recruits with a Lieutenant commanding them means the marksdwarf corps has been recently drafted and is still very weak, while five Sergeant Axedwarves means we have one tough-ass security force.

[ April 08, 2008: Message edited by: ShunterAlhena ]

[Akroma]

I don't know why, but I really like my nobles and often go all out when working on their needs, which often includes lot of re-walling and trading for materials they like.

I never killed my hammerer even once.

[Sykirobme]

A lot of my "quirks" have already been mentioned.

One thing I like to do is before embarking, I read each dwarf's personality profile and assign leadership-type social skills to the one who seems to have the best attitudes and such for a leadership role.

[kaypy]

quote:Originally posted by Sykirobme:
<STRONG>One thing I like to do is before embarking, I read each dwarf's personality profile and assign leadership-type social skills to the one who seems to have the best attitudes and such for a leadership role.</STRONG>

Attitudes as in "does not especially like adamantine or crystal glass"? 8-)

For my part, I am the glass miser- I tend to irrationally prefer green glass for bulk constructions. Because I might need that stone for... um... er... 200,000 mechanisms?

edit: Oh, and I'm really picky/triggerhappy when it comes to moods. Some skill I already have, or dont really care about? Ready the spike room!* And heaven help you if you get possessed...

--

* I'm kinda impatient about failed moods, too...

[ April 08, 2008: Message edited by: kaypy ]

[Sykirobme]

quote:Attitudes as in "does not especially like adamantine or crystal glass"? 8-)

Hehehe, that's my big downfall; I keep overlooking preferences when I'm choosing my social leader-type.  I had a mayor that loved crystal glass a couple fortresses back...I finally abandoned after the hammerer took out two of my legendaries for not making any crystal glass items.  (I know I could've just killed the mayor, but I just don't play that way...)

[Sagabal]

I spend tons of time on the embark screen, looking for a good site and getting just the right combination of skills and items.  I pause right when it starts, and slowly designate a temporary shelter for my seven dwarves, and then the entire main fortress.  I dig out my throne room, shop rooms, magma smelter, jail cells, and nobility bedrooms well before I can have any use for them.  Peasants become legendary engravers fairly quickly in my fortresses.  In one old fortress, I spent a lot of time and effort just to get a water distribution system set up that would create a waterfall through every dwarf's bedroom.  Never managed to finish it, though getting my first death spiral of unhappiness from goblin attackers was actually fun to watch.

[Eagleon]

I tend to make very non-specialized fortresses. Almost all my dwarves have all jobs enabled except for hunting and fishing. The only ones that won't be this way are miners. I typically try to make every starting dwarf a miner and grower to get things going more quickly. It works surprisingly well, like some sort of temperamental ant-farm.