User:Cmontero

Hi!

I've been playing DF for a while, fascinated by the complexity, the detail and the psycho dwarves ("Urist Soapmaker shakes the Marmot by the paw; the limb is cut off and flies away in an arc!") This wiki has been really helpful, so I'll try to give back by making some improvements as I read it.

To do

• Some of the basic "description" articles could be better linked. I'm looking at you, Adventurer Mode.
• The aesthetic part of Fortress Design is lacking a bit of energy. It should be improved, not with "my last crazy idea", but with common ideas expressed in the forums: fractals, adapting to terrain, statues by theme, "useless" rooms and structures, oversizing.
• Some orphaned articles hanging in the wiki-ether.

Some stuff I did that you can use for fortress ideas

As probably everyone else has done, my first fortress designs were just improving the chances of survival as I learned new things (Oh, I have to grow food. Oh, I have to brew drinks. Oh, I have to keep groups of zombie elephants out of my dormitory). Then I designed towards improved efficiency and defense (it's actually quite easy to create a 100% safe fortress, but it's really really really boring after you get to that point).

Now I'm more into "roleplaying" the fortress. It's much more fun to spend time selecting a good place in the world for your roleplaying aims (Close to goblin cities! Or controlling a likely trading route! Or deep in a mountain valley!) and then to take decisions considering "looks", "feeling" and long-term plans. These have been my main fortress ideas, feel free to do your own remake of them.

1. Port city: A fortress placed at the mouth of a major river, to control the sea lanes; included castles on both sides of the river, a fortified bridge spanning over it, and a small dock extending out of the sea shore.
2. A fortress of builders aiming to dam a river: Main objective is to use the water as a massive weapon against the goblin city down the river (not in embark zone, but it's the roleplaying target). Everything is focused on building the dam. Builders' camp and shops overlooking the dam site.
3. A crossroads town: In what is probably a main trade route crossroad between two dwarf civs and one human civ, a town grows. Buildings around the main square where the three roads link. One building for bedrooms, another for storage, another for shops, a temple, a wall around two ponds for fishing... Buildings are half above ground, half underground, open directly to the streets. No underground connection. Organic growth of the city. This one was really fun to design and grow.
4. A fortress to protect the border of the dwarven civ against a nearby goblin civ: Awful embark place, but hey, that was where the border was in the generated world. Physical design is an underground fortress with four quadrants for industry/food, living space, military/hospital/jail, and offices/nobles. A central shaft goes to the surface, where a tower grows as the city grows. Open air shops and trading surrounds the tower, enclosed by a fortified wall. A graveyard complex is inside a nearby rock hill. Half of the population is in the military, to be able to control the country-side without cheating. On hold proyect until I decide wether I will flood everything outside the walls, or inside the walls (a la Isengard after the hobbit invasion).
5. Paladin's temple and training base:. A long straight fortress into the mountain side; main objectives are a huge gorgeous temple at the deep end, and a military force composed just by paladins (elite military). Starts as a five-step wide corridor, around 90 steps deep, with everything set inside that corridor as a temporary base (Zones from the entrance: entrance/trap hall; industry; food/dining hall; living space; military quarters; rough temple). As the fortress grows, the corridor expands to the sides into rooms, and the central corridor will turn into a lavishly decorated, several meters high, long road into the mountain. Current project