User:Gairabad

I have spent a lot of time creating and discarding fortress designs. Here I will share my hard-earned knowledge.

Workshop Structure

A standard fortress workshop floor looks like this:

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>WWW>WWW>
<WWW<WWW<
<><>>><><
<WWW<WWW<
>WWW>WWW>
<WWW<WWW<
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Advantages:

• Excellent mobility. Workshop users have good access to fourteen adjacent workshops (four on their own floor, and five on each of the floors above and below them.)
• Excellent stockpile access. Simply designate stockpiles right on top of the stairway tiles.
• A mixture of up and down stairways prevents deadly ten-story falls.

Things to watch for:

• Workshops also have moderately good access to twelve more workshops that are diagonally adjacent. Although walking diagonally takes just as long as walking in the four cardinal directions, I try to avoid diagonal relationships (e.g. making a fishery diagonally adjacent to a kitchen) for several reasons:

• Since diagonal travel is often the most efficient way to cross the fortress, having regular diagonal trips between two workshops puts extra pressure on a traffic area that's already in high demand.

• There's no convenient stockpile space right between the two workshops.

• Certain items experience wear when dwarves traffic over them. Thus you might not want to use stairway stockpiles for items you suspect to be in this category.

Advanced Workshop Structure

A butcher's workshop produces miasma with great frequency. You should consider walling it off and allowing access through doors only to prevent miasma spread.

There are a bunch more workshops that can benefit from being "lockable". This will allow you to make sure that a dwarf uses a particular material or decorates a particular item.

Useful for specifying materials:

• Mason
• Mechanic
• Stone Crafter
• Bone Carver
• Leather Works
• Clothier

Useful for specifying items to be decorated:

• Jeweler
• Bone Carver
• Leather Works
• Clothier

The solution to all both of these aberrant workshop classes is the same:

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<D WWW D<
<*<WWW<*<
<D WWW D<
>*  >  *>
<D*D*D*D<
>><><><>>

Note that you will have to place hatch covers over the four inner stairways if you want to achieve full isolation. For the upward stairway, you will have to go to the level above to place the hatch cover.

Kennels and siege workshops require a 5x5 area, and thus they cannot fit in the standard 3x3 zone. The above plan works well for them with very little modification:

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<D*D*D*D<
>*WWWWW*>
<DWWWWWD<
<*WWWWW*<
<DWWWWWD<
>*WWWWW*>
<D*D*D*D<
>><><><>>

Efficient Hauling

Let's say you are digging far away from your fortress and come across a vein of bituminous coal. What's the most efficient way of capitalizing on the fuel?

The first thing that comes to mind is to haul the coal from the vein directly to the smelter. With each haul, your dwarves are bringing approximately 3 coke worth of fuel back to the fortress. However, there is a more efficient way:

• Build a smelter near the coal vein.
• Smelt all the coal into coke.
• Set up a fairly large custom stockpile nearby that accepts coke only. Make sure you have lots of bins.
• Set up another 1-2 tile custom stockpile near a workshop you need fuel for. Make it just like the last one, only its only holds bins with at least 10 blocks in them.
• Set up another fairly large custom stockpile near a workshop you need fuel for. Make it just like the last one, but with no minimum requirement.
• Set up the first stockpile to feed into the second stockpile.
• Set up the second stockpile to feed into the third stockpile.

If you set things up properly, the setup should function like this:

- Coke accumulates in stockpile #1 until a bin becomes full. - Since the bin is full, a dwarf moves it to stockpile #2. - Since stockpile #2 feeds into stockpile #3, the dwarf who moved the bin to stockpile #2 should move it to stockpile #3 immediately after he reaches stockpile #2.

This gives you an effective hauling capacity of 10 coke per haul, which is more than triple what you would get with the standard method. The only caveat is that you must have strong item haulers. If your haulers aren't strong enough, you could consider making the maximum bin capacity be less than ten in stockpile #1, and lower the minimum requirement in stockpile #2 accordingly.

Deepcolumn

Overview Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Fishing Row 2 Trade Enter Row 3 Wood Sources Row 4 Row 5

Level 0 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 W. Craft Grass Sunshine Rope Reed Fishery Row 2 Grass Windmill Blade Weed Rope Reed Food Row 3 Sunshine Grass Windmill Rope Reed Sunshine Row 4 Brew Food Blade Weed Food Brew Row 5 W. Craft Brew Food Brew W. Craft

Level -1 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 G. Furnace Cave Wheat Still Plump H. Kitchen Row 2 Cave Wheat Mill Pig Dimple F. Workshop Plump H. Row 3 Still Sweet Pod Mill Pig Dimple Still Row 4 Sweet Pod F. Workshop Kitchen F. Workshop Q. Bush Row 5 G. Furnace Sweet Pod Still Q. Bush G. Furnace

Level -2 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 G. Furnace Jeweler Jeweler Stone Craft Ashery Row 2 Stone Craft Kitchen Dyer's Shop Jeweler Jeweler Row 3 Jeweler Clothier Loom G. Furnace G. Furnace Row 4 Jeweler Clothier Clothier Kiln G. Furnace Row 5 G. Furnace Clothier Clothier G. Furnace Ashery

Level -3 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bone Bolts Kitchen Soaper Ashery W. Furnace Row 2 Butcher Butcher Crossbow W. Craft Carpenter Row 3 Butcher Butcher Bone Bolts G. Furnace Carpenter Row 4 Tanner Leather Leather G. Furnace Carpenter Row 5 Leather Leather Leather Ashery W. Furnace

Level -4 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Skull Totems Row 2 Trade Enter Trade Depot Trade Depot Trade Depot Row 3 Pumps Trade Depot Trade Depot Trade Depot Row 4 Trade Depot Trade Depot Trade Depot Row 5

Level -5 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Water Feed Mason Mason Row 2 Bone Carver Bone Carver Mason Mason Water Feed Row 3 Bone Carver Bone Carver Ditch Stone Craft Stone Craft Row 4 Water Feed Mason Mason Stone Craft Stone Craft Row 5 Mason Mason Water Feed

Level -6 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Water Feed Jeweler Jeweler Row 2 Mechanic Mechanic Jeweler Jeweler Water Feed Row 3 Mechanic Mechanic Ditch Kennels Kennels Row 4 Water Feed Jeweler Jeweler Kennels Kennels Row 5 Jeweler Jeweler Water Feed

Level -7 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 2 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 3 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 4 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 5 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall

Level -8 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 2 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 3 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 4 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 5 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall

Level -9 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 2 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 3 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 4 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 5 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall

Level -10 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 2 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 3 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 4 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Row 5 Meeting Hall Meeting Hall Meeting Hall

Level -11 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms

Level -12 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms

Level -13 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms

Level -14 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms

Level -15 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms

Level -16 Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Row 1 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 2 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 3 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 4 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms Row 5 Bedrooms Bedrooms Bedrooms