40d:Design strategies

Fortress defense

3D map format

It's important to remember that 1 z-level up or down is the same distance for dwarf to walk as 1 tile in any horizontal direction. So, rather than moving from a workshop a couple tiles to the door, and then a few tiles down a short hall, and then a couple or more into the side entrance of a "nearby" storeroom (total of maybe 7+), it's closer to put a stair or ramp in that workshop, and for that same dwarf to move over 1, down or up 1, and directly into the what could be the middle of a storeroom on the next level. While this is example uses tiny distances, the idea is the same for larger ones - 15 tiles on one level is the same "distance" as 14 z-levels up or down. And when that distance is repeated hundreds (or thousands?) of times over the life of a fortress, for workshops, for bedrooms, for dining and drinking and breaks, it adds up fast. Optimally, a fortress should be more like a cube, rather than a pancake.

For more information on how to dig passages and structures in a 3D map, see digging.

Interior design

It may seem obvious to experienced players but it should be stated explicitly: for maximal efficiency your dwarves should spend the least amount of time moving about and the most time doing productive things. Fortress interior design is critical to productivity.

Think diagonally

A dwarf moves from one tile diagonally to another tile as fast as they do orthogonally (directly East-West or North-South). Rather than have all hallways run orthogonally and "square", consider designing your main arteries to run diagonally, NW, SW, NE or SE. This is more difficult to designate, and not easy for everyone to conceptualize, and doesn't "look right" to everyone's taste, but it can cut longer travel times in half.

Bedroom design

See bedroom design.

Workshop Logistics

At a certain point, the most important thing for your fortress is not that you have workshops, but that they are placed efficiently.

Pair workshops that have similar inputs or similar outputs or where the output of one is the input of another. Examples: Pair a mechanic's workshop with a mason's workshop because both consume stone and produce furniture. If multiple inputs are required (smelter, smith..), it is better to make specialized stockpiles rather than having a single 'input' stockpile because you want to make sure that there is always some of every input. Use the 'take from stockpile' interface to fill these subsidiary stockpiles from your main stockpile and vice versa.

One way of doing this is with the stockpiles on the next Z-level like this:

(view from above)

Level 0:

|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`
|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|W|W|W|`
|`|.|.|>|>|.|.|`|.|.|>|>|.|.|`
|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`

Level -1:

|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`
|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`
|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`
|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`|i|i|i|i|i|i|`
|.|.|.|<|<|.|.|.|.|.|<|<|.|.|.
|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`
|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`
|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`|o|o|o|o|o|o|`
|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`

i=input item o=output item W=workshop

Alternatively you can place input above and output below the workshops or the other way round, depending, for example, on the location of your trade depot. Additional stairs may be useful.

Moody Dwarves

One important consideration of workshops includes design to account for moody dwarves. Open workshops might be easy and convenient, but make containment in the case of a berserk dwarf difficult. One such layout that takes this into consideration is as follows:

|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|`|`|┼|`|┼|`|`|`
|`|`|`|`|X|`|`|`|`
|`|`|`|┼|`|┼|`|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W|`
|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`|`

Key: W: Workshop, X: up/down staircase

Access and stockpiles are placed above and below the room. Similar workshops can be grouped together for easier checking on, and a door can be locked should a moody dwarf's wishes be unmet. This concept can be used for your entire fortress:

Below you can see a piece from around the central staircase, to see how the design should start. Notice that it is pretty modular, you can have two workshops pushed together, or you can separate them all, and you have a couple options on how you set up your entrances, connecting two workshops with one door, or leaving them with separate entrances. Up to you. Notice the initial diagonal terminates at a workshop, and starts the grid pattern.

|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|`|`|`|┼|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|┼|`|`|`|`|`
|.|.|.|.|.|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|.|.|.|.|.|.
|`|`|`|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`
|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|.|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W
|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|`|X|`|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W
|W|W|W|W|W|W|`|.|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|W|W|W
|`|`|`|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`|┼|`|`|`
|.|.|.|.|.|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|.|.|.|.|.|.
|`|`|`|`|┼|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|┼|`|`|`|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|W|W|W|`|.|┼|W|W|W|┼|.|`|W|W|W|`|`
|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|`
|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|W|W|W|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|`
|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|.|`|`|`|`|`|`

Key: W: Workshop, X: up/down staircase

The floors alternate workshop/storage. On workshop floors the diagonals immediate to the main stairway are mined out a couple spaces to make room for the first workshops; around those you can start mining in straight lines and start a grid pattern. For storage floors you can leave a wall of stone around the staircase with only one or two walls mined out for access; then mine out everything around it. On the ground level you start by mining into a cave, clear out space for a trade depot, and mine out one spot where you build a single downward staircase; here the entire fortress starts. It works great and is very efficient, though it takes a while to get setup right.

Decentralized Workshop Complex

Designed for use with the decentralized living plan, this plan emphasizes fine-grained planning with many small, specific stockpiles and planned workshop quarters. It therefore requires some micro-management to get going. However, once you have it working, things work extremely smoothly and you should never have a significant delay in production again.

Total workshop loadout for 1 floor:

Sixteen (16) 3x3 workshops
Four (4) 4x3 workshops
Two (2) 5x5 workshops

Maximum walk to stockpile on same wing: 18.

The light gray crosses are optional doors. They can be useful for sealing off a Kitchen or Butcher's Shop to keep miasma from annoying the neighbors. Beyond that, the blue field is the stairwell access (recommend separate up stairs and down stairs for safety reasons), and the gray fields are stockpiles.

4x3 workshops are useful for workshops with strange blocked square formations (the Bowyer's shop is an example). They can also be nice for setting up a tiny 1x2 or 1x3 stockpile for a specific workshop - with bins, this can be a significant reserve of material. Imagine a Clothier or Leatherworker with 3 full bins of cloth or leather right next to them.

The 5x5 workshops are useful for shops, kennels, and siege workshops. You can even put your trade depot in one of them if you've got a mind to. Maintaining proper security can be a nightmare in that situation (remember that trolls and others can break down doors and floodgates), but if you manage to get it done it can be a trader's dream come true. They can also be useful for making a specialty shop with a few stockpiles designed to accomplish only one thing (encrusting statues with gems, for example).

The 3x3 workshops are best organized into wings, where a pair of workshops share a similar function with the pair directly next to them. They share stockpile space better this way. When set up correctly, less than 10 dwarves will regularly use each stockpile room, so traffic is a non-issue. There tends to be a lot of dwarves in the halls, though, because peasant haulers visit the workshops frequently, hence the 3-wide corridors.

Finally, this design offers lots and lots of wall space for smoothing and engraving. Free wealth is good.

Fluid workshop locations

Alternatively, you can employ a "work site" methodology where workshops are constructed and destroyed as necessary. For example, if you mine out a huge dining hall and it is completely filled with stone, build a masonry shop in the hall to manufacture tables and chairs. This eliminates the need for a stone hauler because your mason only has to travel a few squares to get raw material. In addition it makes furniture hauling more efficient because the tables and chairs are right next to their eventual location. And of course it clears stone out of your dining hall, eliminating the need for a refuse hauler to dump it all.

Miscellaneous strategies

Use for soil layers

Soil layers (such as clay, loam, etc.) - which may at first seem to be of secondary importance - are very useful for large storage areas, as they do not leave rock behind when dug through and may be excavated much faster by comparison. You can also farm on soil tiles without first making them muddy.

Since soil cannot be smoothed or detailed, it is a less than ideal medium to assign rooms in. Workshops do not have happy thoughts for increased surrounding worth, so if proximity to another area is not an issue, soil is a great place to put them.

Since soil is primarily located near the surface, where a trade depot is often built, it is very useful to dig out large spaces for furniture and finished goods in soil for several reasons. First, it produces no stone, and is thus very fast to dig out. Secondly, having finished goods as close to the trade depot as possible is necessary for efficient trading.

Curtain Walls, Orchards and Farmland

Just because your fortress is underground doesn't mean it has to start there! If you have the labour and the means, a wall outside of your fortress gate, enclosing an area, can be a great way to claim a little land for yourself. You don't even necessarily have to use your front gate either, as you can wall in an area completely, with no entrance, and then open a door through the mountain. Though time-consuming, this will allow you to better weather sieges, by a variety of means. The area can be used to plant above-ground crops, or allow trees to grow as an emergency reserve. Natural ponds can be walled into your fortress's overall design, and clever use of underground rivers to feed them can provide fish and turtles even in a siege. Dwarves can also safely work here to avoid cave adaptation. Furthermore, with a good supply of stone you can just mine straight down and build a curtain wall around the entrance, so if you're challenging yourself on a map without a mountain, this is a good long-term strategy for defense against siege.

C-Chute

The C-Chute, or Casualty Chute, is a special internal construction for fortresses with large underground areas mostly disconnected with the surfaces, especially if a fortresses defenses are primarily internal. Basically, a deep pit within the fortress walls, down which goes any dead goblins, wildlife, kolbolds and so forth. They are allowed to decay, but the miasma is too far from the areas dwarfs use to affect your fortress. Once they have rotted away completely, you can enter the chute to retrieve their bones, without ever having to go outside! Also useful for fortresses often under siege, where moving bodies outside is not always possible. This is better than using a room to dispose of the bodies, as the dwarfs dumping the bodies will not have to deal with miasma from other corpses in the dump zone.

Avoiding Cave Adaptation

Cave adaptation is something you will generally want to avoid. By utilizing a lighted central stair column, it is possible to make it so that dwarves will be constantly exposed to light and thus avoid cave adaptation. You can light your central column by using a design similar to the one illustrated below (side view)

|s|u|r|f|a|c|e
|_|`|_|_|_|`|_
|`|`|`|x|`|`|`
|`|`|_|x|_|`|`
|`|`|_|x|_|`|`
|`|`|_|x|_|`|`
|`|`|_|x|_|_|_
|`|`|_|x|_|`|`
|`|`|`|x|`|`|`

Start by digging your stairway column all the way to the surface. Next, channel out the surface layer and replace it with either a floor or stairway, depending on your design strategy. Channel out the next layer below the newly-constructed layer, and replace it appropriately. Repeat all the way down the column, and you should have lighted stairs all the way up and down through your fortress. A wall around the top will provide safety from invaders (a hatch cover will make the stair column count as inside, which won't prevent cave adaptation). Note that if you turn on Dwarves stay inside you'll forbid the dwarves from using your stairway.

Another form you can use is to place your dining hall just under the surface. dig out a section of your new hall and use a chair-table-chair etc down. When you channel out the top, dig out the area above the chairs, leaving the tables in the still-undug land. This will force your dwarves to eat in the sunlight, and since they take a while (depending on the meal) they'll avoid adaptation. You have to make sure to have an excellent main gate defense so you do not have to order that they stay inside, or they'll starve; another way around this is to build bridges on the completed surface hole and link them to a lever somewhere solidly inside, and pull the lever as soon as the goblins show up to provide a temporary roof.

Dams

See dam.