Dwarf Fortress Fortress Layout thesurface1

This is mostly for James' benefit but who knows this might attract the atension of some other dwarf fortress players out there. The general purpose of this is to give a demonstration of fortress layout as well as some other general tips for fortress building. Okay so here we go.



Ahh the surface. So the map I embarked to is compleatly flat. I didn't really mean for that to happen it's just how it worked out. I wanted a magma pipe and to much elevation variation kills your processor, but none at all? Oh well we make our own fun! I decided that keeping a trade depot on the surface and constructing a castle around it would be the best rout. So above is the start of it.

1) An archery range is planned to go here. The most dangerouse piece of opposition in a siege are the archers. Hence the point of the hallway of certain doom. I once had much more ambicious plans, which included elevators and ballistas. However, ballista ammo is annoying to make and I just know that there will be many accidental deaths. So the second best thing is I am going to put the archery range down on point1. This way any archers who are practicing can form a nice little ambush.

2) The corner. As stated earlier enemy archers are the most deadly piece of opposition you are going to face in an ambush/siege. Thus I came up with the ultimate defense! The corner! The green carrots are cage traps, which will take out the first wave of invaders. The white carrots are stone fall traps and are very helpful for defense. The idea is to plant the archers on the archery range and my melee dwarves right on the otherside of the corner. This way when the goblins/elves round the corrner my melee dwarves will be able to attack without suffering from massed archer fire. BRILLIANT!

3) This is a mistake. See I though locking the doors would keep invaders out. As I found out during my second siege some time later. They do not. I have a solution in the works but that will show up more in the evolution of the actual castle.

4) This is one of the military barracks where the military dwarves train and chill. It's important to keep these places close to the impending action, and you don't get much closer than this.

5) The Aborroarium! Okay so I got a little ambitious when channeling this thing out. To explain. If you build something with a glass roof it is still considered outside for crop purposes. So I've dug out a channel which is like a tunnel except there is no roof. Now if I build a glass roof I can grow out door crops safely from ambushes and the other varying dangers of the outside world. I also plan on making it an upscale gathering point for dwarves, as well as some other things. I dunno. I just think it is neat to have an undergound outside world.