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#notes label(help) run me for the dreamfort walkthrough
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Welcome to Dreamfort! These blueprints will help you build a functional, secure, fully self-sustaining fortress that you can use as-is or extend to build the fortress of your dreams!
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It can be difficult to apply a set of blueprints that you did not write yourself. This walkthrough will guide you through the high-level steps of building Dreamfort. Run "gui/quickfort dreamfort /checklist" (or, if you're looking at the online version, switch to the "checklist" sheet) for a compact list of the blueprints you'll be applying. Each level also has its own mini-walkthrough with more details.
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The final fort will have a walled-in area on the surface for livestock, trading, aboveground farming, and military training. One z-level down is the farming level, with related workshops and vents up to the surface for miasma prevention. The farming level also has a miniature dining hall and dormitory for use until you get the services and housing levels set up.
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Beyond those two, the other layers can be built in any order, at any z-level, according to your preference and the layout peculiarities of your embark site:
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- The industry level has a compact, but complete set of workshops and stockpiles (minus what is already provided on the farming level).
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- The services level has dining, hospital, marksman barracks, and justice services. It has a well system and is 4 z-levels deep.
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- The guildhall level has large rooms for building libraries, temples, and guildhalls, with optional furniture layouts.
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- The suites level has fancy rooms for your nobles with the furniture that they require.
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- The apartments levels have small but well-furnished bedrooms for your other dwarves.
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- The crypt level houses your dead.
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Run each level's "help" blueprint (e.g. "gui/quickfort dreamfort /surface_help") for more details.
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Dreamfort has a central stairs-based design. For all Dreamfort levels, place the cursor on the center (undug) tile of the 3x3 stairs area when you apply the blueprints for that level. The first surface blueprint will designate a column of stairs that you can use as a guide. If you need to extend the stairs down further to lower levels, run "gui/quickfort dreamfort /central_stairs" and set the repeat option to go down however many levels you need (each repetition is 2 levels). Apply it with the cursor on the z-level below the lowest current stairs.
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Dreamfort blueprints take care of everything to get the fort up and running. You don't need to clear any extra trees or create any extra buildings or stockpiles (though of course you are free to do so). Blueprints that do require manual steps, like 'assign minecart to hauling route', will leave a message telling you so when you run them. Note that blueprints will designate buildings to build even if you don't have the materials needed to build them. You can use the "o" hotkey to automatically create the manager orders for all the needed items when you have a blueprint loaded in gui/quickfort. Make sure your manager is available to validate all the incoming work orders!
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There are some tasks common to all forts that Dreamfort doesn't specifically handle for you. For example, Dreamfort sets up a barracks, but managing squads is up to you. Here are some other common tasks that may need to be done manually (or with some other tool):
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- Exploratory mining for specific resources like iron (see gui/design for help with this)
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- Filling the well system with water (if you have a light aquifer, see library/aquifer_tap.csv for help with this)
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- Bringing magma up to the industry level to power magma forges/furnaces (see library/pump_stack.csv for help with this)
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- Manufacturing trade goods
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- Custom stockpile setups to assist with, for example, encrusting only high-quality items
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Dreamfort works best at an embark site that is relatively flat and has at least one soil layer. New players should avoid embarks with aquifers if they are not prepared to deal with them. Bring picks for mining, an axe for woodcutting, and an anvil for a forge. Bring a few blocks to speed up initial workshop construction as well. That's all you really need, but see the example embark profile in the online spreadsheets for a more complete setup.
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Other DFHack tools also work very well with Dreamfort, such as autofarm. See the /setup_help blueprint for a suggested list to turn on in the DFHack gui/control-panel.
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Once you have your starting surface workshops up and running, you might want to configure buildingplan to only use blocks for constructions so it won't use your precious wood, boulders, and bars to build floors and walls. If you bring at least 7 blocks with you on embark, you can set this to be your default in the Automation -> Autostart tab of gui/control-panel.
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Directly after embark, run "gui/quickfort dreamfort /setup_help" to get some advice on initial settings, and get started building your fort with "gui/quickfort dreamfort /surface1" on the surface (see /surface_help for how to select a good spot). Read the walkthroughs for each level to understand what's going on and follow the checklist to keep track of where you are in the building process. Good luck, and have fun building an awesome Dreamfort-based fort!
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The dreamfort.csv file distributed with DFHack is generated from online spreadsheet files. If you want to look at how these blueprints are put together, it is easier to look at the online spreadsheets than the giant .csv. You can view them at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dsmvnzbOKsyFS3DCj0F8ibSnMhVHEjdV
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You are welcome to copy the Dreamfort spreadsheets and make your own modifications!
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If you like, you can download a fully built Dreamfort-based fort from https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15434 and explore it
interactively.
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# The dreamfort.csv distributed with DFHack is generated from the online spreadsheets with the following command:
for fname in dreamfort*.xlsx; do xlsx2csv -a -p '' "$fname"; done | sed 's/,*$//'