Humble beginnings: this is where we first struck Earth. Now, it is only an incredibly inconvenient trade depot located 38 Z-levels above the main workshop. After a management mishap and waves of migrants, food and drink supplies were exhausted so a hundred dwarves were mobilized to pick the surface clean of fruits. Many got nauseous from cave adaption. It was a sight to behold though. They picked the field like a horde of locusts and left a trail of vomit in their wake. A few seams of bituminous coal have been extracted.
With no drinking water available on the surface and no available aquifers, modest living accommodations had to be arranged while the primary focus was placed on locating the caverns. This outpost is now abandoned, with most of the furniture stripped away. A large seam of lignite was discovered along the wall of a former stockroom.
A cavern was discovered nearly 40 Z-levels below the surface. It had water which could be tapped for a well, and fertile soil to establish a farm. It wasn't all good news though. Very quickly, it became the sight of conflict with the indigenous population of Bat People. Sometimes wielding steel weapons and shields, these flying creatures have appeared in numbers up to 90 at a time. The farm has been completely enclosed by stone walls, and a fragile armistice has held for a couple years as both sides foolishly prepare to completely annihilate each other... one day.
Once water was discovered, we finally chose a place to establish more permanent industry and living spaces.
One floor of the high density dorms. This one also features a few hallways of tombs. Casualties of the war with the Bat Men lay here, including a Gorlak monster slayer.
At the bottom of the second cavern, some 41 Z-levels below the main workshop, a large family of Rutherers mills about, living a care-free life. These creatures are enormous and incredibly dangerous, but they have a benign temperament and won't seek conflict unless they are pissed off. The stray cats have been testing their patience, however.
As I near the end of the fifth year, the population of the fort has soared to 180. Hopefully this will be the one which manages to dig all the way to hell.
I feel too much obligation to the deceased to just chuck them in a big warehouse together. I always dig catacombs and at each tomb I have an engraving made about the deceased. Usually it's touching, like a pet or friend they loved. One kid was buried and I guess nobody knew what to do because they carved an image of him terrified and surrounded by snails.
If I could just designate a whole 10x10 area with multiple levels as a 'catacomb' and not have to worry about only a single dwarf being buried there; I would absolutely be way more into the kind of Moria style of tomb/catacombs with statues and slabs but having to add a door aggravates me so my dwarves tend to get chucked into warehouses unless they've done something really badass like die fighting a forgotten beast
You don't need any doors. Body parts inside of coffins don't create any miasma, and doors are only required if you are trying to paint multiple tombs in one stroke. As long as a tomb has a coffin before it gets 'claimed' by a deceased resident, they'll get placed properly. Problems only happen when a resident reaches their tomb before the coffin.