A new goal of mine is to recreate the Dwarven Castle of FFIV in Dwarf Fortress. I started a new game last week, but I didn't give the layout enough thought or plan it out well -- which I should have -- so I'm going to start again from scratch and do a really good job!
The first step in the planning process was to outline the castle in its proper scale. See, the exterior you see in the game is about 1/3 its actual size. I figured this out by counting the tiles on the exterior wall of the 1F room. It's exactly 1/3 the size of the room in game tiles. I'm sure this isn't true for every part of the castle, because the design is riddled with inconsistencies, but it's good enough for me!
So, I made a graphic to follow when I construct the outer wall...
(Right click and open in a new tab/window to see its full size.)
Because it's the first thing I'll build when I start my game, in order to provide my dwarves with protection. It's huge!
By the way, those tiles are exactly the size of tiles in FFIV, so it's a pretty accurate representation of what Giotto's kingdom would look like if it wasn't scaled down (unless I'm completely wrong about the scaling)! Filling it with actual game tiles would be a neat project.
Anyway, in my mock-up, the towers aren't three times the size of their counterparts. Instead, all of them are the same size as the interior of the towers you explore during the game, since they're represented with the same size outside. Does that make sense? They look really fitting, still.
Also, at this size, considering there are multi-level towers spread around them, the outer walls appear to have walkways inside, so I'll be translating that into my fortress as well! Even the gate appears to have a walkway above it, inside, on the second floor. It would have to, right? What if a dwarf was in one of the towers of the front-left and wanted to go to the right? He'd have to walk all the way around! Psh!
...Stay tuned!