Looking for Lair Advice

[Barrak]

I have read lots of lair threads and looked at some pics and I'm ... confused

I've seen more than one dragon say that it's best to make floors have multi-access routes, so you could theoretically rearrange one floor without deconning the whole lair. Having done and redone (and redone) my lair several times, I'd love to set up something like this.

I have a 5x5x6 lair on Blight. Can someone give me some advice on how to set up this multi-access? Is it something as simple as having a series of spirals that connect all the way to the bottom, with an access opening for each floor?

Has someone got a similar sized lair that they have done this in that I could look at? I've played around with graph paper and the Excel spreadsheet in other threads and I just can't get a layout that works for me

[Shian]

The lair in the crafting calculator does this. You just put a series of corridors that go to multiple entrances so everything stays connected.

[Barrak]

The crafting calculator has a lair in it? Hmmm...

*runs off to update*

[Shian]

Hmmm looks like it dosen't (there's a file around here called Lair pieces and calc 2007).. lemmie see if I can find that lair I saw that had tons of corridors in it. Looked just like the one in the calulator though but I can't for the life of me remeber who's it was.

Bah. Can't find it. Basically, you can go about it a number of ways:

1. Use many spirals to make multiple pathways to the same place. That way when you find something you like and you don't need to decon any more, you can put silos in thier place.

2. Have a path going up the middle, putting all your structures to the outside so you can decon.

3. Have the path running the perimeter of your lair, so you can switch stuff around.

A 5x5 is a difficult size if you're building with the intention to move stuff around IMHO as lair pieces are either 3x2 or 2x2. Maybe have the enitre left/right side be corridors to leave the entire inside movable? I've never had a lair of that size -seems ungainly to me.

[Barrak]

A 5x5 is a difficult size if you're building with the intention to move stuff around IMHO as lair pieces are either 3x2 or 2x2. Maybe have the enitre left/right side be corridors to leave the entire inside movable? I've never had a lair of that size -seems ungainly to me.

Are you saying a 6x4x6 would be better? Seems like from a layout-wise, 5x5 gives you more options.

*edit* typo

[Favoran]

A 5x5 is a difficult size if you're building with the intention to move stuff around IMHO as lair pieces are either 3x2 or 2x2. Maybe have the enitre left/right side be corridors to leave the entire inside movable? I've never had a lair of that size -seems ungainly to me.

I love 5x5 lairs. They work perfectly fine for me.

I can't help much with your issue, Barrak, but might I suggest that you use something that will let you see your layout outside of the game, such as an excel spreadsheet with your lair layout on it? Dunno if you are doing that already or not... but it really help see how everything will end up fitting together far better than the game every could. Maybe that way you could avoid the trouble of having to re-arrange rooms in the first place... though I don't know why you're doign that, so it might not help. XD

Planning my lair out saved me a ton of trouble; I've been able to make a layout that uses no spirals, has an average of 3 corridors per level, and one of every t5 machine set up in such a way that I can upgrade them, one at a time, to t6. I never could have done that in-game.

[C`gan]

The original Excel file referred to here was posted by Tympest. I made some minor modifications to it and Tagath added some calculators to it. If you look under Tympest's thread, stickied in the main Dragon forum, you'll find the file.

[Shian]

I suggest that you use something that will let you see your layout outside of the game, such as an excel spreadsheet with your lair layout on it? Dunno if you are doing that already or not... but it really help see how everything will end up fitting together far better than the game every could. Maybe that way you could avoid the trouble of having to re-arrange rooms in the first place... though I don't know why you're doign that, so it might not help.

A layout would help. Or maybe a list of what you want in your lair? Everyone has a different lair and what one person likes, another may not so to you at least have one started?

Planning is essential. It took me an hour of planning to figure out how to get all the libraries together in one spot without any corridors. There's no way I would have been able to do it if I had not worked with it a number of different ways. Maybe that's why you need to rebuild so much?

[Tcei]

That's pretty much what you need to do Barrak, what I did with my lair at first (no where finished mind you) is start with a three way at the entrance then made corridors out to either end, after that I put in 2 spirals and build corridors/rooms connecting the two spirals all the way down.

You can also create "secret" levels with this method, by building a series of 2 seperate spirals down how ever many levels you want then connecting them on the bottom and building the upper areas connected to only one spiral. Once you're done delete the connections on the first floor to that spiral and now you have to go down to get back up!

[Shian]

You can also create "secret" levels with this method, by building a series of 2 seperate spirals down how ever many levels you want then connecting them on the bottom and building the upper areas connected to only one spiral. Once you're done delete the connections on the first floor to that spiral and now you have to go down to get back up!

Err... or when building you can hit rotate on a spiral and the bottom will move up. My first lair I had a few chambers you had to go up to get to, but as it was a 3x6, I really didn't have the luxury of building around anything.