Colony design: Inwards vs Outwards

[BoogieMan]

I almost always utilize mountain colonies.

Starting off with a quick outdoor setup to get by early, I tunnel inwards and end up with a design more or less based on the concept in the attached screenshot. There may be better layouts, but it works well for me on max difficulty and is easy to set up. It can also easily be repeated to increase the size while keeping a smooth symmetry.

Looks nice, what are those tiny rooms for?

The small rooms are bedrooms. Usually 5x5 or 6x6. I try to assign people to rooms near the side of the base that they work on to help reduce time spent walking.

Ah k initially thought that but then your other rooms are massive.
Which map size is this?

I usually bump it up one time from the default.

This isn't exactly to scale since I made it in paint in a few minutes. More of an example of a layout than actual sizes of each room, though I do make the work rooms pretty big.

[cyberian]

I usually bump it up one time from the default.

This isn't exactly to scale since I made it in paint in a few minutes. More of an example of a layout than actual sizes of each room, though I do make the work rooms pretty big.

KK THX, I always made everything in multiples of 5x5 so like 5x11 for recroom, dining and freezer. But I think its better if I actually keep workshops bigger.
Do you know if there is any disadvantage if I basically have one giant room with all of the workshops inside? Except Butcher, Cooking and Research I would make extra rooms for those.

[BoogieMan]

I usually bump it up one time from the default.

This isn't exactly to scale since I made it in paint in a few minutes. More of an example of a layout than actual sizes of each room, though I do make the work rooms pretty big.

KK THX, I always made everything in multiples of 5x5 so like 5x11 for recroom, dining and freezer. But I think its better if I actually keep workshops bigger.
Do you know if there is any disadvantage if I basically have one giant room with all of the workshops inside? Except Butcher, Cooking and Research I would make extra rooms for those.

I would avoid giant rooms because of bug infestations. They would be able to stall all production in the room, be more difficult to contain, and would put more citizens at risk when they tunnel in.

I usually always have a minimum of two exits for a room as well so there is less a chance of someone getting trapped. My hallways are usually 3 tiles wide, every 15-20 tiles I'll put 2 walls and door in the middle as a sort of airlock to help keep critters from spreading, once troops are assembled and lined up, open the door so they have to tightly funnel through to attack which makes them easy targets.

I line the outside edges rooms with work stations and put toolboxes and raw materials in the center of the room, and produced goods in an adjacent storeroom. Pop a chair on the workstation access point for comfort and they're good to go.