A few questions about bedrooms?

Question

In dwarf fortress when you define a bedroom the size seems to automatically snap to include the walls of the bedroom. When you have two bedrooms that are right next to each other the two rooms will share a wall, meaning that there is overlap.

Does overlapping borders decrease room value when only the walls are in the overlap? Does overlapping borders decrease dwarf happiness? Is it better to have a 5x5 that overlaps with neighbours or 3x3 that doesn't? Does overlap of an office with a bedroom matter?

Also, do bedrooms need doors, can I make exit stairwells instead? I'm planning on giving crafting dwarves bedrooms directly below their workshops.

Answer 1

Walls do not factor into the room's size. It doesn't matter if the room you assign overlaps, only the space between walls is counted.

You don't necessarily need doors, so long as your dwarves can go in and out. Most of my bedrooms never had any doors. Of course, a nice door does increase the value of the room, like any item.

Answer 2

Most of your worker dorfs will be perfectly content with as small as a 1x3 bedroom if the walls and floor are smoothened, and 2x3s with smooth wall and floor, a stone coffer and cabinet is guaranteed to provide happy thoughts every time the dorf has a chance to sleep in it.

What you can do is dig out a 10x10 room, place one workshop in each corner and a 2x2 stairwell in the center, then dig a corridor on the level below that has the bedrooms along one side, a couple of stockpiles along the other, and maybe even a dining room (with food and booze stockpiles) along the other axis, then designate that area as a burrow and assign the dorfs you want there.

Answer 3

Overlapping room borders only affect the value of a room. In 40d as well as DF2010 I am pretty sure that overlapping walls and doors did not affect the value of the room. However a room that is both a bedroom and an office will take a significant hit in value.

This can easily be tested by only assigning one room checking it's value by pressing R then assigning the new room and checking it's new value.

Value is important since it directly influences room quality. If your book keeper is demanding a Royal Throne Room and a Royal Bedroom (about time he had some "fun" anyway) it's going to take a lot of work to get that quality if they are overlapping.

Doors are not required, nor is any exit or entrance. This is a great way to make slaves.