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[Audiosprite]

I'm putting together an updated template file for starting new tracks with. Here's what it consists of so far:

'Generic' mono audio track with tape sim, console sim, and preferred EQ & bypassed compressor loaded (instead of making new mono audio tracks, I'll just duplicate this one)
Bass guitar track (generic mono track w/ waves bass rider appended)
Steven Slate Drums 4 loaded
EWQLSO string sections, properly MIDI-routed
Miroslav Philharmonik string sections and choir sections, properly MIDI-routed
Kontakt 5, with the New York Grand piano patch loaded
Reverb send track
Master track is equipped with the console sim, tape sim, bypassed Ozone 5, bypassed limiter, and my preferred monitoring plugs

My philosophy with this template is that, since as of now I need to work & wait to add new instruments to the mix, I'll just prepare for most of the things I'll need in an average track, so I won't have the time to space out and lose focus. In doing this I'm hoping to improve my workflow.

I started adding more orchestral instruments to this template (like harp & brass sections), but I'm not sure how far to take this. If I add an instrument here, I'm more likely to use it. So, what are your experiences with templates? What do you use in yours?

[Voltz.Supreme]

I would probably do this to a small degree for individual projects but I generally build my sound up from the ground for every song/track. It would be good to have somewhere to quickly get going from but I'd be inclined to change everything as I go. Mastering template is useful.

If all people are doing is programming music on a computer (which a lot of people are on here), they'd be silly not to take advantage of its main feature which is access to thousands of sounds. Locking yourself into one set of sounds may be useful as an exercise but overall it's a limitation I don't the point in.

[amushel]

I will sometimes come up with a template for bigger, multiple piece projects, once I've established the palette I want to work with, but I don't know that I currently have enough sounds that I'm basically guaranteed to use to justify doing something like this, especially given my initial creative process (which usually involves building my sound set from the ground up as I make a track).

[Lauchsuppe]

Like amushel - if I want to establish a certain palette for a series of tracks, I would sometimes make a template. Or actually, I only did it once so far. 
Other than that, I usually build everything from the ground up. However, I do have a template with pre-assigned midi and keyboard shortcuts, and an instance of cthulhu, a midi allocated empty drum rack and sforzando for general brainstorming purposes. But usually, none of that directly contributes to the piece I'm working on.

[ZackParrish]

I have a couple of templates for sections that take a while to setup if I load them piece by piece. The legato strings library I use is split up by divisi sections so it's easier just to load all 15 patches at once in a NKI Multi as opposed to loaded them all separately. That's about the extent of my templates though, everything else I just load as I need it.