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[Sabreur]

Is there any way to get an embark with sand without starting in a treeless desert or a beach? I want to try out a glass industry, but aquifers annoy me and I like having a plentiful supply of charcoal.  Are certain soil types biomedical-specific?

[GhostDwemer]

dfhack prospect from the embark screen. Sand exists all over the map. Not sure what "biomedical-specific" means.

[Niyazov]

Is there any way to get an embark with sand without starting in a treeless desert or a beach? I want to try out a glass industry, but aquifers annoy me and I like having a plentiful supply of charcoal.  Are certain soil types biomedical-specific?

I find sand in all sorts of biomes. If you want to guarantee sand you could try  consider picking an embark sport that sits on the intersection of two regions, one of which is a sand desert.

You may end up having to bite the bullet and embarking in a region with an aquifer, though.

[Talvieno]

I think it's luck of the draw. Try regions nearer to rivers or brooks - that might (might) increase your chances - I've had plenty of forts with lots of sand that were far from any water source. Rocky areas are obviously a no-go. You'll need to look for places with deeper soil.

Is there any way to get an embark with sand without starting in a treeless desert or a beach? I want to try out a glass industry, but aquifers annoy me and I like having a plentiful supply of charcoal.  Are certain soil types biomedical-specific?

You may end up having to bite the bullet and embarking in a region with an aquifer, though.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't raise the chances any.

[Sabreur]

dfhack prospect from the embark screen. Sand exists all over the map. Not sure what "biomedical-specific" means.

It's autocorrectese for biome-specific! :-)

[kenpoaj]

I have best luck avoiding aquifers farther inland, on the borders of mountains and forests/grasslands.
Quoting the Wiki:
"There are five different colors of sand – yellow sand, white sand, black sand, red sand, and tan sand – but their only difference is their appearance on the ground, as there is no difference between them for purposes of glassmaking."
Only those sands will work for glassmaking. You may also be interested in finding an area with Fire Clay for making stoneware.

In general look for very deep soil for sand layers, and clay of any depth for clay. You could also mod out aquifers altogether in the raws. In your DF folder they are located in ->raw\objects\inorganic_stone_soil.txt
Simply delete any of the [AQUIFER] tags.

[Sabreur]

I think it's luck of the draw. Try regions nearer to rivers or brooks - that might (might) increase your chances - I've had plenty of forts with lots of sand that were far from any water source. Rocky areas are obviously a no-go. You'll need to look for places with deeper soil.

Is there any way to get an embark with sand without starting in a treeless desert or a beach? I want to try out a glass industry, but aquifers annoy me and I like having a plentiful supply of charcoal.  Are certain soil types biomedical-specific?

You may end up having to bite the bullet and embarking in a region with an aquifer, though.

I'm pretty sure that doesn't raise the chances any.

He's referring to beaches. Those always have sand, but I'm pretty sure they always have aquifers as well.

I'm any case, thank you all for the help! I'll give things a try tonight.

[peskyninja]

Try cutting some trees in the caverns, IIRC they'll choose an random soil type to replace them.

[NecroRebel]

Try cutting some trees in the caverns, IIRC they'll choose an random soil type to replace them.

I think it's always the bottommost soil layer from that biome's type. This can mean an effectively-random type, or at least an unviewable type, if you do it below a biome that doesn't have soil, though. It's usually no more useful than caving in a soil block down to the caverns; that process also always somehow morphs the dropped soil into the bottom soil layer's type.

[Absentia]

The easy solution is to situate your embark with just an edge over a desert or beach. Most of your map can have trees, but you're guaranteed sand as well.

[GavJ]

personally i just modded the game so that all the [SANDY_LOAM] etc. soil types count as sand for glassmaking purposes, by adding [SAND] to their entries.

Because glassmaking is fun, and genning 100 worlds is not fun.