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[Phildo]

Total newbie- so any tips at all will help...

But I keep finding all these places that sound good for a beginner (Temberate, Woodland, Moderate, Wilderness), and I try to embark and it says "this place has an aquifer- bad idea!"

Is there any way to quickly look at the map and know which tiles have aquifers? And are aquifers really that bad? I know you can do the "find" thing, but that only gives you one selection...

[Creamcorn]

If you're new, aquifers can be very bad. The only way you (specifically you) can get past one is to hit a lucky section of rock that contains a metal (or other mineral) of some sort. Aquifers are only located in the layer of soil or rock that they appear in on the embark screen.

Sand (wavy tile) Aquifer will only be on that place.

My suggestion to you, do not pick an area close to a swamp, lake, ocean or major river. Those areas are bound to have an aquifer close to them. Also, picking an area with a cave can help reveal dig-able tiles.

[Mckee]

There will be a water icon (wavey blue lines) next to a soil level that has an aquifier on it at embark. Press tab to cycle the menus if this isn't displayed to start with.

[Double A]

If you're new, aquifers can be very bad. The only way you (specifically you) can get past one is to hit a lucky section of rock that contains a metal (or other mineral) of some sort. Aquifers are only located in the layer of soil or rock that they appear in on the embark screen.

Sand (wavy tile) Aquifer will only be on that place.

My suggestion to you, do not pick an area close to a swamp, lake, ocean or major river. Those areas are bound to have an aquifer close to them. Also, picking an area with a cave can help reveal dig-able tiles.

However, if you're lucky, caves can be very FUN. Or you could just get some boring, non-deadly, or even non-hostile, creatures.

[Psieye]

Remove all [AQUIFER] tags in the raws, then generate a world that's utterly devoid of aquifers.

[Spider]

i'd look for an area near mountains with one of the "flux" sedimentary (the layer in white writing) layers (limestone, chalk or dolomite) and a brook/stream where the surroundings are "calm" or "wilderness".

[kmob]

How about using the site finder to select a suitable site You can set it find a starting location without features as well as selecting for them. For someone new to the game rather than modding or interpreting the landscape (both good things to know of course, but perhaps best left for later on) setting the site finder to find a site with Aquifer "NO" Evil "LOW" etc etc might be a better choice.

[Psieye]

Curiously, setting "Evil = Medium" and "Savagery = Low" is best. Because newbies really don't need to get harassed by gnomes and rhesus macaques in so called 'Good' lands.

[Canuhearmenow]

Personally, search for inactive volcanoes (they are gray ^'s on the world map) since they have a combination of large sizes (thus more materials/metals) very flat walls, and they almost always have flux and iron, amongst other metals.

Curiously, they also tend to have extremely thick forests surrounding them (possibly alluding to how volcanic regions are extremely fertile), which means they also have plentiful murky pools for irrigation, as well as wood.

[ledgekindred]

Thread pimp.  (please feel free to chastise me for bad etiquette, but I think in this case it's justified.)

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61330.0

I found that world and embark site while playing with worldgen over the weekend.  It's got everything a noob needs to easily get a fully functional fortress up and running easily and quickly. 

I've found that the site finder in .31 is ... not so useful.  Well no, it sucks.  I haven't really found anything good with the site finder in .31 yet.  I've just browsed around the world, looking for the kind of site I want.   As the others have said you can see whether there is an aquifer or not by looking for the blue wavy signs under the biome section of the screen.  Also note that you can hit f1, f2, etc if there are multiple biomes in a given area.  And use tab to cycle between different displays of the area you currently have selected.  Those are both things I initially didn't take advantage of that I now find indispensable when looking for embark locations.

[Double A]

Curiously, setting "Evil = Medium" and "Savagery = Low" is best. Because newbies really don't need to get harassed by gnomes and rhesus macaques in so called 'Good' lands.

Or unicorns...