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[PTTG??]

I was comparing DF to Oblivion, and realized that when it comes to game-play, DF and it's future developments surpass Oblivion in almost all categories. What I found that DF missed was a long-range vision element, something like the distant land feature in Oblivion. While not a critical element, it's hard to feel like you are in a great,big expansive world without ever 'seeing' the landscape around you. What I came up with is this: a key combo brings up a 'surroundings' screen. This describes all the landmarks that should be visible to you in a more natural way than the map screen. You may ask, what's wrong with the map screen? Nothing is wrong with it, but my idea changes the way that is is used. What I suggest is this: the Map screen is used for navigation in a way more like a real map, perhaps with more info features like the log screen, and it shows a wider area, while another map shows the local area like the dwarf mode map. The surroundings screen is what you use to find your way around in the medium scale, for instance from a town to a cave.
 The  screen I am proposing would describe the area around you much like the other sentence generators in DF. Perhaps like this:

To the [Direction] is the [Landmarktype] [Landmarkname], [Landmark distance]. It is [Quality].

[Direction] being N, S, E, W, NE, NNE, ENE, and so on.
[Landmarktype] Mountain, Sea, Great City, River...
[Landmarkname] Could be English or in dwarven/elven/whatever.
[Landmarkdistance] Is naturally how far it is from you.
[Quality] Describes the area in some detail, depending on chance, distance, and the landmark in particular.

Examples:

To the west-southwest is the forest Throattoasts, about a day's travel away. The sky is cloudy above it.

To the northwest is the mountain range The great spine-fingers of drunkenness, roughly three days away. Mist envelopes it.

To the east is the river baldabbeys, a short walk away. Trees partially block your view.

To the south-southeast is the glacier Groxplotmyne adur, weeks of travel distant. You find it hard to see due to distance.

As you can see, this can also include info from the weather report and possibly the date and temperature too. The end result of this is that getting a more first-person view will make the whole world seem more real to the player.

Does this fit in with Dwarf Fortress? Is it too difficult to use?

[Armok]

"To the south is the great city of Starglory, maybe a weeks marsh away. you can see the suns last ray glistering in the goldcaped towers, blue banners on the evening breeze is barely visible. beyond the city lie the vast desert of goldensand, giant scorpions roam freely out there. Beyond that lies only the beautiful red sunset."

Beautiful!

I really like this suggestion!
Seconded!

[PTTG??]

Thanks. I was also thinking this would be a good way to add the astrology section to the game, e.g.:

"To the northwest, about 45* (or however angles would be described) up from the horizon, is the constilation Firebeards the bear-constructs. The stars take the form of a mountain and elves. The elves are surrounding the mountain."

"To the east, rising on the horizon, is the moon Gramblenim udrn. You glimpse a shooting star passing over it."

That is kind of like what you mentioned about the setting sun. One thing, though, these descriptions would be only what you could see from that distance in a few moments of study. You would have to travel a few cells before you could check again for new information, and you could not see some things about an area except in special circumstances. (i.e., what animals are roaming freely over there) For such information, it still makes sense to ask the locals.

[Armok]

Those are GIANT scorpions, and deserts are pretty flat, also I imagen that cene is described from a mountain, tower, or similar lookout point considering the great view.