"and fortresses, which connect the surface to the underground and are the same sort of sites that you create."
If fortresses now connect the surface to the underground societies will we now find restrictions upon where we can embark, or if not a restriction then a new possibility to make a fortress as an entrance to our mountain home?
Will our fortresses still become the capital after a time? It seems a bit weird to turn the front door into the throne room, so to speak.
It seems that my main deciding factor for where to place what should be some far-flung colony in the style of Ancient Greece or some vital fort watching over a trade route is actually whether or not there's an aquifer.
The idea is that fortresses connect the surface to the underground, and since we embark on the surface, that should eliminate most of the restrictions for building a Dwarf Fortress far away. In the future, however, we may have to deal with getting there, so there will be places that are difficult to get to, or will require ships. For example, after the naval release, embarking on an island may result you in having a boat instead of a wagon. The details of that have yet to be worked out and there's only a slight chance of them going in this release.
Worldgen fortresses seem to be exclusively in mountain areas, which do not have aquifers as frequently as non-mountain biomes. There will probably be some way around this.
Trade routes are in but the actual movement of caravans is abstracted out, so you won't find them on the road in adventure mode. Toady had put out a map of trade routes in 0.31.13.
Toady, do you have any ideas or goals for when ships, boats, and vehicles are added? Specifically, do you see ships, boats, and vehicles as being optionally designed by the player within the game, or just being hardcoded or defined within the raws?