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[slothen]

started doing 5x5 embarks as a standard.  My desktop is fairly new, so it can handle it well.  I like being able to build a large surface structure and still have lots of room to the map edges.

[xeniorn]

I used to do exclusively 3x2, 2x3 and 3x3 embarks out of fear of FPS death ensuing too soon, but recently I've tried a few weird-sized embarks, like 8x3 and such. I got the idea when I accidentally embarked on a standard 4x4 and realized I quite *enjoy* the extra space, the whole thing feeling less cramped. And then there was this map where a volcano was 8 tiles away from the ocean so I said to my self "let's see how that would turn out". And it seems it's not that bad. FPS is, of course, lower than on a 3x3 embark (duh), but the greatest hit to FPS is your fortress and all the stuff you build (waterfalls, magma stacks ...) and your dwarves especially. I believe it's a much greater hit to get 150 dwarves instead of 100 than increasing map size from 3x3 to 8x3.

Bear in mind I'm talking about playing on a decent computer 3 years old or so, Core 2 Duo 4 GHz, with a decent although definitely not high-end RAM.

[targetstar]

my CPU is only 1 duel core processor, is 1 year old, is a laptop

4GB ram, (which i use half of it by defult)

what do yall say? i played 2X2, its to small, 3X3 and 4X4 i can't tell the diffrence, and a 5X5 looks huge (though my defence stratagy is sort of scrwed when that big)

defence statagy = a big wall on the entire perimter of the map

[JimDale]

I use 4 by 4 for ocean embarks. 3 by 3 for inland.

[runlvlzero]

I tried moving up to a 4x3 for fun, but the extra scrolling space just frustrates me =P

I also find that I end up sprawling out badly if I give myself any room.

[slothen]

my CPU is only 1 duel core processor, is 1 year old, is a laptop

4GB ram, (which i use half of it by defult)

what do yall say? i played 2X2, its to small, 3X3 and 4X4 i can't tell the diffrence, and a 5X5 looks huge (though my defence stratagy is sort of scrwed when that big)

You should have no problems witha  3x3 or a 4x4 if you don't have moving water on the surface.  You'll get fps death eventually I'm sure, but my dual core laptop is like 6 years old, and I can get playable framerate on fortresses that I normally play on desktops, at least with less than 150 dwarves.

[Major SNAFU]

I do what ever dimensions I need to get the biomes and features I want so long as the total number of tiles <= 30.

Right now I am on an 8X3 because I got me all of the flux, clay, etc and the volcano.

[NTJedi]

I typically use 4X5  OR  5X5...  if my system wasn't 5 years old I would definitely go with even larger embarks for the reasons listed below:
   A} Larger battles during sieges. (I had as many as 75+ enemies during one siege)
   B} More land makes me feel as if I own more property.
   C} More chances for overlapping of resources so I might find galena, gold, zinc or other metals which I wouldn't otherwise have available within a small embark.
   D} More chances for more adamantium, because my citizens deserve the best clothing.  I think the wiki even says the larger embarks the more likely you'll have more areas of adamantium.
   E} More room for building and creating unique projects and unique defenses.

*The only reason I don't choose larger embarks because it kills the FPS... sometime next year I will have a new system with faster CPU, better graphics card and SSD drives. Then I can probably use the 7X7 or larger embarks.

[xeniorn]

*The only reason I don't choose larger embarks because it kills the FPS... sometime next year I will have a new system with faster CPU, better graphics card and SSD drives. Then I can probably use the 7X7 or larger embarks.

SSD will only help loading and saving the fort faster. Better graphics will do exactly nothing if you have any post-2005 GPU. CPU can be only so much faster per core - multiple cores won't help either as long as you have at least a dual core. Faster RAM (not more RAM!) + faster CPU = the only thing that will speed up the game.

[LoSboccacc]

I go for 2x2 for performance reason, but:

I've to tweak minerals frequency to get just enough iron for a couple of squad (and then you lose flux, somehow)
ambushes spawn on top of me without warning

[knutor]

Faster RAM (not more RAM!) + faster CPU = the only thing that will speed up the game.

I cannot convince my buddy of this.  Maybe I can convice you.  But there is another thing to increase, aswell.  A faster HD.  With the shortage in hard drives, this might be difficult.  But try a couple 10,000 RPM hard drives in a RAID array.  There was some crazy hype about that kind of gaming system, a while back.  Not sure if it still puts up competitive numbers or not.  I should do some SCIENCE, before I speak.  Ya might also see a little boost, if ya coordinate your memory to your vid card.  Some memory sticks are optimized for certain vid cards.. they say, 'nVidia optimized' on the RAM cover.   Find the compatibility table in your mobo's manual, then look for optimized variants.  Dunno if this is a sales gimic or not, but I bought into that one.  *shrug*  Don't buy into the heatsink on RAM gimic tho, that is just to hide the crappy lowend specs that they sell us at overpriced values.  Silicon is on every beach.  Its no more valuable after turned into a PC part, than it was as a grain of dust.  That shiny heatsink gives the corporate lawyers somewhere to slap the sign, 'Voids Warranty if Removed' and 'Professional Installation Only' 

The courts and lawyers ruined the PC gaming industry, not the console makers, and not the buyers.  Don't be fooled.  They want to put a coinslot on your PC.

Knutor

[LoSboccacc]

I have raptor raid.

No fps increase, as df don't acces disk during game. Save are insanely fast, but it doesn't really matter. (but other games load times are blazing fast and that does matter)

Almost forgot: don't do raptor raid. The noise.. Oh God the noise.

[caddybear]

I usually do 3x5 since I generally embark on valleys. Was using 5x5 but it's too big and I started laying out my fortresses vertically so 3x3 should work very well.

[knutor]

I have raptor raid.

No fps increase, as df don't acces disk during game. Save are insanely fast, but it doesn't really matter. (but other games load times are blazing fast and that does matter)

Almost forgot: don't do raptor raid. The noise.. Oh God the noise.

The game might not, but don't forget about those 3 dozen OS services.  Some folks like to monitor their monitoring programs, too, while playing.  Never could reason that...  All that stuff writes to the HD, at some point in time, possibly while your playing DF, it'll wanna Defrag, who knows!?!  These things have a mind of their own nowadays.

Performance RAID-0?  No recovery.  No fear.  Is that how your setup?

They do sound like miniature 747s on the runway, don't they?  Rawr! 

I don't notice it anymore, since sticking them in this case.  Gotta love turning the case into a heat sink.  Then ya don't need as much vents.   Or a blow hole for that nasty noise to come out from.  So many cases are plastic.  Alienware is plastic.  Hate that junk, it hardly does what its supposed to.  Raptors do complain, from time to time, especially at bootup.  Without the sides on, it is loud, definately a good warning to be considered.

However, sound can be dampened with a couple dish sponges, for less than $5 dollars.  I've had noisier vid card fans.  Isn't it awful when a ball bearing rots?  I think it has something to do with whether the drives are compressed or not, to be honest, not in the maker or the model.  But hell I dunno.  I'm still fearing my capacitors will explode.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Knutor

[LoSboccacc]

They sound more like viet nam in films. The .50 cals, actually.


Yes, I've no fear. The OS is on a third disk (and that has a mirror) most if the stuff on the raptor is from steam, so can't really be lost. Other is from internet as well. All games data. My stuff is on the OS disk.