So, I wouldn't be surprised to find out this has already been covered elsewhere, but is there a way to create your own default embark profiles? I like my starting dwarves and supplies to be slightly modified from the disciplined quick start profile, and I would like to be able to create a new profile that matches my preferences.
"prepare for the journey carefully" is the option you want, if you press "s" at any point it should bring up a pop-up menue to enter a name and then the current settings will get saved. i usually go always withi prepare carefully because the dwarves have different traits and attributes and therefor are better / worse at certain jobs. looking at them and trying to assign professions / jobs accordingly is worth and more interesting in my opinion to i never really go with pre-set embark profiles, they don't consider individual dwarves and just distribute the points at fixed positions and items.
I usually save mine without the skill points, that way I don't have to redo all the food and whatnot every time but still can tweak dwarfs to specific roles.
I keep them as a guide, but I fire up Therapist and check their attributes and assign them their skills based on that. Seeing as 40.10 migrants are coming in with a point of swimming I've gotten to thinking that isn't a bad idea. I've come to the conclusion that the skill choices in the default skill templates included are highly questionable at best, and this only after a month or so of
playing addiction (so speaking as a relative noob on behalf of noobs).
My own modification of this [TITLE:Wiki - raw materials to make tools, heaps of coal (minmax build)] out of the extras folder works well (for me anyway):
Discipling and swimming 1 on all.
1. Mining 1-3 & Armorsmith 5
2. Mining 1-3 & Weaponsmith 5
3. Carpenter 1, Woodcutting 1, Diagnose 2, Dress wounds 1, Surgery 1, Set bone 1, Suture 1
4. Plant 5, Brewing 1-2 Armorsmith 1 (in case of strange mood)
5. Plant 5, Cooking 1-2, Armorsmith 1 (in case of strange mood)
6. Masonry 3, Architect 1, Appraiser 1, Judge of intent 1, Persuasion 1, Negotiator 1 or possibly Mechanic and Stonecrafter 1 instead of the last 2 (becomes leader and broker)
7. Metalcraft 5 (mechanic instead if you are really into traps), Smelt 1, Wood burning 1, Blacksmith 1 (or really anything you want here depending on embark conditions and your plans)
Leader on non-military dwarves is useless, social skills develop on their own, but consoler and pacifier don't give much benefit whereas a level of appraiser and judge of intent make trading easy from the 1st visit. Bookkeeper and organizer also develop on their own well enough, I give each of the farmers 1 of those roles. Farmer seems to be 1 of the slowest skills to level up, and a pair of highly skilled farmers can sustain your whole fortress so I think the 2 plant 5 are probably the only really essential starting skillls. Quality weapons and armor are something you can never go wrong with either. If you embark on a site without sand you will hate yourself for having glassmaker 5 (importing raws isn't reliable enough)
Carpenter and mason seem to be overly busy for extra roles early on but in a more mature fort (and when their skills are high) they will be your biggest slackers, so they are solid choices for the extra duties (Dr and broker/leader) that will become more demanding as time goes by.
Animals - 5 dogs (1male) - always regular; it takes seconds to train them all to war with 0 skill even, 1 pair of cats, 1 gander, 3 geese, pair of pigs if you can afford it. The bunch of guineahens or other profiles with 2nd birdtype are overkill for noobs and too much headache. Too many animals just becomes a big headache.
Other supplys (which is why some skills I said variable levels for points) depends greatly on embark site chosen. For noob friendly resource rich sites not a lot of supplys are true essentials. An anvil, some food, some booze, a training axe, pair of copper picks (or material for bronze), seeds.
I supose it isn't true noob friendly either (since I've already used the no picks bring your own bronze sucessfully a few times I guess I've passed noob) and of course a lot of it is still just my
humble opinion (as someone said in a discussion on embark profiles, very little is absolutely essential...7 dwarves, an anvil, STRIKE THE FUCKING EARTH!).