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[BlackMuffin]

Alright, kids, let's have a little discussion about biomes with your Uncle BlackMuffin.

"Uncle BlackMuffin, what's a biome?"

Shut the fuck up Urist.

So these days I've found that I'm getting pretty sick and tired of grassy, temperate biomes (unless they're savage, then it gets interesting). Therefore, I've started taking to tundras, deserts, and other generally non-evil biomes that are still relatively tough to get a fortress started in. I'm still bad enough at the game to not be able to get a relatively stable fortress started in an evil biome, but I'm good enough to find grassland biomes boring for the first few years. If I'm not given any challenges early on I usually just abandon the fortress and start somewhere new.

So now I want you little shits lovely children to tell me: what biomes do you generally prefer? Do you like to go all-out on an evil glacier with an aquifer or do you prefer to just take it easy on a good shrubland with no aquifer and ample amounts of coal? Share your thoughts.

[neblime]

I don't really find aquifers that bothersome, and not having coal isnt that difficult to overcome either, I like having PLENTY of trees though.
I do find evil biomes fairly impossible, I haven't tried just sealing myself underground, but that doesn't sound like much fun to me.
Never tried embarking next to an ocean or anything like that.. I wonder what that would be like

[Tarqiup Inua]

Tl;dr - I am still looking.

Desert can be nice, but I prefer place with trees and rain (so that I have wood and the outside gets cleaned of blood). I tried savage biomes because I always though only good fort is fort with steel, tamed giant animals and clay and sand and aquifer. I realized I may be wrong. One should learn to do with what is at hand.

Aquifers are OK, two-layer aquifers are guarantee of self-draining bathtub at the entrance. Any aquifer can get you unlimited fresh water resource - if you dig them carefully from below, you get nice waterfall in your meeting hall that is drained into caverns, you can set up a well with good water, fast.

...still, I am starting to hate aquifers - one shouldn't try to take on every single challenge of the game at once. It drains you of the enjoyment. Aquifers take a long time to breach and often it has to be done manually with constant supervision. By the time I breach aquifer I am losing interest in the fort, because with practice it still takes half a year to breach through 3-z levels of the damn thing.

I hate evil biomes and towers... it always ends up with undead army outside of your gates. Siege? They deal with it. Merchants? They deal with them... it makes opening the gates too much FUN to handle and sort of kills enjoyment of the game along with the FPS.

Never tried glacier before.

I am still pretty much beginner at this - I haven't even encountered most of the funniest aspects of the game. I did set up magma forges, I mined bit of that bluish metal and wondered how will I do with so little, not much more than that.

[Merendel]

Eventualy your skill reaches a point where any biome is not a particular challange to setup in unless you start imposeing your own limitations on what you can do.  For example if you seal yourself in you can setup almost anywhere even with little to no supplies.  Dont believe me? search for the single pick challange thread.  We managed to embark in reanimating, treeless fortress with an aquifer and only a pick, the wagon, and the pack animals to work with and survived.  piercing an aquifer with no resorces and no safe surface access before your dwarves starve is not easy at first but is prety simple once you get it down.

Generaly I find that reanimating or otherwise evil areas have the highest potential of haveing fun show up before your ready for it.  If you make the rule that you have to deal with it as it arives instead of turteling then your going to end up with a challange particularly if you start limiting traps as well.

[vjek]

Below -80 for an embark temperature is fun.  You get no wild animals, no trade, no liaisons, etc.

It forces you down to the caverns for wood and water, at least, and frame rates are typically quite high.

[☼!!Troll Fur Sock!!☼]

I don't really care about biomes that much. I want a river or brook in it and I'm happy. I'd say I prefer mountains, but not really. They can be great or meh. 50:50.

[kamikazi1231]

I'm a big fan of volcano desert biomes. No tree, no vegetation, and scorching temps. Makes you have to rush for the caverns for water and learn to manage the smallest amount of coal possible, unless you buy a ton of trees from the elves.  I enjoy magma glass forges and decking my fortress out in green glass.  Maybe even make the walls out of the stuff.

[Mohreb el Yasim]

^the coal isn't that big an issue next to a volcano ...
I have not much preferences ... but most of the time i stick with the normal forests, deserts. I often look for small embark site (5*5 i feel lost) and it must be flat.
i tried evil, and good biomes but i really do not like the color of their forests.

[Swonnrr]

I found myself a love for flat rocky wasteland, with a brook or small river on the border of the map.

You do have water, but it's not directly accessible, and no soil.
Even if savage it's not a problem with your first 7 and migrants, as your few numbers means few risks, and little needs, but you do need to care about securing water access, and have a few birds or non-grazing animals as food sources (chicken are an obvious choice).
Then you will need to bring water to your fortress, and set-up irrigation and pastures for the migrants to come - that gives you something to do while waiting for the fortress to take-off.
You have lots of rocks to work with, and when things starts to become interresting,
the map is a rocky wasteland (who woul've guessed?), so it's perfect for battle, and flat so it's easier to set up good-looking defenses.
After a while it become a true wasteland, with body, trenches, bolts, traps and blood everywhere.

Dwarfy Bonus: Close to no rain means and no vegetation that it will never get cleaned up, which is awesome.

OCD Bonus: Only rock, and perfectly flat, means you won't have to adapt your plans because a filthy hill or unaligned soil layer force you to level the whole map.

[KingBacon]

Obsidian deserts are the best. You get nothing but oranges, reds, and blacks all across the surface. No wood, little to no water.

Savage glaciers also produce lots of yetis, which are a very specific type of fun.

[TomIrony]

Embarked on a haunted glacier once; undead Yeti = !!FUN!!.

I had the same problem for a while: temperate grasslands were too boring and easy, and evil stuff was too hard and destructive. So instead I went the opposite route: ultra-good biome!

Unicorns, clouds of pixies, all that good stuff. I made chimneys that spewed miasma and generally made it so that the dorfs were a blight upon the land. Elven merchant traders knew they were close to the fortress when they saw the rivers full of abandoned unicorn corpses bristling with unicorn-bone bolts. The apex came when a FB made of fire reached the surface and burned everything to a crisp. Good-bye clouds of pixies!

[PainRack]

I kinda love flat surfaces, perhaps with one big hill/mound to base a fort entrance upon.

Strangely enough, Glaciers can be very fun for this even without trees. All you need is an aquifer and different biome without aquifer and its quite easy to mount upon.

[Asra]

Below -80 for an embark temperature is fun.  You get no wild animals, no trade, no liaisons, etc.

It forces you down to the caverns for wood and water, at least, and frame rates are typically quite high.

I second this. It really makes the game unique and more cabin-fever oriented. Of course you're not going to find wood, so -80 and a volcano might be ideal for some people.

I also like embarking on oceans that permanently freeze, then building a fortress out of the ice. If you smooth all the walls, then it will remain even if it does thaw, which is pretty cool. A smoothed ice fortress can look really badass without the hassle of increasing the value of your fort so much you get invaded all the time. Plus there are things like penguins and walruses to capture.

I also like deserts, but only if the sand looks good on the minimap. Some of the sand colors are really jarring. Though I've had the most fun with frozen fortresses built into the ocean.

[Button]

This isn't biome exactly, but there's great fun to be had embarking within range of 2+ necromancer towers. Necromancer invasions/ambushes can pop up at any time, so it's a real race to get all your stuff secured. Especially if it also has an aquifer.

Honestly though I usually embark on mountains. I try to center my development around a peak, and remove all ramps up the peak, for a natural defense. My current fortress is carved into a mountain of obsidian and native gold. Super dwarfy.

Caves are fun too.

[Tarqiup Inua]

This isn't biome exactly, but there's great fun to be had embarking within range of 2+ necromancer towers. Necromancer invasions/ambushes can pop up at any time, so it's a real race to get all your stuff secured. Especially if it also has an aquifer.

Honestly though I usually embark on mountains. I try to center my development around a peak, and remove all ramps up the peak, for a natural defense. My current fortress is carved into a mountain of obsidian and native gold. Super dwarfy.

Caves are fun too.

Is it vanilla df? 34.11? Care to post a save? I would love to see how others build their fortresses - it doesn't have to look like something designed by Leonardo Da Vinci, my curiosity will be satisfied just the same.