Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jerm]

Without getting into super specialized forts, what do you look for in an embark site?

I've been using the site finder to look for 4x4 sites, only specifying Flux=Yes, Aquifer=No, River=Yes, Shallow Metal=Multiple, Deep Metal=Multiple, Soil=Some and Clay=Yes. 

Once I find some potential sites, I use prospector to look for large amounts of Iron-ores (preferably 35k or more), Flux, decent gems and preferably some gold or precious ore (20k+).  Also, I want a site to have some trees.

This lets me do some easy subterranean farming, access to wood and the ability ultimately to crank out large amounts of iron/steel and gold or other precious metals.

What things do you look for?   What things do you consider to be critical in an embark site, and what things are considered a plus?

[WoobMonkey]

Aquifer = yes.  The rest is variable, depending on my mood of the moment.

More important than the mineral outlay of a site, is the proximity of trading partners / interesting neighbours.

I'm always especially happy to find that one of the dorf civs is at war with one or more of the other races; at the very least, I need to be accessible to at least one elf, human, and gobbo civ.

[JJtoocool]

I look for a perfectly flat, cold temperature, 3x3 area with iron close to the surface. Flux is a bonus, but importing it is easy. I like to have a nice savage biome for^{(Edit: Ahh! Trees! Must have trees!)} giant animals too. If available, I try to stick a corner of terrifying in my embark.

I need to have all the races, and I make sure (re-gen the world to stop at the correct time) to be at war with the elves, and my world is always an island (huge, but just small enough to be traveled by an adventurer. Although I guess those are more world-specific and aren't specifically embark location.

Either way, after that anything goes. No aquifer, magma near the surface, glass sand, clay, gems, gold and those type of things are cool, but I don't go out of my way for them.

Oh, yeah, and I re-gen the world history if I don't have a necromancer tower, were-somethings and vampires all in close proximity. My 'average' unspecialized fort must have maximum Fun available at all times.

[itg]

The only things I insist on having are flux stone and at least one nearby hostile civ. Metals are nice, but worst case, you can get what you need from the caravans and later the goblins.

I try to embark in a slightly different environment each time, but I always look for either a flat site or a site with one very steep cliff. Aquifers are good.

[Garath]

I prefer to have some trees on the surface, some soil, some form of flowing water and that is pretty much it. While I do look for deep and shallow metals (multiple), that is common enough and I don't really care which metals these are or if there is flux.

[evilman222]

My main things are shallow metals, flux, and a valley with a river. Lets me geet a good metal industry going, and become self sufficient with the fishing and farming (river valley usually has soil) as my game likes to send me caravans in the middle of sieges.

[xcorps]

More than one neighbor.
No haunted, not terrifying.
River  or Stream. Intersections of 2 or better 3 get moved up in the list. Brooks don't count.
Cliffs at least 7.
Wooded biome.
Metals.
Sand.
Soil.
Mirthful or better.
Temperate or Cold.
Road.

[VerdantSF]

Flux, river, lots of trees, no aquifer is possible.  I used to sitescum for iron deposits, but these days I just mine goblinite.

[Raphite1]

- Only one metal listed in the site finder. This helps force each of my forts to be unique in how their military develops. Sometimes we're immediately strong with iron and steel, sometimes we start with copper and a few pieces of bronze, sometimes we're in leather wielding silver hammers or maces, sometimes all we have to start with are bone crossbows and wooden bolts.

- Some interesting terrain feature to incorporate into the fortress, either structurally, thematically, as part of a trap, or all of the above.

- A biome with interesting creatures. I usually aim for one that can spawn a good war-animal candidate.

- Either an aquifer or no aquifer, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

[Oort]

I tend to go with less-than-ideal embarks on a whim. Keeps it interesting.

[Sutremaine]

Flux can be reliably searched for, and is always good. If the humans, goblins, or dwarves have iron, then you can supplement the small amount the dwarves always bring. If none of them do, then you can use the more valuable flux as freely as you'd use base stone.

[Witty]

Does this fort have the means to produce bronze-tier gear or better? If yes, then everything else can vary.

Since DF combat is pretty "inferior metal can't pierce superior metal ever", copper-only forts are my big No. I'm not a fan of evil/horrifying biomes, just because I can't see any dwarf going to a place with eyes for grass and thinking "Yeah, this right here is where I want to live!"

I turn aquifers off, because they're just a pain and needlessly prolong my fortress expansion.

I prefer savage biomes, and close access to the various civs. Rivers are a nice plus. Towers only if I'm willingly to put up with the constant influx of corpses that need to  be hauled.

I try to avoid embarks that "have it all" as it were (Heavily forested with iron and flux), because they just aren't very fun.

[Sutremaine]

Since DF combat is pretty "inferior metal can't pierce superior metal ever", copper-only forts are my big No.

Spears can poke through armour one 'tier' up, and enemies don't come fully armoured. You won't be a copper-only fort for long anyway -- the first dwarven caravan will bring bars and other items made from bronze and steel (and possibly iron), and the summer after that will bring humans and their bronze (and possibly iron).

[Witty]

Since DF combat is pretty "inferior metal can't pierce superior metal ever", copper-only forts are my big No.

Spears can poke through armour one 'tier' up, and enemies don't come fully armoured. You won't be a copper-only fort for long anyway -- the first dwarven caravan will bring bars and other items made from bronze and steel (and possibly iron), and the summer after that will bring humans and their bronze (and possibly iron).

Hmm.  Did not know that about spears. And you have a point about the caravans, but I find they never bring a sufficient quantity of items to fully arm a fort. That, and I would never want to rely on traders for my steel  

[vanatteveldt]

You can request items from your caravan liaison, especially stones, and they will bring 4 of everything you request. 4 cassetirite yield 32 bars of bronze; if you have enough fuel/magma you can also request bismunthinite and smelt 64 bars of bitmuth bronze using the 4 cassetirite and 4 bismuthinite. Since iron has many ores, you can probably request at least 3x4=12 iron ores = 48 bars. On top of that you can smelt down all the anvils, piccolos and other crap they bring, and anything that the friendly goblins take with them as an offering.

(actually this has inspired me to do a no-metals no-lockdown few-traps fort just to see if I can pull it off...)