Maybe this is just me, but I tried playing one game, and with a Dwarven Adventurer, locally important hero, kept starting in a fortress below the first cavern (I'm assuming it was the first, based on the trees) Tried finding my way out, but eventually starved to death. It was all rooms full of forges and mason workshops below the cavern, which led up to an enormous road and fields, but the roads never led to an up stair.
Then another dwarf adventurer, unfamous peasant, started in a smaller fortress. I was able to find my way out by 'T'raveling, and eventually came to a 'fortress entrance' square. He was immediately killed by boogeymen after sleeping till morning indoors, but leaving immediately, when it was still dark out. Is this a bug? I don't remember boogeymen attacking in the dawn hours just before sunrise. Either way, sleeping till dawn should prevent Boogeyman attacks until the next sundown.
Anyway, I restarted, with the same type of dwarf as I started with locally important hero, and ended up in the same fort as initially. Fast Traveling, all I ever saw was Underground Farms and Underground stairs (all of which were down into forge/mason rooms). Eventually I picked a direction, and starved to death after fast traveling a huge distance.
Am I missing something here? How are you supposed to deal with these huge underground fortresses that you can't leave, can't get food (plump helmets everywhere, but I can't pick them) can barely get water (the cavern lakes were all 1-Z deep, so I had to be dying of thirst before I'd drinkthe muddy water, also, drinking water coverings - on body parts, weapons, etc - doesn't help as much with thirst. Makes sense I guess) and have no idea where the 'out' stair is.
Dwarf adventurers should definitely begin at the exit of Forts, if it's necessary for them to begin underground at all. If there's any situation like that for humans (big Castles? City sewers?) I'd say the same.
Also, I noticed in the last iteration that anytime I got near a big city my computer would lag to the point that the game is unplayable. It wasn't *as* bad when I was wandering the fortresses in this version, but still noticeable. It's what kept me from striking out into the under-ness to hunt some food. The fort was basically deserted though, it would probably get a lot worse with NPC's and items lying around.
Running a 2007 MacBook Pro with 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 SRAM. Should I hold off on DF, or adventure mode at least, until I get a better rig, or is this a problem everyone experiences? Is there the intention to fix this? I guess maybe the best thing to do would be to request some more useful information on the System Requirements page on the DF Wiki?