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[TruePikachu]

If you have DFHack, reveal _does_ work in adventure mode, so you can use that to look for an exit.

[Robsoie]

I think some kind of reveal (but not showing people/monsters that are currently happening out of your character sight) should actually be built-in for when a player start a dwarf character that is supposed to have spent a lot of his life (if not most of it) inside that fortress.
Such a character should know the fortress so knowing where are all the stairs/doors should be logical at start.

[Saiko Kila]

I think some kind of reveal (but not showing people/monsters that are currently happening out of your character sight) should actually be built-in for when a player start a dwarf character that is supposed to have spent a lot of his life (if not most of it) inside that fortress.
Such a character should know the fortress so knowing where are all the stairs/doors should be logical at start.

This could be implemented by using "L"ook command, which normally allows to find thrips, lice and other vermin to eat/throw in emergency. It should also allow to look for hidden doors and passages for dwarves.

But I think that lack of connection is a bug really. I found several cut-off sites which had some remnant dwarf population plus one Forgotten Beast citizen (which usually doesn't attack the player character, but is attacked by companions, and then often becomes hostile). There are destroyed fortresses (even with FBs) and a connection to outside world and these sites without. I was able to enter some of of these cut-off places without teleporting with dfhack, by utilizing fast travel. When the road is disconnected but close to the hidden fortress it is sometimes possible to enter the fortress by going down one or two Z-levels, using fast travel and stopping immediately. The same trick is used to leave these no exit places. Additionally it sometimes allows to use UP/DOWN move - this is useful for fortresses which have connection to the surface (the part with a depot) but no connection to the road, despite the road practically touching outside walls of the subterranean part of settlement.

[Maolagin]

Speaking of which, has anybody actually encountered a Mountain Halls site in the latest release? I've been playing in 40.08 for a little while, but today I tried genning a few worlds in 40.13. According to legends, all of the dwarf civilizations had only Fortress and Hillock sites, and paging through adventurer start locations never gave me the option to start in a deep site, either. Come to think of it, I don't recall seeing any mention of tunnel-building in the legends, either, so maybe that whole subsystem is broken.

Pity, I had a lot of fun in my 40.08 game tooling around under the mountains in the tunnel network.

[smjjames]

You probably don't have enough high mountains, if there aren't any, the mountain halls won't get built.

Still, I think that whole subsystem actually is broken because theres supposed to be about 100 or so dwarves in them, but they're barely populated, maybe 20 at most. Also, when you pass by them, they'll turn into the abandoned/ruined site symbol for a brief time. Theres all kinds of broken with the mountain halls.

[Maolagin]

You probably don't have enough high mountains, if there aren't any, the mountain halls won't get built.

I don't think that's it. I tried reusing the seed from my 40.08 game, that had given me a nice high mountain range that was a total anthill of mountain halls and tunnels underneath. In 40.13, exact same geography, mostly the same fortress and hill sites show up, but no mountain halls or tunnels at all that I could find.

Still, I think that whole subsystem actually is broken because theres supposed to be about 100 or so dwarves in them, but they're barely populated, maybe 20 at most. Also, when you pass by them, they'll turn into the abandoned/ruined site symbol for a brief time. Theres all kinds of broken with the mountain halls.

Which version was that in? I don't recall seeing the symbol changing issue. As for population, the mountain halls are pretty spread out, as large as human towns, with a number of totally disconnected little warrens along the length of the tunnel. Between that and the not-inconsiderable number of guards I encountered wandering in the cavern, 100 or so dwarves seemed totally plausible. They do feel a bit empty, though, what with there being enough bedrooms for probably ten times that number across an entire deep site.

[ptb_ptb]

Pro tip for exploring mountain homes: Pick up random junk and drop it around stairs that lead to a 'dead end'. That will stop you going round in circles all the time. Eventually you will find your way out.

[Maolagin]

You probably don't have enough high mountains, if there aren't any, the mountain halls won't get built.

I don't think that's it. I tried reusing the seed from my 40.08 game, that had given me a nice high mountain range that was a total anthill of mountain halls and tunnels underneath. In 40.13, exact same geography, mostly the same fortress and hill sites show up, but no mountain halls or tunnels at all that I could find.

Hmm, false alarm I guess, but the actual answer turns out to be kind of interesting, so I'll share it here.

To check that it isn't an elevation thing, I took that same world and re-genned it a few times changing only the history seed. Lo and behold, after a couple of tries, mountain halls start popping up everywhere. It seems that earlier, the generated fortresses were getting knocked over too quickly (whether by neighbors or FBs). As soon as I got a world where a couple of forts in the same mountain system survived long enough to build a tunnel between them, mountain halls popped up along the tunnels.

Moreover, the existence of mountain halls considerably improved the survivability of their dwarf civ. I guess because they represent a population reserve that can't be conquered by hostile invasions. In worlds that have them, legends is full of messages about dwarves resettling abandoned forts and hillocks. In worlds without them, those tend to just stand empty until some other group settles there, resulting in silly things like elf fortresses. (Yes, that's actually how they are listed on the world gen map.)

[Pirate Bob]

The simplest way to avoid being buried in the deep is just to pick your start location to be a "dwarven camp".  Then you just start in the middle of nowhere on the surface.  I think you do this by pressing "u" or something on the last screen of adventurer creation (the one where you can change name, gender, etc).  Edit - to do this press esc to go back one screen, and then advance to the last screen again - each time it will give you a different start location.

I have found getting out of even the properly created dwarven sites to be rather tiresome, and always do this.  The sites are quite pretty, but I prefer to explore them starting from the outside when I know how to get back out.  Navigating a 3D maze in the dark is just too tedious for me.

Now that you can fast travel on underground roads, getting *to* the forts/deep sites as an adventurer is pretty easy, so I greatly prefer doing that. 

[Maolagin]

The simplest way to avoid being buried in the deep is just to pick your start location to be a "dwarven camp".  Then you just start in the middle of nowhere on the surface.  I think you do this by pressing "u" or something on the last screen of adventurer creation (the one where you can change name, gender, etc).

Camp? Cool, never realized that was an option. Although I can only get started in a camp as a human outsider. I guess that's because bandit groups don't belong to any particular civ.

[Pirate Bob]

I definitely was able to start in a camp as a dwarf in one of the earlier versions (maybe 40.05?) playing as a dwarf from a civilization (not an outsider).  Are you sure camp doesn't appear as an option if you keep trying?  I updated that to switch the start you have to go back in forth between the last two screens of character creation.