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[schlake]

I think I've figured out basic defenses enough for some longevity.  I've settled on a defensive trench with a drawbridge, and I undercut the trench below my fort to prevent climbers.  So now I'm looking into getting metal and cloth industries going.  Cloth doesn't look too hard as long as I remember to turn off cooking all my seeds.

Am I correct in thinking that I should save the top layers (flux stone?) for making iron with later, and burrow down to the lower rocks to start making flutes and mechansisms for the traders?

[PatrikLundell]

No...
How far to dig for metal depends on your embark site info: deep metal(s) and/or shallow metal(s), although I don't actually know how deep "deep" is, but I think it isn't that far (certainly above the caverns). Flux are certain kinds of stone (e.g. marble) that's used up as part of the pig iron/steel process (not iron), just like the ore that made the iron/copper/silver... You generally won't run out of flux when you've found it, so unless you have specific reasons to believe it's scarce you can just treat it as normal (non metal) stone. However, the 'z' menu allows you to forbid usage of certain kinds of stone for purposes other than their preferred ones (such as plaster for gypsum and flux for marble).

I find mechanisms too valuable to sell, since I use hundreds of those for various drawbridges and traps. If you're going into power production (wind mills/water wheels to power rollers and screw pumps), you're going to need even more of those for the gears.
I don't care much for trading, but one way to get going is to cut gems, which is what the startup wiki recommends. Getting a metal industry going before the first caravan arrives is hard, since your small crew should be busy doing more essential stuff (such as making drawbridges for defense, basic traps for invaders, ...).

EDIT: To answer the question in the heading: Two levels below the ground level at the rooms location, if you want to be sure not to get unexpected holes in you roof when trees are cut down. I try to get that deep, but often I have to settle for one level, since the farm requires soil, and muddyfying stone is a lot of work (and that is if you've got access to water).

[Badger Storm]

I build my entrance either at ground level or somewhere on the mountainside.  I'm still really bad at defensive design besides "get everyone into the safe room, raise the bridge, and wait it out, so I don't know what the ideal depth is.  I usually make sure at least one of my levels has some soil for indoor farming, and I build bedrooms on the first layer that has a decent amount of stone to smooth.

I wouldn't worry too much about wasting flux stone - you'll probably have at least 2 or 3 layers of the stuff if it's on the surface, and if not it will be marble in the caverns - sometimes you might even get both!

Whether to sell mechanisms depends on how much you use traps for defense and/or how much you want to raise exotic animals.  For the first caravan I've found them very useful, but after that you might want to keep them for your traps.

[Nikow]

There is no one answer, every have his own playstyle. If you are going to live deep and you need nothing from surface, you can go as deep as you like. If you want, you can have everything on surface. It's your choice.

Mine choice is just digging by soil layers and first stone layer, just because i like everything engraved when my enemies will come. It just look more epic, for me. They are going into deep mines, where They doesn't see too much, so when They doesn't see in darkness, They are doomed because my marksdwarves… and traps... nad stuff… from pure darkness. And i doesn't must care about stone adaptation.

Other time i like to watch, when gobos are slowly walking down using my 30z level shaft for air... There is plenty marksdwarves who keep them and sicking sticks made from wood and bones. When gobo will dodge, he will fall on ground and splash... When he will give up because of pain, he will end bad... If somehow survive, he will meet one squad waiting for him.

In one case my fortress core is shallow underground, other time it's above fort, other time, in heater sorrounded by magma... It's your game, it's your style, try some options, get most entertaining for you.

[rjs71053]

I would build the rooms starting in the uppermost layer of stone, assuming tree roots wont mess things up.

This will make any surface work you do go faster, as there will be less stairs to climb, which is my 1# concern. Also, getting ore from the rooms I want to build saves a step so the whole industry can be setup faster.

If your worried about bedroom walls being filled with gold or iron, I usually just mine the wall out, and construct another wall in its place.  A lot of micromanaging sometimes, and you can't engrave the walls that way. I still find it better then trying to "save" a few layers and strip mining the whole thing.

[GhostDwemer]

I usually make a few rooms in the soil layers. These are for farming, the first kitchen complex with farmers workshop, kitchen, still, butcher, fishery, and tanner; and the first craft hall with a carpenter, mason, mechanic, and crafts workshop. Then I dig down to find the first cavern level and put the bedrooms just above or below that. I like to keep bedrooms more than eight z-levels down, so that wood cutting doesn't disturb sleep.

[Uggh]

Alway remember that going down one level is as fast as going horizontally one tile. Hence, 20 levels of staircases are as fast to travel as 20 tiles to the left. So a multi-level fort is more efficient in terms of travel distances and it doesn't really matter whether you go 10 or 100 levels deep. All depends on the environment you encounter and what you like more.

Where to start depends on the surroundings but you should take your moat into account and be sure to dig out the fort deeper than the reach of any intended moat extension, cave-ins due to wood cutting, rivers, etc. It's always funny to realize that your dining hall does not have a roof but direct access to the moat. And everybody who fell, flew or climbed into the moat has access to the dining hall (writing out of my own experience).
Also try to settle in stone layers and not in soil (with the exeption of a first and temporary fort that should be finished quickly).

Also note that digging out flux layers for living spaces also provides you with lots of flux stone to be used in steel production. And if it's marble, rooms will have an increased value, in particular after engraving.

[schlake]

Last night I had definite proof that my ditch works!  I was besieged by goblins, and I just closed the gate and waited to see if they would climb.  I'd read here 3 z levels kept them out, but no, they climbed into a previous fort, so I tried 6 z levels, and a previous fort had them climb in as well.  This time I dug down and undercut and not a single goblin got in.

I'm glad too, because a forgotten titan made of amber with deadly spittle came.  The goblins beat it to death in short order, and not a single one of them was inured in the fight.  Since I have yet to successfully make metal, my dwarves are usually only armed and armored from the caravans (except from the elves with their filthy wood armor) but I hadn't even done that this time.  I had to be sure my ditch worked!

I think part of the reason I worry about running out of things is that I typically make a 2x2 embark, and I run out of things.  Even in a heavily forested area, I have tremendous wood shortages building my giant wooden apartment towers.  So I stared making my towers out of blocks, since I get four blocks per rock, and I built a giant limestone tower for my dwarves to live in.  Then I started to read up on metal, and I realized I'd converted an entire z-level of limestone into flutes, mechanisms, and blocks, and I think I need them for steel.

[PatrikLundell]

If you REALLY want to make sure you're not running out of building material you should go for magma powered glass or clay. I'm currently embarked beside a volcano, and made sure I had sand, so I can crank out glass blocks and menacing glass spikes (for traps, so I can actually let some nasties in a little bit and then chop them up. But most of my traps are glass cage traps (called terrarium) ) at a huge rate. On the flip side, I also chose to embark in a no metal embark, and not buy any metal from caravans except to satisfy moods. My metal supply comes in the form of goblinite.