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[Master Catfish]

The idea seems simple enough, but I find that it doesn't generate normally with the frequency or severity that I'd like.

Here is a side view of what I want this as an embark site: 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

To elaborate, the water is a river (or stream/brook), and there are 4+ (ideally much more) Z levels of height to build my fort comfortably under the river, but still above the lowest level of the ground.  I would also like to significantly reduce the frequency of aquifers, unless that reduces the chance for this type of site. 

In case anyone is wondering, I want to build a fort into a mountainside and have lots of fun with water without using pumps or off-screen drains. 

What I'm asking for is a few specific ways to change the numbers in the advanced terrain gen to encourage rivers that can run along hill or mountaintops.   

[Albedo]

Unfortunately, the core of the world-gen follows some "natural" laws, and since a river on high-ground is rather un-natural... I'm gonna doubt it.

Best is to get some waterwheels for power with a bank of pumpstacks downstream from those, carve out a channel on a hillside, and simply redirect the brook/stream to where you want it.  Nice middle-tough project.

Creatures will no longer spawn  in the new aquaduct (tho' vermin might), but you'll have your topography.

[Master Catfish]

Yeah, I guess building a river that runs uphill is pretty dwarfy.  I can get down with that.  My question about reducing the occurrence of aquifers still stands, though.

[Rogue Yun]

I am not quite sure if I fully understand you.. but embarking near where rivers meet (you can hit tab until you see the terrain changes to verify). One can sometimes encounter waterfalls... I have had personally rivers (with a waterfall) that was at least 4 z levels above where I built the entrance to my base.

It can happen other places.. I've embarked on what appeared to be a flat spot of ground but it had a massive waterfall. I have even built the entrance to a base behind a waterfall, which I thought was AWESOME!

I quickly found one (First Try), so I am sure that this works.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the example the waterfall was 5z levels in height. So I'm pretty sure you can find what you are looking for.

[PatrikLundell]

You can turn aquifers off. If you use Lazy Newb Pack that option is available in the GUI, otherwise I guess it's in the raws somewhere (can probably be found by searching the wiki).
I think rainfall and ground permeability affect aquifer frequency as well, but lowering the amount of rain will probably reduce the availability of rivers.

If you want the terrain to look a specific way you might want to use tools such as Perfect World to create the map.

@Rogue Yun:
Maybe you could provide Master Catfish with the world gen seeds used and the location of the spot you found?

[Chief10]

This is fairly common, I get them all the time. Just look for river tiles with high cliff number tiles next to them.

[Master Catfish]

Of course, waterfalls!  I have noticed that every time I see what appears to be a fork in the river, there is usually a waterfall there.  Normally they're only one or two Z levels, though. 

I wonder if there's a way to encourage more dramatic height differences in terrain in general?  That seems like it'd make waterfalls more likely.

[Edit: I checked on the wiki, and modded aquafers out of my raws.  Silly of me not to look on the wiki for that.  I guess I'm just used to games that don't have super awesome/well kept wikis]

[Rogue Yun]

If you are using advanced world generation perhaps lowering the erosion cycle count would give you more dramatic waterfalls.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Advanced_world_generation#Erosion_Cycle_Count

It might be possible to set up more dramatic shifts in terrain so that lowlands are more commonly adjacent to mountains skipping all the stuff in between. But I don't know enough. You could ask on the worldgen cookbook thread. There are a bunch of guru's there that might be able to give you a worldgen seed of exactly what you are looking for or at least walk you through some of the steps it might take to do it.

[Skuggen]

I often get fairly high waterfalls at river forks, without having to tweak any worldgen settings. Should just be a matter of damming the waterfall, and you pretty much have what you want

[Niddhoger]

Aquifers are totally not scary guys! They are actually fairly awesome! Its an infinite source of -secure- water for all your hospital and goblin drowning needs! There are plenty of ways to pierce one, so you can take your pick.  Sure its something to learn and a little scary, but its honestly not half as bad as the military/uniform screen >.>


Back on topic... I thought you wanted highlands with a river (for a water-source) that you could secure the high-ground from goblins or some such? AKA a plataue (with river) around a low-land area.  If you specifically just want the giant waterfall... as others have said there is no cooking needed for that.  Just look for where two rivers meet and tab over to the elevation info box on the embark screen.  It'll show you the height differences and let you know immediately if you have the right spot.  I often did this before 2014 to get a hill-top fort with an easy water moat around it.  Waterfalls of 5-10 levels were fairly common.

[Master Catfish]

A plateau with a river is basically what I had envisioned before, although a high waterfall serves the same purpose.  I have struggled with aquifers in the past, and I generally just don't like dealing with them.  I often find that punching holes in them is tedious and not really part of how I want to play the game. 

I did end up genning a world and embarking to a site with a 6-high waterfall.  The main point of this venture was to create a high-pressure trap for visitors that sends them down into a tunnel full of saw traps.  It will be quite fun to watch goblins go in and red water come out!  Sometimes I think I might be a bad influence on myself.

[Rogue Yun]

I envision crocodiles, alligators, or sharks at the bottom of the chum waterfall doing their happy happy dance of gratitude.