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[grelphy]

So I've started lots and lots of forts (about five times as many as I've gotten through the first year... uh...) and I've noticed myself liking particular sorts of environments. So here's my list:

1) Taiga. Not sure why, but there's something about icy coldness that warms my heart (or something), and taiga gives you lots of trees for beds, smelters and spiked balls. I have yet to find a haunted/sinister/terrifying taiga, but there are enough evil tundra areas that getting undead in your arctic forest is no big deal.

2) Major rivers. I like evil zones, and evil rivers always have lots of undead fish, so I've never actually gotten a well-established fort near a major river. (The constant aquifers don't help, either.) Nevertheless, I find major rivers insanely cool for some reason and have a tendency to throw random groups of dwarves at them just to see what it's like.

3) Haunted desert. I recently started a fort in a haunted sand desert, and it's actually a remarkably cool location. (Literally--I neglected to check the latitude when I embarked, and started with snow on the ground... oh well.) There's no magma, so no absurd glass constructions, but there's still plenty of coolness. And zombie camels. Don't forget the zombie camels.

4) Any other evil area which is seldom evil--i.e., oceans, swamps, etc.

So here's my question: what sorts of environments do you like to start in? This is irregardless (teehee) of features like magma, flux, HIDDEN FUN STUFF, etc.--just the surface ecosystem.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

My favorite starting area is probably on those ocean volcanic islands. I have started three different forts like this and all of them have turned out great. I position my base wrapping around the magma vent for easy access through the aquifer. It is great as i like to make my base very vertical, using all z levels.

[Benitosimies]

So far, I like brooks. They're like rivers, but don't expect a full commitment. They are just friends. With benefits. And they are water.

My plans for my next fort are either:
A volcano (to play with magma)
A desert (I want to know if I can)
The ocean (I want to know if you can build stuff under the ocean floor. Then I'd like to build stuff leading down to various points beneath the ocean floor. Somehow.)

[jester]

Ive had Giant Gorilla watchmen I captured on a Sinister jungle map.  Almost as tough as elephants but psycotic as well, 3 of these buggers took down the Titan.  Ive just about gotten sick of playing anything with killer fish though.  I find it is just a constant drain on my skilled labour no matter what I do, Somebody always waders off.  
 My favorites would have to be Jungles (Chimpanzee/goblin baiting is always a hit with the dwarves) and sinister oceans so I can get zombie whales.
 I just wish you could make undead and goblins fight.

[Dasqoot]

I really like sinister, hot woodlands. If there aren't any trees or plants, I end up frustrated after a couple seasons. I'm usually very underwhelmed by the enemies the game randomly spawns there though. My last half sinister/half haunted woodland had 2 herds of horses, a bunch of groundhogs and 1 skeletal hoary marmot that preferred to be left alone. I started with 7 wardogs, hoping for some skeletal elephants or something. They just ended up depopulating the map before spring was over.

[Asehujiko]

I like cold/temperate coniferous forests or taigas. The feel, i don't how to describe it, "dwarfy" somehow.

[brainfire]

I tend to prefer, aesthetically, the locations where I get at least a 4-z-level cliff I can build up on the inside of, so I can have windows looking out. Something about having that barrier to the side there means I like the design of my fortress better in the end.

My fortresses are not for dwarves afraid of heights. Even if I don't have The Cliff, I tend to have a sort of "keep" built up a few levels from the center of the fortress, mainly to use up stone. And then I put stockpiles in it.

Running water is essential, and especially awesome if I have to do some sort of crazy engineering project to get it to a useful place. I pumped water up six z-levels once so it would be at the "base" of my cliff- the map looked something like this, from the side (the # is the storage tower):

code:

~__#_ <- magma vent level
    |
    | <-cliff 1
    |
    |___
       |
       | <- cliff 2
       |
       |____~ <- water level

My fortress was almost entirely based around the south/southeast corner of the area behind cliff 1, and extended down to about the point where it levelled off.

I walled off an area on the flat area between cliffs 1 and 2, and dug down a stair shaft to the base of the area. I channeled water over from the brook, under a wall (I forgot to put vertical bars under the wall- classic weakness), then pumped the water up the cliff with power from a water wheel, then had a channel leading to the base of cliff 1, and built wells 1/2 and 2/3 up the face.

While this fortress didn't have the best interior design I've done (by far, it was a mess), it's the exterior design I'm most proud of. I lost it to poor planning- I overlooked a crossable diagonal on my magma moat, and got a good part of my population killed by goblins, so the rest spiralled into depression, violence, and insanity. Perhaps the outdoor walkway I had halfway down the cliff, on a bedroom/dining level, wasn't the safest addition...

I kind of regret never exporting an image of it :/

[GeneralValter]

I like to have cliffs too, so that my dining hall can have an open side that looks out onto the lake/valley below.

I'm currently at a terrifying mountain range, with a benevolent lake reservoir, and neutral forests between them. It's awesome.

[Sukasa]

I usually try to get mountainside areas with chasms, a brook, and magma.  Trees are nice, and definitely sand/flux.  I try to avoid tall areas, because even though I like them, they're just too much of a drain on my CPU :/

[BurnedToast]

I really like major rivers too, but unfortunately they seem to kill my FPS (even if I dam them). They also seem to have a bad habit of draining off the map faster then they replenish, even if I don't dam them.

I'm fairly partial to large lake embarks too (though they drain off the map sometimes as well grrr) though it's a pain to find them because they don't show on the map unless they are huge. Oceans work, but the salt water is rather annoying (though I guess I could just purify it will the pump exploit until Toady adds desalination).

I almost never start with magma. I don't usually do much smelting so I don't see the need, and if you use prospector to get Hidden Fun Stuff you get some magma anyway as a bonus.

[Derakon]

Magma is practically a must-have for me, as without it I'm stuck doing a very painful amount of logging or coal mining - that, and it gives me something else to do with my dwarves. I'm already over 25% military simply because I can't find tasks for all the little buggers.

Man, it's gonna be painful whenever I get around to trying a glacier fort...

[Rawl]

I'm currently loving Cliffs over looking Oceans. I find it very appealing when I build a "light-house" out off the cliff over the ocean. You know, only attached to the earth by a small path of floor then making the bottom floor of my "floating" palace out of glass.

[Kagus]

Evil-ish forests, preferably temperate or cold.  There's  just something really cool about those phantom spider webs that pop up in the woods, and I just like cold-environment trees.  Undead I could do with or without.

Mind you, I haven't really tried that many different areas, so my experience is rather limited.  However, from adventure-mode searching, I find that haunted (black and red on the map, plenty of undead) forests are exceptionally cool, particularly if you have some small river or brook running through it.  The dead trees/dead grass combo really adds a nice feel to the place that just begs you to make a custom evil race to settle in it.

I don't think I've actually tried a swamp fort...  Might be fun.  It'd be more fun if crocs/gators weren't considered large predators, so you could get some resident crocs loitering around.  I'm really going to have to start a nile fort soon, where I build a massive sandstone temple around a dwarf-made pool where I keep a tame crocodile which gets goblins and other goodies fed to it.  

Also, a dry canyon-type map that's considered "savage" can be quite nice.  Savage maps don't really get the attention they should, and are commonly passed by in search of evil or haunted maps.  We need more savage support!

But good maps?   Eh...  No.  Only interesting things you can do there are get killed by unicorns, make really really lightweight wooden shields, and eat fluffy wamblers.  Did you know that fluffy wamblers are the only vermin that dwarves cannot hate?  

I'll need to do more mucking around before I can list more preferences, or make amendments to the ones already there.  But, as I have stated time and time again, I'm far too busy to do anything other than spend the whole day posting in discussion threads.

[numerobis]

I like settling around a 15-z-level waterfall; I dig out behind it and build across the gorge.  Another favourite is on the seashore.  I've done a lot of flatland forts, typically with lots and lots of forest (my current seashore map is otherwise basically flat, and has no magma -- but I've already got enough logs to build my green glass fortress and start up steel production).  Somehow, I never go for mountains.