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[kjikkii]

My favorite places to embark are wooded river valleys with plenty of minerals.

[Buckley]

Same.  Though I'm trying to stretch my horizons and become less OCD about that.  As it is even with a custom world gen set I still seem to spend almost as much time generating worlds for that 'prefect' embark spot as I do actually playing the fort (well, maybe not that much but I have spent literally an entire Saturday generating worlds to find a 'perfect' spot for my taste.)

Must needs at the moment:

Goblins, Humans, Elves
Untamed Wilds
Forest
Flux
Lots of minerals

[Fleeting Frames]

Something new, usually. But ignoring that....Some common themes I favour:

- Boundary of temperate and tropical, and maximising biomes/species I may encounter in general.
  (OTOH, resource challenge things like terrifying glacier have their place.)
  (Am also fond of deadly cold area as garbage disposal somewhere on the map.)

- flat (and thin) horizontal, or rarely vertical surfaces (albeit haven't utilized one yet), as far as landforms go. Though twbt is helpful to see hilly map at once, ultimately I can't see myself seeking out an embark whose surface is spread evenly over five z-levels.

- Savage and resource-rich.
  (Though I've read some nice stories about low-point or resource embarks.)

- I like to perform test embarks on serene black deserts for their starry sky like appearance, though I don't see it likely for me to run a longer term fort on one.

[Fearless Son]

I typically try to occupy a straddling line between a mountain and a tree-sprouting biome, preferably with a stream running through it.  Wooded hillsides seem pretty dorfy to me. 

[Thisfox]

I always try to find land which straddles aquifer and non-aquifer these days. It's just so convenient. Given a choice I choose a place with no other water than that aquifer on the edge of my property. This no doubt disappoints every migrant fisherdorf, of whom I seem to get more every wave.... But it means that I'm not worried about whether it's temperate, hot or snow biome. So long as it's the conjunction of at least two biomes, and one of them has aquifer, I don't panic much about what biomes they are. Hopefully one of them will have trees... but if they don't, the caverns will.

Other than that, I go for shallow metals, so that I can go in the iron lottery, but I'm not panicked about deep metals and flux. I do like embarking in a clay rich area, but I don't seek it out. And I try to be close enough to humans to get a human caravan, because I really am addicted to getting ALL the seeds, these days, and planting ALL the crops, and brewing ALL the drinks. It's fun!

[Immortal-D]

For those of you struggling to branch out of your forest + river comfort zone; try embarking in a desert-mountain combo.  The mountain will provide plenty of building space & minerals.  The desert will likely have a small number of cactus trees, but you'll be forced to breach the caverns early to maintain your wood supply.  True sand can be used for immediate farming as well, no need to irrigate.

[bloop_bleep]

River is a must, preferably a brook. Volcano if I can get it. Also, preferably Joyous Wilds, for both the feather trees and the awesome creatures, as well as allowing two animal groups per surface/cavern layer, thus reducing the effect of campers. It has to be at least moderately forested, and if possible not completely dead of vegetation. Definitely not evil, and almost all of the time needs iron & flux.

I am very picky.

[Zuglarkun]

Elevation. Preferably surrounded by water on all sides but one so as to limit the approach of invaders to one path.
My favorites are strips of tropical swamp surrounded by tropical lake on 3 sides. All savage of course for the giant fauna.

Then I build a Tower on the outcrop of cliff/ land overlooking the lake. Like a lighthouse.

Of course if the elevation took the the form of an adamantine spire that would be better.

[anewaname]

Adjacent to a 5000+ goblin fortress, in an evil biome (multiple if possible), lakeside or oceanside, preferably with freezing water during the winter. With the current unkillable bug, I want one biome where nothing will reanimate. I don't care about metals, so long as there is some (currently I have tin, bismuth, silver and gold). I always want some flux stone and don't care if there is an aquifer or cliffs.

[Skorpion]

Brook near a mountain, and a climate with trees. Ideally some sedimentary layers too, or some soil at the very least.

[FantasticDorf]

I like aquifer-less deserts, its a large usually flat piece of land and dwarves will go about their business brewing booze with no fisherman spam and digging easily to the caverns for anything further they need.

I don't like dense forests of trees either because it becomes a chore to remove them eventually in order to dig below the ground because of roots etc.

[escondida]

I enjoy a variety of biomes, but ideally I prefer to have all the possible neighbors. Very high savagery is nice, because I take great satisfaction in the idea of dwarves domesticating building-sized monster animals. Partial aquifer is a favorite--I like having water features completely under my control, but *don't* like doing actual aquifer pierces. Iron's always good, of course, but I can trade for it if need be. I keep hoping that one day I'll find a site that has a dramatic hilltop in the middle of the map so I can make, y'know, a proper hilltop fortress. I'd also settle for an embark-sized island just to space out and build things.

[ChristianWeiseth]

Yeah I mostly take the same

- My ideal/required starting position with regards to height is for example
0000 or 9999
0890    8888
0880    0000
0000    0000

Though it doesn't matter which edge the height is, and any height for the hill/mountain from 3 to *. I try to recreate stuff like this


- Multiple minerals shallow and deep
(want to go out of my comfort zone and try only multiple deep though but I'm not that comfortable with management yet and not sure what z level deep is.)

- Untamed Wilds/Joyous Wilds
Same reason as escondida, and when I play on calm or wilderness I always have nagging feeling that I'm missing out on encounters as opposed to untamed wilds.

- Access to all the other racial civs (unless their gone)
Though I always avoid "Tower" after a game I had got ruined after a necromancer attack that caused "Siege" that never ended even with all enemies killed and I searched after "hidden" enemy for hours.

- Biome: Always access to some trees from sparse to plentiful but never none as I have no idea how to survive without any natural access to lumber. I usually always end up in temperate forest as to not have my water dry up as I don't play with aquifier as recommended by this dude; "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS1ibZx5cO8" though I think its time to try it in a desert or something.

Bonuses

- Near a goblin dark fortress with alive demon
- Volcano
- Special Site or lair

Deal Breakers:
- No interaction with all other civs
- no trees
- no water (lots of restart because of this)
- rivers (I try to prevent FPS drop as long as possible as I like having 200-400 pop cities.)
- Evil Biome: disease rain, undead bodyparts assault and lots of other stuff, how you people play on this is beyond me o_O

I want to try next to ocean, though I'm skeptical that I will just get dissapointed that there is no bronze age style naval warfare or trade yet implemented in the game (Please toady implement this). Is Ocean access worth it for gameplay or is it mostly atmosphere you choose it? I read about undead sponges and whales wrecking havoc, and merpeople farming.

[StagnantSoul]

I want as little height variance as possible, while still keeping a low hill or cliff, so I can make my above ground warehouses and defenses in relative ease. Definitely need access to at least copper, can't do anything without at least that basic metal. Usually the main building of my settlement, usually the baron/duke/count's housing, will be built into the hill or whatever we have.

[superradish]

If i can get joyous wilds adjacent to terrifying i go for that - something about killing a unicorn on one side of the map and dropping it on the other side to be animated to terrorize incoming elves amuses me.

Barring that i like intersections of as many biomes as possible - i've gotten 4 ONCE, but 3 is common enough that you can find it easily.