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[ShadeJS]

I don't use 3rd party tools-- What I look for is a surface river and a magma vent in a 4x4 area, with trees, and in a place that is neither too cold or too hot. My strategy is simple: I follow the rivers flowing from mountains until I find a site. This involves skimming 100s of screens, but after scouring a medium world (127 x 127) I find it easy to remember the rough locations of a half dozen suitable sites.

[Inquisitor Saturn]

I can't NOT have adamantine and magma. They're the most interesting features. And I usually look for underground water sources as well so I can have an ample supply of wood and food.

[puke]

quote:Originally posted by Jerm:
<STRONG>As far as wood goes, you gotta have it for beds, barrels, bins, and chairs, and to make coal, unless you can get magma shops going pretty quickly.  Trees seem important to me because I cannot imagine carrying enough from the beginning to do what you need, and just buying from the merchant afterward.  Do other folks do this though?</STRONG>

um, you actually just need it for beds.  bins and barrels can be made from rock.  chairs from stone.  coal from, well, coal.  you can import all these things from dwarfs and humans.  you can import wood from all three trading races.

its nice to have in that it gets you started faster and you can get metalworking going faster before you dig out any coal or find any magma or trade with other civs for fuel.  or you could try a game without it.

i played (back in 2d) a completely treeless map with nothing but stone.  never dug to the magma.  i still gave each dwarf a bedroom, i just used a stone weapons rack to define it as a baracs and assign it to the dwarf.  no metalworking in the entire fort.

it was fun, but it would never have happened if i had embarked on a "better" spot.

[mickel]

quote:Originally posted by puke:
<STRONG>or you could just pick a spot at random, based vaguely on the terrain and climate you want to play on, and live with whats there.

its frustrating and time consuming to search for the perfect spot -- ive tried.  but its actually pretty fun trying to build something on the fly without knowing what resources you might have.  the best stories come from people adapting around limited resources or non-ideal terrain.  not from perfectly stocked forts with some of everything in near ideal conditions.</STRONG>

Yea, I just pick something with two or more biomes and go with that. If one of the biomes I picked isn't viable, then the other usually is.

[Greiger]

I was unaware you could make bins and barrels from rock. Metal sure but not rock.  Course I havent actually played as dwarves in about a month so maybe I just forgot.

Anyway I love magma and will usually reject an otherwise good site due to lack of it.  Flux and coal I'm not as worried about.  Iron is more than enough 90% of the time, and even if I don't have iron ore the gobbos bring plenty of meltable iron and steel.  A water source is needed for fishing since I rarely farm for food.

Thats pretty much it.  I usually don't use prospector unless I can find absolutely nothing I like.  Wish I could get it to only find magma for me.  I still wanna be suprised by all the other stuff.

[Jay]

quote:Originally posted by puke:
<STRONG>bins and barrels can be made from rock.</STRONG>

Incorrect.  Metal.

[puke]

yeah, 's what i meant.  i was just thinking ahead to what chairs were made of, which i decided to call stone for some reason.  you get the idea.

[Neskiairti]

I generally do it completely random or one of three ways..

i look for mountain edge with trees and mountains.. and try to find some magma.. (using prospector) i like my magma.. it /needs/ trees though, magma and trees.. yep..

second way.. i look for a volcano in a forest.. with an aquifer.. (surface volcano)

third way.. coastal.. at the mouth of a river.. i love those maps, steep cliffs some times down to the ocean.. with interesting features.. some times strata of stone intermixed with mostly soil.. maybe an aquifer. its all good. one map like that with a * cliff against the ocean, I made a completely open fortress (every bedroom looked out over the ocean. same with most of the living rooms.. though the work, farm, and storage rooms were well defended against kobolds and the like)