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[Ralje]

Now on the right board

A nice feature to add would be An indicator showing a site's difficulty (In the form of Easy-Medium-Hard).
When you're looking over the map for a site, there isn't an indication about the difficulty of the site you choose. Of course there is the aquifer notification, but for a novice it doesn't mean much. Then there's the savage/haunted scale. Just how savage is too savage? And so on.
Basically, A difficulty indicator would help new players find a good place to experiment, and experienced players find spots that offer better challenges.

[Christes]

Certainly not the first time it has been suggested, but still valid.  The main problem is quantifying the difficulty.  Do easy surroundings counterbalance an aquifer?  Do healthy mineral deposits and magma counterbalance terrifying surroundings?

I say hold off on making a difficulty scale until toady overhauls the good/evil biome types.

[Tormy]

I dont know that how could this work actually. What is easy and what is hard?..for new players everything is hard, for old players everything is easy. You can start a fortress in extreme locations, where its almost impossible to survive even. That is hard. If you have access to everything, the game is extremely easy. I think its almost pointless to implement something like this, especially until we dont have a version 1.0 

[JujuBubu]

right, the real difficulty of a site is chosen at the embark screen ..

easy - i take the axe, the anvil, two picks, dogs, food and a optimized skillset

medium - i take the anvil, ore, coal, and skills for later exploits

Hard - i take one pick, nothing else, some skills

Stupid - i take nothing and no skills

[Chthonic]

Instead of a difficulty rating, there could be another tab in site selection where an "advisor" gives his "opinion" on the site in the form of a paragraph or two that describes specific problems that might be encountered.  Most of this information could be gleaned by poking through the information tabs, but it might be especially nice for new players to see it spelled out all in one place.  E.g.,

"Icyfield is a frozen wasteland for 9 months of the year.  There are no trees, no vegetation, and no source of water.  Gold may be found in its depths.  Polar bears are a frequent threat to travelers.  The civilization of The Bleak Murder is at war with the Suns of Travel; its outpost nearest Icyfield is Slimyturret in the Cold Fingers, where dwell Morgoth McDemon the Blight of Sorrow and 300 goblins."

[JujuBubu]

yes, yes and definatly yes .. I would want that ..

[Granite26]

I'm hooked on Chthonics idea...
(sorry)

Maybe divide the opinions into different entity's reports and charge for them?  (Or better yet, make it something an adventurer can do!!!)
OR change the order so you train your dwarves first, then pick a site.  The info available depends on your dwarves' skills

Miner/Prospector : Tells you what's visible (hard because the site isn't generated yet), what's common(again hard), and what's common in the layers (easy to code).
Ranger : Tells you what animals are common and their scariness values
Broker : Tells you who your trading partners would be (Future: Any modifiers based on distance and successfulnes of the other civ)
Warlord : Tells you about the enemy civs
Engineer : Tells you about the Aquifers and other visible site features (magma, rivers, etc)

[LegacyCWAL]

Cthonic is probably the closest we can get to a difficulty rating, simply because there's too many factors that go into the difficulty of a site.  If a place has no iron, flux, fresh (much less running) water, magma, sand, trees, soil, or access to the elf and human caravans, but is also Serene and goblin-free, would it be rated easy or hard?  If a place has LOTS of iron, flux, sand, magma, trees, farmable soil, defensible terrain, caravan access, and a brook, but also has fifteen skeletal giant eagles and a skeletal dragon, would it be rated easy or hard?

right, the real difficulty of a site is chosen at the embark screen ..

easy - i take the axe, the anvil, two picks, dogs, food and a optimized skillset

medium - i take the anvil, ore, coal, and skills for later exploits

Hard - i take one pick, nothing else, some skills

Stupid - i take nothing and no skills

But that has absolutely nothing to do with the site.  At all. 

[Granite26]

Integrating Sean's Modbase could be a good start towards difficulty levels.  Just being able to select how tough the gobbos and wild animals are could make a good start (plus, eventually being able to play with dwarves on lithium, etc)