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[Kanddak]

I have a fort where things tend to appear in strange places.
I started noticing this in the fall of the second year, when I noticed some wild camels running around inside my wall, with no traps triggered, and caught a wave of migrants popping out of a spot in the sand outside.
Throughout the history of the fort there have been a series of camel invasions, where wild camels would show up, climb to the top of the walls, and proceed to relentlessly terrorize the masons (I'm working on building a huge ziggurat).
I was willing to tolerate this, especially when I thought I had narrowed down the mystical camel-materialization nexus to an area in the north of the fort and started digging a ditch around it. Then a goblin ambush spawned in that area, and killed the miner digging the ditch, as well as a few other important dwarves before being subdued.
I finished the ditch, thought I had things under control, and soldiered on. (Interestingly, I've received no more camel invasions since digging the ditch.)
Now I've received a wave of migrants who are appearing at a point in the southwest of the fort, and I've saved while they're in the middle of spawning.
The only thing I can think of that might be related is that I embarked on a particularly wide (east/west-wise) site in order to encompass a stream and a magma vent, and the observed spawning locations are consistent with the possibility that they're all along some invisible line, perhaps a biome boundary, or what would be the edge of the site if it was a square. I've observed things -- like caravans -- appearing from the north and south, but never from the east or west. (I haven't had a caravan spawn inside the fort yet, but that would be fun...)

Save is here: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=627

[(name here)]

Gee, i have a vaugly similar issue, though weirdly it only effects initial spawers, and not the remaining arrivals in whatever event it is. the most common weird spawn points seem to be just east of my fort's surface defenses, and deep in my fort. The goblins use those points when beseiging.

yeah...

[Mcshay]

This bug recently started happening in my fortress as well. I'll try to get a save before the next siege. Time to clean up after the squad of marksgoblins that spawned next to my dining hall...

[Von Krieger]

Something similar happened to me, as my most recent wave of migrants appeared out of a square in the middle of the map. I too have a starting area that is wider than it is tall.

[Kanddak]

I just got around to measuring. Turns out the distance between the west edge of my site and the place where this most recent wave of migrants spawned is exactly the distance between the north and south edges.

[Time Kitten]

Oh my.  I'd better be careful with my 8 wide, 2 tall map then.  I have my entrance right at the tile division 2nd from the west.

[(name here)]

I don't know if that explains my problem, i'll measure it out.

EDIT: no, it's almost a square.

[Mcshay]

My starting area is something like 384 x 240, give or take a few tiles. The x-value of the random squad of goblins was somewhere from 240 to 280 or so.

[Chthon]

Not a bug.  You have a -Stargate- buried in that area.  What you need to do is find the -Stargate-, and build an *Adamantium Iris* to block incoming immigrants and enemies.

[Toady One]

Okay, I'll fold that save into Bug 486.

[Kanddak]

Thanks.
That fort had its first siege the other day, and the squad leader appeared with exactly the same x-coordinate as the wave of migrants in the save, but a bit to the south (outside the fort, thankfully).

[Mcshay]

I finally got a save just before a siege appears, if you reload it a few times, there is a chance that a squad will spawn in the middle of the map (perhaps in my nobles' quarters  .

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=660

[Kanddak]

I've got to confess that, as obnoxious as this is, it does kind of spice things up, in lieu of more sophisticated means of making it harder to have an impenetrable fort.

From the journal of Kunrovod:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

8th Opal, 54
Oh, gods! The camels are back. One interrupted a mechanic en route to install cage traps in the new utility-access tunnel. Their first observed locations have been noted; none are now on the apparent line-of-mystery-spawns, but all are nearby. I am tempted to plan a vast system of traps along the line in question. Or I may build a wall there, and ramps to get over it.

9th Opal, 54
The camels have dispersed from the spawning area and swiftly resumed their usual antics. A terror has gripped the fort as interruption messages spread like miasma in a cat farm. I am already occupied with unsuspending various construction projects, but a greater threat to the fort is apparent in the possibility of camels interrupting the brewers; the cook, who works just next door, just cancelled the preparation of a lavish meal. [this incident took place in the middle of a drink-supply problem; I didn't have enough barrels to build up a supply of drinks, so my brewers had to keep working constantly to fill barrels as they became available, or dwarves would run off to drink out of the river; so my fear was that "brewer cancels brew: camel" would turn into "legendary miner cancels breathe: carp"] One camel, exploring the utility tunnel, brushed right past one of the champions assigned to guard duty during drawbridge construction, who entirely ignored the beast in question, despite onlookers' cries for blood. The squad has now been ordered to harass dangerous wild animals, but it's anyone's guess whether champions will consider the camels as dangerous as masons seem to.

-

13th Malachite, 55
Found some bismuthinite and interesting gems along the cassiterite veins. Mechanical work on the aqueduct is progressing smoothly, if still slowly. There is progress on Tier 2, Floor 2: The north wall is done, and the east and south walls are sited. During the aqueduct construction, blocks piled up, so I shut down most of the mason shops; they are running again, now.
There are more camels in the fort. I have discovered that the marksdwarves are much more aggressive at killing camels than the champion wrestlers are, so they are often being assigned to camel-chasing duties.

-

13th Galena, 55
The worst camel invasion yet! A team of half a dozen camelmandos have been sighted on the the first-tier roof. Looks like they might have spawned there, too; they're all in a group on the north side, near the line-where-things-appear. If that's the case, there will be no relief to be gained from simply walling off that line on the ground floor. Hopefully they only appear on "outside" tiles, in which case I could eventually built a wall along that line wherever it's on a roof; otherwise I'll have to leave a giant crack in the whole fort (and fill it with magma).
Anyway, the military is being sent to the roof. In finishing off the last few groups of camels, I've been working out a method for using the otherwise-useless champion wrestlers as camel-herders. Even when they won't fight the camels, they'll spook them into running towards the marksdwarves.

It might be nice if either my civilians happily ignored the camels (who have never actually hurt anyone), or my military and dogs were more aggressive about subduing them.