Just started playing Dwarf Fortress again (31.16; extracted from, and supplied by the Lazy Newb Pack because I'm lazy). Used a USA map someone made in PerfectWorld (Largest version), and embarked in my hometown (which seems to be a sinister landscape). The location has a jaguar and many gorillas (I didn't know the Florida coast had gorillas native to the land; I mean, panthers, racoons and armadillo would make more sense), and is a rather sizable swamp/marsh. Surprisingly, the landscape seems accurate enough (used Google Maps and memory of the landscape to determine where my home would be, and worked from there). You know what they say about a man's house is his castle, right? Well, my house will be next to a fortress, more like.
I know it may be considered cheating, but I had to use DFHack's Reveal.exe (Thank God it has an optional undo-reveal feature) just to see if it's possible to go underground, and go mining without hitting an aquifer. Well, as far as I can determine, it's safe to mine for stone and go spelunking in. Don't worry, I didn't spoil the sub-scape for myself. I just wanted to make sure the aquifer wouldn't get in my way of magma hunting and spelunking, and Hell-diving.
Just now, I'm determining where to setup a desalination plant. Fortunately, there are a few coastal pools that make good preset reservoirs before processing. The processed/desalinated water will be a sizable pressure tank with a fluid distribution system (sewer/pipeline) as well as an irrigation system as a priority setting. I might try to also replicate my house in-game while I'm at it, and make one of my dwarves (with my name of course) live in it.
I figure this will be a good way to re-introduce me to the game with all it's newer features and all. Plus, thanks to a revival of my Bloodfist Project thread (as my sig also points out), I think I helped everyone with their incompatibility issues with my saves of the project. Also, with that in mind, and me getting back into the swing of DF, I might see if I can setup a 'Flight of the Bloodfist' Community Campaign Game in a while (in days/weeks).