I think that was one of Toady's goals to be able to embark anywhere and still play with everything.
Enh... I actually don't know if I like this change. On one hand, I'm going, "YAY, no more trading for iron I don't have / killing invaders for iron / killing caravans for iron". On the other hand... it all seems a bit easy now. Really, too easy. Finding adamantium used to be a big deal. Now it's on every map?
Also, it seems I can't even dig a passageway out for some living quarters without tripping over three veins of hematite and two gem deposits. How am I supposed to keep the low-rent housing.. low-rent?
In many senses, it really feels like my settlement isn't unique anymore. That's one thing I really liked in the previous version, the very real sense that WHERE I put my settlement made a HUGE difference in its character. Not everybody gets cave trees, not everybody gets iron and flux stone and hematite... A big part of the game for me was exploring the place with mining tunnels and finding the unique things about the map. Finally found that big magnetite deposit? Time to tunnel out and make some noble living quarters and a great hall! They lent very unique touches to each place, depending on what I found first and where.
Right now it seems like the biggest difference is whether or not you have trees aboveground - and that doesn't feel very dwarfy at all!
Hrm. Is there a way to turn down ore/gem frequency in the world gen files or something?
Sav