Hi!
Well, it seems that the low pop caps only kick in after the first dwarven caravan. And in the previous versions, I got relatively few immigrants in the waves, compared to what I have now. I usually had up to 12 dwarves max, I think, due to immigration. But once the pop cap kicks in, it is solid as a rock, it seems.
Underground beasties like trolls are already there and hostile. I was able to see that in my first fortress, and I am pretty sure I had invasions turned off there as well.
As for megabeasts/titans, I can't tell because I boosted their requirement in the generation to ridiculous values so that they will never visit me. (I prefer to have my dwarves live)
Ah, I know about the fix for the cooking, but I do not like changing the raws unless it is really necessary. And the missing cooking is more a flavor issue (the one modification I simply had to do was the cat bug fix for 40d).
My personal experience with the unhappy thoughts is that they are not that significant. My current fortress is in it 7th year, I think, and I still have them sleep in a single, simple dormatory, have no dining room, and actually no meeting area (that one is about to be completed after years of hard work (^_^;; ). In the new version, the only really unhappy dwarf I have seen thus far was a female dwarf who had had a miscarriage. That really made her very unhappy for quite a long time.
Deathworks