ninja'd: yes indeed.
What I meant was:
starting a fortress would be only possible in explored territory,
forcing you to explore with an adventurer to establish a fortress further out if you don't find a nice location nearby.
Not a DF-lite in adv-mode, but just interconnectedness.
My concept of an adventurer-expedition:
1- select dwarfs and equipment as normal during embark, select site.
2- adventure-travel from home location to site
3- end adventuremode, start fortressmode.
4- strike the earth!
Also being limited to territory gives some meaning to choosing the dwarf civ to start from,
besides the initially invisible equipment/animal availability and the (currently) non-issue of politics.
The idea is that fortresses die, just like adventurers, and the world goes on to provide opportunities for new histories of avarice and vice.
I realise that most worlds never live beyond a single fortress.
This is one reason why it is a big wish that abandoned fortresses will continue on in some way in a future release of DF. Reducing the reluctance to abandon a succesfull fortress to play several adventurers and start a new fortress in the same world.
In general, the world, adventure and fortresses need to interact more and more as DF develops and player-actions in one should be carried over to the others. (and Toady is aware of this -> see talk#10)
The introverted nature of DF play is such a waste of the rich worldgen.
(OK, dwarves are by tradition alcoholic, anti-social, recluses that rather dig down than look out a window, but still.)
Another suggestion:
it would be fun to have a bit of narrative during worlgen. Currently it jumps randomly to sites of interrest, but it is rarely clear what is going on (if anything). Things like:
X declared war on Y! <zoom capital city X>
Battle between X and Y at the horny bushes of drab won by X. <zoom>
Human hamlet a of Y has been razed by goblins from Z! <zoom>
etc