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[612DwarfAvenue]

i stick with 6x6.

[Xerillum]

Note to self, get hold of super computer from the LHC and install the DF OS on that. IT MUST BE DONE!

It won't work until toady implements multi-core support. Now what we need to do is build the fastest possible single-core processor ever.

[Zesty]

I did 12x12 to get the whole island in the embark area. Lasted two years before getting bored of it.

[nordak]

16x16, abandoned after fps death at year 4...  And a good system just need the multicore support and...

[Shoku]

Don't complain so much about the uni-core. Doing it properly would mean another year or more of us not seeing any updates and just shunting some ancillary stuff like weather off to other cores wouldn't really address the bottlenecks that REALLY limit the speed we get. If you could magically do this stuff in no time at all it stands to reason that we'd already have DF 1.0 as well but in the real world? Well, you can throw some fruitless fits or you can appreciate what you've got. Your call.

[Rowanas]

Honestly? 4x4. I hate having large maps. I like to keep my dwarves in a tiny little box. Popcap about 90, all animals butchered whenever possible, except for my chosen vermin/guard animal. My computer is three years old and still handles DF like a champ, but I just don't enjoy big fortresses.

[Frogwarrior]

With 40d, I've done 6x6, but in .31 I haven't gone bigger than 4x4.

someday, though, I'm gonna get a really good computer and do the max size, and I will LOVE IT.

(Before that, though, I plan on a succession fort on a 1x1 where you must built your fort below your predecessor's. Should be Fun!)

[Itnetlolor]

I think my Bloodfist Project site was a 7x7 embark to maximize it's potential (plus, the Bloodfist is nearly 1 or 2 embark tiles long).

The project site got slow after maybe the 3-5th reclaim. That's what i get for planting it near a bottomless pit and a chasm, and let those critters reproduce-per-reclaim. Had to plant some exit traps for at least the bottomless pit and sacrifice some dwarves to whittle some of those numbers down. Plus, the imp populations were getting dangerous, and apparently my fortifications melted and imps found their way into my fort via forges. I had to plant/sacrifice some more dwarves to whittle those critters down too. Plus those damn imps burned down my plantations a few times (embark-tile size tree/plant farms). Yeah, that was fun.

Other reason I went so big was also because there was a clown car at the top of the map, but I ended up having !!clowns!! hanging out there. Plus, I had no way to implement clownite into the story.

[rephikul]

When i was playing .12 i embarked on a 16x16 which also cover a human capitol. Back in the day, i modded the civs and they all start with 1k ppl in their capitol.

I spent a whole day deconstructing their town hall, dropping like 500 ppl to their doom then quit.

[Gearheart]

6x6, with something like 250 z levels through settings editing.

[darkrider2]

I did a full map embark once, and only once, I was amazed at the sheer amount of land and options available and for the first time really saw what makes world gen so freakin awesome. After that I quit because there was no way to play a fort at that FPS.

Although I find that a 4x4 to 6x6 embark can usually sustain a good sized fortress, depending on how you utilize z-levels.

Also you can add almost infinite z-levels without affecting your FPS. The game apparently doesn't track their existence until something other than open space or unknown rock exists there, or when you find something there....

[mikefictiti0us]

I did a full map embark once, and only once, I was amazed at the sheer amount of land and options available and for the first time really saw what makes world gen so freakin awesome. After that I quit because there was no way to play a fort at that FPS.

I just tried a few full map embarks and was equally impressed. At 3x3, I usually have to embark 5+ times in order to find an aesthetically pleasing area with interesting features. Full map embark nets at least one excellent fortress site almost every time.

This is actually a decent way of scouting for optimum locations, at least until we can preview areas before embarkation. Full map embark, scout the map for sweet spots, close DF in task manager, reembark and reduce the embark grid until you narrow down the specific area that you want.

[Sir Iryn]

WinXP is super lightweight and VERY easy to disable services on.  If I get particularly visciously overlagged (such as major water projects during major invasions, or clowns) I disable every service possible.  I can't print, check the net, or even launch new programs!  (Explorer.exe is shut down too).  It makes a bit of difference, but really, not enough to be worth it unless you are sub-2 FPS

However disabling some services, such as Help&Support and Spoolsv (printing) do help a lot.  Those are unusually hoggy.

Also, kill Java.  KILL IT WITH MAGMA!

You could also pop Xubuntu on your machine in a dual boot. http://www.xubuntu.org/
There are few things lighter than Linux, and fewer still than a Linux system designed to be light. Even Xubuntu could be trimmed down if you're really concerned.

There are lighter distributions than Xubuntu, but Xubuntu would be the easiest for a new person to get familiar with. I also seem to remember some people using a Headless Server and forwarding DF's Xserver output to SSH and playing it on a remote computer. I'm tempted to try that one, personally.

Back on subject, I typically won't go over 10x10 myself. I don't typically need that much room, but I'll stretch my embark out to get sand if it's there.

[GhostDwemer]

Note to self, get hold of super computer from the LHC and install the DF OS on that. IT MUST BE DONE!

It won't work until toady implements multi-core support. Now what we need to do is build the fastest possible single-core processor ever.

Which is also why disabling services and so forth won't do much. You have more than one core, right? Then that crap will be running on the other core, while DF hogs its own.

[Internet Kraken]

Just tried embarking on a maximum map size. The FPS is terrible, which is a shame since the map itself is awesome. Right on embark there were hippos, sirens, tigerfish, skeletal mountain goats, and lions.