Thanks but... How do i make glass? I've only started playing DF this year and all i honestly did was trade gems and make iron/steel stuff, the only time I found magma and adamatine was when I got my dwarves either murdered or rendered useless due to an ambush
Glass is made at a glass furnace (built in the b-e menu). To make green glass, you need a bag of sand and a heat source, such as charcoal, coke, or magma. To make clear glass, you need the same, but also some pearlash. Sand is gathered via a task at a glass furnace using a bag at a sand collection zone, which is made using the i-cursor and must include some sand floor or wall tiles. You can collect a limitless amount of sand from one sand tile, and with a magma glass furnace all you need to produce green glass is sand, so basically a magma glass furnace lets you get limitless free crafts.
What is the incredible "EXOTIC PET" you speak of that gets me said hunting bat?
Many creatures have the [PET_EXOTIC] tag, which is supposed to allow them to be tamed once the Dungeon Master noble arrives at your fort. Unfortunately, the Dungeon Master never arrives in the current versions, so these creatures are essentially untameable. To get around this, many people simply switch [PET_EXOTIC] for [PET], which allows them to be tamed without a Dungeon Master, and as a side effect allows you to bring many of those creatures with you when you embark.
There's a program running around somewhere on the modding forum called NoExotics that goes through your raw files and swaps [PET_EXOTIC] for [PET] for you.
Anyway, there's not really a "best" embark. You'll find as many loadouts as there are players (probably more, actually), and each have advantages and disadvantages. Myself, I prefer taking around 120 drink and 60 food of the cheapest types I can, a few silk threads and cloths for early medicine, an anvil, and a lot of wood and bronze-making supplies which get turned into equipment. As far as skills go, I bring 1 dwarf with 2 levels in every medical skill, 2 dwarves with novice ambusher and nothing else (these become soldiers immediately; the skill is just there to prevent unhappy thoughts from going off-duty), a dwarf with several social skills to be my first broker and mayor, and a proficient weapon/armorsmith, planter/wood burner, and mason/furnace operator. Early on, the mason builds a wood furnace and smelter from some bronze ores, the wood burner makes some charcoal while the mason makes some beds and a wooden armor stand, then makes bronze, and the smith makes picks, axes, and a pair of suits of bronze armor for the soldiers. Once the first picks are done, the leader and doctor take the first couple, and the mason and planter take more once their furnace operations are done, and the soldiers start training ASAP; they're virtually always sufficient to take out the first beak wolf or frog man siege during the first winter or spring.