I hate the steam edition uniform screen I want the old one back and I still use therapist to exclusively manage labor
The military uniform screen is one of the few things they changed that I think is an actual improvement. I detest the original utterly incomprehensible and nonsensical version. That said, I'm still using 0.47.05 because my autism is still triggered by anything post 0.50.
Sure, you may not get their iron to melt down, and the visiting caravan or elven liaison might get caught in the exchange, but that's just part of the beauty.
A fortress is not even a fortress without a "fuck the world" button somewhere. Bonus points if it utterly wrecks everything including the fort itself.
But not game enough to mess with magma yet
You gotta do magma. Seriously, just embark on a volcano and get forges up at the very least.
It's also a great shortcut to fun doomsday devices. Pump stacks can fucking blow me.
My general policy is embark on a volcano somewhere with iron, flux, at least minimal soil and trees, then jack up the savagery and beasts to compensate for how easy it would otherwise be, and preferably put it near a necromancer's tower or gobbos. I can cope with getting slaughtered by savage beasts and monsters. What I can't cope with is getting slaughtered because I have nothing but crappy copper weapons.
Word of advice from someone who has lost many dwarves to drowning/being burned alive: dig into the source of water and/or magma diagonally.
The cheese method I generally use to access magma is dig out a series of tubes, much like the Internet, to fuel rows of magma forges on the level above. Then dig to one square away from the magma in the z-layer under that. Then channel down to that, leaving a ramp in the level below (or just build a ramp if you prefer), and dig diagonally upwards to breach the magma and fill the tubes. Then build your magma furnaces, kilns, etc. if you haven't already.
Ta-da, in under a year game time you have fully functioning magma furnaces and workshops.
Another cheese tip I always use. Bring along ores instead of finished goods. I almost always bring tetrahedrite and cassiterite, because tin+copper=bronze and you basically start with enough to make reasonable quality weapons and furniture before even digging into the ground.
And if you have time, instead of making weapons directly from ore, you can smelt the tetrahedrite and get some silver at the same time.
To embark on really awful, as in just the biome will kill you in minutes, immediately dig down one or two z-layers (I prefer two but you really don't have to). Make a universal stockpile on that square. Dig around it, maybe, if you have time. Deconstruct the wagon. Make a dump zone including the hole you just made. Mark absolutely everything for dumping and watch as your quantum stockpile fills up. NOTE: you will have to change your standing orders to collect trash outside (this is o-r-o). Remember to unset it afterwards unless you really want dwarves going outside to collect refuse. (And obviously keep dwarves off that square unless you want them to take an anvil to the head.)
Then dig inside (or better do this while you are waiting) and close off the outside world until you can get stuff like the Trade Depot set up and secured.
This tip is generally for extreme biomes with thralling clouds and evil rains and the like, but it's actually pretty convenient to do this even in normal biomes.
Another good tip is always tweak your embark team's skills. Do crafts, weaponsmithing, armorsmithing, military and other useful skills. Don't bother with mining and nonsense like that, you'll skill up on that really soon anyway. Embarking with ores and with skilled crafters means you're almost immediately going to have an equipped military that can actually use their weapons, as well as high quality furniture to make the high-quality luxury dwellings your dwarves deserve (and will keep them sane).
