Every town, retreat, or mountain home i go to -- NOTHING is there.
Im currently very drowsy surrounded by bogey men, ive been running for days, i ran to three settlements and it says im in the middle of a mountain home... ive looked all over the god damned field until it says im out of the zone, and theres nothing here!!! Where the hell are the dwarves? Why do these signs that say there are settlements take me to completely undeveloped land!?!
Elven forest retreats, Dwarven mountain halls, and Goblin dark fortresses are, as of 31.18, empty fields. They still interact with each other during world gen, but the sites don't exist on the map for adventurers.
Human settlements come in 3 types: hamlets, towns, and forts. Towns and hamlets are the same, except that towns have shops. Hamlets are represented by (-, =, 3 bars, and the AE symbol) on the map, and are bunches of white rectangles on the travel screen. Towns are (+) on the map, and bunches of white and yellow rectangles on the travel screen. Forts are (1,2,3)x3 rectangles on the travel screen made up of walls, a (lair symbol) representing the keep, and either (8 or infinity) representing the gate.
If you're at a town and can't find anything, look at the minimap on the left side of the screen. It should show a white rectangle wherever there are one or more buildings. If there are no rectangles, there are no buildings. It sometimes takes a while to wander around and find a house, but it helps that most houses have a long line of "furrowed" terrain leading up to them.
