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Author Topic: Shallow Metals and Deserts  (Read 803 times)

JCsuper

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Shallow Metals and Deserts
« on: June 22, 2020, 12:02:16 am »
According to the wiki, “Metals appear to be classified as "shallow" if they occur within the first 2 stone layers, except for Sand Deserts and Shallow Oceans which count the first 5 stone layers.”
Why the desert exception? I’m currently playing an above-ground fort and wishing my shallow metals were actually shallow!
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DwarfComic

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Re: Shallow Metals and Deserts
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2020, 06:49:22 pm »
Ground water leaches ore minerals and redeposits them in zones near the water table. This leaching process concentrates these minerals as ore that can be mined. Besides there's not much metal in a desert, more disco is heard there I believe.
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kaijyuu

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Re: Shallow Metals and Deserts
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2020, 12:57:31 am »
My guess is that deserts/oceans have an additional sand layer on top of the normal layers, which is why it counts further down. I'm no expert on world generation though so.
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PatrikLundell

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Re: Shallow Metals and Deserts
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2020, 03:10:00 am »
Quote from: kaijyuu on June 23, 2020, 12:57:31 am
My guess is that deserts/oceans have an additional sand layer on top of the normal layers, which is why it counts further down. I'm no expert on world generation though so.
No, deserts occasionally have 3 levels of soil (before elevation erosion) while other biomes seem to always have 4, so it may be shallower, not deeper (and aquifers always appear at a depth of 3 and greater if the material supports it, with uneven terrain messing things up a bit). I have no idea why metals would be deeper under deserts.
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