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Author Topic: DA noob question ?  (Read 462 times)

De Valmont

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DA noob question ?
« on: July 07, 2008, 09:18:54 am »
As said above, I just started DF and have some problems. The most important problem is the stone one... I don't know how to haul the stone (and my dwarves neither do) because I don't know what is precisely stone... Is clay or sand considered like stone ? My miners are mining, and everybody (wiki and players) seem to have too much stone, but my stockpiles of stone does stay dramatically empty.

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Omega2

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Re: DA noob question ?
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2008, 09:20:39 am »
Dig deeper. Clay and sand are soil: easy to mine through but don't leave stone behind. Below a couple layers of soil, you're bound to find a lot more rock than you could possibly hope for.  ;D
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Skizelo

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Re: DA noob question ?
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2008, 10:01:41 am »
Which, when mined, leaves a boulder of stone, which'll be hauled to any stone stockpile by any dwarf with "stone hauling" enabled on the labour screen.
An inexperienced miner won't always leave a boulder when digging through stone, so if you hit on any really valuable stone (most metal ores, which is represented in the wall as a £ or a ^ of some colour, or obsidian which is harder to spot but you'll get a message saying that you've hit it) you may want to leave it 'till you've got a legendary (well, non-dabbling, really) miner
But yeah, dig deep and unless you hit an aquifer (you probably wont) you'll be drowning in the stuff.
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Samyotix

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Re: DA noob question ?
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2008, 01:40:14 pm »
No one has pointed you to the Wiki yet? Its page on "crops" was right on top of my bookmarks list for months  ;D

http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Mining

So ... press k (I think) to get the "look at tile" cursor, and check out where you're digging. Look at floors (where it's mined out) and walls. Earthy layers don't leave rock, they're great for quickly digging out large areas, making stockpiles and farms and rooms for workshops.

You digging in clay, sand, loam, something, right? Press d to designate stuff, and build a down staircase, and an up staircase on the floor beneath it. Then dig some tunnels. You should be digging in rock. If not, conggratulations! Two soil layers! Go further down :)

Rock layers ... a miner with no mining skill will leave about one stone for every 2 or 3 squares mined. (So if you find precious metal or gems early on, don't mine it until your miners has some levels in mining skill).
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