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[cleverslug]

I have had my fair share of (reasonably) successful fortress's in the two years or so ive been digging my dwarfs into hell (only to succumb to horrid granite pigeon demons). Ive never been able to set up an efficient metal industry, i always end up with stones and bars all over the place. Anyone have any nice setups they could share

[Agent_86]

I keep a large stockpile for all my stones, feeding smaller, more specific stockpiles near my work areas (ores + flux for the smelters, stone for mason's shops, and clay for the kilns).  After that, my smelters feed bar stockpiles which feed forges.  It's a little more setup time and sometimes takes more creative planning when laying out your fort, but I've found it more efficient.

[weenog]

Minecart quantum stockpiles near the smelter, forge, and if necessary, wood furnace.  If you opt to have multiple stockpiles instead of one that handles everything needed for that industry, make sure the ore and flux stockpiles are closest to the workshops.  Rocks taken from stockpile to workshop won't be carried in wheelbarrows, so you want them to require as short a walk as possible if you don't want moving them to take forever.

[Iosyn]

Yeah, it really does come down to stockpile management.indust

Once you've got the basic non-metal industries set up, make sure to have large general-pupose stockpiles that feed other stockpiles next to your workshops and such. Once you plan to start a metal industry, dig out another few rooms on another level and create a large stockpile only accepting ore and metal bars-- and turn off stone blocks if they get activated.

If you have coal, you can skip a wood burner-- unless you want it for potash or something-- and just get to the real meat of it. Good rule of thumb is 2 smelters per forge-- one to smelt fuel, one for the bars-- and three or four per legendary metalsmith.

If you think that the hauling is going to be too much, channel a 1x1 mineshaft from your main fort stockpiles down to your metal industry level and use a minecart to dump the ore down to it. In this case it also quantum stockpiles the ore for you, just make sure there's no way your legendary armorsmith can get hit in the head by any galena ore falling 20Z levels. might want to stick a hatch in the mineshaft linked to a lever.

[cleverslug]

I like this idea of feeding workshops with larger stockpiles, i normally just make little ones where they are needed which results in lots of dwarfs walking all over the place. I like these ideas appreciate it, they sound very organised . also one last question, are minecart systems worth setting up near mines to me it seems like ill have to constantly keep making them as i clean out a section of the mine or should i just stick to good ol' dwarven labor?

[Iosyn]

It can be a pain setting up minecarts, but it's fun as hell. however it's also possible to have a track 2 spaces wide, with 2 track stops on it that dumps into a 50Z channel down to your magma forges.

So your haulers fill the cart with ore and stone, drop it down the chute, voila instant quantum stockpile near your metalworks while saving on God knows how much hauling. I like to make sure all of my stockpiles have plenty of wheelbarrows though.

I find the regular minecart use can be quite helpful if you're doing a lot of exploratory mining and find something like a cluster of magnetite or lignite, though. Make sure to set the traffic priority on all rails to restricted though, or else you'll get people trapped underneath getting their heads smashed in.

[cleverslug]

I have thought about sending stuff down to magma furnaces before, but id just have to haul it back up wouldnt i? or is it possible to set up a cart system back up (this time carting stuff up 50z levels). I also remember reading on the wiki when the carts were introduced one line very clearly "it is now possible to grapeshot your dining room with a cart full of weapons" oh god my sides, they hurt i could imagine an elaborate weapon design involving it.

[Kate Wissen]

I have thought about sending stuff down to magma furnaces before, but id just have to haul it back up wouldnt i?

Don't bring the metal to the magma, bring the magma to the metal!

Every fortress needs magma plumbing eventually.

[Urist McSpike]

I have thought about sending stuff down to magma furnaces before, but id just have to haul it back up wouldnt i? or is it possible to set up a cart system back up (this time carting stuff up 50z levels).

You can do that.  My current setup has a 3x3 spiral tracked ramp, near a staircase, and a ... about 100z drop chute.  At the top, I have a 1x1 stockpile/refuse zone, which I use to hold all my dumped ore & goblin-donated metal goods.  A 2x track picks up ores & metal items, guides it over and dumps it into the chute - the bottom of which is  next to my magma smelters.  At the bottom of the spiral ramp, I have a large stockpile which takes my crafted goods & bars from the smelters & forges.  The bars are gathered from the large bottom stockpile, and quantum piled into a stack next to the forges with a small track.  The bottom spiral track stop takes goods from the big stockpile, and hauls it up top, where it is dumped into another 1x1 stockpile, where it can be moved wherever.

The main problem with this setup, because I have one housing area, is that haulers have to run all the way down the stairs to move goods or push carts.  And that metal masks do not fit into any category, so they are never put into the minecart to be dumped to the smelters.

As I actually start mining (if I bother), I'll branch off from the stairs, and connect new track stops to the spiral ramp.  Feeder stockpiles on various levels will pick up ore, and haul them to the top of the ramp, or maybe just dumped straight into the chute.  I've been getting so much metal from sieges that I haven't really bothered with that yet, plus the large amount of gold & silver from digging out the fortress.

[Hyndis]

Getting minecarts set up can be tedious at first, but once its all set up properly it will run like a well oiled machine. You can have an extremely efficient industrial base using a very small number of workshops. You don't even need bins at all through abusing quantum storage.