Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[VeriDF]

Well, here it goes: I have been playing for years this game and I have always found Mangetite and Hematite / Limonite on my top layers (I imagine those are shallow metals) but with these new releases of the game I've trouble finding iron on top layers. I have been playing 4 or 5 fortress so far and I've found none on them. I assume Hem, Magn and Lim can only be found on top layers because I couldn't find anything underground in my previous fortress.

I found the same problem finding volcanoes, I've started to edit manually the world generation so I could find those desired volcanoes! Where the hell have mangetite layers went?
Oh, and I've another question: has the mining "rock" drop decreased? It's just I don't have so many rocks on my ground now, and when I mine gold I get a few ores.

Thx for reading.

EDIT - I remember there was a tool that let you see the layers pressing a botton but I don't remeber its name, does that still exist?

[Garath]

the layer viewing doesn't exist anymore, iirc what I've heard it was in 31.19?. Iron is indeed almost only as shallow metal in sedimentary layers, so you'd have better chances in areas that would be rich in sediments (not mountains obviously). One problem you might be having is that you've edited the world to have more volcanos and more volcanism. More volcanism reduces sediment layers.

The drop rate for mining has been set at a flat out 25% for stones and ores, 100% for gems and such. To compensate, a stone can be cut into 4 blocks now, so your construction won't suffer and you'll just have less useless stone. Most people agree that as long as you use blocks whenever you can, you still have too much stone. Ores now smelt into 4 bars for 1 fuel (this can be slightly exploited when making bars with ores as you can get huge amounts of bars using just 1 fuel)

[vertinox]

I don't know if there is a difference in builds but I have always had problems finding iron. Eventually, I decided to do the next best thing and always order steel and iron anvil from the dwarven caravans and melt them down. That usually provides enough steel and iron for what I need.

And yes ore drop rates have been reduced quite a bit in this version and I forget what percentage it is now. It doesn't matter how skilled your miner is either but is just random.

That said, adamantine always gives 100% drop when you find it so you don't have to worry about not having enough of it other than the usual dangers.

[Quietust]

If you have DFHack, you can use its "prospect" command before embark to determine which minerals are present (and a rough estimate of how much you should expect to find).

[peccan]

Search/google helps. Topic on mining drop rates with explanation and discussion.

[VeriDF]

the layer viewing doesn't exist anymore, iirc what I've heard it was in 31.19?. Iron is indeed almost only as shallow metal in sedimentary layers, so you'd have better chances in areas that would be rich in sediments (not mountains obviously). One problem you might be having is that you've edited the world to have more volcanos and more volcanism. More volcanism reduces sediment layers.

The drop rate for mining has been set at a flat out 25% for stones and ores, 100% for gems and such. To compensate, a stone can be cut into 4 blocks now, so your construction won't suffer and you'll just have less useless stone. Most people agree that as long as you use blocks whenever you can, you still have too much stone. Ores now smelt into 4 bars for 1 fuel (this can be slightly exploited when making bars with ores as you can get huge amounts of bars using just 1 fuel)

So how can I know where I can found sedimentary layers? You're right, I'm playing on the top of a mountaint and there is no sign of any of the layers that contains iron ore.
It's a shame. Is there a way to play with a volcano and sedimentary layers? I just hate to need a lot of bituminous coal/wood burning system.

[toomanysecrets]

It doesn't make sense to most, but iron ore is not present in mountaintops. Iron ore and coal/lignite are in sedimentary layers, and mountains can't accumulate sediment over time. This means low-lying (relatively) flat areas are far, far more likely to have iron and coal.

[Xvareon]

You should still be able to find Iron even in Igeneous Extrusive layers, as Hematite.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Igneous_extrusive_layer

But you're right, if you want real Iron and Coal you're going to have to find a Sedimentary layer. Tip; if you see Sandstone, Dolomite, Chalk, Limestone etc., you've hit a Sedimentary layer. Congrats. The thing you want to watch out for is Metamorphic layers; they have next to useless ores. Do some research on Stone Layers for more info.
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Stone_layer

[Dwarfler]

There is one exception nobody has mentioned [edit: ninja'd by Xvareon], which is that hematite can be found in igneous extrusive layers.  If you're on a volcanic embark site you probably have some of these layers and thus have a chance for some iron ore.  Even if you don't have any iron ore on your map, any fortress over 1-2 years old should be able to routinely buy out the caravans of every iron item available and melt them down (and on a volcanic map you probably have magma smelters which makes that much more practical).  Between buying out caravans and vacuuming up goblinite, you should be able to sustain the ferrous needs of most typical fortresses.

[Xvareon]

What Dwarfler said is true. When resources are in demand like that you must conserve what you have and wisely recycle, reprocess and distribute them. The equipment Goblins carry pretty much everywhere is a Godsend; you can melt it down rapidly (but do it in the same smelter) to create new bars of metal when your stocks are stretched or you simply want to make something useful out of all that unwearable armor. Order it from the caravans every chance you get, too, hell you might even order the rocks themselves since you can smelt them into 4 bars each now. The only problem is that will drastically weigh them down and cut down on what else they can send you. But if they are a Wagon-using race (Humans, Dwarves) then they can carry vast loads.

[GhostDwemer]

In real life, geological uplift moves low lying sedimentary stone upwards. Ever been to the Rocky Mountains? Then you know, mountains have sedimentary stone, the Rockies are chock full of sandstone. Does Scotland have mountains? What are they made of? Limestone. The northern Alps? Limestone. In game, I have found plenty of sedimentary stone in the mountains. When you turn up volcanism, you get less sedimentary stone in favor of igneous and metamorphic. The game tends to put high volcanism tiles in the mountains, so there will perhaps be slightly less sedimentary stone there, but it will be there. What is very hard to find is sedimentary stone next to a volcano, I've only seen that once, in separate biomes.

[HiEv]

I've been embarking on areas with rivers and oceans lately (both produce sediments), and they've been chock-full of iron ores.

[Garath]

I've been embarking on areas with rivers and oceans lately (both produce sediments), and they've been chock-full of iron ores.

^this

it may not always be entirely realistic, but lowlands filled by rivers etc are sedimentary. sediments are layers laid down by either the ocean (continental drift to crawl over ocean) or where rivers deposited sediments from the mountains. Yes, mountains should have a bit more iron, probably as the sediments get the iron from the river source - mountains. Maybe it'll change in future versions

[PainRack]

I have found sedimentary layers in mountain terrain before, so, its not that DF doesn't gen those mountains. It just that its nearly impossible to predict which mountain will have which layer, although I did try playing around embarking on height differential to see if there's a difference.

But yeah. Try embarking near rivers in the lowlands.

[Szkeptik]

Actually I'M just playing a fort where I found hematit at the first cavern level. Hematite was only common in sedimnetary layers atthe very top before so I was on the verge of abandoning, cause all I could find was some tetrahedrite at the top. Imagine my surprise when I breached the cave and there was hematite everywhere.

It seems it was igneous extrusive covering an earlier sedimentary layer maybe.