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[Leonidas]

It's a 4x4 embark, igneous intrusive, with no metal. Unless you count zinc.

Is this common in the current version? At worldgen, I used the default ore setting. I'm pretty sure that the embark description said Deep Metals. Ha! I've thrown exploratory tunnels around several levels just above the magma, and found nothing but violet spessartines. The lack of ores in the caverns should have given me a hint. I've found the blue stuff, but nothing else. From about z80 downward, it's all exactly the same.

I know that goblins and merchants will eventually bring me a trickle of metal. And I plan to explore the capabilities of repeating wooden spikes. My question is: Did I miss something? Is this a faulty worldgen? Is there some way that I could have avoided this at embark?

[Panando]

That's completely normal. If you want to have a good chance of having useful metals, you need to reduce mineral scarcity. The shallow/deep metals thing also counts certain minerals which can't be smelted (like cobaltite and stuff), so the only way to be (almost) sure of what you're getting is to use DFHack's "prospect all" to show what's really there.

[miauw62]

Deep metals can, as said above, be iron ore or it could be microline.

[wuphonsreach]

I find the [MINERAL_SCARCITY:2500] default to be a bit too poor, so I always change it down to the 1600-1800 range.  Some folks go a lot lower, but you run into both diminishing returns and the issue where you'll see less and less flux stone other then the marble layer.

Too many volcanos / volcanism can also be bad for finding sedimentary stones.

[Quietust]

The shallow/deep metals thing also counts certain minerals which can't be smelted (like cobaltite and stuff)

Deep metals can, as said above, be iron ore or it could be microline.

Wrong - if the mineral can't be smelted, it's not counted as a Metal. I just did a test embark in a region that claimed to have nothing but flux stone (no shallow metals, no deep metals), and prospect confirms the presence of vast amounts of cobaltite (about 250K tiles worth) and gems (60K tiles, 20 different types).

[Panando]

The shallow/deep metals thing also counts certain minerals which can't be smelted (like cobaltite and stuff)

Deep metals can, as said above, be iron ore or it could be microline.

Wrong - if the mineral can't be smelted, it's not counted as a Metal. I just did a test embark in a region that claimed to have nothing but flux stone (no shallow metals, no deep metals), and prospect confirms the presence of vast amounts of cobaltite (about 250K tiles worth) and gems (60K tiles, 20 different types).

You would see the same results if the shallow/deep metals indicator suffers from false negatives. For example we know it suffers from false negatives for marble (sites which show no flux stone can have marble), so why not for minerals too? I'm not saying you're wrong, just that the test doesn't prove the conclusion.

[Garath]

The shallow/deep metals thing also counts certain minerals which can't be smelted (like cobaltite and stuff)

Deep metals can, as said above, be iron ore or it could be microline.

Wrong - if the mineral can't be smelted, it's not counted as a Metal. I just did a test embark in a region that claimed to have nothing but flux stone (no shallow metals, no deep metals), and prospect confirms the presence of vast amounts of cobaltite (about 250K tiles worth) and gems (60K tiles, 20 different types).

You would see the same results if the shallow/deep metals indicator suffers from false negatives. For example we know it suffers from false negatives for marble (sites which show no flux stone can have marble), so why not for minerals too? I'm not saying you're wrong, just that the test doesn't prove the conclusion.

at low mineral scarcity, the site finder gives false negatives for other flux too

[Quietust]

If you believe the site finder can yield a false positive or negative for metals, then I invite you to find one - if you do, then you can report it as a bug.

[XXSockXX]

I've had embark sites with veins of tetrahedrite barely touching the site on 2 different z-lvls reported as shallow and deep metal both being present. The finder does not tell you how much metal there is, just that some should be there.
The only way to be sure is using DFhacks "prospect all", or for 100% accuracy embark, "reveal" and "prospect".

[Quietust]

The only way to be sure is using DFhacks "prospect all", or for 100% accuracy embark, "reveal" and "prospect".

You don't need to reveal - just use "prospect all". After all, the "all" option just means "include unrevealed tiles" (it's only during pre-embark that it means "also include minerals")...

[XXSockXX]

Thanks, you're right. I always thought "prospect all" was pre-embark only.
Still you have to actually embark to get accurate results as dfhack only gives an estimation pre-embark. Pre-embark it often shows metals that aren't actually present at the specific embark site.

[weenog]

OP: If you're willing to play a bit dirty, and you either can get huge amounts of fuel or can reach magma easily, you can stretch your goblinite as far as you want.  Certain items yield more metal when melted down than they consumed to create, this is a bug (link includes a handy list of offending items).  A little scrap iron from the goblins, a little flux from the dwarven trade caravan, a little charcoal or coke for flavor, and a little magma (or a lot more fuel) for heat, and you can have all the steel you need on the crappiest site imaginable.

[Leonidas]

OP: If you're willing to play a bit dirty, and you either can get huge amounts of fuel or can reach magma easily, you can stretch your goblinite as far as you want.  Certain items yield more metal when melted down than they consumed to create

Yeah, I noticed that. I see a lot of leggings in my future.