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[peridot]

Since I have no coal I went digging. I found semi-molten rock before I found warm stone, and I haven't yet figured out the best approach - bring magma up or ore down? Plus this is only my second fort and I don't want to incinerate too many dwarves just yet. So I broached all three cavern levels, to get an interesting mix of spores for my underground tree farm, and then walled them off (see "why is my military useless?"). But I am looking at those caverns and thinking there just has to be something interesting in there. Anything in particular I should be looking for?

I have two baited traps - one baited with a war dog that's designed to drop invaders down into a pit for target practice, and the other baited with a wooden door and lined with cage traps in hope of attracting giant cave spiders. They're both on the first cavern level, and the only creatures to show an interest so far have been gremlins, which don't trigger my traps. Fortunately they can't get past my drawbridges, and the war dog tore them to pieces. Are there other interesting or valuable creatures I can hope to trap? Perhaps the deeper caverns would have more of interest? I'm hesitant to send dwarves in, because my military is not likely to be able to deal with much in the way of incoming threats.

I've also seen several forgotten beasts, down in the caverns. Are they worth slaying or should I just let them wander for now? I have an artifact coffin I could attract them to then dump them into a holding pen.

[WoobMonkey]

The answer is 'yes.'  It's your fort - find your own, original way to muck it all up!  Losing is, after all, fun.

[Raphite1]

There are some really cool animals that can spawn down there, and some of the coolest ones only show up on the deeper cavern levels. If you manage to snag a breeding pair of Jabberers you can train up some truly deadly war animals, though it takes some time and micromanagement.

It's generally easier to bring your ore down to the magma, rather than bring magma up to the ore. Utilizing wheelbarrows makes it a breeze.

Be warned that you can't retract a bridge out from under a forgotten beast - they're too big.

[jcochran]

Magma up, or ore down? Frankly, there's plus and minuses for each, so in the end it's your choice. For example:

Magma up.
  Takes a fair amount of work and time depending upon how you do it.
  Can be weaponized for surface use.
  Once done, minimizes the amount of hauling needed to get ore to the smelters and finished products to where they're needed.

Ore down.
  Quite easy and rapid to perform.
  No weaponization.
  Have to do a lot of long term hauling.

[KingBacon]

I usually go the ore down route. Lots of small stockpiles with three wheelbarrows each feeding a quantum stockpiler works very well. But remember, what goods you make down there have to be brought up. You can also relocate your fort near the magma and set up farms in the depths and sacrifice the surface.

Catching FB and then weaponizing them against gobblos is a FUN idea.

[peridot]

I usually go the ore down route. Lots of small stockpiles with three wheelbarrows each feeding a quantum stockpiler works very well. But remember, what goods you make down there have to be brought up. You can also relocate your fort near the magma and set up farms in the depths and sacrifice the surface.

Catching FB and then weaponizing them against gobblos is a FUN idea.

I was thinking about just digging a vertical shaft down a hundred z-levels or so. Then you just have minecarts dump your stuff down the shaft. You'd use two, I guess, switching back and forth to keep ore from raining down on the heads of the haulers down in the depths. There are some really impressive minecart systems on the boards, but minecarts seem very complicated.

[KingBacon]

I was thinking about just digging a vertical shaft down a hundred z-levels or so. Then you just have minecarts dump your stuff down the shaft. You'd use two, I guess, switching back and forth to keep ore from raining down on the heads of the haulers down in the depths. There are some really impressive minecart systems on the boards, but minecarts seem very complicated.

I thought of doing that with clay once, using pressure plates to auto lock the dump chamber, but it's easier to just used locked doors.

[EvilBob22]

I usually bring the magma up by minecart in a wheelbarrow (filling them using evictedSaint's method).  But, if you are going to bring the ore down, do as KingBacon suggested, use haulers.  Dropping stuff down that far is almost guaranteed to get dwarves killed...

[Aslandus]

The forgotten beasts are completely random, they could destroy your entire fort, die one the first hit, or injure some dwarves before becoming delicious snacks. It depends on their abilities and material, generally tough stuff like rock and metal will be nigh invincible, while stuff like water and steam will be a joke. Meaty forgotten beasts can be decent fighters, but they are also decent food caches.
As for the magma, bringing the molten rock up is better in the long run, but bringing the ore down is a hell of a lot easier.
If you want to get cool stuff from the underground, you should check the unit list and if you don't see anything you like, send military to kill the useless animals (or just hire a bunch of hunters, but be careful about the lower levels).