Print

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

[pareod]

I have a smelter and charcoal, but every option is red.  I think it's because I have no ore for smelting.  I've been digging everywhere for hematite or something, but no luck.  Where would these usually be?

[Spacespinner]

If the options are red then it's because A) you have no fuel, B) you have no ore, or C) both.

Since you have charcoal we can conclude it's lack of ore. Dig down a few layers until you no longer encounter sand then send out tunnels everywhere. If you don't find anything go down a few more and try again.

[pareod]

I've found a lot of caverns.  Kind of hesitant to dig through them.

[Spacespinner]

Yeah.... Block off the caverns right away, it only takes one giant cave spider or troll to wipe out an unprepared fortress. If a forgotten beast spawns it's gonna be game over.

Don't explore the caverns until you have a way to seal them off immediately from a distance (bridges etc).

[Astrid]

It IS possible to land on an embark with as good as no metal. But thats quite hard and rare to archive.

Just keep digging down and sideways every handful levels, you are bound to find something at some point.

[Reverie]

If nothing else, importing metals might be a solution. Eventually (if your fort survives as goblins start attacking) you'll be able to melt down their stuff into usable ingots.

[greycat]

I have a smelter and charcoal, but every option is red.  I think it's because I have no ore for smelting.  I've been digging everywhere for hematite or something, but no luck.  Where would these usually be?

If you checked each of your biomes before embarking, you might have seen lines like "Deep metal" or "Shallow metals".  These indicate the presence of metal ores.  If none of your biomes had any ores, then there would have been no metal/metals lines.  "Shallow" means close to the surface (I don't know how close), and "Deep" means far from the surface.  "Metal" means just one ore, and "Metals" means more than one.

If you embark in a biome with "Shallow metal" listed, it's highly likely to be tetrahedrite.  But it could also be magnetite, or a few other common shallow ores.  "Shallow metals" is the most coveted, because usually that means you'll have an iron ore (magnetite, hematite, limonite).

If you've only been digging in a single near-vertical shaft, you might want to consider checking other spots too.  Especially if you have a visible biome boundary -- do some exploring in each of the biomes.

[ond_magiker]

As you've found the caverns, have a look around in them. You can often spot ore veins there, allowing you to plan a safe digging approach.

[pareod]

I found some Galena.  I made silver I believe.  Should I make silver short swords?  What melee weapons are viable?

[Spacespinner]

Silver is for war hammers, it's terrible as an edged weapon iirc

[ToadChild]

Galena gives you silver and lead.  Silver is good for hammers (or maces), but neither of them can make armor.

[4maskwolf]

Yeah.... Block off the caverns right away, it only takes one giant cave spider or troll to wipe out an unprepared fortress. If a forgotten beast spawns it's gonna be game over.

Don't explore the caverns until you have a way to seal them off immediately from a distance (bridges etc).

Apparently someone hates !!FUN!! 

[KingKaol]

I found some Galena.  I made silver I believe.  Should I make silver short swords?  What melee weapons are viable?

Use silver for blunt weapons. Its higher density makes it more effective.

http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Weapon#Combat_testing