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[Arcvasti]

Do we even NEED coal? Doesn't one tree give ~25 logs? I believe its dwarfier to chop down a forest and burn it then just using coal. If it gives elves apoplexies, its usually dwarfy.

[Solon64]

The previous posters have it, coal is found ONLY in sedimentary rock. You will primarily find sedimentary rocks in swamps, low-lands with high drainage, near an ocean, or potentially near a river. You will rarely if EVER find coal on a mountain, it just wont happen.

That said, embarking on a mountain means you should probably just dig straight to magma anyway.

[Gnomeknows]

The previous posters have it, coal is found ONLY in sedimentary rock. You will primarily find sedimentary rocks in swamps, low-lands with high drainage, near an ocean, or potentially near a river. You will rarely if EVER find coal on a mountain, it just wont happen.

That said, embarking on a mountain means you should probably just dig straight to magma anyway.

Kewl, I'll have to try THAT....fml

[Panando]

The previous posters have it, coal is found ONLY in sedimentary rock. You will primarily find sedimentary rocks in swamps, low-lands with high drainage, near an ocean, or potentially near a river. You will rarely if EVER find coal on a mountain, it just wont happen.

That said, embarking on a mountain means you should probably just dig straight to magma anyway.

Strange what people say/believe...

I nearly always embark on flat areas, swamps are my favourite, and almost never hit coal, and I believe that you're more sure to find coal by embarking on a mountain! Certainly you do find it on mountains sometimes, often the veins are immediately exposed on the surface.

I have very occasionally found coal on my swamp embarks - but it is rare - usually it is contained in aquifer layers (i.e. sandstone) which make it a bit of a stupid dwarf trick to mine out.

[sneakey pete]

Mineral generation seems to have been changed since DF2012, these days I usually get a lot of whatever i get. Be it zinc, or gold, or not a single thing.

[Solon64]

The previous posters have it, coal is found ONLY in sedimentary rock. You will primarily find sedimentary rocks in swamps, low-lands with high drainage, near an ocean, or potentially near a river. You will rarely if EVER find coal on a mountain, it just wont happen.

That said, embarking on a mountain means you should probably just dig straight to magma anyway.

Strange what people say/believe...

I nearly always embark on flat areas, swamps are my favourite, and almost never hit coal, and I believe that you're more sure to find coal by embarking on a mountain! Certainly you do find it on mountains sometimes, often the veins are immediately exposed on the surface.

I have very occasionally found coal on my swamp embarks - but it is rare - usually it is contained in aquifer layers (i.e. sandstone) which make it a bit of a stupid dwarf trick to mine out.

You're probably not adjusting the mineral scarcity value of your world gens.  The default is 2500, which is VERY rare minerals, and a generally small amount.  Lower that amount to more like 700 or less to get more diversity, better chance of finding coal.

[Verjigorm]

Man, Luck's gotta play a part!  I just embarked on a site that's got Bitnimuos Coal, Lemonite, Tetrahedrite, Cassetirite, Sphalerite, Cobaltite, and problably some other form of tite hanging out.   And that's just visible from the surface.   No Aquifer.  Oh, and Marble. 

Holy crap, it looks like my metal industry is going to go through the roof.   If I'm not mistaken, this means I can make Copper, Bronze, Brass, Iron, Pig Iron and Steel, relatively easily.   The brook that flows through the top NW corner has a drop of 13 z levels, carving a nice chasm out of the mountain.   the brook will allow me to have a regular source of water through-out the year:   I plan on building some form of water storage system. 

Fist site of 40.04.   Here's to the inevitable fun!

[Urist Da Vinci]

Yep, I always embark on flux. That's why it seems odd. May just be a run of random luck.

Make sure you turn up the mineral frequency up, in the range of 100-300 on a custom world, where lower values produce more minerals, though it will cause trouble with the embark screen showing flux. With very abundant minerals, the embark screen will not mention the existence of flux even if there is flux on the map.

Toady just patched this bug in 0.40.04 

The previous posters have it, coal is found ONLY in sedimentary rock. You will primarily find sedimentary rocks in swamps, low-lands with high drainage, near an ocean, or potentially near a river. You will rarely if EVER find coal on a mountain, it just wont happen.

That said, embarking on a mountain means you should probably just dig straight to magma anyway.

I did some research in 0.34.11 into the frequency of sedimentary layers. It should still hold true: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=136999.0
TLDR; If volcanism less than 90, you have 80% chance of sedimentary in a biome, oceans are special.

Elevation doesn't matter so you can have coal on mountains. Swamps/rivers don't matter in DF.

Do we even NEED coal? Doesn't one tree give ~25 logs? I believe its dwarfier to chop down a forest and burn it then just using coal. If it gives elves apoplexies, its usually dwarfy.

Say a map tile has 3 z-levels with 3 bituminous coal veins each level. Let's say each vein has 100 coal squares, so you get about 900 squares. Say you don't have magma smelting so each boulder is 8 coke net, and the drop rate is 25% for boulders, that leads to 225 boulders and 1800 coke. At least 900 mining jobs + 225 smelting jobs => 1125 jobs, not including hauling. Unless you cheat, you have to go digging to search out and find the veins.

Say the same map tile is flat and heavily forested above. I counted 70 trees on a map tile in my 0.40.04 jungle fort. If each drops 25 logs on average, you get 1750 wood and therefore 1750 charcoal (close enough to the 1800 above). At least 70 woodcutting jobs + 1750 wood burning jobs => 1820 jobs, not including hauling. At first pass it requires 62% more labour/time to get charcoal from a map than to get coke. However the location of the surface trees is known at the start without cheating, and trees are renewable/sustainable.

In conclusion a thick forest has about the same amount of fuel as a coal mine, and the forests are much more common.

[Orange Wizard]

Although it's very common to get more than three veins of coal in one place.

[Magnumcannon]

Well, i found coal more hard to find than gold or precious gems. Bituminous Coal and Lignite are a pain on the ass to get, really!

[Talvieno]

Well, i found coal more hard to find than gold or precious gems. Bituminous Coal and Lignite are a pain on the ass to get, really!

They can be. Not always - you just have to know where to look.

Although it's very common to get more than three veins of coal in one place.

True. And woot, you're still using that avatar I made.

[Urist McVoyager]

In my last fortress I found a shitload of coal and lignite. It was fun digging all of that out and smelting it into coke.

[GavJ]

Sedimentary layers are mutually exclusive with igneous extrusive layers in this game.

for... some reason... (this has no basis in reality, as volcanoes could easily coexist with sedimentary stone and in fact usually would, unless they're BRAND NEW island arc volcanic mountains. edit: second comment wasn't related to volcanoes. Got carried away.)

Anyway, the counterintuitive result is that if you're embarking on volcanoes all the time, you'll probably never find coal, or will be much less likely to do so. So if you've been doing that, there's your answer. Stop embarking on volcanoes. If you haven't been embarking on volcanoes, then I'm not sure what to tell you. You should have stumbled across it at some point.

[Orange Wizard]

And woot, you're still using that avatar I made.

That's because it's awesome.

[Saiko Kila]

After upgrading from 0.34.07 to 0.40.03 I created a world, and immediately (tunnel into the cliff) found three things I believe I've never seen in nature in previous versions:

1. Bituminous Coal
2. Gypsum
3. Fire Clay (this one was actually visible on surface)

I always embark near rivers or brooks. I was especially moved by the coal find, because I also considered it a kind of myth.

I also always had more luck with gold than for example lignite (4/4 embarks gold found, 1/4 embarks lignite found for example), despite preferring woody valleys with plenty of vegetation and water sources, so theoretically ideal places for coal.