New fort, 43.05. First one, after two dead adventurers in the world. 300 yrs plus of history.
The fort had it all, minus Terrifying biomes. Its settings are "Calm", but there's a Tower, Goblins, Elves (we are at war with them, FYI), and Humans within reach. And there were "Shallow Metals", "Deep Metals", and "Flux". Plus an aquifer.
Well, the aquifer was a pain in the rear. 9 layers down, we hit the caverns. Going through a rock pillar in them, we emerge beneath them, and begin the search for our shallow metals.
Idiotic embark finder found GALENA and NATIVE GOLD. I need WEAPONS GRADE STUFF.
So we keep going, hoping beyond hope there are actually more shallow metals. No luck, and I've dug massive exploratory setups around those blasted granite layers for cassiterite or tetrahedrite.
But we hit layer 2; going around is a joke, and soon we're mining beneath it in Gabbro and Diorite, which aren't the best options. No iron ores or even regions where iron could spawn yet, though. I'm gonna have to go to the northwest corner (dangit) and try under the lake (dangit) for other layers of stones (daaangggiitttt). But I have found - TETRAHEDRITE. Dangit. Usually I can't get rid of the stuff quick enough, but now, it's a lifesaver. Without iron, the best I'm going to get is bronze equipment, and that's only if one of those figurative "Deep Metals" is Cassiterite, and there are 3, cause Tetrahedrite is way on down there. At magma levels - hitting warm stone all over the place. So, magma forges going up. Eventually.
I do have flux though, Marble, and Quartzite is magma safe, so we're set on that. Unfortunately, I've got zombies barricading the surface. Dang am I glad I put those hatch covers in so early, they're saving my life from these blasted goblin corpses. I'm gonna need to pump magma up to deal with them, if I burn the grasses off this place (it is a grassland, after all) it might just take them with it. Because copper is NOT what I consider real weapons-grade equipment, because these blasted goblins have iron equipment.
Anyways, I'm working on a fortress split into two. The upper levels, and the lower levels. The upper levels will probably continue to contain jewelry setups, and some stone storage (not quartzite though). This is for caravan trading. Also, may eventually and probably will contain a tavern. Temples will go in the undercity, where everything happens. Farms will use water from the caverns, which will then be recycled into a permanent waterfall possibly driven by a Dwarven Water Reactor, falling through both residential levels (Lvl1: Dormitory; Lvl2: Bedrooms for current dwarves, nobles, legendaries, and militia, to keep them all happy), the farms of course, and the dining room. The well will draw off the reservoir at the bottom of this (dining room is going to make use of this waterfall as a shower setup, in a 2x2 entrance location) through a pump to clean it. All this after carefully flooding the farm setup, and carefully avoiding the flooding of the woodworking/animal pen layer beneath, which also contains kitchens, butchery and tannery. Beneath that will be the stoneworking layer; beneath that, the mines (left side of central staircase), and the metalsmithing area (right side), using strictly magma equipment, given that I've already hit it.
Now I've just gotta figure out how to do this right.