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[Elvin]

Nigh on every time I embark, I always end up having my main mineral as copper. Everywhere I try- mountains, forested plains, oceansides...they're all copper. There's sometimes some bituminous coal around to smelt with, but smelting just copper stuff is pretty boring. And the mod I play on deprives nearly all the enemies of even iron weaponry.

So I guess i'm asking for advice as to where to embark if I want lots and lots of shiny precious ores in my fortress ( even worldgen parameters to edit, if it helps)

Thanks

[Mephansteras]

Look for Sedimentary layers (white on the embark screen). I'm partial to Limestone, myself, since it means you get Iron AND Flux. My all-time favorite combination of stone layers is Limestone/Marble/Granite, since you get pretty much everything that way. Hard to find all three together, but it does happen.

In any case, look at the Stone section of the DF Wiki. It'll tell you what you can find where.

[Albedo]

Copper, in it's varied forms, is possibly the most common of all ores, all things equal. (That is, without choosing a specific mix of layers.)  So you need to pay more attention to those layers at embark, and start to understand what they imply for the future of your exploratory mining and your fortress.

If I want a good variety of ores (and I usually do), I hope for several types of layers when I embark for an "optimal" mix :

• 1) Sedimentary layer(s) - for magnetite pockets (= massive iron, and possibly platinum), bauxite, coals, and often tetrahedrite (which can mean some silver).  Unless it's also flux, most all sedimentary is same same.

If I'm lucky enough to get a sedimentary that is also flux (dolomite, chalk, and/or limestone) that's two birds with one stone - as it were.  One of those 3 plus another sedimentary layer is bonus land.

• 2) Flux layer(s) - to make steel from all the iron, natch.  This is a dealbreaker for me, but not everyone bashes steel, admittedly.  Marble is the best - it's both flux, sedimentary and metamorphic - which makes it both rich and varied. Any flux is a value 2 stone, doubling the value of all rooms, engravings, workshops, constructions, and stone furniture and crafts - created wealth starts to jump.
  
  
• 3) Granite layer(s) - tends to be a uniquely rich layer, relative to others
• 4) Gabbro layer(s) - another rich layer, and the exclusive source of some gems/ores.
  (Both 3 & 4 are "igneous intrusive" layers; diorite is as well, but, to use the technical geological term, diorite sucks, as compared to the other two.)

If/when I find this mix, I'm confident that I'm set.  Any others are then bonus or ignored/tolerated (and you work on your exploratory mining techniques to locate the layers you really want.) 

I also prefer to see a lot of height variation, so there are more layers exposed on the surface - makes it easy to find/mine stuff early on.  (I like to dig tunnels to exposed veins and work them from the inside - more exploration, and safety for miners and haulers.  I can also put a door on that tunnel and lock miners inside to get the job done, or keep experienced miners on the ore while trainees are, well, training, elsewhere.)

If you're having trouble with all the different layers and stones, bookmark the "non-dwarf's guide to stone" in the wiki (there's a link on the main page, under "Guides", top center).  If you see a new stone, a layer, ore or pocket, it will tell you in simple terms whether you should care, and why.

(edit - misleading typo, fixed)

[Granite26]

My current fort is disapointingly short on iron, largely due to not paying enough attention to layers   (It's got 2 magmas, a stream, something else watery underground and a bottomless pit, so not all is lost...) 

Remember Iron is found in Andesite, Basalt, Felsite, Obsidian, Rhyolite, Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale, claystone, goblins, rock salt, limestone, conglomerate, dolomite, flint, chert, and chalk.

[Quietust]

My current fort is disapointingly short on iron, largely due to not paying enough attention to layers   (It's got 2 magmas, a stream, something else watery underground and a bottomless pit, so not all is lost...) 

Remember Iron is found in Andesite, Basalt, Felsite, Obsidian, Rhyolite, Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale, claystone, goblins, rock salt, limestone, conglomerate, dolomite, flint, chert, and chalk.

I see what you did there.

Though they tend to contain it in somewhat smaller quantities.

[kenken244]

I find chalk layers are very nice for Iron/Steel smithing. It has all three types of iron ores, lots of silver, and lignite and coal. It does seem to lack copper (which you may be glad to hear) but with all the other stuff it has, You will only need it if a noble demands an alloy, and then it is trivial to import that.

[Albedo]

Kenk - you are a fine example of someone who needs the wiki - if you care.

Chalk is a sedimentary stone - all sedimentary stones have iron, lignite and coal (and there are about a dozen different ones, mostly all same same.)

Chalk does not have any of the traditional high-yield silver ores (nuggets, galena, etc) - that's true for any flux.  Except tetrahedrite and its 1/5 chance for silver when smelted - but that's found "in any stone".  (The game seems to generate runs of one dominant ore or gem - so your "lots of silver" is pure chance.)

The tetra is also where your copper is coming from - again, "found in all stone" is hardly isolated to chalk.  Another game with chalk might have (almost) no tetrahedrite and its chance for silver - oops.

On the other hand, if you don't care, then please at least don't base advice off of the few (one?) game(s) you've played, thanks.  The gesture is appreciated, not so much when the end product is not based in fact.


Granite 26 - either you have an impressive memory, a serious OCD problem*, or you have learned the wiki is your friend.  But remember - not all of those are equally rich in a variety of ores.  The igneous extrusive ones (andesite, rhyolite, felsite & etc) stand out as, well, typically pretty disappointing, compared with your average igneous intrusive or sedimentary layers.  Not always - hardly so - but typically.

(* but we've all been there.)

[Hyndis]

The most plentiful source of iron, by far, is goblinite.

However you will likely need magma in order to fully exploit this rich and renewable resource.

[Talith]

The most plentiful source of iron, by far, is goblinite.

However you will likely need magma in order to fully exploit this rich and renewable resource.

"And the mod I play on deprives nearly all the enemies of even iron weaponry." is stated in the OP, and so clearly that is not the case for him.

[Skorpion]

In my current fort, I'm scouring the marble layer for copper. Not because I like it or anything, but because it's my only method of creating bins. I'm digging huge long tunnels searching for it, and when I DO find it, all work stops as everyone hauls it to the stockpile next to the smelters.

I'm also searching the bottom of the map for nickel. There is absolutely no above-ground wood, so it bridges the gap between copper veins.

[yuhhaur]

I usually have no problem in getting THIS

[Derakon]

That's because magnetite commonly occurs in large clusters in sedementary layers, and one magnetite cluster is enough to feed an entire fortress for a decade assuming you don't go hog-wild with making stuff out of iron/steel.

[buzz killington]

Finding the "perfect" fort location with flux, magnetite, and magma is much harder than one would think.

[Albedo]

That's because magma wants volcanoes nearby, and volcanoes mean igneous rock - intrusive, extrusive, either one or both.  This means that while several types of stone are predictably on the list to be expected, flux is not one of them - if it's there, meh - but only by accident.

Sedimentary (where you find the massive magnetite pockets) wants the opposite - it wants geologically calm areas where the sediment can build up over eons and slowly become stone.  (Yes, whatever model Toady developed was actually influenced by RL geology!)

So, bottom line, it's hard to find flux near magma vents, and even harder to find sedimentary - finding both together is that difficulty squared.

[Jim Groovester]

That's because magma wants volcanoes nearby, and volcanoes mean igneous rock - intrusive, extrusive, either one or both.

Only extrusive, actually. Magma doesn't show up on region tiles dominated by granite or gabbro or diorite, only those dominated by rhyolite, andesite, felsite, obsidian, and basalt.