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[Solara]

Okay, this is weird...awesome, but weird. I just finished designing my beautiful, compact fortress - a model of efficiency combining form and function, complete with an immigrant processing room so that the population never gets above twenty - when I set my miners to work, and I suddenly I get the message 'You have struck silver!'

So, while I'm certainly not complaining (besides having to mess up some of the perfect symmetry of my dining hall in order to dig it out) I am wondering if this is supposed to happen? It was like, four tiles in, and I thought all the good stuff was after the river?

I'm also hitting a lot of obsidian and jet...hopefully I'll have a chance to exploit all this before something disastrous happens..

Oh, but speaking of dark stones like jet, I've always assumed they were more valuable than your typical rock, even though as far as I know only obsidian has any practical value.

Or has different values for different stones not been implemented yet? I've never actually tried trading them, and as I seem to be able to protect my fortress just fine with doors and mechanisms made out of talc and chalk, there doesn't seem to be any real difference in the properties of different stones...

[Oboro]

I actually tend to hit silver very early, too. You're going to rue it more than likely, because although silver crafts sure are pretty, and it is a type of currency, it's a bit limited in practical application. You can forge most weapons out of it-- but not picks. And no armor or siege components. So enjoy your wealth, but you'd probably be happier with copper.

(My most recent fortress has actually only found sphalerite west of the underground river, and has yet to find anything east of it. And sphalerite isn't even refinable without malachite [copper ore].)

[Solara]

Oh well, I'm just happy I'll actually have a use for my metalsmith when he shows up. Usually he and his little sidekick just wind up doing odd jobs for a long time until I'm ready to set up a shop for him. With this fortress I hadn't even bothered to work a place for it or the jeweler's into the designs, since I figured I'd might as well save on hauling time and put them on the east side of the river. (The only thing I've ever hit on the west side is a little tin.)

[ August 20, 2006: Message edited by: Solara ]

[Rollory]

Man, I strike copper, tin, and silver ALL the time west of the river.  And that other ore, that's used in brass.

If I don't hit something interesting by digging straight east, about two screens over I'll strike north and south.  I've only had one game so far where I actually had to go to the river to get a visual hint as to where the ore veins were.

Silver, if you hit it early, is good because it lets you buy up everything the caravan brings without worrying about setting up craft shops or jewelers or such things.  Copper is the real early prize though, because of picks.

[Mechanoid]

quote:Originally posted by Rollory:
<STRONG>And that other ore, that's used in brass.</STRONG>

Zinc.

A few versions ago i too hit silver within the first 7 tiles of the cliff face. Guess it's just luck, because that hasn't happened to me for the past 6 games.

[Garthor]

Silver seems to be incredibly common in most of my games, really.  Fortunately, silver coins make for excellent trading, with one or two stacks able to buy out an entire dwarven caravan, at least in the early game.

Also, as for different stone values: light and dark stone are worth double that of normal stone, except for obsidian, which is worth three times as much as normal stone.  Obsidian is also heavier, though.