Print

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

[Khym Chanur]

DF2010 has a much greater abundance of ores, native metals, gems and coal than the previous versions.  I personally think it should be toned down to how it was pre-2010.  Or, since a lot of people like the new abundance, have a worldgen parameter which controls mineral abundance.

[Acanthus117]

I wholeheartedly agree with this guy.

[Qloos]

I partially agree.  Having an abundance of coal is almost a necessity.  While an abundance of gold and platinum seems detrimental. 

A metalworking industry in previous versions was a limited industry from shortage of oars.  I think this is something that has been improved.  Players now feel they have the supplies necessary to produce things like metal bolts.

[nenjin]

Agreed, I'd like it as a world param. I'm not sure whether or not I truly like or dislike having that many resources available...but I know I'd like to the ability to fiddle with it.

[Qloos]

If anything:  Changing the rate of the mining itself would balance it quite well.  If you need a quick tunnel, mine out the regular rocks. 

[Squirrelloid]

I'd say there are some relative abundance issues.

Metal ores seem too common now.

OTOH, coal seemed too rare before.  Coal should come in multi-level large clusters that are truly gigantic, dwarfing the ridiculous magnetite clusters of .40d.  (Haven't seen magnetite yet in the new version).

The presence of a lot more rock layers has also really skewed relative frequencies - copper and iron should be made more common in intrusive igneous or something, because as it is now you're getting a lot more 'deep' rock layers, and thus piles of things like TIN, which is pretty useless without commensurate copper.

[Safe-Keeper]

I have nothing against striking paydirt ever so often -- digging into a mountain full of coal, discovering an abundance of gems, or striking a couple large gold veins.

Problem is, the whole point of riches is that they are uncommon, and once gold is something you trip over every time you turn a corner, it's no longer a rare commodity.

So to summarize, by all means have a few "rich" sites that players can find very rarely. And sure, you can make coal more common overall, too. But making it a common occurrence like it currently is just takes away all the fun in discovering gems and cold and whatnot in the first place.

[Squirrelloid]

I have nothing against striking paydirt ever so often -- digging into a mountain full of coal, discovering an abundance of gems, or striking a couple large gold veins.

Problem is, the whole point of riches is that they are uncommon, and once gold is something you trip over every time you turn a corner, it's no longer a rare commodity.

So to summarize, by all means have a few "rich" sites that players can find very rarely. And sure, you can make coal more common overall, too. But making it a common occurrence like it currently is just takes away all the fun in discovering gems and cold and whatnot in the first place.

Well, rarity + desirability.

Diamonds seem to be pretty rare still.

Pitchblende has always been rare, but isn't very desirable (in DF).  So it doesn't qualify as 'riches'.

In 40d, rarity broke because of the never-ending stream of valuable materials you could request from the liaisons and nevermind that you could purchase 5x as much platinum as you would ever mine.

[G-Flex]

Things were a bit too rare in the last version and, perhaps more importantly, didn't occur in very large veins for the most part.

In the new version, the fact that we have so many levels to work with partially mitigates this in the first place.

It's nice that stuff is more common, but I think it swung too much in the other direction. Somewhere in between the old version and the current one would be nice, until more realistic veins are implemented.

Another, more trivial disadvantage to the way things are now: Large clusters take up most of a local square (which is what, somewhere between 30 and 50 squares wide and tall?) and wind up on pretty much all of them, making it much more obvious that things are being lain out on a grid.

[zwei]

Coal was toned up to acceptable levles where it does not feel that you are going to run out of it long before you even smelted metal for one armor piece.

Deperate exploratory mining operations called "Come On, At Least one More Coal Vein!" should not be needed to equip your military with basic weapon and armor.

Especially when every map has guaranteed magma (and thus infinite fuel) anyway

On the other hand, metal is overabundant to point where everything feels crowded. There is good enough resource for metal in later game: goblinite.

[Silverionmox]

Which begs the question: where do the goblins get their iron?

I'd prefer longer, larger, broader veins. That way you would have an absolute abundance of on or several metals, and you could trade for the rest. And indeed, coal ought to be almost a layer rock.

[LordStrabo]

I agree that the mineral density should be toned down.

But I think it would be better if mineral density increased as you went further down. Sure, you could try to equip your dwarfs with stuff you dig from the first few Z-levels, but if you want the good stuff, you'll have to delve into the depths. That would mean there'd be a reason to risk all the horrible, horrible things that lurk in the underground caverns.

[PsyberianHusky]

Which begs the question: where do the goblins get their iron?

I'd prefer longer, larger, broader veins. That way you would have an absolute abundance of on or several metals, and you could trade for the rest. And indeed, coal ought to be almost a layer rock.

Not sure if this is a realistic goal but civilizations should deplete the surrounding areas of resources,
this might actually be a goal, Toady has many

[Forumsdwarf]

Agree on toning down the booty.  My current map is so freakin' rich I keep running out of stone.

Add to that the gajillion new z-levels and it's as if we built our fortress on top of Smaug's Horde.

Coal, however, I would sorely miss if it went back to the stingy Scrooge deposits of 40d.  Huge seams of coal are a good thing.

[G-Flex]

Which begs the question: where do the goblins get their iron?

I'd prefer longer, larger, broader veins. That way you would have an absolute abundance of on or several metals, and you could trade for the rest. And indeed, coal ought to be almost a layer rock.

Not sure if this is a realistic goal but civilizations should deplete the surrounding areas of resources,
this might actually be a goal, Toady has many

Resource tracking (in some basic form) is actually one of the relatively short-term army/caravan arc goals, so yeah, it's planned.