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[lolghurt]

Seriously, how many z-levels do you need to dig down before you get to magma?
Starting at z-level 135, which seems to be a default
gone 40 z-levels or so down, where is the awesome magma?

[Funtimes]

If you used standard worldgen, then probably 60, up to 100 deep.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But fiddling with settings could make it 500 or so.

How many caverns so far?

[lolghurt]

one cavern. How do you make the magma spawn at a higher level? (ie closer to the embark point)
What worldgen settings do you tamper with?

[FleshForge]

It's completely random.  While I do play with the parameters a bit, I don't use any worldgen mods and I've gotten magma ~10 levels down, and I've gotten it 80+ levels down.  I had one embark where I dug down two levels, sand -> loam -> cavern with magma pipe; the magma itself was many levels below the open space bubble though.  I've gotten the magma sea at about 15 levels down before.  I don't think there is any way to really predict other than the general rule that lowlands = thin crust and highlands = thick crust.

[FleshForge]

one cavern. How do you make the magma spawn at a higher level? (ie closer to the embark point)
What worldgen settings do you tamper with?

tbh it'd be a lot simpler for you to just peek with a map reveal tool, it's really that random.

[lolghurt]

tbh it'd be a lot simpler for you to just peek with a map reveal tool, it's really that random.

Yes, I am aware of that, but I would be grateful if there were specific paramaters to alter to raise the level at which magma spawns. Or if the worldgen would spawn a volcano or something.

[FleshForge]

You can turn up the number of volcanoes to max and you'll end up with many more that can actually be embarked at.  Also helps to increase the number of erosion cycles to max, to taper off the usual surrounding mountain ring and give you a better chance of some startable terrain.  I do both and it leaves me with at least 100 or so possible embarks that include a volcano on a given map.

[drayath]

I have generated a number of large maps recently (df.12), and in nearly all embarks magma sea has been 30 levels below ground. May be worth trying this to see if you get the same.

[lolghurt]

Can't do large maps, DF crashes while doing mineral deposits.
Gonna try the max volcano method.

[FleshForge]

Be aware that it is VERY rare to get sedimentary layers that overlap with volcanoes - this combination can be found, just the odds are very small, probably around 1000:1.  You should have plenty of metal, and it isn't usually too hard to find a volcano with a lot of surface trees available so you can at least make charcoal for steel.  Flux and sand are probably things you want to keep an eye out for since they're harder to obtain in large quantities if your map doesn't have them.

[Cotes]

It can vary a lot. I'd say it can be anywhere between as deep as 120 levels or even as low as 30 levels down (with standard cavern settings).

[Lemunde]

Change min/max natural cavern size to 4 and 14 respectively in the world gen parameters.  This will place the magma sea somewhere in the 30 to 50 z-level range, guaranteed.

[gtmattz]

Change the wordgen parameters to have only one cavern layer, then embark on a fairly flat area and you can find magma between 30 and 40 levels down consistently.