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[Chocolatemilkgod]

How do you know at what depth they are? Since I always seem to find them at level 9...which seriously cramps my fortress size...

[Urist Imiknorris]

It's fairly random. Check how deep your map is. The bottom of the first cavern will usually be about a quarter of the way down. Sometimes, one of the caverns will be significantly larger than the others, which will screw up the accuracy in that case.

If all else fails, embark next to oceans or mountains for extremely deep maps.

Also, there's a worldgen option that controls the minimum number of z-levels of solid rock exist between cavern layers (counting the ground as layer 0).

[Chocolatemilkgod]

Is it wierd that the ground levle was about 140, and the first cave was at 130? And that magma was at 91?


Just wondering cause it never happened to me before

[JamPet]

Its weird but not unbelievable, cavern depth is as random as everything else in the game.  From my observation it seems that maps with a large z-variance on the surface also have strangely spread cavern depths, so embarking on mountains and oceans will indeed give you more room to work in.

But are you saying you have trouble with your fortress bumping into caverns?  That never happens to me.  You should just send out a team in the first year to break into the caves, reconnoiter them, and seal up the entrance.  Now that the map of the layer is revealed, you can plan your fortress around it with no problem!  For style points, I think its cool to run stairways through natural pillars in the caves to move the fortress deeper and deeper.  As Urist says, there is a worldgen option that lets you know how deep below the first cavern layer you can venture before you risk hitting the second.

[Quietust]

Assuming a mostly flat embark, the first cavern tends to be 10 Z-levels down from the surface. If you embark on a volcano, all bets are off.

[rephikul]

it'd still be as many levels below "surface" as it is defined in world params regardless of map. As far as cavern generation concerned, the game seem to consider "surface" somewhere quite related to the average height of the lowest biome on the embark site. If you compare  the earth layers as specified on embark with the starting layer of the cavern you'd find it very consistent spaced to the "surface."

[Psieye]

On flat maps, I expect the caverns to be about 7~10 z-levels below the flat surface. My residence halls are usually located inbetween the 2nd and 3rd caverns while my workshops are either near the surface or down at the magma sea. Hotkeys help jump the camera to appropriate places.

[Lord Vetinari]

Also keep in mind that only the lower cavern levels are really widespread. It's entirely possible to dig in a place where there are no caverns; my suggestion is to dig down for sometime and then star digging horizontally. In my last game I find a magma tube before any cavern, for example. Later I discovered that I was digging in some kind of stone pillar, there were huge caves just a couple of tiles east.

[gtmattz]

I use a custom worldgen which places the first cavern layer 21 z levels below the surface.  I find that the default settings put the caverns way too close to the surface, greatly impinging upon my fortress designs.

[vogonpoet]

I use a custom worldgen which places the first cavern layer 21 z levels below the surface.  I find that the default settings put the caverns way too close to the surface, greatly impinging upon my fortress designs.

I tried to do this, but I seem to have adjusted the wrong parameter - I wanted about 20 z levels to play with before the first cavern, but instead I got more than 60, I cant recall how many, but its a looong way down to the webs. And of course, my stupid wagon ended up deconstructing on some sort of ridge, another 15 z levels above ground level. Did the volcano maybe play havoc with my levels?

[Fellhuhn]

Just build your fortress inside of the cavern. Problem solved.

[KaguroDraven]

I use a custom worldgen which places the first cavern layer 21 z levels below the surface.  I find that the default settings put the caverns way too close to the surface, greatly impinging upon my fortress designs.

I tried to do this, but I seem to have adjusted the wrong parameter - I wanted about 20 z levels to play with before the first cavern, but instead I got more than 60, I cant recall how many, but its a looong way down to the webs. And of course, my stupid wagon ended up deconstructing on some sort of ridge, another 15 z levels above ground level. Did the volcano maybe play havoc with my levels?

The Volcano might have played havoc with your levels, I'm not entirely sure. But the parameter just sets the Minimum difference between first cavern and surface, it depends on luck, good or bad, on weither it is that minimum or much much bigger.

[vogonpoet]

Just build your fortress inside of the cavern. Problem solved.

I might have done, but:  I am now home and have opened DF - even the many 1 tile narrow passages which spread out from the plateau where I breached are at least 7 z-levels tall.

Hang on.... ha ha, the joys of hotkeys - the fort is 13 years old now, and in the meantime, I completely forgot how deep it was...although I do remember designation hell on the way down:

From embark point to flat ground: 12 z-levels
Ground level to top of 1st cavern: 76 z-levels
Top of 1st cavern to plateau cavern breach: 48 z-levels
Plateau to bottom 1st cavern (water): 21 z-levels.

So yeah, that is why I have yet to build a pump stack to bring lots of water up to ground level - it would need to span more than 150 z-levels.

Its a cool cavern sure, but securing it against flying FBs would be very tricky indeed - hmmm, actually, thinking about it, I guess I would just need to construct a massive scaffhold of up/down staircases in all the tall passages, and then wall and floor it all off.