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[Hivemind]

http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/

I went looking for this to post here half an hour ago. Got stuck on youtube searching Dwarf Fortress, and for spaced out after somehow making it to Ask Swifty. Came back here and remembered what I went looking for. I think it's time for bed.

[celem]

Also remember that your smelter can (using 1 fuel) turn a metal item back into a bar.  So its perfectly acceptable to train up your smiths using expensive materials, as long as you keep melting it back while low quality.

Just as a note of caution, for some reason I cant always melt down chests (metal boxes).  Dont know if its a bug or not

[Bohandas]

"Native Gold" is pure elemental gold in stone, making it an ore. If your miners are pretty skilled or lucky, mining it out should produce some gold nuggets, which can be smelted to produce gold bars, which are very valuable. Also, the gold can continue on for some distance, as most ores occur in veins.

The same applies to native silver, copper, aluminum, and platinum.

Speaking of native metals...
This is a long shot (and not particularly useful at this time of year), but If any of you vacation in New Jersey in the summer, there's a store (I forget the name) in Cape May near Sunset Beach that sells decorative chunks of unworked native copper. You might wanna check it out if you're ever there. (Actually, come to think of it, More than half this particular store's merchandise is just different interesting types of rocks, and its a very interesting shop if you play DF)

[G-Flex]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

[AtomicPaperclip]

Also remember that your smelter can (using 1 fuel) turn a metal item back into a bar.  So its perfectly acceptable to train up your smiths using expensive materials, as long as you keep melting it back while low quality.

Just as a note of caution, for some reason I cant always melt down chests (metal boxes).  Dont know if its a bug or not

You don't get as much back as you put into it.

[Kanddak]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

There are practical applications for this. I've intentionally used gold bins to store lightweight items to prevent them from scattering when the fort is abandoned, so that I can come in with an adventurer and find things easily.

[twilightdusk]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

There are practical applications for this. I've intentionally used gold bins to store lightweight items to prevent them from scattering when the fort is abandoned, so that I can come in with an adventurer and find things easily.

Lead is better to use for that purpose though.

[NecroRebel]

Also remember that your smelter can (using 1 fuel) turn a metal item back into a bar.  So its perfectly acceptable to train up your smiths using expensive materials, as long as you keep melting it back while low quality.

You don't get as much back as you put into it.

It depends on the item. Most forms of furniture, for instance, give 1 full bar when melted, and, due to a bug, take 1 full bar to make (they're supposed to take 3). For the most part, though, AtomicPaperclip is correct; you lose metal when you melt stuff.

[Alkyon]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

I'd rather have slow, buff haulers than sober dwarfs.  And I generally can't think of anything to do with gold bars anyways besides "add gold studs to everything".

[CapnUrist]

Many people use gold in their constructions for dwarfiness.

I, on the other hand, use gold for the statues in my dining hall, and then save it for noble's furniture.

[Jacob/Lee]

I simply don't use gold.

[G-Flex]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

I'd rather have slow, buff haulers than sober dwarfs.  And I generally can't think of anything to do with gold bars anyways besides "add gold studs to everything".

You might as well do that, then. After all, there are lighters metals you can use that are even less useful and much less valuable, like nickel or even lead.

[Untelligent]

Great for making bins and barrels if you're low on wood.

I disagree. Gold is the heaviest material you're likely to find by far (except platinum), so why build things out of it whose purpose is to be lugged around? It'll just slow down your haulers.

Firstly because I don't care how long my haulers take as long as they eventually get there, and secondly because waiting for trees to grow back slows down my booze production. Thirdly when I said "great for making bins and barrels" I was referring to non-weaponable metal in general, guess I didn't make that very clear at all though.

[Ubiq]

There are practical applications for this. I've intentionally used gold bins to store lightweight items to prevent them from scattering when the fort is abandoned, so that I can come in with an adventurer and find things easily.

Depending on the situation, it's well-worth putting items in extremely light bins like featherwood or adamantine. Artifacts stored in a bin when a fort is abandoned will remain in that bin or the vicinity of said bin in Adventure mode. That includes the Adventurer so long as he/she is carrying the bin in question. Moreover, it also allows you to remove an infinite number of copies of that artifact. So if you ever wanted a matching Artifact Fine Pewter high boot, it's possible with this method though the extras vanish if you drop them or put them back into the bin/backpack. That's also the only way to transport artifacts between fortress sites that I know of.

Doing that with a light bin is much simpler than a heavier one.

[Fredd]

But using this technique, is a life saver, for early forts. On embark, native ore can me used, for mechanisms, furniture, to trade to the caravans for essential goods. You can then utilize the starting dwarfs labor, to prepare for migrants, instead of trying to produce low cost goods to trade for. After a season, or two, you should have developed a decent economy, where you won't have to use native ores. But they still are shiney! (Drools)