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[Nameless Archon]

Bronze is passable, but Dwarves without iron in the embark just aren't something I'm looking to tinker with at the moment. I want Dwarves, with steel and sweat, baby! Bronze is for humans! So, tired of seeing Cobaltite everywhere in my new 31.25 world, I took the opportunity to purge it from my RAWs. Then I followed up by trying to find other 'useless' ores (and squashed cinnabar).

Here are my questions, while worldgen is running:
1. Does removing these actually increase the likelihood that iron veins (limonite, etc) are generated by the world, or will I see more gold/silver instead, as these were already showing up in those maps?

2. Is there another way to increase the probability of iron appearing outside the RAWs? I've already set the Mineral Scarcity to 100, so when I say I'm looking for a fair bit of metal, I mean exactly that. At the same time, I don't want /only/ iron.

3. Are there any other steps I should take in the RAWs to get the desired result of increasing iron's probability of appearance and removing "useless" ores?

[SocietalEclipse]

Edit the [ENVIRONMENT:xxxxx] for the iron ores so that they appear in all layer types.

[Khift]

Edit the [ENVIRONMENT:xxxxx] for the iron ores so that they appear in all layer types.

This, and also adding the ability for iron ores to appear in large clusters will also significantly increase the amount of iron you find. It will, mind you, absolutely swamp you with iron when you find large clusters. Also while you're at it you can add veins to magnetite.

[jocan2003]

Or... make a custom reaction that will turn any worsthless stone into iron.!

[Bohandas]

Or... make a custom reaction that will turn any worsthless stone into iron.!

It would be simpler (despite probably requiring slightly more total text) to add the line "[METAL_ORE:IRON:100]" to many or all of the worthless stones.

(This would allow the modified stones to be smelted into iron (BTW, if you reduce the number at the end of the line that I said to add, you can make the reaction have a chance of failure, if you think giving worthless stones the ability to yield iron would make it too easy) )

Oh, and see also http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Inorganic_material_definition_token

[Lysabild]

Or... make a custom reaction that will turn any worsthless stone into iron.!

It would be simpler (despite probably requiring slightly more total text) to add the line "[METAL_ORE:IRON:100]" to many or all of the worthless stones.

(This would allow the modified stones to be smelted into iron (BTW, if you reduce the number at the end of the line that I said to add, you can make the reaction have a chance of failure, if you think giving worthless stones the ability to yield iron would make it too easy) )

Oh, and see also http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Inorganic_material_definition_token

So I get to get rid of it while at the same time I get a chance to get iron if I put it to something like 25?

[Kipi]

Yep. That tag will allow the smelters to pick up the stone, bring it to smelter and make it disappear, while giving you a 25% chance of getting iron.

[EmperorJon]

If I set mineral availability higher I always get iron. Did you try that? XD

[Nameless Archon]

If I set mineral availability higher I always get iron. Did you try that? XD

Yeah, thanks for reading thoroughly.

I've already set the Mineral Scarcity to 100

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I think a better solution for next time (instead of just deleting the ores that don't have a smelting reaction) might be to add iron smelting [METAL_ORE:IRON:100]) to the 'useless ores' of Cobaltite and Cinnabar, and possibly to create a very low chance of smelting the iron in cluster/vein stones that currently don't have this (~10 or so) so that there's always SOME iron around.

Is a change to the RAWs like this taken into consideration for worldgen at all, with respect to having access to iron for a civilization (embarking with iron tools, etc)?

[EmperorJon]

Hey, no need to be like that.
Most maps I gen with it set to 100 have 20000+ iron, when you combine Hematite, Magnetite and Limonite.

[Nameless Archon]

Hey, no need to be like that.

I get snarky easily. I blame it on infiltrating human society a thousand years ago and convincing them that I was a god whose only sphere was that of vitriol. Now it's just kind of a habit, and people often get quests from village leaders to come and annoy me with sharp implements.

Sorry - it was a bit harsh.

Most maps I gen with it set to 100 have 20000+ iron, when you combine Hematite, Magnetite and Limonite.

See, that's what I was expecting, but the problem is that you're not guaranteed to get iron. I had ~60000+ Cobaltite, and 0 (zero) Limonite/hematite/magnetite. Lots of gold, silver and tetra, though, so if I wanted a copper military, I'd have been golden (and silver)! (No cassiterite, though, so no tin, and no bronze.) This was sorely disappointing, and if I wasn't in the habit of busting out DFreveal at embark to plan a central staircase, I wouldn't have even known about it until later. I'm not planning to run this fort as a Goblinite Farm (and I'm not sure I have the patience for that) so I wanted some iron. Two more worldgens (and half-a-dozen embarks later) I started hacking RAWs instead.

Even with my changes (deleting cobaltite/cinnabar, which worked.. sorta) you're still not 100% guaranteed to get iron, because gold and silver and tetrahedrite are all metals (plural) that can be found both shallow and deep! The solution is definitely to add a chance of smelting iron from burning up cluster/vein stone that isn't normally an iron product, and then you're guaranteed to have SOME iron, even if it means you work a lot harder for it than just mining it out one bar per tile. (I'll probably put the "useless ores" to 100 percent so they function like iron ores, and then put other cluster stones to ~25% or so so they provide some useful product beyond colored stone.)

Now, that raises another question: Is it possible to control the effects of the smelting process in the RAWs so that on failure it returns the original rock (Yes, I know that's not how real smelting works), and on success it returns the iron? I don't immediately see anything in the token list that offers this as a possibility. I'm guessing that's the province of custom reactions?