Print

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

[Benedict Hardy]

A

[CapnUrist]

First off, I feel your pain. In older versions, you could get just about any metal in existence on one map. Now it's far more difficult. But here's a few things that might help.

• When you first generate your world, note there's a new option concerning mineral scarcity. This affects pretty much any non-layer stone, so having it up there makes it more likely to find something other than, say, gabbro on your map.
• On the embark screen, the layers, instead of describing the first eight layers by stone type, will give a general idea of what's there, including if there's metal. Specifically, you may find embark locations that say either shallow metal, deep metal, or both.
• DF's world generator does follow real-world geographic science, so sedimentary layers will be found near water. A river is a good indication that you'll get more limestone and sandstone than granite and obsidian.
• Finally, remember that there is one source of iron that doesn't come from underground at all. Goblinite is plentiful, and all it requires is preparation and patience. I myself am building a minimal-digging above-ground fortress that is sitting on a huge pile of limestone, but with absolutely no metal ores at all. When the first few goblin ambushes come along, I will grin like a madman as I order the levers pulled.

[Avo]

Step 1: Build a giant funnel to your fortress.

Step 2. Fill the funnel with cage traps/bait with a dog at the end. Make sure the dog is protected from arrows.

Step 3. When goblin invasion comes, watch as gobblins rush down the hallway right into your cage traps.

Step 4. Haul all of your new prisoners to an animal stockpile close to a deep pit. The deeper the better, if you cant dig it deep enough build spikes near the bottom.

Step 5. Pit goblins, trolls, elves and their mounts along with any other vermin into the pit. Use your newly freed cage traps to reset the trap.

Step 6. Have Urist MC happy go filter through the miasma at the bottom looking for any metal objects to melt down. Dump the rest.

[Benedict Hardy]

A

[Hyndis]

Step 1: Build a giant funnel to your fortress.

Step 2. Fill the funnel with cage traps/bait with a dog at the end. Make sure the dog is protected from arrows.

Step 3. When goblin invasion comes, watch as gobblins rush down the hallway right into your cage traps.

Step 4. Haul all of your new prisoners to an animal stockpile close to a deep pit. The deeper the better, if you cant dig it deep enough build spikes near the bottom.

Step 5. Pit goblins, trolls, elves and their mounts along with any other vermin into the pit. Use your newly freed cage traps to reset the trap.

Step 6. Have Urist MC happy go filter through the miasma at the bottom looking for any metal objects to melt down. Dump the rest.

It works better if you have the bottom of the pit zoned as both a refuse stockpile and also a weapons/armor stockpile with a bin capacity of 0. This means items will not be hauled, they will just sit there.

You can designate the entire bottom of the pit for melting in one go with d-b-m, so all metal objects there will be sent to the smelters for melting.

[Nidokoenig]

I've mentioned this in another thread, but one way this could be solved is by modding in a plant called "iron" with a valuable extract that can be converted to bars and that bars can be converted into by custom reactions. Since the plant extract will be super light, fairly valuable, and you'd convert all your imports of it to bars fairly quickly(traders bring less of stuff you have a bunch of), it would be easy to trade in in large amounts, and trading for it is apparently the solution Toady has in mind for mineral scarcity, it's just that the Caravan Arc isn't going to be done any time soon and wagons are busted. Give the plant a growdur of fifty years to keep it out of your forts.

Of course, that doesn't involve killing goblins, unless you make them peaceful, trade huge amounts to them one year and demand iron extract in vast amounts, then slaughter them next year.

[Hyndis]

You can adjust the worldgen parameters to reduce mineral scarcity, and it will be just like in 31.01. Piles of metal ore everywhere.

I also use a prospecting mod in that I can convert large amounts of junk stone into metal bars. As even obsidian can be prospected for metal, this effectively gives me unlimited metal at the cost of an enormous amount of dwarfpower and also time to produce, haul, and prospect all of that stone.

Seriously, I have like 50 dwarves employed at all times in my gigantic metal prospecting operation. 

[Urist_McArathos]

First off, I feel your pain. In older versions, you could get just about any metal in existence on one map. Now it's far more difficult. But here's a few things that might help.

• Finally, remember that there is one source of iron that doesn't come from underground at all. Goblinite is plentiful, and all it requires is preparation and patience. I myself am building a minimal-digging above-ground fortress that is sitting on a huge pile of limestone, but with absolutely no metal ores at all. When the first few goblin ambushes come along, I will grin like a madman as I order the levers pulled.

This is assuming one very crucial detail: that your goblinite is, in fact, iron.  My goblins in my most recent fort only bring copper armor and silver weapons.  Nothing else, period.  Never rely on "There's always goblinite" these days, because if the goblins haven't found it in their fortress sites, their civ will not have it, same as any other.

Your best bet, as stated, is to try and find a sedimentary area.  Look for overlapping biomes around a river with "shallow metal" or better yet, "shallow metals".  If you settle on overlapping biomes, both with shallow metals, around a river or stream, it is VERY likely you'll get flux and iron at least somewhere on your map.  Until the caravan arc is finished, careful site hunting or modding are your only options.

Another tip: if your parent civ and the humans have access to iron, buy ALL the crafts and armor you can from them, then melt them down into iron.  It's expensive, but a single skilled stonecrafter can churn out more than enough stone crafts to buy them out (bring a bone carver and some dogs for a cheap and reliable access to yet more crafts).  You can also request iron bars from your liaison.  This method is slower, but unless your fortress is massive and needs a huge military, you should have enough iron to handle the necessities, particularly if you have sand and magma safe stone (to eliminate the need for iron to handle magma projects).

[wuphonsreach]

I suggest a worldgen parameter (MINERAL_SCARCITY) down in the 500-1500 range instead of the default 2500. 
(Here's my current small world - where the elves are at war.  It has quite a few embark locations with iron.  Find a location with "shallow metals" and have a bit of fun.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Created in DF v0.31.25.

[WORLD_GEN]
   [TITLE:SMALL (CUSTOM 31.25)]
   [SEED:1324290673]
   [HISTORY_SEED:3885231700]
   [NAME_SEED:3192037426]
   [CREATURE_SEED:2714029935]
   [DIM:65:65]
   [EMBARK_POINTS:1274]
   [END_YEAR:250]
   [BEAST_END_YEAR:100:80]
   [REVEAL_ALL_HISTORY:1]
   [CULL_HISTORICAL_FIGURES:1]
   [ELEVATION:1:400:800:800]
   [RAINFALL:0:100:101:101]
   [TEMPERATURE:20:60:101:101]
   [DRAINAGE:0:100:101:101]
   [VOLCANISM:0:100:101:101]
   [SAVAGERY:0:100:101:101]
   [ELEVATION_FREQUENCY:1:3:6:4:2:1]
   [RAIN_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [DRAINAGE_FREQUENCY:1:1:1:1:1:1]
   [TEMPERATURE_FREQUENCY:1:2:3:1:1:1]
   [SAVAGERY_FREQUENCY:1:1:3:4:2:1]
   [VOLCANISM_FREQUENCY:1:1:2:1:1:1]
   [MINERAL_SCARCITY:600]
   [MEGABEAST_CAP:8]
   [SEMIMEGABEAST_CAP:15]
   [TITAN_NUMBER:5]
   [TITAN_ATTACK_TRIGGER:80:0:100000]
   [DEMON_NUMBER:22]
   [NIGHT_CREATURE_NUMBER:22]
   [GOOD_SQ_COUNTS:1:16:0]
   [EVIL_SQ_COUNTS:1:16:0]
   [PEAK_NUMBER_MIN:10]
   [PARTIAL_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [COMPLETE_OCEAN_EDGE_MIN:0]
   [VOLCANO_MIN:10]
   [REGION_COUNTS:SWAMP:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:DESERT:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:FOREST:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:MOUNTAINS:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:OCEAN:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GLACIER:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:TUNDRA:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:GRASSLAND:0:0:0]
   [REGION_COUNTS:HILLS:0:0:0]
   [EROSION_CYCLE_COUNT:250]
   [RIVER_MINS:3:6]
   [PERIODICALLY_ERODE_EXTREMES:1]
   [OROGRAPHIC_PRECIPITATION:1]
   [SUBREGION_MAX:2750]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_COUNT:3]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MIN:40]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_OPENNESS_MAX:80]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_PASSAGE_DENSITY_MAX:20]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MIN:0]
   [CAVERN_LAYER_WATER_MAX:100]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_1:1]
   [HAVE_BOTTOM_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_GROUND:15]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:6]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
   [LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
   [LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]
   [CAVE_MIN_SIZE:5]
   [CAVE_MAX_SIZE:25]
   [MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:4]
   [NON_MOUNTAIN_CAVE_MIN:6]
   [ALL_CAVES_VISIBLE:0]
   [SHOW_EMBARK_TUNNEL:2]
   [TOTAL_CIV_NUMBER:12]
   [TOTAL_CIV_POPULATION:15000]
   [SITE_CAP:200]
   [PLAYABLE_CIVILIZATION_REQUIRED:1]
   [ELEVATION_RANGES:300:500:200]
   [RAIN_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [DRAINAGE_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [SAVAGERY_RANGES:0:0:0]
   [VOLCANISM_RANGES:0:0:0]

[franti]

The solution to a lack of Iron-clad Swordsdwarves is well-trained Copper-clad Makrsdwarves.

[Nameless Archon]

Additionally, you can mod one or more stones to have an iron-smelting reaction. I chose Cobaltite and Cinnabar, since those are technically ores anyway, and just treat them like Limonite or Hematite. Since many of my embarks at 100 metal scarcity have had ~60k Cobaltite and 0 iron-containing ores, this has solved my issue with rare iron ores completely. Sure, I might have to dig a little deeper to get my iron, and I might have to make some exploratory holes, but it's a lot more like I envision a dwarf fortress to be.

If I wanted dwarves with bone armor and wooden weapons, I'd play elves. If I wanted dwarves with bronze, I'd play humans. I want iron, (and preferably flux for steel) and modding has made it reasonably sure that I'll see it in my embarks.