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[Kraftwerk]

So I'm about 40 Z levels down, and I still haven't encountered a cavern. Is this normal? (I did simple world gen, and I've never edited my raws)

[Jusman]

How big is your staircase? If it's only a one tile stairway then you probably just went right through it without actually breaching it.

[Kraftwerk]

How big is your staircase? If it's only a one tile stairway then you probably just went right through it without actually breaching it.

It's 4 tiles wide, and every 10 z levels, I have exploratory tunnels. :|

[NecroRebel]

Given that caverns usually aren't 10 z-levels tall, you might simply be missing them...

Regardless, depending on how steep your map is and where it is on your world, having 40 z-levels before the first cavern is unlikely, but not impossible.

[Darkmere]

I've managed to miss cavern 2 and all of the magma sea with a 3X3 stairwell. Check where the layer stone changes, and if it changes types, those are likely near the cavern boundaries.  If all else fails, aim for magma and work your way back up.

[darkflagrance]

In my last game, I missed two caverns and hit smr with a 3x3 as well. This was even the smallest embark size!

[Avo]

I had a game where i missed the 1st two cavern layers and dug right on down into the 3rd layer. Scared me, i thought a bug was causing no cave mold to grow. Once you hit one cavern you can explore with a military squad and find the upward/downward passages.

[Naryar]

First cavern is usually before 15th level. I tend to get them at Z-level -10.

[Naina]

It's pretty likely to miss the caverns if you've managed a site with really low openness, so your caverns are a maze of twisty, 1-tile-wide passages.  If all else fails, use dfreveal to get a bead on your caverns, then move your staircase as necessary.

[ral]

I'm not sure exactly how Openness and Passage Density are set in simple world gen, but the range is probably random 0 to 100 per embark region or something. So if you managed to get extreme randomly generated values for the site you picked then you could end up with weird caverns of some sort. (See the cavern maps on the advanced world gen wiki page for examples of what caverns can look like.)

Also, just dig a tunnel out to some area maybe 30 or 40 tiles diagonal from your stair shaft and start digging down in a different place. That will probably locate something.

[thunktone]

40 levels below the lowest surface ground on the map is unusual, but i've had a few maps where it's 30-50 levels below my entrance. Even just a steep drop in one corner seems enough to push the caverns down.