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[Halo]

I use custom maps that puts the caverns really deep, about 15 zlevels below the surface, with 5ish levels between each cavern. I usually dig enough to get everyone and all the food under ground, and then dig a shaft in each of the 4 corners of the map. Mostly I want to see what layers of stone I have to deal with, where flux stone is, etc. I generally pick one of the shafts and continue it all the way to the third cavern. As soon as I break through I then wall up the shafts again. I don't go back down until a few years later when I have a military, and usually by the time I do there are a few forgotten beasties waiting for me.

[Starver]

I use custom maps that puts the caverns really deep, about 15 zlevels below the surface, with 5ish levels between each cavern.

I thought that was pretty normal spacing...  About 15 Z to first cavern, and just 5Z between?  I know I upped my inter-cavern space and such so that I expect to see Cavern 1 at about -25Z, Cavern 2 at about -50Z and Cavern 3 at about -75Z.  Although I think my current map has the Magma Sea top edge at minus 80-odd, rather than -100.

Hmm, yeah, checking the worldgen INIT, the default is:

Code: [Select]

[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:5]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:1]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:2]
[LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:1]

...and I've made my preferred worldgen:

Code: [Select]

[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_1:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_2:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_3:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_4:15]
[LEVELS_ABOVE_LAYER_5:15]
[LEVELS_AT_BOTTOM:15]

Whadya know, I thought I'd no more than doubled it (for some nice contiguous rock, in-between the caverns).  Looks like I've been playing with a deep-crust pizza of a game for a while...

[Jake]

I prefer to wait until my militia is kitted out well enough to at least fight off a few nasties and win, though by that time just keeping everyone fed and housed is a full-time job.

[kaijyuu]

I dig down third.

First thing I dig out is space for a farm and workshops.

Then I dig out some bedrooms (mostly for stone).

Then I dig down to the magma layer to set up furnaces/etc.

[Johuotar]

I've played about 10 forts and I've never digged past first cavern. 

[GryMor]

Build wood burner, smelter and forge, produce a copper pick and send the miner to dig out entry hall, dig out soil farm, and then dig the exploratory shaft(s) down to the magma sea. Any time I hit  a cavern I immediately back up a level and seal the shaft, using the intel from the breach to bypass the cavern area. Meanwhile I've got steel weapons produced and everything moved into the entry hall. If there are enough trees, the first tile of danger room is done by the time I have migrants, and two of them get a pick, cloak and robe and get to trade off becoming legendary combat miners.

[Patchy]

I go for the magma sea asap. Straight down, through the caverns if need be. When breaching the caverns, everyone but my food worker(s) are assigned masonry and block up the way through the caverns. I establish my main fort just above the magma sea and the access shaft is tooled into a dodge me trap, that leads straight into the magma sea.

[Gyvon]

I try to dig down into the stone layers and set up bedrooms and a dining hall. I dig a farming area on the soil layer(s).

Farming and stockpiles always go on soil layers in my forts (much less useless dumping)

[Lexx]

That was what I was wondering. I generally wait for a few seasons and then start digging past the first 3 or 4 layers. how soon do you start digging for caverns/magma sea?

Dig as soon as you embark! Take your chances in the caverns. Take plenty of mining picks and 1 piece of torso armor and a weapon for a dwarf skilled in it and dodging/fighting. Take the caves and make them yours. Bend them to your will!

[FuzzyZergling]

I get the first cavern right away.
I've only ever gotten down to magma once, though.

[Newbunkle]

Personally, I hate having to follow dwarves around multiple z-levels so I try to keep things flat if possible. Normally I don't bother to rush down, but I've been growing tired of the lack of coal on my maps and I tend to head for the magma now. I have to play on smaller maps for FPS reasons, so I never have enough trees for charcoal. Plus, it's boring to play forested areas all the time. Hopefully the new market and caravan stuff will fix this and I can import coal in bulk.

[celem]

I go straight down too...

I always embark with 2 miners.  One handles a moat and initial stockpiles/workshop rooms and a meeting hall in soil layers.  The other heads straight down, seperating the two is simple once you master burrows.

Like a lot of people I prefer forts over minimum z-levels and will wind up settling in and just below the soil.  That said there are two major priorities.
1) Hit a cavern, want underground tree/shrubs ASAP, also good for underground water supply.  make a tiny hole above the floor and reseal if not after water.
Like Patchy i'll drill straight through caves and encase the staircases in walls if it works out that way.
2) Hit the magma sea, I need to know what the bottom of the map looks like.  Sometimes temporary smelter/forge there until I decide how/where to raise the magma.

Im generally through to the magma by the first summer, lifting magma with 7 dwarves sucks so I often smelt/forge down there till second year. 
Remember that while visually confusing a vertical stair isnt that inefficient.  Assuming say 75 z's to magma you have a 150 tile roundtrip which is comparable to much of the surface work you are likely doing anyway, and hauling can be further reduced with appropriatly placed stockpiles. (dont move ore down, smelt, bar up, bar down, forge, weapon up...and remember flux/fuel piles for steel)