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[RTiger]

I have had serious trouble with this, where I get embarks that say I have metals, only for it to turn up to be colaltite or something equally useless. I want to make steel, but I can never find iron.

[jeffreyac]

No help, but I can at least let you know you're not the only one. I'm generally happy to see a copper ore - at least that means I can get something going....   

I take embarks with multiple metals, only to see, say, lead and zinc, or something.... 

[Lagslayer]

A Fortress made entirely from lead sounds dwarfy. Zinc, considerably less so. Zinc is what the elves would use if they had metal.

[assimilateur]

There's a worldgen parameter called mineral scarcity or something like that. Lowering that value is what I'd recommend if you want more metals. I set it to the lowest setting and had like 55+k tetrahedrite and 30+ native gold.

[i2amroy]

There's a worldgen parameter called mineral scarcity or something like that. Lowering that value is what I'd recommend if you want more metals. I set it to the lowest setting and had like 55+k tetrahedrite and 30+ native gold.

Note this doesn't actually increase metal diversity at a site, but rather only increases the amounts that you find of it, therefore not making it too much of a help here. What I would suggest you do is make sure to embark on two different biomes (plain/mountain, swamp/desert, you get the point) since by doing so you will effectively double your chances to get the metals that you need.

[kardwill]

Yup, I embark on dual biomes with multiple metals (with "frequent metals" worlds), and typically have copper, silver, lead, gold and tin on each embark. Iron is harder to get, but it's what goblins are for 

[assimilateur]

If that setting increases ore frequency in any given layer (since otherwise I have no idea what it does) then it's hardly irrelevant. But yes, embarking on more than one biome is helpful.

In 40d you could view what sort of layers (sedimentary, metamorphic, etc.) your prospective embark had in the site finder. Now that this isn't possible anymore, I recommend searching for sites that qualify for the "shallow metal: multiple" parameter. Since sedimentary layers are close to the surface, if they are there at all, then I think this should maximize your chances of getting iron.

Once you embark, dig stairs a couple of levels down to see what rock can be found near the surface. If it's sedimentary (consult the wiki to learn which stones are sedimentary) then I assume you should be virtually guaranteed to find iron ore unless you play with a high mineral scarcity setting.

If you have no problem with "cheating" then you can use dfhack to check what ores you'll get without even having to dig.

[Quietust]

There's a worldgen parameter called mineral scarcity or something like that.

Note this doesn't actually increase metal diversity at a site, but rather only increases the amounts that you find of it, therefore not making it too much of a help here.

Actually, increasing metal diversity is exactly what the "mineral scarcity" parameter controls - if you set it to the lowest possible value, then pretty much all sites will have "Shallow Metals" and "Deep Metals", offering a wide variety of metals (limited by the layer types, anyways - you won't get tin unless there's granite present, for example).

[Starver]

A Fortress made entirely from lead sounds dwarfy. Zinc, considerably less so. Zinc is what the elves would use if they had metal.

The guy I decided to make a noble (and who is now a Count) had a preference for Lead.  Which is why I chose to elevate him (that metal, and his favourite stone, were easily available on-site, and the item types he liked were things I'd be making for myself, anyway, like ammo).

His suite of rooms is equipped (according to the basic Count-level need, with perhaps one extra bit of furniture to boost one of his rooms to the quality he needs) with entirely top-quality (short of artefact, that is) lead thrones, tables, cabinets, armour stands, weapon racks and coffers.  The only reason I haven't ripped out the walls and replaced them/lined the floor with lead blocks (and probably give him Royal-standard quarters, etc) is that I'd taken the trouble to put him in a part of the geology where his favourite stone is, as well, which is obviously not quite as good but works for me.  And he's happy.  (Not yet succumbed t lead poisoning, but neither does he appear to be in danger of being irradiated. )

A minor problem with the Count is that having made a lot of Lead Bins (never intending to export them) he forces me to turn off Cull On Mandates in trading, due to his near-perpetual "Don't export Lead Items" order, in order to transship most of the arts and crafts I wish to get to the Trade Depot.    I never sell bins anyway, on any fort, and am not making anything else of lead that I might want to sell, so I'm not going to annoy him by breaking the given embargo.)


Meanwhile, I have a fort, and a home civilisation, with apparently no native iron ores.  I import as many steel items (and bars) as I can, and did originally also import pig-iron (both available, despite the basic iron sparsity...  don't know if that'll be consider a bug worth fixing)... except that without basic iron that helps me not at all in getting more steel out of the process.

My Mayor (essentially chosen on embark, and has stayed in the position ever since, as well as being chief Trader and by now a pretty handy stonecrafter when not needed to validate the Job Manager queue) quite likes tin, except that while I'm also zinc-heavy and copper is available and I've got silver (from both the galena and tetrahedrite), I don't appear to have tin.  And given I know I haven't any tin bars, I reckon I've not managed to get them from The Old Country, either.  Luckily I've not (yet) had any "I want tin things!" requests, in the slightly less than six game-years this fortress has been in existence, so I might be lucky.

The other day (playing-time) I did have to satisfy a cave-spider silk craving, for the mayor, which was easy with the cloth stocks I'd managed to build up.  The Count mostly goes for bolts, and I'm churning out silver bolts like there's imminent danger from werewolves, or something.  (Actually, zombie wildlife is the prevalent nuisance, but they puff into nothingness when hit by bolts of any kind, and I've got a lot of bone bolts as well, given my achievements in the animal husbandry department.  All grazers eating cave-grass and equivalent, in my slightly sub-surface enclosures, the surface being a snowy waste, what I haven't already built on.))


Sorry, drifting, there.