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[krenshala]

Silver is great for hammers and maces, however.  Nice and dense.  ** Cue the guy with the weapon-material preference order in his sig.

Oh, to have tetrahedrite, which gives copper, and 50% change of also giving silver - both weapon metals.  It would give me something to use the tin bars (not a weapon grade metal) from all my cassiterite on without having to wait for copper items being available from a merchant.

[That Guy Over There]

The best method I have discovered for hematite, magnetite, and limonite is to embark on where there are metals and flux. The flux is the most important part because the sedimentary rock layer contains most of the flux stones. Since it can contain any of the ores of iron you are very likely to have at least one type. And you can get coal and begin making steel relatively quickly.

[Vox]

I kid you not, I once dug one level under where my wagon was and hit a vein of about 500 magnetite.

[tmrt]

I kid you not, I once dug one level under where my wagon was and hit a vein of about 500 magnetite.

Technically it was a cluster.

[ancistrus]

The main thing I've learned about iron in my time within the realm of Dwarf Fortress is this:

You either have absolutely none of it whatsoever, or you have so much that you could use it to make everything in your fortress for the next couple decades. As far as I know, there is no middle ground.

Yeah, this is one of the things that really annoy me. But it wasnt always like this, and hopefully will return back to normal.

[Casp]

Fort six now. At long last, blessed limonite.

[RabidAnubis]

Fort six now. At long last, blessed limonite.

Where did you find it.  All I have is gold.

[Azure]

This is actually getting genuinely aggravating. When the first ambush comes, I am invariably slaughtered to a dwarf. I have zero weapons material; not even copper. This type of losing isn't fun. I just feel like I got cheated by constant bad luck.

Bone and wood is all you'll need. Doubly so if you use a dodge trap in your entrance.http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Defense_design#Entrance_designs

Embark: Arrived.
 1. Haul all the useless crap to where the fort will be build.
 2. Channel a ditch, dig an escape tunnel, remove ramps, floor over escape stair/tunnel
 3. Get food production up start digging out the underground
 4. Prod wildlife for bones and get wood
 5. Make mechanisms, build entrance, build bridges and levers. [3-bridge defense with a double L bend added on is recommended.]
 6. Build blocks for fast wall construction. Cage and weapon trap (bone/wood xbows if nothing else) the entrance.
 7. Restrain an "Alert!" cat near the entrance in case of ambush. Finish dat wall surrounding the base.
 8. Designate burrows so your hobos can scramble to safety.(Set dem alerts Bromalade)
 9. Get dem reverse fortifications up! [Facing inward]
 10. Arm and armor haulers with xbows so you have additional support. Aaaand a force to buy time while the doctors evac to the panic room with the flood lever.
 11. ? ? ?
 12. Profit cause if you used the double L bend in your entrance design like you should you can watch the gobbos die from traps and getting ventilated.

You can get by for decades with nothing but bone and wood. Get your underground tree/shrub farm going and you'll only need to leave the walls for harvesting Goblinite.

As for the topic, it seems like increasing the mineral count in worldgen+embarking on multiple shallow metal embarks until we find it is the main way. Until then, copper and bone until candy and goblinite suffice.

[46852]

The main thing I've learned about iron in my time within the realm of Dwarf Fortress is this:

You either have absolutely none of it whatsoever, or you have so much that you could use it to make everything in your fortress for the next couple decades. As far as I know, there is no middle ground.

Yeah, this is one of the things that really annoy me. But it wasnt always like this, and hopefully will return back to normal.

Has this been reported as a bug by the way? I've found the metal diversity at various site very annoying and not !FUN! at all after the "mineral scarcity" setting appeared to the .ini. Was that a 0.31.x feature? 0.28 fortresses were much more interesting in terms of exploratory mining

[JJtoocool]

An entire post about iron and only one weapon trap joke?

I feel justice has been served only when my axes are made from goblin-mined metal.

[Nan]

i don't think this is a bug. In real life, iron is kind of common, but it's not everywhere. Most iron ore was precipitated out of the oceans in ancient times (from somewhere around the beginning of life) and thus is found as veins in sedimentary rock. Not everywhere on the planet contains such layers of ancient ocean. But where such layers are found, there's a massive abundance of it.
It's kind of like coal, either the conditions were right for the formation and preservation of ancient forests, or the conditions weren't right. Coal tends to be found as the accumulation of whole forests "buried" and preserved over thousands of years, so you either get heaps of coal, or none of it.

Thus, the DF behavior is realistic, and if you want an unrealistic model it's more a feature request, than a bugfix request.

[Silophant]

Yep, feature, not a bug. In real life, you don't find little square mile plots of land that contain useful amounts of 10 different types of ore. So, this is a realistic model. The idea is you can make up for it with trade, but that doesn't currently work very well. Once the fortress mode trading improvements come in a few releases, it'll work much better.

[daggaz]

As another poster said earlier, its all about the flux.   I always embark on a site with flux and small metals.   Out of dozens of forts, Id venture that about 20% of them didnt have any obviously apparent iron, instead being full of tetrahedrite or other, even less useful ores.   The rest of them seem to be well stocked with hematite, magnetite, or more rarely, limonite.   

At any rate, Im not having any trouble finding the stuff.  As well, you shouldnt need any to fend off the first ambush.  Thats not even a seige man.  If that rag-tag band of goblins is slaughtering you down to the last dwarf, you are doing it the extra special !fun! way..

[lcy03406]

a spot with 'flux' has a big chance to be of sedimentary layer. but MARBLE, which can form metamorphic layer, may misguide us.
maybe we can delete [REACTION_CLASS:FLUX] from marble’s raw, and embark and add that back? I haven't tried this.

[kardwill]

This is actually getting genuinely aggravating. When the first ambush comes, I am invariably slaughtered to a dwarf. I have zero weapons material; not even copper. This type of losing isn't fun. I just feel like I got cheated by constant bad luck.

Tetrahedrite is rather common, and you said you had some, so you should get copper, no? Not the best material, but a useable placeholder (and if you ask the caravan for tin and tin ores, along with all the iron stuff they can carry, you should get a mix of steel/bronze by the second autumn, enough decent stuff to equip a few militiamen and repell an early goblin ambush)