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[drummingpariah]

Dwarf Fortress is hard. Really hard. It's also unforgiving. There are all kinds of barriers to success.

I love it.

I've now experienced 3 outright failures, and learned a ton from each. I went through the computer and utter newby tutorial, which was an absolute godsend. I've even managed to kill a goblin (convincing some dwarves to actually kill something was surprisingly difficult). I still have not found a single material I can convert into ore though. I've had a smelter in each of my 3 fortresses, and dug around like crazy, but all the smelter actions are red. I'm assuming I'm missing something, or doing something wrong ... ores can't be THAT rare, can they?

That's the only frustration I've had that doesn't seem to point directly to my inexperience as the cause. If I'm missing something, please let me know!

[yamgrenade]

Starting up your smelters can be kinda tricky. Unless you brought some coke or charcoal on embark, you'll need a wood furnace to make some charcoal so you can refine lignite or Bituminous coal into coke. If you haven't found those you'll need to chop down lots of trees to turn into charcoal. Also make sure you have an embark point with shallow metals.
This page is really useful for determining what an ore is and what rock is-
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:The_Non-Dwarf%27s_Guide_to_Rock

[Nan]

If on the embark screen it doesn't say shallow metal(s) and/or deep metal(s), there wont be any ore. When mining, the game will announce when you find metal ores. Unfortunately it'll also announce some other rock types which aren't ores. If you create a stone stockpile and set it to "metal ores" then any metal ore's you've dug out will be taken there. If the stockpile remains empty, it means you haven't found any ores.
Another thing, is even if you have ore, you need refined coal to smelt it (otherwise the actions will be red), build a wood furnace and use "make charcoal". Once you have charcoal you can also turn coal into coke at the smelter.

It's also possible to embark with ore. For example malachite and copper nuggets are some ores of copper, magnetite and hematite are some ores of iron. This is quite a good use for embark points, because metal ores are significantly cheaper than metal bars.

[drummingpariah]

I had made oodles and oodles of charcoal, and apparently was ready to go ... but I chose a pretty terrible starting location. I cleared out roughly 50x50 on 8 z-levels and found 0 ores (I had actually tried the stockpiling idea of just putting ores in one place ... and that stockpile was completely empty). Since I'm kind of excited about making metal stuff, I've embarked into an entirely new location, with both types of metals (but no flux metals). I also have clay in this one, which I haven't used at all yet. Unfortunately, my frame rate is suffering pretty heavily at this location, down from a solid 100fps to ~50fps. I'm seriously considering compiling DF for Linux rather than running it in Wine now.

[Andrew425]

Ores can be quite deep though,

Try going at least 50z levels before giving up.

[Nan]

There's no need to compile DF for linux. Just download, extract, and run from the folder. If you run into any library problems, there are threads on solving that (IIRC I had to symlink a library because it wanted it under another name).

[kardwill]

I've had a smelter in each of my 3 fortresses, and dug around like crazy, but all the smelter actions are red. I'm assuming I'm missing something, or doing something wrong ... ores can't be THAT rare, can they?

Smelter is a little buggy. Some options are often red, even when you have the material (ore and charcoal/coke). I often have to use the manager to start them working on a new metal. Don't know why.
Check in the inventory screen if you have ore : Tetrahedrite, galena, hematite, limonite, magnetite, sphalerite, native gold, platinium and silver... Also make sure you have coal/coke, you will use up a lot of it.

To find ore, no need to clear out a huge block of rock. Instead, make a grid of some long winding tunnels in each Z-level you want to devote to mining. If there are veins and clusters of ore in this level, the tunnels should find them. You then can exploit the veins you found, and search for more in the same level.

[Delta Foxtrot]

To find ore, no need to clear out a huge block of rock. Instead, make a grid of some long winding tunnels in each Z-level you want to devote to mining. If there are veins and clusters of ore in this level, the tunnels should find them. You then can exploit the veins you found, and search for more in the same level.

Here are some good patterns. I prefer the 7x7 blocks. It may miss small high value ore/gem deposits, but if you mine primarily for weapon grade metals or to find massive exploitable silver/gold deposits, it serves its purpose just fine.

EDIT:
It can get a bit tedious to designate digging patterns by hand. What I like to do is use macros. As per my preference, I keep a '7x7 horizontal' and '7x7 vertical' macros. Whenever I need to dig another level I pick one, run it and voila, I have the vertical/horizontal designations done. It requires a bit of typing the first time around though if you do it by hand, but it pays off after that. There should be a way to create this sort of macros from outside DF, but I'm not very good with that sort of stuff.

[kardwill]

Personally, I prefer to go with long corridors for the initial search. My grid is more in a vague 20x20 pattern. That way, I can quickly check if there are metals on this level. You don't need a full exploration to know IF there is metal.
Once I find metals on a z level, though, I go for a more narrow grid on that z-level.

[drummingpariah]

Ores can be quite deep though,

Try going at least 50z levels before giving up.

50 zlevels!?! That's wicked deep! I re-embarked to a new location, and had no problem finding lots of copper, which is really all I needed to make me happy.

There's no need to compile DF for linux. Just download, extract, and run from the folder. If you run into any library problems, there are threads on solving that (IIRC I had to symlink a library because it wanted it under another name).

I've had to install a pile of 32bit libs, which still really aren't working. The emulated .exe seems to be working great, as long as I'm on a small enough grid (7x7 or smaller), so I'll stick with that.

Smelter is a little buggy. Some options are often red, even when you have the material (ore and charcoal/coke). I often have to use the manager to start them working on a new metal. Don't know why.
Check in the inventory screen if you have ore : Tetrahedrite, galena, hematite, limonite, magnetite, sphalerite, native gold, platinium and silver... Also make sure you have coal/coke, you will use up a lot of it.

To find ore, no need to clear out a huge block of rock. Instead, make a grid of some long winding tunnels in each Z-level you want to devote to mining. If there are veins and clusters of ore in this level, the tunnels should find them. You then can exploit the veins you found, and search for more in the same level.

To find ore, no need to clear out a huge block of rock. Instead, make a grid of some long winding tunnels in each Z-level you want to devote to mining. If there are veins and clusters of ore in this level, the tunnels should find them. You then can exploit the veins you found, and search for more in the same level.

Makes sense. Now that I have a bit of ore and can make more picks, I can really start delving deeper, and that sounds like a solid plan.

Here are some good patterns. I prefer the 7x7 blocks. It may miss small high value ore/gem deposits, but if you mine primarily for weapon grade metals or to find massive exploitable silver/gold deposits, it serves its purpose just fine.

EDIT:
It can get a bit tedious to designate digging patterns by hand. What I like to do is use macros. As per my preference, I keep a '7x7 horizontal' and '7x7 vertical' macros. Whenever I need to dig another level I pick one, run it and voila, I have the vertical/horizontal designations done. It requires a bit of typing the first time around though if you do it by hand, but it pays off after that. There should be a way to create this sort of macros from outside DF, but I'm not very good with that sort of stuff.
[/quote]

Macros are definitely my 'oh god thats awesome' feature of the day. I can't wait to

Personally, I prefer to go with long corridors for the initial search. My grid is more in a vague 20x20 pattern. That way, I can quickly check if there are metals on this level. You don't need a full exploration to know IF there is metal.
Once I find metals on a z level, though, I go for a more narrow grid on that z-level.

I'm finding that I run into water a lot. There seems to be a lot more ore around water bodies than anywhere else, based on what little exploration I've done. It may just be a coincidence.

[yamgrenade]

Did you embark with an aquifer?

That is a big no-no. Make sure your embark point has no aquifer.

[Ihmhi]

If I may, I'd like to offer some advice on this subject and starting a new fort in general.

I always avoid aquifers. They're a pain and I don't like building my underground architecture around them. At times nearly an entire Z-level is useless because of a huge aquifer. If you need water underground, you can dig a multi Z-level shaft and then divert existing running water into it. (I avoid aquifers, but I always make sure to choose an embark position with a stream or, better yet, a river.)

Next, dealing with the lack of supplies can always be a tricky issue. It's nigh-impossible to find a location that has absolutely everything you need - you'll be short a particular type of metal, or they may be only one type of sand, or there will be very few trees, etc.

Here's what I do and it works really well for me.

My current fort is in a similar situation. I have metals but I've yet to discover them as I'm carefully clearing out the main areas of my fort. I don't dig new areas until the current area I'm clearing out is free of stone and properly smoothed & engraved (if needed). So I have a metal shortage, but I don't want my soldiers running around with training/wooden equipment. Moreover, I have a countess and I can't really do anything about chains for a prison because I don't have enough rope. This is where trading comes in.

Regardless of what I plan to do with my fort, I always have at least two craftsdwarves. Their sole job is to continually pump out rock crafts. I then make a few storage areas that are usually 40x40 (or two 20x20, whatever) to store crafts and only crafts. To make a storage pile for crafts only, create a Finished Goods stockpile. Then, press Q and highlight the stockpile. Press s for settings. Scroll down to Finished Goods (which should be lit up). DISABLE the following options by highlighting them and hitting Enter:

• chains
• flasks
• armor
• footwear
• headwear
• handwear
• legwear
• backpacks
• quivers
• splints
• crutches
• tools

Now you have a Finished Goods stockpile that will only store crafts. (If you make a Finished Goods stockpile near your workshops, be sure to ENABLE the above listed items and DISABLE anything not listed above so that crafts don't end up stored at the wrong stockpile.) It should ideally be placed very near your Trade Depot - it will increase the time for storing it from the workshop but it will greatly reduce the time needed to bring the items to the depot, and you are always on a timer when a caravan arrives.

When your Craftsdorfs are high enough level, they will consistantly produce rock crafts worth *100 and will occasionally put out a masterpiece worth *200+. Always have a few dozen crafted goods on hand, and you can trade for whatever your fort is missing. As a point of reference, Iron Anvils are usually *100 and Steel Anvils are usually *300, and dwarves almost always bring a half dozen of anvils (altogether) unless you request so much stuff that the caravan doesn't have room - so in your worst case scenario you'll manage to get *some* metal every year from the Dwarven caravan, and that's not even counting all the weapons, armor, bolts, etc. Regrettably, some of the metal items they bring can be really expensive (especially early in the game), but if you plan carefully you can probably have a good trading/melting operation going within 3 years.

When traders arrive, buy anything and everything metal. If it's the dorfs, order everything metal that you can - raw ore, armor, anvils, chains, bolts, etc. Buy it and melt it down.

Once you start collecting random metal objects, then you can designate them for melting. Press k and get the cursor over a metal object you want to melt, and then press m. A red M will appear next to it meaning that the object is now designated for melting. You will then need a Wood Furnace to make charcoal. A Dwarf with the "Wood Burning" labor under "Farming/Related" will turn logs into charcoal at a Wood Furnace. After you have some charcoal made, you can then build a Smelter (requiring the labor Metalsmithing/Furnace Operating). Once you have a Smelter built, go to it and run "Melt a Metal Object (o)" on repeat. Your Furnace Operators will continually melt metal items into usuable bars until they run out of fuel or things to melt. (If you want to train up a dedicated furnace operator, then the easiest way is to continually designate the just-melted bars as meltable items. The dwarf will melt the bars, you'll have to re-designate them, etc. It's a cheap way to level up a furnace operator with no loss of material other than the charcoal.)

I hope this helps.

[evileeyore]

I still have not found a single material I can convert into ore though. I've had a smelter in each of my 3 fortresses, and dug around like crazy, but all the smelter actions are red. I'm assuming I'm missing something, or doing something wrong ... ores can't be THAT rare, can they?

Yes, yes they can.

I've had embarks that relied soley on goblinite and imports for metals and I've had others where the iron was so abundant everything was made of steel, everything (alternately I've had the all gold/silver/gemstones embarks too).