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[Firbozz Pieman]

So I recently updated to the most recent version, and generated a new world. However, at both of the embark sites I've tried so far, there has been no ore. I'm pretty certain the biomes of both embarks had at least "Deep" or "Shallow" metals. In the first fort, I tunnelled all the way down to the HFS, and the only ore I crossed was adamantine. At the second embark, I've gotten down the the first cave, and even there, the only ore in native gold.
Oddly, though, there are still plenty of gems.
Has this happened to anyone else?

[Fredd]

What level of frequency you set for minerals in world gen is a big factor

[ullrich]

The site finder lies.

I have had embarks with 3 biomes all listing shallow metals & deep metals in each biome the only smeltable material present was bituminous coal. If you use dfrevel you can see from the distributions of rocks that certain rocks must be getting counted as "metals" by the site finder, as such, embark and use dfreval/dfprospect since the site finder is mostly useless (in terms of getting metals). I would also recommend lowering mineral scarcity to at least 1/2 of the default 2500? to 1250 to get a decent amount of metals, more often than not you will still only ever have 1 ore per 4x4 embark.

[Agent_86]

That's because the site finder counts ALL mineral ores (not necessarily metal ores) when taking into account "shallow/deep metals".

[Yaotzin]

For a good number of (useful) ores, my most success has been an embark location of mostly mountain, plus some river and forest. I often get a combination of solid amounts of iron/copper/etc stuff, coal/lignite, lots of gold/silver, lots of adamantine etc. And flux stone almost every time.

I find multiple shallow metals is very important, multiple deep metals is almost a given with the mountain so I barely pay attention to that, and flux stone isn't even always necessary. I'll often get some chalk or whatever even when it wasn't said to be there.

I probably have the most trouble getting coal, it seems like it chooses randomly there from quite a few random stones, mostly low utility or none at all. Still, it comes up pretty often.

[nukularpower]

I find that if you look for "Shallow metals" (not "Shallow metal") you almost always get flux, iron, and tons of coal, no matter what the site finder says.. I havent even been bothering with magma forges lately  ^^

[Garath]

the flux finding is bugged and really doesn't work

cobaltite and cinnabar are counted as metal ores even if you can't smelt them. Half my embarks with multiple ores have cinnabar or cobaltite

[Firbozz Pieman]

I wasn't using worldgen with Adv. Parameters, I had minerals set to "scarce", the middle of the five options. I guess I'll root around my site a bit more, seeing as it has a volcano. If I can at least find some weapon ore, that'll solve my problem. Otherwise, I guess I'll be making a fortress out of gold!

[Loud Whispers]

The site finder lies.

It could tell you that there are deep and shallow metals, only for both to be entirely composed of microcline.

[greycat]

So I recently updated to the most recent version

This may be way off the mark, but it merits mentioning: when you upgrade, do not extract the new DF archive file in the old DF directory.  Extract in a new directory.  Mixing files from old and new versions can cause a slew of mysterious issues.  I'm not sure if "no minerals" is one of them.

The other thing is: what are you doing with the world gen settings?  Many people get confused by the "mineral scarcity" setting.  They think a higher number means more minerals.  Actually, a lower number means more minerals.  It's scarcity, not abundance.  Weird, I know, but it's how Toady chose to implement it.

[T-Mick]

Make sure it says metals, not metal.  I had that problem.  Also, you may consider changing the mineral frequency to common or frequent.(I forgot which it is, the one higher than scarce)  That left me with a lot of iron on every shallow metals site.

[Firbozz Pieman]

So I recently updated to the most recent version

This may be way off the mark, but it merits mentioning: when you upgrade, do not extract the new DF archive file in the old DF directory.  Extract in a new directory.  Mixing files from old and new versions can cause a slew of mysterious issues.  I'm not sure if "no minerals" is one of them.

The other thing is: what are you doing with the world gen settings?  Many people get confused by the "mineral scarcity" setting.  They think a higher number means more minerals.  Actually, a lower number means more minerals.  It's scarcity, not abundance.  Weird, I know, but it's how Toady chose to implement it.

No this was a completly new file, so it's not that. I think it must just be the worldgen settings I had... I went to a new site, used dfreveal, and there were four, maybe five different types of ore, and certainly in smaller quantities than I'd seen them in previous games. I guess maybe the default scarcity changed since the version I was using before.
Thanks for the help, peeps!