Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kofthefens]

It is possible (though unlikely) for a 2x2 embark to have no adamantine.  A 3x3 or larger embark will always have adamantine, but a 2x2 has a chance of having none.  A 4x4 should always have at least one spire, and usually more than one.

Really? Then why isn't there any on my 4x4?

[thegoatgod_pan]

As long as the terrifying area isn't actually in your embark it should have no effect.  Maybe extend your embark one over so it gets the scary are?

Also just dig down to the magma sea, you'll def. see it then

[Kofthefens]

As long as the terrifying area isn't actually in your embark it should have no effect.  Maybe extend your embark one over so it gets the scary are?

Also just dig down to the magma sea, you'll def. see it then

I am unsure if you are responding to me, but I have dug out to reveal all of the magma sea. No candy.

[Miuramir]

As long as the terrifying area isn't actually in your embark it should have no effect.  Maybe extend your embark one over so it gets the scary are?

Also just dig down to the magma sea, you'll def. see it then

I am unsure if you are responding to me, but I have dug out to reveal all of the magma sea. No candy.

The way things are supposed to work:
Word of Toady, and supported by all the careful research I've seen so far, is that there is one blue spire generated in every 2x2 embark grid, randomly placed amongst the four embark squares.  Every 16x16 region square therefore has exactly 64 blue (and one special HFS).  A 2x2 embark aligned to the grid will have exactly one blue spire.  A 2x2 embark offset may have as few as none or as many as four blue spires.  Over all the possible configurations of 2x2 embarks, your odds are as follows (rounded): zero blue, 20.4%; one blue, 60.6%, two blue, 17.8%, three blue, 1.8%, four blue, 0.1%, with an average (not surprisingly) of one blue; you also have a chance of special HFS of about 1.6%.

A 3x3 is guaranteed (barring serious program bugs) to have at least one blue, has an average of 2.25 blue, and a max of four blue, with a special HFS chance of about 3.5%.  An unaligned 4x4 still has a minimum of one blue, but an average of four blue, and a max of nine blue; with special HFS chance of about 6.3%; aligning it with the grid gives you exactly four blue.  Moving up to a 5x5 increases the minimum blue to four, with an average of 6.25 and a max still of nine; the special HFS chance is 9.8%.  If you're planning one making the HFS a major part of your fortress and don't cheat with reveal, an aligned 4x4 is the smallest you can generate that is guaranteed to have multiple blue (and therefore a high chance of multiple entrances, reducing the risk that one of the spires will not be traversable).

Mismatched sizes are not recommended, they may still have various bugs associated with them.  In any case, your minimum blue is controlled by the *smallest* dimension; a 1xN / Nx1 or unaligned 2xN / Nx2 can have as little as zero blue.  To guarantee at least one blue, you need the smallest dimension to either be 2 and aligned with the grid, or 3. 

Note, however, that if you edit some worldgen parameters you can cause problems.  In particular, fiddling around with the number and spacing of the cavern layers has been known to result in embarks or even entire worlds without spires.  IF you are running with a stock set of cavern parameters, and have entirely dug out over the magma sea, you'll need to document this as a bug.  I suggest posting your worldgen here (in a spoiler) so folks can look it over first. 

[miauw62]

PerfectworldDF makes pretty neat volcano worlds, and i head that you need to do prospect all.

[PoisonYu]

Thanks for all the replies, my 3rd fortress Sinmartyrs the Chamber of Maggots is up and just into its second year. I've only just completed my spiral staircase entrance and i'm about to move my completely surface based operations all down below to safety, just hope those Goblins hold off until the end of the year to give me some time. In my first two fortresses the Goblins seemed to arrive around the end of the second year, considering the fact my civ is at war with the Goblins this time and not just hostile with them, can I expect an attack slightly sooner? I hope not, its going to be a close one getting all my crap down below!

Anyway, thanks for the help concerning the blue spires, I did a prospect all and I've got around 3k of the blue stuff so I should be fine. Got me loads of Iron, flux and a lovely volcano so until i'm ready the good old stainless steel will do me just fine.

Cheers.

[Kofthefens]

As long as the terrifying area isn't actually in your embark it should have no effect.  Maybe extend your embark one over so it gets the scary are?

Also just dig down to the magma sea, you'll def. see it then

I am unsure if you are responding to me, but I have dug out to reveal all of the magma sea. No candy.

Note, however, that if you edit some worldgen parameters you can cause problems.  In particular, fiddling around with the number and spacing of the cavern layers has been known to result in embarks or even entire worlds without spires.  IF you are running with a stock set of cavern parameters, and have entirely dug out over the magma sea, you'll need to document this as a bug.  I suggest posting your worldgen here (in a spoiler) so folks can look it over first.

Ah, yes, I messed about with those a fair bit, to make a shallow world.