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Author Topic: mining help  (Read 555 times)

TriBeCa99

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mining help
« on: June 23, 2013, 04:17:03 pm »
Hi all. So through the first ten layers I haven't seen any coal or flux stone... I guess I'm really just looking for advice on where to look. I'd like to get steel going, and am wondering if I should just bite the bullet and start buying stuff from traders and melting it down.

My uppermost layers are mostly shale and microcline, with lots of cobaltite and olivine, and plenty of hematite veins. My gem economy is booming, but I could've sworn the embark screen claimed I would have flux and I just haven't seen any.

Where should I be looking?
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TripJack

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Re: mining help
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2013, 04:43:48 pm »
Unmodded coal & lignite veins can occur in shale or in any other sedimentary layer. Note that coal isn't guaranteed or more common than other ores, your embark could very well not have any coal. In the future if you really want coal you can either: 1) use DFHack's 'prospect' command before embarking to get an idea of what stones/ores are present or 2) edit the raws to make coal veins more common. Otherwise you will have to make do with charcoal and magma.

As for flux stone, just dig down deeper and I'm sure you will hit a marble layer.
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TriBeCa99

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Re: mining help
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2013, 05:01:05 pm »
Thanks. I can live without coal, although of course I'd love to find some. I didn't realize it occurred in shale, I'll do a better job of exploratory mining my upper layers. And thanks, I'll look for marble down a little lower :)
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Looger

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Re: mining help
« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2013, 02:08:18 am »
I wasn't able to find coal in most of my embarks although I mostly had sedimentary layers - maybe it's just bad luck but I decided to start always with a civilization that has access to bituminous coal (you can exit the embark screen and start over again with another civ if you realize that they don't) and buy lots of it at embark since it is cheap to buy and you get 8 coke out of one piece, so 30 bituminous coal cost you 90 points at the embark and you'll get out 240 pieces of coke which should be okay for the start. You can also trade then a bit from the dwarven caravan, but only small amounts.
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