Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress  (Read 1994 times)

RafLunarWinter

  • Escaped Lunatic
    • View Profile
I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« on: May 13, 2018, 08:16:08 pm »

Soooo, I was wondering why I wasn't finding any iron (or the stuff that makes iron anyway) but I was getting a lot of silver and gold veins. I didn't pay much attention to it until sometime later (aka 2 in-game years). What I've gathered is that in the first couple of down layers I get rocks like diorite, as I go down a little bit more I reach marble, and then I find a cave with silver/gold veins. After that, I only mine though gabbro until I reach another cave (which is too dangerous and from what I could scout it didn't have any veins). Oh, btw, I didn't find any bituminous coal and such.
Does my place not have a sedimentary layer or something? I remember selecting a site with flux stones, but even if I have that selected on "embark" it doesn't really mean I'll have it. That's what I understood from the wiki anyways. And gold/silver veins are part of the igneous layer, am I missing something here?
Logged
“All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down

Bumber

  • Bay Watcher
  • REMOVE KOBOLD
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2018, 09:37:28 pm »

Marble is a metamorphic flux stone. You probably don't have sedimentary layers if you've got igneous. Even if you did, it wouldn't guarantee iron.
Logged
Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

§k

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2018, 12:57:40 am »

Raid goblin pits and make them pay tribute!
Logged
All of them are wearing copper and Iron masks saying "in a time before time somebody attacked somebody"

Show undead posts since last visit.

anewaname

  • Bay Watcher
  • The mattock... My choice for problem solving.
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2018, 02:40:07 am »

When you find no metals for armor at your embark site, you can get metals by buying all the metal items from caravans and melting them. Another method is to take them from invading goblins, which can be done with a large hallway full of weapon traps and cage traps.
Logged
How did I manage to successfully apply the lessons of The Screwtape Letters to my perceptions of big grocery stores?

PatrikLundell

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2018, 02:46:34 am »

As Bumber said, marble is flux, so you've found that. Shallow/Deep metal(s) only say there is some metal, not which one(s) and there is no guarantee to get any particular metal. Fuel seems to be somewhat rare in general.

DF can also claim there's clay/flux/deep metal(s) and and aquifer even when one or more of those features are missing. This is the result of DF just looking at the "geo biome" to see if those things are present there, but does not factor in embark location factors in the form of elevation (which can "erode" clay and aquifers from appearing) and the depth of the embark (which causes the parts of the geo biome that would appear below the SMR to be absent, including the flux and metal(s) those parts would have brought).

The Embark Assistant DFHack plugin allows you to search for embark locations having features you're looking for, while prospector (invoked as "prospect") allows you to see what's present in a particular prospective embark location.
Logged

Kametec_Housen

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2018, 03:05:14 am »

There is also a tip on Wiki:
Quote from: Wiki
To find the ores of iron, search for a location that has shallow metals, flux stone, medium elevation, and either high or low drainage.

You have to be lucky though. I read it and embarked upon limonite on my first try. I wasn't able to reproduce the result however, and when I wanted another embark with iron, I ran out of patience and used embark-assistant. Copper near surface and marble deeper down will also satisfy such embark criteria.
Logged

Leonidas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #6 on: May 15, 2018, 03:19:54 am »

You can build a fine army without iron. I've got 150 dwarves clad in copper armor wielding mostly silver maces. They're slowly changing over to steel as the friendly local goblins bring me their iron.

If you don't even have copper, you can make armor from leather or bone. Any armor is much, much better than no armor.
Logged

Bumber

  • Bay Watcher
  • REMOVE KOBOLD
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #7 on: May 15, 2018, 05:05:46 pm »

Ordering iron ores and bars from the dwarven liaison is an easy way to get some iron. If your civ has all three types of ore, that gets you 50 iron bars per year without the hassle of melting down a bunch of items. Obviously, you can get 5 steel bars, too. You can also order coal, but you don't really need it if you've got surface trees.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2018, 05:11:06 pm by Bumber »
Logged
Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

Vivalas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #8 on: May 16, 2018, 05:17:51 pm »

Doesn't the coloring of the metals/ deep metals label dictate the stone layers present at that embarm site or biome?
Logged
"On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
- Charles Babbage

The Imperial Question | Stranded Among Stars

Bumber

  • Bay Watcher
  • REMOVE KOBOLD
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #9 on: May 16, 2018, 08:11:10 pm »

Doesn't the coloring of the metals/ deep metals label dictate the stone layers present at that embarm site or biome?
Is that a DFHack thing?
Logged
Reading his name would trigger it. Thinking of him would trigger it. No other circumstances would trigger it- it was strictly related to the concept of Bill Clinton entering the conscious mind.

THE xTROLL FUR SOCKx RUSE WAS A........... DISTACTION        the carp HAVE the wagon

A wizard has turned you into a wagon. This was inevitable (Y/y)?

Vivalas

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2018, 10:27:14 pm »

No, almost certain it is a vanilla feature. I think it is mentioned in the quickstart.
Logged
"On two occasions I have been asked,—"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
- Charles Babbage

The Imperial Question | Stranded Among Stars

Shonai_Dweller

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: I don't think I can get metal in my fortress
« Reply #11 on: July 12, 2018, 10:33:35 pm »

No, almost certain it is a vanilla feature. I think it is mentioned in the quickstart.
It's not in the actual page on the embark screen. Perhaps quickstart is out of date?
Logged