Finding Iron Ore early game.

[Emjay]

Any of you guys know a good way to find iron ore in the early game? Im finding it difficult making a secure location as I cant build the locks to craft the doors.

Cheers!

[ehyder]

I don't use doors in the early game. At least in part because it takes me a while to find and mine the ore.

I do have two/three methods of finding ore. The first is to look at the first few surface blocks when it is daylight (scrolling with the keyboard). You can usually spot a few veins close to the surface that you can mine. My next effort is to dig down around 7-10 blocks below the surface, radiating out from my home base East and West at that level until I hit ore. If dwarf travel time to the warehouse starts to get too long using this method I start to dig down on either side of my home and then dig an East/West level again about every 10/15 blocks down.

I usually manage to mine enough iron to keep up with advances in the tech tree but I only build just enough doors to get through whatever tech level requires them. And do not depend on doors for homebase security until I can build the steel doors.

[iNol]

I usually just dig down to make rooms underground, each room 2-3 tiles high, 3-4 levels down. Usually meet coal and iron on the process.

Additionally you can use illumination spell or torches on the deepest point you've dug to scout for minerals.

[KatherineOfSky]

Consider making an underground shelter -- 100% of my living space is underground. The "hatch" item doesn't require any iron ore, and you can build multiple hatches to prevent monsters from getting in.

Only later, when I have a large supply of iron ore, do I build doors on either side of my defense towers.

[Emjay]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Consider making an underground shelter -- 100% of my living space is underground. The "hatch" item doesn't require any iron ore, and you can build multiple hatches to prevent monsters from getting in.

Only later, when I have a large supply of iron ore, do I build doors on either side of my defense towers.

Does that mean you can move the supply depot thing? The thing with the teleporter on it? As AFAIK if you leave it exposed it will just get looted right?

Otherwise thats exactly what ive wanted to do all along!

[ehyder]

No, unfortunately you cannot move your beginning storehouse. However, the only creatures care about it are the raiding goblins on the Forest World. And I think most of us just go attack the goblin 'village' pretty quickly, getting anything back all they have taken, plus a whole lot more - the goblins have great loot. The ghosts are the only other creatures that touch the storehouse and they just toss things around. The rest of the critters do not care about the storehouse; they just want to snack on tasty dwarves.

Don't worry about the storehouse, just make your secure shelter underground. I use sand walls until I am ready to defend against the waves. These do not stop goblins and ghosts, which I do not care about anyway, but are pretty effective against every thing else in the early to mid game.

[KatherineOfSky]

Yep, what ehyder said....
When I first started playing I had this strange idea that I was supposed to defend the storehouse with my (dwarves') lives! However.... it's nto necessary -- nothing ever gets truly stolen, only messed with by the ghost... and he comes whether or not the stockpile is enclosed! :-)

[drochnathair]

I always build my base underground, beneath the warehouse/stockpile. I use the portal to move dwarves into underground caves for mining purposes. Someone above mentioned using the light spell to 'explore' areas and find mineral deposits which is helpful advice. Also, you can decontruct most items to get about 2/3 of the crafting mats back. So... if you're in mid to late game and you don't feel like strip mining the lower levels for ore, you can always deconstruct items you aren't using anymore.

[Hangfire]

Only one answer I'm afraid, go deep. If we take a tunnel to be 2 tiles high with 1 tile for floor then the first 4 or 5 levels will mostly be soil and sand, great for sleeping dorms and comfort items within the totem radius. On the next 3 or 4 levels you should start to hit coal and ore, just work out sideways from there.
De-constructing skeleton weapons and goal loot might be a short term option.

[ehyder]

And if you go deep enough iron starts dropping randomly from mined blocks, not just blocks that obviously contain iron ore. This will not give you a lot of iron but if you are mining down that deep looking for ore anyway it does help.