Can't find coal.

[BloomingLilac]

I need to feed my dwarves, but I'm out of coal. Some of you finished the level. How did you manage? I'm wondering if I need to start over again...

[casta_03]

depending on your layout & luck, you can rotate bread, salad, & cones until you find coal
when your dwarves are off doing other things you don't need to micromanage, scout around; the magic light spell is perfect for this. Coal can spawn almost anywhere underground, but it seems to be plentiful everywhere from right below the surface to about halfway down the map. As opposed to simply digging a tunnel to it, you can cancel other orders, put a portal in a cave near the coal, & have all your dwarves stripmine the area quickly.

once you have it, you'll want to conserve it.

-Only cook if you have plenty to spare. Only cook the dishes with high food value & quantities per coal (stew for meat, grilled fish for fish)

-Don't pour it into minor upgrades on equipment. Leather & wood armor can hold you over well enough, iron boots don't make an impact on reserves, leather helmets don't require anything rare. Unless you're going for an upgrade of at least 2 or 3 steps (wood, leather, iron/steel, silver, gold, mithril) save the coal for higher-grade materials. Silver, gold, & mithril armor use the same amount of coal (13). All swords use the same amount of coal (8). This means it's usually better to hold off. If you need defenses, tesla towers take less coal than any higher-tier equipment (5)

-Don't build luxury items unless they're current journal objectives. As of right now, they do nothing for you. Simple beds are just as good as any other, & don't require wool or coal.

-If you want to get better building materials, go with stone- it generally uses plentiful materials. If you must upgrade to brick, only go for the outside walls- those traced over by the totem's little dot trail. Anything inside the house itself can do just as well with wood or stone. Shingle roofs pale in comparison to stone ones, which don't use your precious coal. Only have as many exits to your house as absolutely necessary- steel doors are expensive & too many will lower your comfort rating

[BloomingLilac]

Thanks for the great tips. I'm currently managing to find enough here and there just to advance through the tech tree. Dwarves are happy to have their beer and I'm keeping them from starving. I'll just keep looking for it because I've got 9 hours invested in this game. Tired of starting over. :-) Happy Thanksgiving!

[Crash]

Originally posted by BloomingLilac:

Thanks for the great tips. I'm currently managing to find enough here and there just to advance through the tech tree. Dwarves are happy to have their beer and I'm keeping them from starving. I'll just keep looking for it because I've got 9 hours invested in this game. Tired of starting over. :-) Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to you as well...

I never actually cooked for my dwarves.. I let them complain about hunger the entire time.. Didn't seem to make a difference LOL

[Adamus]

I've noticed a layer where coal can be mined from what appears to be just dirt, this can give you a few hundred or so extra coal resource just by strip mining this layer across the whole map.

The layer is located around 20 to 30 blocks deep and is roughly 5 or 6 blocks thick. The dirt this far down isn't the plain dark brown surface dirt; it is in the region of the yellow dirt and the rocky, light brown dirt. This layer produces dirt, coal and stone in abundance. Dig around down there and you'll start getting more coal - I needed this to get enough coal to make food as well as mithril and gold armours for all my dwarves. There wasn't enough mithril or gold to equip all of them in just one type, so I went for a mixture of gold and mithril with some silver swords amongst the yagatans.

Another useful layer is the red, rocky dirt which produces dirt, stone and iron ore. I've found that running out of iron is usually not an issue but it is there anyway if you need it.

[BloomingLilac]

Originally posted by Crash:

Originally posted by BloomingLilac:

Thanks for the great tips. I'm currently managing to find enough here and there just to advance through the tech tree. Dwarves are happy to have their beer and I'm keeping them from starving. I'll just keep looking for it because I've got 9 hours invested in this game. Tired of starting over. :-) Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to you as well...

I never actually cooked for my dwarves.. I let them complain about hunger the entire time.. Didn't seem to make a difference LOL

Hahaha! Thanks. I hope your Thanksgiving is going well.

I've found some coal. The main issue I've been having is the dwarves aren't picking up the loot. It's odd because they are normally so meticulous. Ha! I had them tear down two goblin camps. They still haven't collected all of it. I'm torn between making them mine coal and getting to that. They're battling it out with the third wave of goblins now. I've been playing for around 10 hours and still have a long way to go. It's fun, though. :-)

[BloomingLilac]

Originally posted by Adamus:

I've noticed a layer where coal can be mined from what appears to be just dirt, this can give you a few hundred or so extra coal resource just by strip mining this layer across the whole map.

The layer is located around 20 to 30 blocks deep and is roughly 5 or 6 blocks thick. The dirt this far down isn't the plain dark brown surface dirt; it is in the region of the yellow dirt and the rocky, light brown dirt. This layer produces dirt, coal and stone in abundance. Dig around down there and you'll start getting more coal - I needed this to get enough coal to make food as well as mithril and gold armours for all my dwarves. There wasn't enough mithril or gold to equip all of them in just one type, so I went for a mixture of gold and mithril with some silver swords amongst the yagatans.

Another useful layer is the red, rocky dirt which produces dirt, stone and iron ore. I've found that running out of iron is usually not an issue but it is there anyway if you need it.

Thank you. I just discovered the layer you're referring to, I think. Mine looks like "red" bricks and there's coal in it. Hurray! :-)

[casta_03]

Originally posted by Adamus:

I've noticed a layer where coal can be mined from what appears to be just dirt, this can give you a few hundred or so extra coal resource just by strip mining this layer across the whole map.

The layer is located around 20 to 30 blocks deep and is roughly 5 or 6 blocks thick. The dirt this far down isn't the plain dark brown surface dirt; it is in the region of the yellow dirt and the rocky, light brown dirt. This layer produces dirt, coal and stone in abundance. Dig around down there and you'll start getting more coal - I needed this to get enough coal to make food as well as mithril and gold armours for all my dwarves. There wasn't enough mithril or gold to equip all of them in just one type, so I went for a mixture of gold and mithril with some silver swords amongst the yagatans.

Another useful layer is the red, rocky dirt which produces dirt, stone and iron ore. I've found that running out of iron is usually not an issue but it is there anyway if you need it.

amazing
I verified this then put it in the tips & tricks section

[BloomingLilac]

Okay, so all this coal is lying on the ground, but they're just walking by without picking it up. What can I do?

[Adamus]

Originally posted by BloomingLilac:

Okay, so all this coal is lying on the ground, but they're just walking by without picking it up. What can I do?

I've had a similar problem but not in large quantities of material; it's a game bug, not much that can be done. Sometimes the dwarves will ignore it until they have literally nothing else to do, if they still ignore it you'll have to go and get more elsewhere :/

[BloomingLilac]

Originally posted by Adamus:

Originally posted by BloomingLilac:

Okay, so all this coal is lying on the ground, but they're just walking by without picking it up. What can I do?

I've had a similar problem but not in large quantities of material; it's a game bug, not much that can be done. Sometimes the dwarves will ignore it until they have literally nothing else to do, if they still ignore it you'll have to go and get more elsewhere :/

Thanks. I'd probably be finished by now if not for having to wait on them to pick everything up. I decided to take a little break so I don't end up rage quitting. :-)

[casta_03]

remove all their other jobs & reload the game
if the coal is a distance from your stockpile, put a portal at the coal
if they're just standing around, send them to eat or sleep- they're probably sundowning

[BloomingLilac]

I've been using the portal spell. Running low on mana because I'm waiting for them to level up. Almost level 9, but now there's another goblin camp. Lost 6 of my 8 dwarves...I'll make it. It's just gonna take a while. :-)