v0.31:Stonegears/Metalworking

Back to the main tutorial page

Uses for metalworking, glass making and ceramics

• If you have the INVADERS option‡ set to YES then you'll definitely need to make Template:L armor and weapons. A Template:L with equipment made entirely from Template:L, Template:L and Template:L isn't going to be very effective.
• Some nobles‡ will make Template:Ls and production Template:Ls for metal, Template:L and Template:L items.
• Making Template:Ls out Template:L, Template:L or Template:L is a good way to make high-value Template:L which can be installed into Template:Ls to raise their quality or be put into communal areas so admiring them can give happy Template:Ls.
• Template:Ls made from gold can be used to buy a lot of stuff from the Template:Ls).
• If your fortress is at a site with no Template:Ls on the surface, like a Template:L or Template:L, you can make Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Les and Template:Ls out of metal in order to conserve your supplies of wood (though you can get everything but bins from Template:Ls.
• If you have any Template:L or Template:L floors on your site you can collect an endless amount of the materials for making glass and ceramics. forges and furnaces vs magma powered ones==

Template:Ls and Template:Ls need power in order to operate. Normal ones are powered by consuming Template:L, either Template:L made from Template:L or coke refined from Template:L or Template:L. The Template:L version are powered by being placed one Template:L above magma and need no fuel. Magma is usually obtained from the ubiquitous Template:L, but is sometimes acquired from a Template:L instead.

Advantages of magma power

The advantage of magma power all stem from the fact that you can use it endlessly without using up any fuel:

• You can Template:L all of the iron weapons and armor left behind by Template:L Template:Ls, turning them into bars your metal workers can use, without using up all your fuel.
• You can train your Template:L and Template:L by having them make weapons and armor out of Template:L and Template:L, so they'll have more Template:L when they later use Template:L or Template:L.
• You can recycle all your low Template:L products via melting.
• If you have any sand on your site you can churn out endless amounts of raw glass to train your Template:L and Template:L.
• If you have any sand or clay on your site you can churn out endless amounts of glass and ceramic goods to trade to the caravans. Glass and ceramic are three times more valuable than ordinary rock and 50% more valuable than Template:L. (Of course, a skilled stonecrafter is going to make more valuable stone goods than an unskilled glassmaker or potter).

Disadvantages of magma power

The big disadvantage of magma power is that the magma usually comes from the magma sea, which is usually 60 or more z-levels below the surface, meaning that not only do you have to dig down quite a ways, but if the main part of your fortress is up near the surface there's a long round trip of anyone involved.

Mitigating the problem of magma power

There are multiple ways of dealing with the problem of the long round trips:

• Make a second living area down near the magma sea, including Template:Ls, and manually assign the bedrooms to anyone working down there. This way the only dwarves making long round trips will be the Template:L.
• You can make a 1x1 tile wide pit going all the way down to your magma works and put a Template:L next to it so that Template:L items will be thrown down it, to save the time on hauling items all the way down. However, this requires a bit of micromanagement, especially to dump down Template:Ls of Template:L without spilling the sand.
• Choose a fortress site which has a Template:L, so you can put your magma works near the surface.
• Move some magma up closer to the surface (taking advantage of the fact that magma in Dwarf Fortress never cools, thus acting as an infinite source of energy):
  • You can move magma up by using Template:Ls made from Template:L materials.
  • You can take advantage of the game's simplistic simulation of liquid displacement via a Template:L, which will teleport magma up many z-levels.
• Build your fortress down near the magma sea. You can use the water from the lowest Template:L to Template:L rock for Template:L, leaving only few dwarfs up near the surface to cut down trees for wood. You'll only need to go up to the surface to Template:L with Template:Ls and to fight Template:Les and Template:Ls.

Building a magma works

We're going to build a set of magma powered workshops, so you will know how it's done, and so you don't have to worry about running out of Template:L. If you end up using it a lot you should make a second living area down there for the workers (including a Template:L, Template:L or Template:L so they don't trek all the way up to the surface when Template:L).

Safely tapping into the magma sea

You are going to dig some tunnels and connect them to the magma sea to flood them with magma, thus bringing the magma to your workshops. However, there are dangerous monsters living in the sea that you want to keep out. You could use either a Template:L or a Template:L connected to a Template:L to let magma into the tunnels and then block off the sea, but since some of the inhabitants of the magma sea are Template:Ls which can destroy floodgates you'll want to use a drawbridge. Since the drawbridge and the Template:L connecting it to the lever are going to be submerged in magma for a while they need to be made out of Template:L material to prevent them from being destroyed. ((INSTRUCTIONS ON DIGGING OUT SOME MAGMA SAFE STONE))

Now put a stone stockpile next to the mechanic's workshop, accepting only the magma safe stone. Once some of the rock has been deposited there, add three "make mechanism" jobs to the workshop to ensure that at least two magma safe mechanisms are made (the first chunk of rock your mechanic picks might not be a magma safe one, depending upon where s/he is when the job is accepted). Only the mechanism attached to the drawbridge needs to be magma safe, but to avoid accidentally attaching the wrong mechanism to the bridge both mechanisms involved in the connection should be magma safe. The mechanism the lever is made from does not need to be magma safe.

Digging out and flooding the magma tunnels

Go back to the 1x1 tile exploratory stairwell you dug down to the magma see and widen it to 3 tiles wide (if your miners are digging else, remove enough of the mining designation (d-x) to stop them so they can concentrate on this). When you get down to relative depth ____, absolute elevation ____, stop and lay out some unconnected designations for workshops, hallway, and stone stockpile, like this:

SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER

Turn on Template:Ls mode (N) to reveal flashing * notes to show you were the 3x3 workshop spaces should be centered

The upstairs (d-u) in the hallway are to a stockpile for finished goods and smelted bars of metal.

Designate a downstairs (d-j) where the flashing > note is, an upstairs (d-u) right under it a level down, then dig out tunnels to match up with the following:

SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER

The notes (N) are next to the tunnels, not on top of them

At the end of the tunnel right next to the magma sea, place a west raising Template:L (b-g-a-Enter) and choose a chunk of the Template:L rock to build it from. Place a Template:L (b-T-l) on the level with the furnaces and forges, and connect it up to the bridge using the magma safe mechanisms (q-a-b).

Once the bridge is linked up, designate all the rocks in the tunnel to be forbidden (d-b-f) so that no dwarf goes down there to pick some up, then one level up Template:L a Template:L (b-C-w) over the downstairs into the tunnel. With the tunnels blocked off, dig north to the where the blinking C note (N) is and at the C designate a Template:L (d-h). The channel will dig out the stone wall at the C, the floor underneath it, and the stone wall one level down, letting the magma sea flood into the tunnels. Construct a wall (b-C-w) over the hole to block off the magma sea.

Now you just have to wait for the tunnels to fill up. You can tell how full they are by looking (k at the magma. It will show Magma [<Depth>/7], where a Template:L of 7 is full up to the ceiling. Then tunnels will be full enough when their ends are at least 5 deep. At that point make sure there aren't any monsters in the tunnels and pull the (q-a-P) to raise the drawbridge, closing off the tunnels from the magma sea.

Smelters

Connect up for digging the designations for the hallway, stockpile and one of the 3x3 workshop areas between the hallway and stockpile, making sure to connect it to both:

SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER

The stockpile is for rocks that will be involved in smelting, which will go into the Template:L via the opening to the ___ and the across the hall to the forges or up the stairs to the second stockpile (which you can dig out yourself when you're ready for it).

Even though you've dug out the 3x3 area, it's not fully ready to support a magma smelter, since there needs to be a way to let in the heat of the magma. The magma must be visible through at least one hole in the floor which isn't the center of the 3x3 area. To do this, dig a 1x1 Template:L (d-h) either east or west of the center of the room.

SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER

Now to place it. Though smelters and other Template:Ls look and act like workshops, they're placed by a different menu. Use b-e to get to the menu, the l to select a magma powered smelter. Once placed, it will take someone with the Template:L labor enable to design it, just like for bridges. Note that, since it involves architecture, it does not need someone with the furnace operator Template:L enabled to finish building it, but someone with masonry. You'll still have to give one of your dwarves the furnace operator labor to use it, though.

With the smelter constructed, try adding a job to it (q-a). You'll see that, unlike with the other workshops so far, you can choose exactly what type of raw material you want to use. A job will be in white if you have the right raw materials and red if you don't. Except for Template:Ling none of the jobs have a key associated with them, so you have to scroll with - and + to highlight a job and Enter to add it.

In addition to the "Smelt <rock> Ore" jobs, you'll see some "Make ...." jobs. These are for producing Template:L (more on this later) and for making Template:L. Alloys can be made either from metal Template:Ls, indicated by "(use bars)", or by directly mixing together the ores which make the metals that go into the alloy, indicated by "(use ore)".

Making steel

Making Template:L is more involved than smelting other metals:

1. Make two bars of Template:L.
2. Make one of the iron bars into a bar of Template:L by combining it with a piece of Template:L (the carbon) and a chunk of Template:L rock (like the _____ near the surface of your fortress).
3. Combine the iron bar and the pig iron bar with a second piece of fuel and second piece of flux to make two bars of steel.

You can get the fuel either by turning Template:L into charcoal at a Template:L or by turning Template:L or Template:L into coke at a smelter. Since you want to save on wood, and there lignite and coal available, you'll want to do the second. At a magma smelter lignite has a net product of two pieces of coke and bituminous coal has a net product of three pieces of coke (non-magma smelters use fuel to make fuel, so the net product of coke is one less when using them). Thus, at a magma smelter the set of jobs, in proper order, for making steel is:

• Smelt <iron> Ore
• Smelt <iron> Ore
• Make coke from <lignite or coal>
• Make pig iron bars
• Make steel bars

If you put each of the five jobs on Template:L then the smelter will cycle through them, spitting out steel bars until it runs out raw materials. Note that if you make coke from coal instead of lignite you'll end up with an extra piece of coke for every two steel bars you make, so after a while you'll need to remove the "make coke" job to use them up, and then put it back in when you've used up all the excess.

Setting up the smelter stockpile

If you're going to be using the forges and smelters with any regularity you're going to want to turn off the Template:L labors for your metal workers and put a stockpile‡ right next to the smelters for the things your smelters will be using, so they can spend their time smelting while haulers take care of moving the rocks all the way down to the magma sea. While you could make one large stockpile that accepts everything, this would be a bad idea, as it might fill up almost entirely with one sort of ore, leaving only a few spaces for the other ores you're smelting. Instead, you should make several independent stockpiles, one for each type of stone you're using at the smelters. In particular, if smelting Template:L, you should make one stockpile for Template:L ores, one stockpile of the same size for Template:L, and one stockpile half the size for Template:L and Template:L.

Forges

Connect the 3x3 digging designation across the hallway to dig out room for the Template:L, and Template:L (d-h) out a 1x1 tile hole in the floor one tile west or east of the center to let the heat of the magma in.

When it comes to placing and building the forge, keep in mind that even though it uses heat, a forge doesn't fall under the category of a Template:L, so it's found under the workshop menu rather than the furnaces menu, and it doesn't use the Template:L or Template:L labors to build, but one of the four metal working Template:Ls (aside from Template:L). Two of your starting dwarves, _____ and ____ (with the custom professions "Mine/Arm" and "Mine/Weap") are an Template:L and Template:L in addition to being miners, so for this part you'll probably want to turn their mining labor off, or turn the Template:L or Template:L labors an for a different dwarf (unless one of your migrants has one of these skills).

A magma powered forge can be placed with b-w-v. In addition to being made from a rock, making a forge also takes an Template:L, one of which is still sitting in your wagon.

When the forge is built, adding a job to it (q-a) will show a menu with these options:

• Template:Ls and Template:L
• Template:L.
• Template:L, which includes the non-furniture items Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls and Template:Les.
• Template:L, to make a Template:L.
• Template:Ls, for making special types of weapons which can only be used in a Template:L, and also for making metal Template:Ls.
• Other, for making various trade goods, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, and for Template:L items with metal studs. Note that anvils can only be made from iron, steel or adamantine.
• Metal clothing, to make Template:L out of Template:L woven from strands of Template:L (though doing this is a waste of adamantine)

When you choose an option from the menu it will then ask you what type of metal to make it from, giving a list which can be scrolled through with - and + and selected with Enter. Unlike with a smelter, all of the listed metals will be white, even if you don't have any metal Template:Ls of that type to use. After selecting a type of metal it will list the types of items that can be made from, a list which can be scrolled through with - and + and selected with Enter. If you selected a type of metal of which you have no bars then a cancellation message will be given.

Forge skills/labors

There are four metal working skills/labors used at a forge:

• Template:L, for making Template:L.
• Template:L, for making Template:Ls, Template:L, and Template:Ls (but not Template:Ls). Metal weapons includes metal Template:Ls, even though non-metal crossbows are made with the Template:L skill and crossbow-making labor.
• Template:L, for making Template:L, plus Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, and Template:Ls, but not Template:Ls or Template:Ls, even though they're under the forge's "Furniture" menu. It's also for making Template:Ls, even though those are under the forge's "Other" menu.
• Template:L, for making everything under but anvils under the "Other" menu: various trade goods, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, and for Template:L items with studs. It's also for making Template:Ls, even though they go under the "Furniture" menu.

Plus there's two non-metal related skills/labors that can be used at a forge:

• Template:L can be used to make metal Template:Ls.
• Template:Ls can be used to make metal Template:Ls.

Keeping skills from rusting

If you plan on setting up a Template:L during this tutorial game, but not right now, you should have your armor smith and weapon smith each make a few pieces of Template:L equipment every once in a while to keep in practice, since otherwise their skills will Template:L.

Job canceled: need 150 bars of metal

If you're making an Template:L from metal Template:Ls (but not directly from ores) or making Template:L or Template:L, but run out of the metal bars needed, you'll get a cancellation message saying that 150 bars of the missing metal are needed (or even multiples of 150). This is a bug. It's just one (or two or three) bars that are actually needed.

Glass furnace

A magma powered Template:L furnace is placed via b-e-a, in a 3x3 are with one of the non-central tiles Template:Led to reveal the magma one level down; being a furnace, it needs the Template:L and Template:L labors to build. Unlike a forge, everything made at a glass furnace uses a single skill/labor, Glassmaking (the labor is under under the Crafts labor group). Also unlike forges, glass items are made directly from the raw material (Template:L) rather than going through an intermediary step; glass items are not made from "raw glass".

Glass furnaces can make out of glass many of the things a forge can make out of metal, with these exceptions:

• They can't make Template:L.
• They can't make Template:L or handheld Template:Ls, but can make Template:Ls.
• They can't make Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Ls, Template:Les, Template:Ls or Template:Ls. (But glass Template:Ls fulfill the same function as metal barrels.)
• They can't make Template:Ls or Template:Ls.
• They can't (directly) stud items with glass.
• They can't make Template:Ls or Template:Ls.

Glass furnaces can make two types of things that a forge can't:

• "Raw glass", little balls of glass which act the same as rough (uncut) Template:Ls. These pieces of raw glass can be cut by a Template:L, and the cut pieces of glass can be put onto an item by a Template:L as a form of Template:L, resulting in something similar to studding an item with metal. Raw glass is a good way to train gem cutters and gem setters.
• Template:Ls. Don't ask why beings living underground would want windows, but nobles‡ will sometimes make Template:Ls or production Template:Ls for windows.

Green glass, clear glass and crystal glass

Green glass is made from Template:L without anything else added. Clear glass is made from sand plus Template:L; this generally isn't worth it, since making a unit of pearlash consumes a Template:L and takes three steps to produce. Crystal glass is made from the Template:L gem plus pearlash, but a bug currently prevents crystal glass from being made.

The color of sand used to make glass has no effect on the type of glass made.

Notes

• Right now every Template:L object takes only one Template:L of metal to make. This a bug, and when it's fixed many items will take two or more bars of metal, so don't get too used to it.
• Template:Ls don't let outside Template:L inside, since all outside light in the game falls straight down.