I'm on my second fortress, and I've encountered a problem I didn't really expect: I'm chronically short of wood. I embarked into a forested area, so I had plenty to begin with, but now I don't have enough to do all the crazy stuff I want to. There are plenty of saplings on the surface, so I haven't totally killed my supply, but still.

So, how might this have happened, and what can I do about it? When I started this fort, I was thrilled to find that the first few z-levels are rife with iron and copper ores (a lack of iron was why I stopped playing my first fort), so I've been making a lot of steel. Maybe I should cut that out for a while? Is there any way I can plant trees?

Alternatively, how can I reduce my dependence on foreign... er, surface wood? I'm considering the following:

• Digging down for magma
• Digging down for lignite or coal. I'm in a sedimentary layer, so that might be easiest?
• Digging down for tower-caps. Aren't these associated with caverns/fun?

Actually, I guess those are all sort of the same plan. Any other ideas for conservation or alternative energy sources would be great. (What ingredients do I need for solar panels? :D)

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2 Answers

Due to the way caverns are generated, there's a fun little trick you can use to safely dig down to magma, most of the time:

If you are in a 4x4 embark, determine the exact midpoint of your area, and dig a 2x2 staircase straight down.

4 times out of 5, it will completely miss everything in your embark area, allowing you to access the sweet, sweet magma safely and without fun and lossage.

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Building on Williham's answer...

I found that the Notes interface shows the (x, y, z) coordinates of the cursor's location, and (0, 0, z) is the center of the map. This makes it much easier to find where to dig a magma shaft on a 4x4 map.

Also, I dug a 2x2 shaft and happened to just clip the wall of the first cavern. Nothing Fun has come out of it yet, but I'll probably proceed with a 1x1 shaft from there, after I get some delicious wood, silk, and gems.

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