v0.31 Talk:Electrum

Is there any easy way to control which ores are used to create Electrum? For example say you wanted to use the low value ores mentioned which have a better chance of making lead or copper if smelted normally, is there any easy want to make sure those are always used in the new system? Or do you still have to lock the furance opreator in with only those ores to choose from and then order him to make the alloy? Also is there a chance to fail based on the fact that those two ores have a better chance of producing a metal bar other than silver or does the game just ignore that when using them in this way? If so it is obviously a better route to make Electrum from those ores than to try and smelt them normally unless you really need lead or copper, since you don't lose the value of the gold bar used and always get the value of silver 100% of the time. --Railick 18:37, 13 May 2010 (UTC) Railick Stonemane

"Impure" ores will always work (i.e. you can use galena or tetrahedrite to make electrum just as well as native silver or horn silver), but the only way to force usage of them is to make sure the alternative isn't available, whether by locking up your furnace operators with the necessary ores or by simply smelting all of the other ores first. --Quietust 20:46, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

In my experience the only way to ensure that any dwarf makes anything with a given material is to lock him in a room with only the workshop and the material in question. I've seen dwarves with perfectly servicable stockpiles of material right next to their workshop instead travel halfway across the map to retrieve a unit of the same material.--Twilightdusk 03:59, 24 November 2010 (UTC)