Overpriced Lanterns?

[BebRav3]

Does it make sense for the lanterns to cost two ingots and a full block of glass? and then for lining another two ingots? That costs as much as 4 tools... Is there a purpose for the lanterns to be so so expensive?

Couldn't there be a new crafting recipe that costs one ingot per lantern and half an ingot per lining?

If this is a bad Idea, please say...

[Thorfinn]

It's probably just the utility. By the time you can start making your second lantern, you have (or can have) ingots stacked to the ceiling, . Also, while your pick will break after a few hundred or a thousand blocks, the lantern is forever.

[Streetwind]

Lanterns are where I dump my copper after I stop needing copper for other things.

And quartz is practically free anyway.

[ArgentLuna]

Lanterns are forever, they don't break after being "on" for a while. Outside of my first one typically every other lantern I make is made of molybdochalkos. Never bothered with coloured ones but quartz is so prolific its essentially infinite.

Edited April 5 by ArgentLuna

[ifoz]

Once you have a decent helve hammer setup, plates are pretty quick to produce.
I think lanterns are fine as they are, functioning as the ultimate light source.
They are tough to get because they are the best.

(I also find quite a few in ruins. Nearly all of my base has been lit up with lanterns from ruins).  

[Michael Gates]

It's true that the lining for lanterns is ridiculously expensive. A full plate of gold? I seem to recall managing to make a gold plate, once, ever.

[Narcosis]

They're hardly overpriced. Current endgame is certain ancient devices and these need a ton of Jonas parts... which only drop from double-headed drifters (whom only spawn during temporal storms and in very limited quantities) or can be found in ruins; most folks won't even get to this point or won't bother due to how extremely time consuming part hunting is at the current moment.

Your first lantern in the beginning is both a massive help and a precious thing to behold, once you line them inside. It really elevates this sense of achievement. Once you get to automatization, it becomes much easier to mass-produce lanterns very efficiently and honestly, you don't really have to even line every single one of them up. I simply mass produce iron lanterns because at one point iron becomes so much more commonplace than copper - kind of like in reality - and you want to save the latter for all the higher tier metals.