Iron Age Smelter that does not require constant Bloomery fabrication

[Lucio Magno]

the game sorely needs a bellows-powered iron age smelting furnace where you can smelt iron, meteoric iron and glass in a simple crucible. maybe the bellows could be manual, with pelt and whatnot or automated with a rotating wind propeller like the one Primitive Technology made. its such a pain having to build bloomeries all the time, just make it cost like 10 iron plates so you have to at least go through some bloomeries first... Maybe it can be made from nickel plates or another highly heat resistant alloy so the furnace doesnt smelt itself lol. Or maybe some insulating coating can be made inside.https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/elderscrolls/images/4/45/Smelter.png/revision/latest?cb=20120612185327

[Thorfinn]

Welcome to the forums, @Lucio Magno

The point of having lossy processes is the same as the rest of the things in the game -- to encourage you to go out and find more.

I'd think bloomeries made with refractory brick might better fit the leitmotif of the game. Rather than 50% loss of firebrick, you have the same loss you see in cementation furnaces -- 10% for Tier 1, 5% for Tier 2, 1% for Tier 3.

It's a good idea for a mod, so if one chooses to, he can reduce his need to explore, but I don't think it's a good fit for base game.

Edited February 11, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Lucio Magno]

There can be losses related to this type of furnace aswell, like needing to replace the insulating material inside it from time to time, a material that could maybe be made from items with little uses in-game and some renewable resources and also coal/coke, maybe the crucible used also gets shattered over time and needs to be replaced, etc.

[Thorfinn]

On 2/11/2025 at 4:00 PM, Lucio Magno said:

a material that could maybe be made from items with little uses in-game

Finally! Something to do with those eagle and cinnamon ferns...

[Chuckerton]

I would agree. I know that exploration and the consumption of materials is a big thing in this game but at a certain point, you already have so much to find and so much to do that having to stop everything to go find more fire clay is a pain. I dont really know what it would be, but something. Maybe a catalan forge or even a blast furnace. The earliest date i could get on a blast furnaces use was 1150 and the earliest mentions i find for coke was 1709 so i think its reasonable we could get blast furnaces without it being to technologically advanced feeling. 

And it wouldnt eliminate maintenance costs. Like with the beehive kiln and cementation furnaces, theyre expensive to build initially and they get damaged and parts need to be replaced, but so far as a heavy user of both of the refractory brick structures, once theyre built theyre way cheaper to operate than the bloomeries we have now. My warehouse has a pile of refractory bricks and 2 piles of equivalent size of regular fire clay bricks, and the refractory brick pile takes awhile to deplete while the fire clay brick pile tends to deplete and have to be replenished more frequently than the refractory brick pile. Id rather have a more permanent structure like the kiln and furnace than these disposable bloomeries.