MSwampcroft Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 Hello! I looked through this forum and I couldn't find anything similar to this, but apologies in case I missed something. I've been playing for a while now, and I and many friends have had a lot of trouble finding clay deposits. I know where I expect clay to be - I've lived in both very moist and very arid areas, and I typically look near bodies of water in the former and a couple of layers down for the latter. "Clays and clay minerals occur under a fairly limited range of geologic conditions. The environments of formation include soil horizons, continental and marine sediments, geothermal fields, volcanic deposits, and weathering rock formations. Most clay minerals form where rocks are in contact with water, air, or steam. Examples of these situations include weathering boulders on a hillside, sediments on sea or lake bottoms, deeply buried sediments containing pore water, and rocks in contact with water heated by magma (molten rock). All of these environments may cause the formation of clay minerals from preexisting minerals. Extensive alteration of rocks to clay minerals can produce relatively pure clay deposits that are of economic interest (for example, bentonites‹primarily montmorillonite‹used for drilling muds and clays used in ceramics)." (https://pubs.usgs.gov/info/clays/) I am unsure how it currently works in worldgen, but my suggestion is for clay layers to be findable beneath a few layers of soil in some areas where it would be geologically sound, which also softens the transition between soil > rock, and could assist in mining operations on worlds with soil instability (which I absolutely adore, it's one of my favourite features in the entire game and I never play without it on personally :D). As the above quote mentions, it would be rad to be able to dig into a lake bed and find a clay layer, or to chip away at the side of a mountain, and even if you can't find an ore deposit, you still have a chance of coming away with something quite valuable. I am not proposing that this replace the existing clay deposit system, because it's very exciting (for me at least!) when I do find one, but I think this would serve as a supplement that is also a safeguard for folks that will help alleviate substantial difficulties that arise sometimes in locating clay. I believe this could have benefits in a multiplayer experience, both in that it would help players who primarily want to fill the role of potters in a community, and because it adds a layer of consideration for how a settlement site is selected. Thank you for reading and considering my suggestion, I love the game a lot and it's making me consider taking up modding!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ringlorn Posted June 14, 2022 Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 Really? Clay seems to be an extremely common occurrence in the game. It looks like gray-blueish blots on the map and they are quite big and seem to be random (?). I have never came across clay underground, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSwampcroft Posted June 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2022 In my experiences, and the experience of some folks I've been playing and sharing info with, it can be highly variable! If you find a good patch, you're set, but if you don't, you're stuck at a bottleneck that locks off a lot of progression and can be quite frustrating. It would be super nice to be able to find some underground! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gliese_832_c Posted June 21, 2022 Report Share Posted June 21, 2022 I mean, even if you do find the patches of clay in the ground, this should still be a thing, because 1. variety and 2. you will need *a lot* of clay if you want to build big buildings out of bricks, such as typical brick factory buildings. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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