Maelstrom

creating usable items from m.iron isn't as much of a production pain as steel. Put the nuggets in a bloomery and out come ingots, unlike regular iron. From there the ingot can be forged into tools on an iron anvil. M.iron has higher durability than iron but less than steel. So it comes down to personal cost/benefit analysis. For some, the process of converting iron to steel is too laborious for top tier tools. Others (like me) prefer the long lasting steel tools over m.iron ones and don't mind (or in my case enjoy) the steel production process. M.iron can be considered a late iron age material, kind of like a copper anvil is the gateway to the late copper age.

I, too, think m.iron is just for funsies. By the time I have an iron anvil I'm waiting for my steel to finish processing. About the only thing I do with m.iron is make an anvil for my helve hammers so the iron anvil I have can be used in forging non-plate steel items like chain and tools. Recently I've taken to quarrying the m.iron block instead of mining it.

Welcome to the insanit... errr... forums! That picture is AMAZING!

Be sure to dig way, WAY down. Even if your stability is dropping like a rock with concrete shoes. I have an area that has ultra high sphalerite but also has lots of copper that is slightly unstable on the surface. By the time I get to the zinc and copper the gear is spinning half as fast as when standing in a rift.

There is a way to consistently place blocks (especially slabs) in the orientation you desire. It's difficult to describe how to place slabs but Kurazarrh in his season 1 Vintage Story Guide series displays a graphic about how to place slabs in the orientation desired. I don't recall which episode, but I believe it's within the first 10 episodes of the series.

I want a 12 inch die cast Dave. Even if it costs $150+US

I am currently mining that blessed rich deposit of magnetite. I think I got a very high reading. Might have even been ultra-high. I'll have to check next time I'm playing. My two mining trips got me about 80 ingots 64 of which are processing into steel. Only thing I bothered making out of iron were the pounder caps, anvil and two iron doors for my dual steel furnace.

Foxes drop bush meat not red meat like the cute li'l bunnies. BUT that bush meat is necessary for recurve bows.

Two headed drifter. Once upon a patch release not so long ago there weren't such wealthy mobs. Storms would net you some flax and maybe a couple of rusty gears for all the nightmare drifters that were slain.

That was a feature implemented in the 1.20 update.

Lead anvils are the best way to Etho someone!

In my current world I am at best poor for iron within about 1,000 blocks of my home, plenty of copper, tin, zinc and bismuth and from all those mines I have found zero iron. Found a decent reading for iron a few thousand blocks south and multiple shafts yielded nada.

#metoo Usually when I'm busy lighting a bunch of kilns in my 5x5 kiln grid and forget that the one behind me is lit and I back up while lighting the one in front of me.

That coincides with my experience with forges. Brown coal burns just as quickly as charcoal in a forge despite taking almost twice as long in the firepit smelting ore.

I'm sure you know to make the targetting square as small as possible, but after that you should take gravity into account as well and aim higher than your target.

Given the larger number of days in May, it shouldn't be difficult to have at least 2 stacks of flax, vegie and another grain before the end of May leaving 2 growing seasons in the first summer. That is gonna be an absolute crapton of produce. I'd think the difficult part would be meat, unless the roughly 3 months gestation is really just 36 days (given my 12 day months). If animal gestation works the same as crop growth, then ranching enough meat would be difficult that first summer.

I learned about pit kiln fire spread by watching my wooden fences burn repeatedly. Figured out why they would burn down and made sure my pit kilns are at least a dozen blocks from any other buildings. Fortunately, these lessons were next to my cobblestone "cellar" attached to my forever home which was still under construction so I haven't lost any storage to fire... yet.

Update - air above the block being panned is a requirement for panning. Now I can get back to making steel tools and prep for that medium storm headed my way.

I've seen high rift activity PLUS rifts but no spawns.

Did I mention I needed to test my speculation?

Granite is the default rock strata and is overridden by other rock types determined by the world gen algorithms. Since granite is the default rock type there can be vast sprawling expanses of this rock type for mind boggingly large distances. Finding ANY sedimentary rock in such a vast sea of granite is futile. It's rare that such massive wastelands of granite exist, but the world gen gods can (and obviously do) conspire to smite us with such copriciousness. My condolences for your experiences @Sir_Reginald_Duff_III. May your next world not be the same.

Rift activity and spawning is rather erratic in 1.20. I've gone multiple consecutive days at medium or higher rift activity and nary a spawn at night. Recently I spent an entire night at high rift activity laying out a new farm (2 stacks of high fert soil) without a single spawn. Seems like there's a disconnect between rift activity and mob spawning. I guess the drifters are suffering from lack of motivation.

I've thought about how to stack sand/gravel for mass panning purposes but haven't tested the idea yet. It depends on what happens to the block above the one being panned. Once a partial sand block exists, does the sand block above it become unstable and drop? If not, then build a chute of blocks surrounding the column that will contain the sand blocks. Use horizontal slabs for the base layer where panning will happen and full blocks or vertical slabs to encase the column of sand. Load the sand from the top and begin panning. I haven't tested what happens, but either the partial sand block will cause problems for the blocks above or it will hold the blocks above until the final layer is panned.

Nah mate. It's a sandbox game. Play the way that is most fun for you. As for me? Sometimes I'm in steel before the middle of the first winter. Sometimes It's not until close to the the start of the second winter. I try to get to bronze asap which can be anywhere from the end of May (I play 12 day months) to during the first winter, depending on how quickly I get copper (for prospecting) and the prevalence of bronze alloy ores. My current world I was in bronze pretty quickly but iron took FOREVER! I had everthing (olivine, bauxite and quartz) for steel, but not even a hint of iron until early December. It's now June 1 and I have finally pulled my first steel out of the coffins.

I just don't get it. If the game stinks so badly, why take all the time to post all the hate? Why not just quietly leave? Orrrrr, does the poster actually want the game to be better and just expressing it poorly?