Silent Shadow

Not much point for tools as most of the metals we have now can outperform the platinum group metals. I think most of these metals now a days are used as chemical catalysts, electronic components, or for nuclear applications. None of them are really used for tools. There may be some use as components for jewelry as they are rare, but I doubt most people would seek them out for that.

Why then bother with expensive arrows when a slap with a sword or spear would also kill them? Bows and arrows are just harder to make than swords and spears and don't offer a great enough advantage to bother with generally. I would say make them do more damage and be much more accurate than spears are, or at the very least make them materially advantageous (more damage per ingot invested than with spears)

I would recommend posting it in the Vintarian Forum. Nobody seems to use that forum anyway.

I once started in a mountainous forest/jungle with dirt affected by gravity. Constantly sliding off hills, pushing through foliage just for the ground to collapse from under me, all while wolves were chasing me. I think I died 3 times in the first 15 minutes trying to escape it. Can't tell you how many times I ran into wolves and pit traps. I even slid off of a mountain into a pond (losing half my health) only to find 3 wolves lounging around the pond. Eventually I navigated my way out but man that was terrible.

A tunnel nexus can see this happen sometimes where adjacent tunnels can spawn multiple drifters which can all then rush into the junction where you are. Depending on the depth, tainted drifters can be pretty common. Or the game just hates you.

Bows are nice for flexing your chicken ranch status. All those peasants walking around in their pleb steel plate just get so jealous seeing my fat stacks of arrows.

Also IRL, wrought iron has some innate corrosion resistance thanks to the somewhat high silicon content produced during the bloomery process (or the "finery" process which is not in the game). Bronze also has some corrosion resistance and brass even more so and these would be (and still are) used at sea with some polish. Steel and pure copper can form a resistant corrosion layer (typically a green layer for copper and rust for steel) but this is terrible for edges (use oil). Cast Iron would be corrosion resistant but this is not in the game nor is it suitable for most tools/weapons/armor due to its brittleness. The other problem is that the game cannot differentiate salt and fresh water. There is only "water". Thank you for getting through my "actually" comment.

Back in the day this was solved by simply applying some oil to the steel so water never came into contact with it. Maybe use beeswax to compete with candle and food preservation? I also shudder to think of 20+ ingot armor corroding durability away.

I would guess to prevent gaming (heh) the system. If you could change your spawn point at will or even at intervals, then it could easily be exploitable, especially if items were not dropped on death. Besides, is it really that bad? All you really have to do is just wait. You will get exposure to drifters and so after you kill enough of them you'll get one. If you are dying a lot, then you may be playing a little too cavalier in this survival game. If you are simply migrating a long distance then just teleport via console commands and then play as normal.

I do wish there were larger windmills or more power sources though.

Just make more querns, same output, but you can do multiple types. Here is a windmill with 4 querns powered from a single "turbine"

I also see you are fueling the fire with firewood there. I am not sure if you are just using it to warm up the fire and then add charcoal for the actual smelting or not, but just in case, so your time is not wasted, know that you will need charcoal for the smelting of metal or it will not work. Firewood just doesn't burn hot enough.

Tin is found in volcanic layers like andesite, basalt, and granite, usually somewhat deep underground. Honestly, it is easiest to just make a prospecting pick out of copper with a mold and use that to find a region that has it. Once you do that, you can find the ore dics by digging down and using the propick to find it.

Also, I am compelled to tell you that your question is about smelting, not forging (the hammering of hot metal into different shapes). Please forgive my neuroticism.

Nah, you can make a single bronze ingot with 2 nuggets of tin and 18 copper. It is not the most efficient use of tin (10% tin vs the 8% tin minimum limit for bronze), but you can do it. If you are going for your anvil you may as well make a 1000 units worth (anvil + 2 ingots) as multiples of 500 units (92 copper nuggets and 8 tin nuggets) maximize the amount of bronze you can make with your tin.

You gotta pump those numbers up, those are rookie numbers. On a more serious note, use fences for spelunking. Make fence pit traps and fence off sections so drifters cannot "peacefully assemble". With the drifters hanging out in pit traps (where they belong cannot get you) the game will not spawn more in the immediate area since there are plenty there anyway. Fence off tunnels to prevent them from pouring in like the nexus you found there. If you have a tunnel system you want to develop for mining, wood slabs are a cheap option for preventing them spawning in your main through-ways or for building over the crowd while you place the fences. I don't really know if you can lower the spawn rate or not, but since this situation is a bit on the extreme side, lowering the spawn rate may cause drifters to be too rare in most other situations.

You can for one block deep ponds, just don't crouch (like when butchering). Ponds and Ice are the best places to kill wolves.

I do think some restrictions and details could make it better, but they could also just add some tedium for no other benefit. Something like roasting ores to enable breaking them up for the nuggets would just be more tedium in my opinion (place ore in fire, use more fuel, leave for so long, get roasted ore and continue with smelting). Introducing more forming methods like using dies or mandrels, welding, bradding, packing, or 'steeling' would add more complexity, which wouldn't really do much for fun (it's just extra, less optimal options). However, if the time it takes for the workpiece to cool down is massively shortened and if these methods could offer a shortcut to experienced smiths, then I think there would be some depth for players to explore. There could also be a "hardcore" mode where you have to pay more attention to the craft so you have to plan out what you are doing (metal cooling faster and a chance of breaking if hammered at "only warm" temperatures). There could also be some "upgrades" or equipment limited by materials (bellows for the forge, which already have a model, to control the forge temperature; Borax as a flux for welding operations; mechanized bellows; etc.) There could also be some 'external' factors to reward smarter play, such as weight/block limits similar to the way the game Eco handles inventory (meaning you would want faster roads to your mines to counteract the limit, and your workshops would be more clustered if not already). Right now I think smithing is the best 'industry' in terms of engagement; There are multiple tasks to juggle to make working multiple metal items efficiently a fun challenge (fill crucible with nuggets and light fire, warm up two ingots, make first work piece, start second work piece, place and warm up two ingots in forge, pour 4+ ingots, so on). Making armor and lots of plates are probably the most fulfilling thing to do imo in terms of crafting. Most other 'industries' like cooking and ceramics are just repetitive in my opinion, probably because they lack the complexity and depth that smithing has. If there are to be additions to the game's crafting, they should be to make the player use less materials, be faster, or something to reward better skill or management. Just adding more boxes to check in a perquisites list won't make the game anymore fun, it will just take longer (delayed gratification not withstanding, but we probably have enough of that already).

Go for wood lamellar armor. No metal or barrels are required to make it, just some resin (respawns on the spawned trees. Planted trees never get it to my knowledge), some med/large cured pelts (hide + fat + time) and firewood. It is decent armor for taking a few hits underground and should last you until you can mine enough ore for a metal suit. You are not wrong about the cattail armor, I usually don't bother. On default settings, your world will have plenty of copper, you just got to find it. Starting a new world with the same settings won't change that. I would recommend exploring a bit to find seeds, ruins, traders, and some place to settle down. Look at the rock bits while you're exploring and you'll find plenty to mark on your map.

I have seen them clear fences using the thin molds. They may be able to "jump" or step off of an item similar to how they can use snow.

If you find you keep getting ambushed, you can stack two dirt blocks under yourself and you will be unreachable. Nice for surveys or marking your map. Don't bother with the club, have another flint spear. Swords (metal clubs) are very nice later on for quickly killing at the cost of reduced range. Spears can do a lot of damage when thrown but don't last long (not a problem with flint however, just make another.) Beenades are kinda useless, if funny. If you go underground at any real depth, have some armor (wood lamellar is fine and easy to make, if low grade) and some horsetail reed bandages (find the horsetail in 'wet' forests, it's plentiful there.) Fences are great for minimizing the danger of Drifters underground. You can form a quick wall to fight drifters behind, section off tunnels to prevent a large group spawning and fighting you all at once, and create pit traps to collect Drifters safely out of the way (line a one block depth pit with fences so drifters can walk over them into the pit but unable to climb out. Just do not fall in yourself.) Fences are also nice to let you mine the ore you want without getting interrupted. Keep in mind however that locusts do not care about fences and can walk around.

Just play with dirt being affected by gravity. You'll find plenty of pit traps and holes to hell covered by a thin layer of dirt.

Torches are enough for me to see at night and long LOS is not that useful because you cannot see if a pile of rocks has copper nuggets or not unless you are somewhat close, so exploring at night is not really a handicap in that regard. There is a lot of terrain where long LOS will not help you due to short sight lines. The worst that darkness can do is to hide some plants from you, but you'll still find plenty. The map works in light or dark and will show you the location of traders, ruins, and stone types to investigate in addition to a good path forward. The only terrain that is dangerous to explore at night are wooded hills and very thick woods as you cannot run away from wolves easily, but in other terrain you just need to keep in mind where the nearby ponds are, which the map will reveal to you far in advance of what you can see. If you are playing as a blackguard then staying still for the night will strain your food reserves. Also keep in mind that you are using up the valuable growing period before winter so there is a pressure to quickly explore for seeds and to find your permanent base/home before there is no time left to grow the bulk of your winter food. There is also the problem that panning is rather boring (for me anyway, to each their own.)

It is not a good chance to get things you need early on (getting anything copper or bronze that you can melt down and isn't a nugget has a chance of < 0.3%), and with inventory space being quite limited early on, I would prefer not to carry bony soil or sand/gravel around along with the pan. I would also say it is generally better to keep exploring at night except for maybe wooded hills/mountains as surface drifters are not a big threat unless you stop moving and are swarmed. Panning is okay for getting copper nuggets, but exploring is still better IMO, as you'll get low risk surface deposits to mine as well as more seeds to start with.

I have found that each group of bits tend to be part of a greater cluster on the map, you just need to explore more, and keep an eye out for that tell tale orange. I would also generally say that exploring is far better than panning as you can expand your starting seed supply, especially the rare ones. This makes growing large amounts of flax very easy later on, and once you find the copper bits on the surface you also get the deposit below to exploit later whereas panning only gives the nuggets. Exploring also gives you a chance to find the coveted limestone/chalk and a place to settle. Just don't wait too long or winter will preclude farming.