Shingles are really neat when you wanna build up a pretty looking house. We all use them, for various different build ideas. But I found that over time, actually getting where you want to be with it can take hours, actual real life hours, to get the materials. And I am not talking about going around exploring and farming for ore or clay in this part. Nonono, thats the fun part afterall.
I am talking about sitting in your home, making mold after mold after mold to create bloody Shingles. The one item that needs to be redone over and over and over and over again in order to pretty much build any type of modernized roofing that isnt straw. If you wanted to create a 5 x 5 house for instance, youd need at least 45 shingle pieces to create the various block types we need. On its own that doesnt sound too bad. You create 48 pieces and then fire them up at the same time. Easy.
However, once you get to the point where the houses you want to build reach 20x20 or even larger, some of them being Complexes and whatnot, requiring multiple types of roofs, you also get to point where creating shingles goes from "Just a few more" to "Crap this is boring, I need a break".
So what is my suggestion exactly? Well, first and foremost it is very simple. A Clay Mold thats fired in a Kiln that can be used to form Shingles, just like we can use other forms to pour metal into.
However, here is where the suggestion goes in two different ways.
- The first variant - Simplicity at its finest
The first variant of the Mold could be used just like any other mold on the ground. Place it, put all Clay in it and you are done. Maybe wait a few minutes at least to take it out again but overall, this is what is required. After that you have your 12 shingles as per usual and into the oven they go.
- The second variant - More complex but more relaxed
The second variant functions similar to the first. However now instead of simply using the mold as written above, you would place clay into them individually similar to how you would normally mold clay on its own. Now I already hear you say: "But how would that make it better?" Well that is because the second variant would actually let you place more than just one type of clay into the mold at the same time. Youd still need to finish the whole piece to actually take out the end product and with that all types of different shingles, but it would still make it so youd have exactly what you want and so that you may not even have to create more than you need.
- Balance
Since this is very easy tho and I am sure this will sound far too easy for some this could easily come at a cost.
- Making Shingles is now pretty much easy after finally getting a proper kiln and mold setup. But forming shingles on your own means you know exactly how much clay you need for each piece. No materials get wasted in the process that way. But automation has made you lazy. Who cares if there is a little more clay in it? Its not like the roof will fall ontop of your head because one shingle is slightly thicker, right?
So here is my proposition towards balancing.
We can either go the 1to1 route in which each shingle in this new recipe takes 1 clay each to make it so that proper wastage has been achieved to counter the ease of access or -
We can go the lightweight route in which we literally just half the price for each shingle. That means one half a clay per shingle.
Or of course we go the way it goes right now and it only uses up what shingles have cost before so players dont have to waste anything at all.
However, at the end of the day, it is all up to the devs if they should take this suggestion serious in any way shape or form, which I hope they will. But even if not and any of the devs should still have read this: Thanks for your time and I hope you have a lovely day.
The same goes to everyone else of course as well
Have a lovely day yall