Master_Aricitic

It would be nice to be able to lump together the surface metal shards we find in the same way we get surface stone to smelt the entire thing at once. Simply being able to combine however may pieces the surface ore is (a fraction of the regular ore) into one of the regular sized ore would be wonderful. If you are concerned with realism, don't be. It is entirely possible to take metal lumps and place them all into what ever you are heating them with in the real world (even if you were holding the ore-which would be stupid and you'd get burned by doing). While it is true that multiple smaller lumps of the same material may not 'fit' into the same shape and size as the larger single version, the ores don't come in varying shapes and sizes (except normal and small) so it would not be like putting a square into a circle slot (but putting eight eighths of a circle into a circular slot). Lastly, two things, you should be able to carry 'x' times the amount of surface ore as regular ore (where 'x' is the fraction smaller the surface ore is), and while I haven't tested it enough to be sure, I think the smaller ore takes as long as the regular ore to heat. This is unrealistic as anything, of the same material but smaller than larger object, will heat faster than the larger object. If the surface ore is 1/8th the size of mined ore, it should melt in roughly 1/8th the time (note: I did check to see if this was suggested prior to suggesting it myself. While I did not see it, I could have not looked hard enough. If this is a duplicate, I apologize. Let me know what part(s) are duplicates and I'll remove them).

Also, if you, or anyone else reads this in search of finding ore, digging downward to find ore isn't necessary any more, and is usually harder than the 'natural' way. If you make a (few) prospector's pic(s) and find a stone 'biome' that contains the ore you are looking for, start in one location and use the pic every seven to fourteen blocks (in one direction), then go back and do it again down another fourteen to twenty blocks to either side. Usually you will find something, and it's just a matter of mapping out the actual location of the 'found traces of...' It's more difficult than just digging and hitting ore, it's harder than finding caves and finding ore in the walls (with near guarantee), but it's the 'correct' way to find ore in this game. I find it entertaining that there is no real tutorial on how to use the prospector's pic, since so few people seem to understand it (I only learned because I watched all the videos in "spotter's guide"

I'll reiterate my second post in this thread. Once you understand how to use the prospector's pic it is much easier to use. Sure, it scans a large area, sure it can give confusing results some times... But you HAVE to use it more than once once you find a material, then make markings to remember where the borders of the ore is. I was playing on a map with a desert and some tin (ore) in it. I dug a 10x10 pit down and very quickly found the ore. I was able to do this because (other than sand being very easy to dig) I knew where the 'nothing of interest' was around the actual ore. Sure, it reduces the pic to nothing more quickly than some would like, but it IS usable, just tedious sometimes. Running around counting out 25 blocks (which wouldn't work anyway) doesn't help, go by about 7 to 10 maximum. Mapping is important. If you don't want to use a mini-map mod, then place dirt, wool, or something else at the edges...

So, last night I discovered just how possible it is to find ore. I had always assumed that you needed to use the prospector's pic on stone, and underground; I had also assumed that ores were (like in Vanilla, and as the spotter's guides on the wiki say, below a certain level). These assumptions are wrong and it is entirely possible to find 'traces' of ore by using the prospector's pic randomly (every 7 or so blocks) while walking in a single given direction (in a grid). Once one has learned to identify the dirt bioms that define specific stone types (and which types you specifically need) and assuming one isn't too picky about the location they build (or the distance they must travel to get ore) it isn't nearly as difficult as I had initially thought to find ore. It's, almost, simple. Still, jumping up and down hills, mountains and bodies of water makes finding food more important than finding ore... so, yeah, it is still difficult with one person. Lastly, I apologize if this form of double post is inappropriate. As I have new information with regards to 'finding ore' I thought I would make sure anyone 'following' the thread would be notified and I do not know if editing posts count.

Ah, that I can completely agree with. However, IS this mod meant for multiplayer? I haven't seen anything by the mod developer that states that it is. I've noted a change to my argument in: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/1144-ore-generation-is-this-permanant/page__st__20 and as I don't think it necessary to restate myself (causing spam) here I'm just linking it. In any case it's about the scarcity of ore... or rather the difficulty in determining the 'proper' method of actually finding ore (as, once you know it, it isn't that difficult).

This is, of course, assuming that you WANT to play with others, and have local friends. When I graduated from High School my mom moved from Vermont to Texas and I to West Virginia ~long an complicated story, I won't go into the details~after about a year and an accidental half of no school I moved back with my mom and started college. It's been roughly five years since (yeah, I struggle) and most of the 'acquaintances' I have made here have been short term friends. This, both by design and programming, is stupid... First of all, the game already simulates and runs the world at the same time... besides the simple idiocies, wasn't this supposed to make it faster? It makes me wonder if anyone on that team, and I REALLY hate to say this, really learned how to program in Java, or if they're all self taught. As a Comp. Sci. major at Austin College we basically are required to learn Java until our third(?) year. While I tend to have an inability to 'finish' anything... I still know that Minecraft SHOULD be able to run at LEAST ten times better than it does.However, you are right, it is likely that many mods will have to be SMP only because they will require a separate server purely to be runable on most machines (other than the bizarre high-end-to-bleeding-end market machine that someone who is a Minecraft fanatic happens to own). I'm not quite sure... no, I am fairly certain I don't understand this post. Are you arguing for or against multiplayer enforcement? Your points are good and valid, but, frankly, I don't want to have to always play with others. I use to play WoW, and at first (well, for most of the time I played it) I was on a PvP server... the idea was that I wanted to possibility of random PvP encounters... Little did I know there were always going to be those thirty or so people who only played the game to harass others... The same is true of any multiplayer game, and while games like Minecraft (with the right server mods) can block (or whitelist) people, you then have to KNOW the right people to play with. I much prefer an equal single player and multiplayer environment. It's a pitty when multiplayer isn't there, it's even worse when single player isn't... (Yes, I do know that there are quite a few games that ONLY have multiplayer or are basically made for multiplayer, I'm ignoring those as more often than not they have the aforementioned problem of harassment.)

I wrote a long post, and realized I was about to copy/paste it into its own thread, then I realized I could better make the thread and post a link here. So that's what I did... The link: http://terrafirmacraft.com/f/topic/1231-best-played-with-friends-or-too-few-ores/ Also note: the above thread has direct relation to this one (I comment on an idea presented here) as well as my own frustrations with the scarcity of ores. I don't think a massive change is needed, but at least an ability to customize (without reprogramming, i.e. a config file edit). Would that not fix everyone's issues? If we could change the scarcity in a config file those who like it the way it is could just leave the file alone, and those who don't could change it. Afterward, if anyone complained (or whined) about the lack of ore in their world people could tell them to 'shaddup' and point them to the config file. This would allow total realists to be happy (with their weeks/months of digging) and semi-realists to be happy (with a less time consuming dig). The ONLY thing it would change is the rigidity of the ore generation (and, obviously, the config file). I suppose it would also be possible to create an 'API' for the ore generation (or just the ores, stones, dirts and their rules) but I think this would be more difficult than necessary, and would still require someone to make a 'mod of a mod' to change the ores. Ultimately, two things: while I recognize and appreciate that this is not a finished product the current rigidity that is being programmed into it will harm its appeal for some (possibly many) people. It is impossible to achieve absolute realism in a game (with modern technology) as there are SO MANY things that are needed (thirst, body temperature, clothing, actual weather with climate effects, disease, remove the damn zombies/skeletons/creepers, etc-to name a few for this mod alone...) and, quite frankly, if you want total and absolute realism, say good bye to your family, go outside, find a nice area far from any civilization, and try not to kill yourself. (I don't really feel that way, I like the realism in this mod, but, seriously, some things need balance that 'realism' doesn't have) Thank you, for reading, and for the interesting mod.

While I do like the realism added to this mod I think there are two problems that everyone (not playing with a group) is finding. In real life you are not alone... unless you are stranded. In real life, IF you are stranded you aren't looking to build yourself a home, you are looking to get back to civilization. Even if you are looking to build yourself a home away from civilization it is extremely uncommon to just wander out into the wilderness with only the clothes on your back and start from there... (I had to add that line for those would argue about building houses alone, in the wilderness...) What I mean by this is the following: with regards to the scarcity of ores, in the real world this is fine because you don't have just one person trying to find and mine said ores, you have a town, village, or city (or nation, etc-point is it is multiple people...). In Minecraft Single Player you have ONE person looking for ores. Now, some people may like digging up their entire world, and I won't fault them for that, but there are certainly others who don't spend all their time underground (or strip-mining) and for them finding nothing but beautiful layer of some rock after beautiful layer of some other rock (with some ugly layers mixed in) gets tedious and boring real quick... While I certainly understand that this is a work in progress, and in its 'release' form (alpha, beta, release [1.0] are becoming overused IMO) it will probably have more to do above ground as well as below, right now digging alone on SSP is too labor intensive and dangerous for some people (and certainly unrealistic for the reasons stated above). I know there are people who enjoy this in single player as it is, but I know just as well that there are those who would try it for a few hours and never touch it again, in disgust with the difficulty. I have no intention of asking that the mod be changed, completely, but allowing for changes would be nice and probably necessary for some players. If a few lines were added to the config to allow for modification of ores generation in a world (i.e. amount increase or even decrease; but still within their specified rock layers), this would solve everyone's problem. For those who like the rarity (or people playing on servers) they can leave the config alone, for people who don't (or are playing alone) they can adjust the values to something more suited to themselves. The idea to add shards of ore at the surface is a good idea, but it still keeps the values static. While there are mods to adjust the amount (and generation) of vanilla ores making one for this mod is much more difficult (well, sort of, you have the added difficulty of 'generate in' rather than just generating everywhere or between two height values or biomes). Ultimately, if this mod is "Best Played with Friends" then, please, do the rest of us a favor and make it SMP only (or at least state that it is better played with more than one person). Those of us who like to play alone will then be warned that we should either be wary of the single player difficulty of this mod, or should stay away. I have nothing against playing with others, and I have nothing against multiplayer games but IF this is meant as a multiplayer game and ONLY as a multiplayer game, please state that early in the mod description. If it isn't, then please allow for customization of quantity within the mod.