valkupo

Tab and shift are fine, left ctrl is too far for extended holding down and consistent use. It's that whole can't fully extend the ringfinger when the pinky is bent thing, it's right at that limit. Or maybe my fingers are weird lengths? I don't think I've ever compared to anyone one else. My main problem is the shift/grab combo for crawling, which I use a lot. Shift+left ctrl just feels incredibly more awkward than shift+r.

It has more or less been reference as a transportation problem randomly among posts for other things, but this would be the first thread I believe. I agree that some form of faster transportation is needed once the Agriculture update is all settled. And if the vanilla mineshafts are bothering you I believe you're supposed to turn off "generated structures" when creating a new world anyways.

I think he was just using scuba as a broad term to mean people have been finding ways to breathe underwater, like with the sugar cane he suggested. I don't think he meant actual scuba with the full gear.

I can appreciate the base concept, but you have to remember these things are being made in often HUGE quantities. When I clear out a clay deposit, it's usually 3 stacks of molds once crafted. In the current setup (with people often trying to smelt entire chests of ore at once to save fuel), there is little reason to make only 1 or 5 ceramic molds at a time. You make them all at once, replacing finished ones with new ones, to save as much time and fuel as possible. Even if you have plenty of fuel, the less you waste is the less time you have to hunt for more later. If you have to wait for the Ceramic Mold (and by extension firepit/forge) to cool down, you end up nearly doubling the amount of time it takes to make a usable Ceramic Mold, costing extra fuel, and preventing you from using the firepit/forge for anything else. Now after that, I still appreciate the base concept, so how about a twist to your idea. Our Ceramic Molds are being made in mass production levels of quantity. Mass production can hardly be made 1 or 5 items at a time. How about a new object (and I'm thinking like 3x3 blocks at least here) that functions something like a specially made oven? It could take larger quantities of Clay Molds at once because it is designed for it, but only be able to deal with cooking Clay Molds into Ceramic Molds. It could follow your rules of "don't touch until everything is cooled down" without slowing down the process or interrupting the use of other equipment. It essentially becomes like a charcoal pit, by which I mean something that could take an extended amount of time, but operates on its own off to the side. Just dump in the Clay molds you have, put in enough fuel, and light it up. Then you just wait for the smoke to stop puffing out, light to stop showing, or whatever indicator for "done" is decided upon.

Agreed, as long as it is as you say, time consuming enough. If that's still too easy for some people to accept, it could also be made resource intensive. Like for instance, each little scrap needs to be heated and melted down into a Ceramic Mold (and if you're using a firepit, that means one at a time), and probably would be a hardly visible change to how much of a bar was filled. Imagine the cost of trees if you aren't lucky enough to find a good stash of peat. You say that, but I haven't had problems getting flux, nor seen anyone else. If someone found enough tin/zinc/bismuth to make a chisel, they probably have just enough left over to make a hammer as well. They should be fine progressing to copper anvils if they choose their tool upgrades wisely. Also, 100% agreement on awesome-factor of Black Bronze. The only way it could be cooler is if you could use bone handles (probably degraded uses, but it's a luxury idea really), as the contrast would be amazing. He meant Rose Gold and Black Bronze being alternatives to regular Bronze, which is an alloy that requires tin.

You moved the optifine zoom key instead of the smart movement grab key? I had to move SM's grab from 'left ctrl' to 'r' almost immediately. My poor pinky was crying in anguish after a few minutes of holding down ctrl while walking across plains.Anyways I use Smart Movement and Rei's Minimap. I only use map markers for home and things over 2000 blocks away. I think how TFC has more varied visuals than vanilla helps me keep my above-ground sense of direction better. Thought about Optifine, but didn't feel strongly enough to go for it.

I believe you have to put the bar in after the plans to get the correct instructions. It sounds like you're doing it the other way around.

I would actually prefer this to "You see nothing of interest."

I don't mind not knowing the direction. It makes you search more, which makes you dig more, which makes cave-ins more likely (yes, I realize there are supports), which adds to the suspense. I like that. The only thing that upsets me is like Icarus42's second picture. If I'm specifically ProPicking an ore block when my entire field of vision is filled with said ore, why can't I tell what that ore is? To be honest, though, I could live with it. I would much rather Bioxx continue adding new and interesting things like he's been doing.

To be honest, I actually believe you. The information on Sphalerite being in metamorphic rocks I put up was from the wiki, more or less right after I pointed out a problem with people using the wiki too heavily.If I facepalm for something I did myself, does that mean I need to use both hands or just hit harder? Anyways, I respect Bioxx's way of not making everything you can do detailed out in a specific way. It would take some of the fun out of the mod if I knew how to do every last little thing at optimum efficiency. It would be nice if the starter stuff would be detailed out clearly, but I think a lot of people who are best suited for that are afraid to put anything down because of the frequently changing status that is beta. That causes problems for people who are just coming in, as their questions have outdated answers, so they want better info. Oh crap, it's circular. The only way to counter it would be having a set plan of information release. The wiki actually says the current version is Beta v1j Hotfix 2. How about instead of trying to keep the wiki up to date on the constantly changing pre-releases, every time an "official" update (such as the inevitable Beta v2) comes out the wiki is conformed to that exact version? Then add some disclaimers to the download page, changelog page, and wiki stating that if you use pre-releases the information may not be 100% accurate. Back on topic, all of this means we may actually need a new early metal source after all. It depends on whether information is correct or not. All I know now is that my brain really hurts. Circular problems make me cradle my head in pain.

Sphalerite/Zinc does not spawn in Granite, it shows up in all of the metamorphic rocks (Gneiss, Marble, Phyllite, Quartzite, Schist, and Slate). That provides you with 6 rock types in addition to Granite to search for to begin with.

The problem with that is you have to find Borax, which on the wiki has no hints on where to find it. I personally have not seen it before and I've been playing since Beta v1jI've been thinking that maybe the problem isn't tin itself, it's the community's focus on tin being the only option for advancement on multiple levels. In the back of everyone's mind they realize there are other options, but tin is the most frequently spoken of. So after doing my research I would like to ask the community a few questions. 1) If your problem with tin is that you can't make a chisel to progress to the bloomery, did you know you can use Bismuth and Zinc (Bismuthite and Sphalerite) for tools on the same level as tin? 2) If your problem with tin is that you can't progress beyond copper because you can't make bronze without tin, did you know you can make Rose Gold, Black Bronze, or Bismuth Bronze, and their respective anvil types function -exactly- the same as the regular Bronze? After digging around I feel like for question 1, people are just hearing everyone else say "get tin, it's in granite" and assuming it is the only thing you can do. For question 2, people are relying heavily on the wiki, which doesn't even say those types of anvils exist. After discovering this (and I'm not trying to be arrogant about this as I was actually part of the question 2 group a short while ago), I'm personally beginning to think Cassiterite and tin don't need to be altered as desperately as people are clamoring for it. I think the information about alternatives may first just need to be spread among the masses and actually applied in practice.

You need Ceramic Molds to catch the melting ore. It's not so much that it evaporated as slopped onto the ground in a mess.

Ah the texture! That does sound interesting. Opens up a few more ways to decorate. Hmm. In Industrialcraft when you place batboxes, the output side faces you. If you take this way of placing for planks and made the side that the top side lines are pointed at the "front" it would achieve the effect you're going for I think. When you place above or below yourself, the planks would be vertical, when you place to your sides, it would be normal planks. Top and bottom lines would be pointing at you, though, so you would have to be mindful of that if you are putting several in a row (in other words always place from the same direction when building). My idea sounds like it might be a hassle the more I read it.

I don't understand the suggestion. I can think of a few things, but do you mean like a thin layer like glass panes are done? I mean, I'm pretty sure you don't mean stacking them vertically or placing above you as you can do those obviously. What do you mean by vertical, and what other blocks?

Regardless of what is done with the cassiterite/tin situation, I would be interested in this as well.

I don't remember specifically what rock types they are found in, but you could also keep an eye out for the ores Malachite and Tetrahedrite as they contain copper as well. Tetrahedrite also has that nice bonus of silver and I feel like I've seen it everywhere (in terms of varying rock types, not quantities).

Looking at the wiki for Stannite, it seems like a perfect fit. It has a good amount of tin, and it can be found near ores that already exist in TFC (sphalerite, tetrahedrite, cassiterite) that are found in various different rock types. It also has copper, iron, and sulfur (though odd, I just realized I don't think I've seen sulfur since beta 1). It brings a problem with it, however, of how to process it. Typically the multi-metal ores go into the bloomery and you get it out that way, but if you're trying to get tin you are probably still trying to make a chisel to make said bloomery. If it goes this way I have a suggestion on how to deal with that. When putting Stannite in a firepit, have tin come out as normal. Then make a second "ore" called Tin-less Stannite, and have it appear in the output slot along with the slag. You can then later take this ore and throw it in the bloomery (when you make it thanks to your fancy new tin chisel) and receive the other metals the firepit could not process. Or you could just make it a tin-only ore. As cool as I think my idea is, it sounds like it might be fairly complicated on the coding side. At the very least Stannite would be ideal because it could appear in a lot of places. Nice find, thekrazyfool! *Edit: fixed some spelling and poor word choice

If it is implemented like this, I wouldn't mind having a flintlock put in.

Eeehh? But I love how vastly wild the terrain can get. Take away the craziness and visual landmarks will be less effective, probably aiding in a people getting lost a little easier. I mean the plains biomes, yes, those need to be seriously altered. Those are not plains. Deserts should probably be as well, as I don't think I should be able to see the rock underneath as often and easily as I do. Sand would blow around and cover it up. Other than those two types I like it how it is. I -really- don't like your idea of linking same biomes together. It has too much potential for unplayability. Some of the biomes can be ridiculously large as it is, requiring extensive travel to find something new. Now take that, and start in a plains biome. What's likely to be around in that scenario? More plains. Granted it would be a different number plains, but they all share a similar problem: what will you have a really hard time finding any of in plains? Trees. No trees, no progress. Same applies to desert, mountains, and oceans. People thought oceans were endless before? Woo-boy. It basically translates to a lot of extra travel time to get what you want, whether it be different wood or different scenery. The stone strata for different biome numbers of the same type seems to alter enough where finding specific rock types for certain ores doesn't feel a likely problem. And those notch ponds? You're probably going to want to keep those. Last I heard finite water was an actual planned addition, so every last drop could end up precious. I could be mistaken, but even then I'de still want ponds here and there. Take them away and what do you see? Green, green, and more green (or white snow, yellow sand, etc). The bright blue breaks up the color monotony of any area in my opinion. Plus, until wooden buckets are put in at least, the ponds allow players more locations to start farms (and by extension homes), so they don't have to plant wheat next to the ocean or in a swamp. Yes, there are river biomes, but the notch ponds still add more feasible locations to settle for the time being. If you really don't like them, it won't take much dirt to fill it in. Even if it's different dirt, when grass grows over it will all blend together. For the part about the nether, there's no TFC way of accessing the nether as it is. Unless you get lucky with zombie drops for iron/buckets, or don't turn off Generated Structures and find what you need in dungeons/mineshafts. Re-reading this post before posting I realize that it really seems like I'm attacking you, but I just feel really strongly about my opinions on the terrain generation. The wild terrain has always been my favorite part of minecraft as a whole, because when I build around the terrain I can create unique structures that can only exist properly in that specific spot. Just bulldozing an area to build a standard square house is kind of boring to me. Also, I'm having a hard time expressing hesitation in type format since at the behest of friends I've recently tried to cut back on using ellipses (...) (/rant/ Language is a living thing! It changes! Things can develop new meanings! If it didn't we would still be talking like Shakespeare! /endrant/), so as a result most of my statements probably seem much more stern than they actually are. At the very least I do wholeheartedly agree that the plains need to be flattened/smoothed. I probably still sound incredibly rude though

On the Change Log for Beta 2 Pre-release 26 (unreleased at the time of this post):The metallurgy table should correctly require all of the metals to be in liquid state when making an alloy. Crysyn was right, it was a bug.

Ah yes, that's right... the fast cooling is the last step. Maybe I was thinking of glass? Oh well. With SierraKharr's and Beckoner's helpful info, I am now fully behind this idea. =P

More people know about kamas than I thought it seems. Should have just called them by name. I always loved the story behind them. Tyrannical lord, "No weapons for the peasants! They might revolt!" Peasants, "Can we keep these for farming to feed your army?" Tyrannical lord, "We need food... fine then." Peasants: *lolface* But yeah, I can only see the kama version of the scythe being an effective weapon. Unless you sharpen both sides of the blade on the person-sized one. I'de actually really like to see someone try using something like that come to think of it. Might be similar to the flail: dangerous to learn, and a true danger for everyone else to master.

I kinda like the idea of making the metals in the metalurgy table be liquid, but isn't putting super hot metals into water (or just rapidly cooling) dangerous/bad for the metal in some cases? Maybe I'm thinking of some other material...

Are we talking person-sized scythes or the small one handed scythes more commonly found in Asian regions? Those small one handed ones turned out to be very effective when farmers rebelled. I'de give it the wood-ax's level of damage If it's the person-sized/grim reaper styled ones then it would be a terrible weapon. Think about it. The blade is facing towards you. If you wanted to cut anything with it you'de probably end up pulling it closer to you. Maybe the shovel's level of damage considering it is still stone or metal on the end of the stick.