HiddenSage

Build a sculpture out of copper anvils.

Reason #7 we need placable ingots: metal-based architecture.

Tweaking the ore generation could be fun-- the problem with that is that in SSP, single players have to burn a LOT of travel time to have operations at significant latitudinal distance from each other. I don't enjoy having to spend an hour or two walking to get to my good mine.

Not saying it's a bad idea-- just don't extremify it too much. Let a few of the crops grow in those northern and southern regions, and let some ore still be found in the temperate zones. In SMP, it means servers will have diversified settlements, with players nearer the equator growing crops and timber and charcoal to trade for metals from the players farther out from center.

I like the large islands for a lot of things-- but I feel like they should maybe be a bit bigger than Bioxx is currently discussing. 2k across is a decent size, but it's going to feel small after dealing with the very landmass-heavy terrain gen of TFC1. I'd rather see them in the 3-4k range than the 2-3k one.

Or maybe there could a way to toggle landmass size in the world generation? Small islands, large islands, TFC1 super-continents, etc.

In reference to brass:

According to extremely reliable and prestigious sources (wikipedia), brass was primarily used in the ancient world as coinage, though there were some military applications.

However, because of the metals' low friction, it is suited for mechanical applications (doorknobs, valves, gears, bushings, etc.). It is also germicidal and has excellent acoustic properties (trumpet, trombone, etc.).

~Alt

So, what you're saying is that when TFC2 is out/finished, and people start trying to build techmods that work with our mod, Brass will finally be important?

Sweet.

There's a lot of variance between the 3 starter metals and the 4 tool-worthy tier 2's. We unfortunately don't know all the details, just that bismuth is crappy, bronze is awesome, and making the one that's both at once is more crappy than awesome. Bioxx and Dunk are anti-number in their explanations, which is mostly fine by me.

The techmods are amazing things, no doubt about it. I've had a lot of fun with several (notably Tekkit and IndustrialCraft). I settled in the opposite path, and decided I prefer TFC's rugged survival challenge more for my limited time investment. But I can respect the choice.

Now GTFO. We don't want you industrialist pigs in here anyway!

My system of prospecting is a little too math-heavy to share on the forums without Dunk yelling at me for killing the immersion of the mod, but suffice it to say that if I get a read on an ore deposit with the pro-pick, I've found the related vein within 100-150 block breaks every time. The only exception is when there's 2 deposits close enough for their pro-pick reads to overlap, at which point I usually have to do a lot of extra digging to discern the direction each deposit is in.

The pro-pick design is actually beautifully done, though it takes a ton of work to get used to. As Mephistos said: it's a learning curve issue, not a development one. The pro-pick doesn't tell you exactly where to go. If you want to click a button and know where the ore is, kill the game's believability and use X-ray. This tells you more obscure clues, but they can read plain as day for one who knows what they're looking for.

Just going to chime in here to say thanks, once more, for the work on these guides. The no-nonsense guide (and more generically, the rest of the wiki) is the only reason I ever figured out enough of this game to play and enjoy. You're doing ka's work, sai.

Having accidentally wound up in the same scenario Rook is describing before, here's my suggestion (what I actually did, that is:)

Set up somewhere secure for your character to stand (build a box around yourself, essentially)

AFK for ten minutes. Spend the time on RL tasks like doing the dishes or drinking a beer or eating food.

When you're back, your charcoal is ready. Victory achieved.

I think everyone here needs to take a step back and look at what happened here. Sure Rook was insulting but everyone reacted in a completely childish way! I have seen intelligence from almost all of you. I expect you to be the bigger person when somebody steps a toe out of line. I expect you to CALMY and FRIENDLILY inform the person what they did wrong. I expect you to follow the example of forumers like Pux, Fatpoulet, JAG, and Bioxx.

See, I want to agree with you. I really do. Being a decent human being is a good thing.

But frankly, this forum is NICER to new people than my usual haunts (travian.us forums-- great community, but the game sucks), and my brain is just rejecting your statement that it's the TFC boards that need to be a bigger person.

Well if its $0.02 cents in Swaziland currency, then it might not even be money. It could be a blue baboon, or maybe a brick. Cuz... you know how stuff has different meaning and all over there.

While I can't speak with authority about primates of unusual fur coloration, I can assure you Rook's .02 is not a brick.

Bricks are made of clay.

And he doesn't have any.

I just want to say that I love your series. You guys are weird and hilarious. Makes me think I need to find a server to play on.

I made an account just to post here.

I've had terra for a few weeks now and I can honestly say that I'm a master of terra construction. By terra construction I mean general terraforming and aesthetically pleasing Exo- structures while constructing the building proper.

Anyone can use game mechanics to help build a structure (house, bridge, dam etc etc) but I feel I've gotten it down to a science.

Efficient resource management and design with accessibility to the actual construction in mind, AND it all looks spiffy!

If you're going to brag up your building skills, I want to see it. My buildings always look like crap. I want to know what truly good work looks like.

Also. WELCOME TO THE TFC FORUMS!!!!

Blacksmithing is definitely my specialty. I've got the movement values of the various functions in the anvil GUI down with such precision that I can get most tools perfect, and all of them to at least 98% efficiency (the line will be there, but with no perceptible gap).

Most of the time, perfection means going through a lot more hammer uses than if you wanted to settle for 95%, but it pays for itself in the extra uses on every tool you make.

You were right i had to move almost 1k meters off to get away from the damn marble.

Wouldnt it be nice if you could find a bottom layer gabbro in these newer builds christ.

Finding Gabbro has never been a problem for me. I thought it was one of the most common rock layers.

Now chert, on the other hand-- is that actually still in the game?

Besides this? The only forum I'm really involved on is the Travian.us forums. Despise that game for being addicting and grindy, but the forum community is pretty cool.

I'm also a member of mafiascum.net, but I don't visit as often as I should.

I might actually make a tunnel. That is right on the edge of the mountain range. I am just worried that if I put a tunnel there, it'll make the mountain look funny. My house may do the same thing. I can't decide if I should just have a view to the mountains, or actually be in them.

Depends on where the tunnel comes out, and how you frame the entrance. You could probably do some chisel work, frame an LotR Dwarven gateway, and have a road running down into the surrounding environment from it. That, combined with a bridge over the river on that side, would make the position much more accessible than it first appears. And look completely badass to boot.

I think he was suggesting being able to glue the chiseled-off pieces of the block back on. Which would involve a glue item being created, a method for collecting the bits of block you slab off, and a way to apply both the glue and the rock chips back on simultaneously. Probably too little of a change to justify all the new recipes and code it would involve.

Bioxx reminds people all the time that we need to wipe that config whenever there's an update. But you never think of it until you start a new world and all the recipes are wrong. Trust me, that's the last time you'll forget.

And PLEASE put that up for download sometime. I've been using the Kanto Albion one for the last couple of weeks, and while it has a lot of awesome to offer, it's sometimes a bit over the top in the detail level. I'd love to grab that pack and put it to work.

Happy whatever-holiday-you're-celebrating!

Two things:

What texture pack is that? I want it.

And delete your TFC config file. If you update without clearing the old configs, all the recipes get screwy. I got spruce doors where the planks go last time I forgot that (and there's a thread on it).

If I recall correctly, when you start a new world, rock types are assigned to each of the (possibly) hundreds of TFC biomes, and those specific rock layer combinations will always be in that biome for that world.

Example: The three rock layers for the area you spawn in, which we'll say is Plains_5, are, from bottom to top, Basalt, Phyllite, and Chert respectively. EVERY Plains_5 biome in that world SHOULD have that exact same combination of rock types, but only in this specific world.

In another randomly generated world, Plains_5 could have a completely different three rock layers. It's all dependant on seed firstly, THEN biome type.

At least, that's how it was before, it could have been changed in my absence, of course.

It did change. Build 49 did away with the traditional notion of biomes altogether. The "biomes" we have now are generated by the system compiling three rock layers, three tree types (that is, what trees will be pre-generated there), a variable for elevation, a variable for rainfall, and a variable for the evt (evapotranspiration) rate. Temperature is then determined in an area based on what the z coordinate is (zero is warmest. The farther out you go, the colder it gets, until +/- 20k, at which point you've reached an endless taiga). The rivers are carved out afterward, again via random generation.

So, a "plains biome" is really just an area that had a low variable in elevation and rainfall, so that it's fairly flat and too dry for trees to grow (but not so dry as to stop the grass growing and make a desert). A forest has higher rainfall and prolific tree growth. And the rocks underneath don't correlate to the surface at all anymore, AFAIK.

^drawn from the change log archive.

Trolls happen. Ignore him, or better yet, mock him openly over a good beer, and he'll fall apart into rage.

Yes, true because Italians can understand easily most of the Spanish phrases and viceversa. The two languages are very similar.

My understanding of the tongue is minimal, but it is interesting to note that modern Italian retains greater than 80% lexical similarity with both Spanish and Portuguese. Pronunciation and grammar rules make the spoken languages somewhat different, but on paper, the three are almost dialects of each other instead of proper languages.

I saw a post on reddit about the idea, I understand why being able to use bukkit would be important, but I think it would be pretty much the perfect game if TFC and CivCraft could be mixed.

I don't even have a vanilla install right now, just TFC so I just watch the drama on civcraft, sad that it is so singular.

I just keep two jar files around. One with the TFC stuff installed, one that is vanilla+rei's (map is very important for Civcraft). Open the bin folder, switch the names so that the one I want is labeled the plain "Minecraft" that the launcher seeks out, and the spare is either "MinecraftTFC" or "MinecraftCiv". Lets me play both with minimal effort.

I'd really like being able to use lower level metals as reinforcement like in CivCraft and rails like in railcraft, where low quality metals give you much less than the higher ones but still allow you to at least start a path.

Civcraft references make me smile. I love that mod.

But as to that point: I've actually been trying to plug the Civcraft admins to run a TFC server for a while now, but they only want Bukkit-compatible stuff so that their mods (like Citadel, which is where the reinforcements come from) can work with it. I have a few ideas on re-creating Citadel, PrisonPearl, and the bits of PreciousStones they use within TFC, I'm just too ignorant of programming to go and do it. Makes me sad. Civcraft+TFC= the pinnacle of all Minecraft experience.