TomatoThief

After increasing my sample size a bit, I am more sure of my parenthesized assumption. Some of the chunks yielded nothing, while some of them seemed to yield nothing, but would ultimately spit out one or two platinum. It now seems from my experience that each chunk has a chance to yield copper, gold, and silver, and will always yield platinum. However, given the presence of the ore, each pan is most likely to yield copper, less but equally likely to yield gold and silver, and unlikely to yield platinum. It almost seems custom tailored to Black Bronze, since in a chunk where all metals are present, I will often get near the proper ratio for BB, about 6 / 2 / 2 plus some junk plat. Seems like with 100 pans in a chunk, you'll get around 6 / 2 / 2 / 1 each of copper, silver, gold, and platinum, with a deviation of about 4 each. It doesn't seem to matter what other ores are present. So if a chunk only has platinum, you'll get 0-3 total ores for your effort. But if a chunk has platinum AND copper, you'll get 0-3 plat, AND 4-10 copper.

I've been getting ores at lightning speed (sometimes). I'll find the intersection of chunk boundaries (4 is best, but at least 2) near a water source. Then a simple "floating" thatch wall keeps me safe if needed, and I have four chunks to draw from in one spot. Like ice fishing. Ever since I figured out you can sift your pan on the same gravel block you filled it (just keep right MB held down), my rate has improved 2-fold. I have noticed that some chunks just have nothing. I'll pan to exhaustion and still have nothing. I recall reading that each chunk has at a 100% chance of platinum, but I don't even get that. (maybe there's a 100% chance that it has platinum, but a low chance of actually getting it, so it seems barren with my limited sample size?) Then I'll move one chunk over and get over 20 ore: copper silver and gold. I did notice at one site that the ore was spawning a few blocks away, outside my protective thatch shelter. I don't think that's what's going on all the time, because I scour the area now since that experience. Maybe they're spawning underground? Maybe some chunks just have no ore?

The Problem Meat is too easy to get and keep. Proposition Cause meat from an animal to be created with advanced levels of food decay based on several factors. As a person who - while not a hunter myself - has grown up in a rural hunting culture, I understand that if you don't know what you're doing you can spoil quite a bit of the otherwise edible parts of the deer (or any animal, we'll use deer). You can mangle the deer with a sloppy kill-shot, and if you pierce the bowels (very easy to do) they will leak harmful bacteria. Further, improper draining causes the blood to congeal, which may cause the venison to be dangerous, but at the very least causes it to be "nasty". I suggest percent decay modifiers based on Weapon used, and possibly weapon material (a stone axe will ruin far more than a steel javelin) - say 0-40%Player skill (either cooking, or a new hunting skill) - say 0-40%Random diseased / malnourishment factor - say 0-10%The numbers can be played with, and I might go so far as to add another penalty to processing decayed meat with a knife based on player skill and the quality of the knife used (if a piece of meat is 5% decayed, using a stone knife might remove 10% of the total amount). However modified, a neophyte MineCaveMan should not be pulling 80 pounds of usable meat off an 80-100 pound deer. He/she should be pulling [insert balanced number], and probably ruining it even more as he/she processes decay over time. Also for consideration, cooking meat reduces its weight by 10-20%. Thanks for reading, TT

If it's an easy fix, reducing their spawn chance, or eliminating it, would be mighty nice. Perhaps it's just in my head, but I feel like baby zombies are far more common in TFC than Vanilla. (maybe I don't notice in Vanilla because it's so easy to mine that I spend nights tunneling from day 1, whereas in TFC I'm out getting into trouble)

I wouldn't call this a proper suggestion, but there are ways to deal with inventory capacity that could be fun to talk about. First, I would suspend disbelief a bit and abandon the whole 1-m² of solid rock will crush you. Instead, it would just be "heavy" and you can only carry so much quantity of "heavy". Weight would be governed by stack size, apparently as it is now, so your max weight is indirectly affected by slot capacity. Yeah, logs should maybe be 8 in a stack, stone 4, rocks 128 or the limit of the engine, whatever. The number of slots the player has could be very low in the beginning, maybe even just the toolbar. A number of craftable items could permanently increase inventory space in the exact same manner as the crafting grid increases once you make a crafting table. These items could be leather sacks, up to wheelbarrows. They don't have to exist in game, just be logical names that suggest the player has access to these inventory increasing tools. What could make this less onerous is a designated stockpile (or even just a chest or other conventional container). Once placed, the stockpile acts as a container that can be accessed by the player within so many blocks, or chunks. This simulates back-and-forth trips by the player, without the player having to actually travel - just periodically open inventory and move items to the stockpile/chest. For long expeditions, the player should be much more reliant on pack animals or boats as mobile containers.

This guide helped me. Even if there are others like it, this is the one I saw and it made the whole mess clearer.Thank you.

I attended a sort of training session at work some months ago. The teacher was in his 70s, and collects Phds like they're merit badges. He's in semi-retirement, and told us about a knife making class he's been attending. He says it's one of the more satisfying things he's ever done.

I will try to be brief, and I will fail. Pursuant to my dissatisfaction with the "sleep" system in Minecraft, and while musing on how to expand beds and sleeping mechanics, I discovered that my true gripe was that I didn't have enough ways to skip the night. That is, night is boring. This is the precise opposite of how survival should be. Let us make the night more interesting. And by "us" I mean "somebody else". Who wants a bed when night is where the action is and always has been? There are plenty of suggestions for the board, but I'll keep this narrow topic to the narrow suggestion of Night Hunting. Prey animals should be very difficult to catch during the day. No caveman ever scratched behind the ears of a living sheep, much less sheared it. During they day, they should flee on sight. Not random spazzing, but full sprint toward the player TIMES NEGATIVE ONE. During the night, however, they should be lethargic or asleep, with drastically reduced detection range. They should also die in one or two hits. Better, a hit deals damage and causes a poison effect as they bleed out. I won't mention following blood trails here, but...blood trails. Additionally, some animals should only be seen at night, or during dusk and dawn (I'm looking at you,deer). They should spawn and despawn like hostiles, so if you can't find anything tonight, you have a shot at new spawns tomorrow. You should be able to bait animals based on their food preference. Pigs like truffles? Plant a big patch of truffles, climb up your tree stand, and wait for their active time of day. Then when they spawn and approach, you fire ze missile... or let them go. Mercy is the true show of strength. Killing defenseless pigs is for cowards. Regards, -TT

This was my first thought. I assumed the coding would be far more difficult, and hard to balance between being just a bit harder, and impossible. Simulating difficulties with numerical modifiers, I assume would be simpler and more likely to happen.

I am strongly against "Potions" and potion effects in TFC. One of my fondest memories in gaming was being right outside Freeport in Eq1 where a young pup is asking me for advice while fighting rats or some such nonsense. He gets low on health then runs back and asks me where he can get "pots". I said, "Pots?" He says, "Yeah, potions, to restores my health." Ah, welcome to the REAL virtual world, my friend. How far we've fallen since the cold, brutal days of EQ, where if you died you had to trudge back to your corpse in the snow, uphill, both ways.... wait what were we talking about? So at best, with full nutrients you should be at 100% performance, which can only degrade. Never should you breach 101% performance, or if you do, it should come at a cost representing a net loss (sugar makes you more energetic for 5 minutes, and sluggish for 20).

Please note that all fictional/fantasy mobs like skeletons and zombies will eventually only spawn underground. They will be replaced by more natural hostiles like tigers, bears (already implemented), and wampas (we're getting wampas, right?) These new hostiles will come with new abilities and behaviors, so while there may be some merit to current hostiles needing work, it's a moot point as they will soon be phased out (down). For what it's worth, I've always thought hostiles presented a fine challenge. They are not always oppressive, so getting a bad situation of mobs at your door is just as unfortunate as spawning in an area that lacks a critical resource, like trees, grass, or clay. That said, those baby zombies tick me off like no other. They really need to burn.

I agree with you, Allen. The quantity of food obtained by prey animals is acceptable, but the means of obtaining it is not. What I want to add to this probably warrants a separate thread, as it is getting beyond the OP.

Kitty, I didn't even know panning was a "thing". I apparently came to TFC when it wasn't implemented, and must have assumed in the Wiki that "panning" simply referred to a step in sluicing. After reading your post and several others, it seems that panning provides exactly the result I was looking for with my OP - a slow but reliable means of gaining copper/bronze. Thanks! -TT

Hit a copper vein with a stone hammer, get a chunk of low yield ore. Rather than consuming the block, it just reverts to regular stone (you chipped out the visible part of the ore). The drawback here is that you are losing a 15-35 yield block in order to get, say, a 5-10 yield nugget. But now you have an option to getting those last few nuggets to cast your copper pick instead of running all over Creation, punching rocks and screaming at your dog for not understanding your frustration. TT

The reason I'm ambivalent to this is because food is already incredibly easy to get, especially protein (seriously, I'm STILL eating on that ONE deer). So despite liking the notion of game trapping, I think it would be coding for no tangible gain in gameplay. Now, I think the ease of getting meat should be "fixed", to make alternative methods such as trapping and fishing worthwhile, possibly even necessary. *Or*, the focus of trapping should be less about sustenance, and more about the pelts, which could have myriad uses. I like the idea of pitfall traps. Leaves are already "fall-through-able", perhaps there is a simple way to make mobs perceive them as solid. I would add that the leaves should break when fallen through, so you don't have an endless mob grinder at night without replacing the leaves by hand.

You had a bad run, because you came at a buggy time. I experience everything you mentioned, but to a far lesser degree. Since the release of 78, my world crashes on load about 1/4 of the time. But the bugs are being squashed rapidly, so as the above poster already stated - give it some time. I also agree with the above poster regarding your approach. TFC isn't supposed to be a challenge where you struggle and the game lets up until you eventually prevail. TFC is a challenge where you struggle and don't get back up because you're dead, and you died because you did something stupid, and the game is feeding your corpse to its young. So you restart with a new world (because real men play Hardcore), and you die again. But still, it was your fault. You tried to box a a zombie, you ran blindly over a crevasse, you forgot to eat.. These are dangers that are very much within your control. That's why you keep coming back, doing a little better each time. As for nights, how you respond can depend on your location. If I spawn out in the open, I might forego cowering and do a midnight sprint, looking for copper, cutting thatch, and waypointing places of interest all on the move. This is a risk, but one that can really pay off. You just have to keep moving, and know what's around you. Last night I crafted 4 clay molds and fired them in the ground on a small island while being chased by a baby zombie. Good times, and I felt very productive. But man do I hate those baby zombies. DO THEY EVER BURN? Regards, TT

In about half my games, I stumble across an exposed copper vein. My current world in particular has very high, slender mountains where I can see copper along the walls. If I'm lucky, a couple rocks nearby these veins will be copper bearing, but often there are none. I have also seen veins in fissures, and hot spring depressions. This suggestion provides a situational option for supplementing your copper search. If it were easy to exploit in most places, then gaining copper may become too easy, where it is rightly *the* challenge of the stone age. The part about ruining the high yield block in favor of a low yield nugget is intended to present a difficult choice for the player. Even if you found a small vein of copper, you would still want to spend a couple days searching surface rocks, lest you ruin your vein. But if your search is fruitless, ruining that vein block to eek out the last bit of your pick/saw mold might be worth while. My original thought was to make sluices constructable with just sticks. But since I've never actually sluiced in this game, I wasn't sure of the ramifications to balance and pacing.

You don't need a new fire pit for this, just make regular campfires do it. It would be cool if the campfire put out light according to its temperature, and provided visual indications too (coals, low flame, high flame)

The rock visibility is a complete game changer for me. Finding surface ores has been brutal, and my first several days found myself with my nose in the dirt, never noticing terrain around me, just mindlessly punching rocks. In my current game, I am in tall narrow mountains, and I've found I can climb very high a zoom in on the ground below, scanning for ore visually. Most excellent. TT

I used to have the same attitude about not getting hit, even though I play on Hardcore. But it doesn't matter how careful you are, stuff always happens. A skeleton hiding under a tree in broad daylight shoots you off a hill. A baby zombie comes running silently through the grass like that boy zombie on 28 Days Later (seriously, do these things EVER burn?). With only one nutrient, you're sitting around 200 HP, which is tissue paper. By the time you can turn to see what hit you, you're dead. Even with two nutrients, around 400 HP is very dangerous. That said, I've never made a meal that didn't crash my game temporarily (or permanently). So I carry a variety of food... pretty much just protein and vegetables since that's all I ever manage to get. I die a lot. TT

Kitty, I still haven't used an anvil (I only play on hardcore, and this mod is hard), but upon reviewing the previously cited Wiki page I believe I see a minor typo/error. Under "Anvil GUI", Item 6 refers to "... and flux in slot 4, press this...". I believe it should refer to "flux in slot 5". TT

Suggestions to enhance the challenge of animal husbandry, coming from a guy who has yet to even ask a TFC animal out on a date, much less husband one: Animals have a minimum and maximum weight. Bonus points for separating by gender.Animals lose 2.5% of their body weight per day. Thus it becomes harder to support heavier animals. Excess pounds eaten directly increases their weight up to the max.One block of grassed dirt provides 1/2 lb. One block of tall grass provides 2 lb. One placed block of hay (thatch, maybe) provides 4 lb.Every time a block of dirt tries to become grassed, it checks for grazing animals nearby (10,5,10). For each animal found, the chance of re-grass failure increases by a quarter again (25%, 44, 58, 68, 76...). This simulates loss of field productivity due to manure coverage, which is a very real thing, without having to actually have manure in game... which is apparently forbidden. Same goes for spawning grass blocks over grassed dirt. This makes it essential to either have large grazing areas, or move your herd to allow fields to recover, or supplement with hay (thatch)Cows will absolutely eat your thatch house.Animals will target hay first, tall grass second, and grassed dirt last. So by diligently feeding them, the grass can recover by not being consumed, but still suffers from regrowth penalties due to proximity to the animals.Grass blocks and grassed dirt do not proc in winter. Better save up your feed.When an animal falls below 75% of maximum weight, it becomes impoverished, possibly gaining a new slim appearance. Penalties to output (milk, wool, meat) are based on weight, either in terms of quantity given, or frequency given.At 50-60% weight, animals becomes starved, and do not produce. Animals cannot die due to starvation.Animals must have access to water, or else an 80% penalty to lb gain from eating is applied. Either graze near water, or consider a new placed trough item that holds a large amount of water.Females will refuse to become pregnant if impoverished.Males are udderly unphased by the previous bullet point.This is roughly based on real world numbers. Real grazing calculations get more complicated than TFC should be, but it is estimated that animals require 2.5% of body weight of feed to maintain that body weight. Most cow weigh 1,000 lbs. Let's call that the max, with the min being 500. Thus a fattened cow requires 25 pounds per day just to maintain that weight. To support that, one fattened cow requires more than 50 grassed dirt blocks. If we assume dirt recovers to grassed dirt once per day, and assume you only have one cow, then on day two only 37 of those blocks will have recovered. Thus a more stable grazing range would be 50/0.75 = 67. If you want two cows together, you'd want 100 / 0.56 = 178 grassed blocks, about 10x18. This doesn't count any tall grass that may have grown, or extra hay provided. Just a few of these extras will drastically reduce the required size of pasture. Thanks for reading. Regards, TT

No - I will try it tonight. Thank you for bringing it to my attention! TT

Inventory Tweaks crashed my game. Version compatibility all checked out. Build 78.3.

My biggest gripe with Vanilla Minecraft is that despite being one of the most successful games of all time ($330 million in 2013 with a skeleton crew), development is GLACIAL. Then we have this mod, this nearly complete overhaul of Minecraft, being rapidly developed for virtually nothing. I can't wrap my brain around this. I'm still new to TFC. If the mid-end game holds me, donation will be inc. TT