Johnny_Madhouse

That doesn't pass the sniff test. Source? EDIT: Lemon oil's flash point is 60 degrees C, pretty sure that wouldn't work unless you were right next to lava.

One problem I can see with this approach is that often, veins and clusters start in one layer and overlap into other layers. That could lead to results being a little skewed.

It's funny that you mention that, because the BTW dude added a leather daddy suit and a ballgag to the mod, so you can wear BDSM clothes while abusing dogs. Dude has issues. No joke.

'Flowing' snow sounds like it could be insanely processor intensive.

You were probably using small ores from your sluices and most surface rocks, not the regular ones you get from mining.

Ryuugmo's explanation is correct; larger grain sizes have less flexibility than an equal volume if small grain sizes. Intrusive rocks like granite have very large grains that crumble and shear off of the main mass very easily, while extrusive rocks, particularly low viscosity ones that cooled quickly, have tiny grains that bond together well. It's not a perfect system. Rocks like chert should be far better than they are for making stone tools, but as has been mentioned time and time again the emphasis is on believability, not exact reality.

I really like the flake idea! I use sluices to examine areas once I have things set up, and it would be fantastic (and realistic) to find small particles of ores that give you an idea for what sort of metals could be found in an area. This thread got really weird really fast.

See, that's interesting, because I made a bunch of firepits in creative mode at different elevations and tested that. All firepits were fed by the same wood (oak) and all firepits had a completely clear area above them. Then I waited to see what temperature they would stabilize at. There wasn't much of a temperature difference, but it was noticeable. You can test this for yourself and see if your results match mine. I was a little confused by my results!

Swamp biomes are best for clay. Also, do you have lots of little lakes everywhere? Check those out, and look for clay on the bottom of those. There's also a chance you don't know what clay looks like; the clay blocks you are used to can only be crafted. Natural clay looks like dirt with grey streaks in it.

Why is iron so rare? I thought that it was relatively easy to find iron in real life, while the ore distribution in this mod makes it incredibly difficult to locate an iron vein, even digging in only the proper stone layers.

I'll just copy and paste this from another forum I'm on. THE WONDERS OF A PROSPECTOR'S PICK TFcraft adds quite a few minerals to the world, but they are not distributed in the vanilla minecraft fashion you're familiar with. Ores are spread instead in accordance with a simplified real-world geology, with different ores appearing in appropriate stone layers. For example, if looking for tin ore (casseritite) your best options are igneous intrusive layers like granite. If you have played Dwarf Fortress, then you are already familiar with the way in which ores are distributed. If you are unfamiliar with ore distribution, one of the few useful pages on the official wiki will help: http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Ores The other major change from vanilla is that ores are no longer spread evenly through their appropriate layers. Instead, they occur in HUGE clusters and veins. When you do find ore, you find a great deal at once. The downside to this is that you can go hours without finding ore if you don't know what you're doing. The Prospector's Pick is a TFcraft tool designed to make the hunt for ores easier. In order to make one, you'll need an ingot and a suitable forge for working it, which can both be found at the spawn village. If you take metal, it is in everyone's best interests if you pay it back. This guide is meant to help you do so. LOCATING ORE The prospector's pick works by scanning about a 25x25x25 cube centered on the block that the player right clicks on. If the prospector's pick locates an ore, an estimate for the ore vein size will appear in the chat window ranging from 'traces' to 'very large'. The size of this cube makes it so scanning every five blocks is a bad idea. Ideally, you should scan every 25 blocks or so in order to maximize area scanned and avoid damaging your tool too much. It is important to note that the prospector's pick has about a forty percent false negative rate even in areas where ore is present. I recommend checking an area with three or four different blocks, to minimize the chance of missing ore. With smart movement, it is possible to conserve your pick uses by laying on the ground and digging 1x1 tunnels. By digging a grid of evenly spaced cubes (I put torches at the intersections, but nothing will spawn in such small spaces anyway) you can search more area with a single pick. These small tunnels are also highly unlikely to collapse, which should be a great comfort while you shimmy along a cramped tunnel hundreds of meters below the earth. ONCE YOU DETECT ORE First off, the prospector's pick does not tell you where ores are. It tells you where ores are NOT. If you are getting readings for large quantities of ore in an area, don't start digging around randomly because you'll just get frustrated and waste a bunch of wood on supports in order to not bury yourself. When you get a reading on metals, look for an area where a medium reading is obtained. Then dig straight along one of the cardinal directions. Take another reading. If the signal is weak, dig the opposite direction. If it is strong, continue going until you get another medium signal. Congratulations! The point halfway between the medium signals is where you'll find ore. Sometimes you may need to check along both cardinal axes. At this point, you'll need to figure out whether the ore is above or below you. The easiest way to do this is by checking both the ceiling and floor of the tunnel you are in. If the readings are identical, dig out the floor and ceiling to a wider spread and try again. Once you get different readings, dig in the direction of the stronger one. This takes a little practice, but once you figure it out you should be able to consistently find ore within ten minutes of detecting it. PICTURES This is a set of pictures detailing the locating of a saltpeter vein. It's a contrived situation, as [redacted] had already located the vein, but it shows the technique well enough. This first picture shows the results of me backing down the hall from some exposed saltpeter while using the prospector's pick on the floor. As you can see, concentrations go from very large to small. You can also see some 'nothing of interest' readings between 'very large' readings. Again, this is why checking multiple blocks is a good idea! The first 'medium' reading was found at the block -100, 311. The second medium scan was at -71, 311. Finally, the midpoint between both readings was -85, 311. As you can see, this is not a perfect system and the ore was a small bit away from the midpoint. It's still a hell of a lot better than digging one exploratory shaft after another! DIFFICULT SITUATIONS Some metals, like gold, are scattered in small pockets all over an area. This makes it much harder to locate individual ore pockets. If you find two metals next to each other, it can be frustrating to narrow things down. In these cases, I recommend checking both major directional axes for one metal at a time in order to eliminate options. I hope this helps!

I'm writing a thing for the currently blank altitude page on the wiki. As far I know, the only effect altitude has on the player is that fires burn hotter at higher elevations (which is weird, as there should be less oxygen and the cold temperatures and higher humidity at high altitudes should make fuel less combustible). Is there anything else?

Currently, javelins take a fair amount of inventory space if you plan on having two or three on hand at all time (which you should, because crafting them with a creeper coming at you is nerve-wracking). Javelins also fly absurdly straight and fast for something thrown from the hand. Why not address both of these with the addition of an atlatl, or throwing board? This is an ancient tool used to extend the lever length of the human arm in order to impart greater power to a throw. EDIT: If you want to say this out loud, it's something like "attle-attle." Both images come from here: http://hands.unm.edu/atlatls.html Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl "A traditional atlatl is a long-range weapon and can readily impart to a projectile speeds of over 150 km/h (93 mph)" This would be extremely friendly to the aesthetic of the game! Players would need to carve/craft an atlatl at the beginning of the game in order to throw javelins properly. The atlatl could function with javelins the way the bow does with arrows. For the sake of not making things too easy, javelins would only stack to 4 or so. This would reduce inventory clutter, and be awesome.

If you reread his post, he was describing a hypothetical update. Though it was a little funny that he was talking about javelin balance while simultaneously admitting he had never actually used a javelin.

Currently, it's possible to run about naked in the freezing taiga all winter long without any problems. If dying of exposure is a planned feature, why not also implement woolen protective layers? After shearing a sheep, the wool could be carded with bone tools and spun into thread to be knitted with bone needles. This would give a use to bones, which currently are only good for taming dogs. When skeletons are relegated to fantastical areas, the butchery of animals could result in bones as well. Other things to consider: Before knitting the thread into clothes, it could be possible to dye it. With advancements in textiles (looms, anyone?) it could be possible to make nicer, sleeker-looking clothing to be worn as a status symbol for farmers on MP servers. Why should the forgemasters have all the good stuff? Instead of real life silk worms, spiders could drop silk that could be turned into clothing as well. I, for one, would happily wear a purple silk cloak while yelling at peasants to make more charcoal. I would be equally happy slaving away making charcoal while wearing a crappy yellow sweater while someone in a purple cloak yells at me!

Options rule.

Yeah, it's Aztec. When the Spanish speaking blue-eyed invaders came, they fought natives with atlatls. I personally don't use a bow, as I like to leave my chickens alive for delicious eggs. Javelins are also really versatile, as you can craft them without a table down in the mines when you need to clear out a random pool of creepers!

Stamp mills are a type of mining machine that basically consist of heavy 'stamps' connected to a mechanical system that lifts and releases the stamps in order to smash rocks. http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Stamp_mill With particular attention to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamp_mill#History They are a real thing, and archeological evidence suggests the Romans were using them for metalworking purposes as far back as the first century AD. They represent a lot of technology and investment. In my own state of Idaho, stamp mills often represented the final stages of a mine, as mine owners who made enough money off of ores to purchase a stamp mill often weren't able to feed the mill enough stone to keep up with its production, meaning they spent more money keeping it running than they made from its increased ore production. In minecraft, however, money is not an issue! It would be terrifically neat if stamp mills were a thing in this mod. It would require some machinery coding, and stamp mills would be unavailable until at least the Iron Age, but it would be absolutely fantastic to be able to break down basalt rocks and have a small chance to find a small hematite ore. Ideally, the stamp mill would produce gravel the many, many times it didn't produce ore. This gravel could then be run through a sluice. This system would give a purpose to the many, many spare stones produced while mining, and would also serve as a source of renewable gravel. The stamp mill would also fit the TF aesthetic of firmly settling in one place. The TF server I play on has only been TF for four days, and we've made it to the bronze age while working as a team on everything. A stamp mill would further encourage people to settle closely together and work as a society. Thanks!

I've been loving the way that sequoia, limestone, and siltstone look together, and I made a somewhat Italian-looking villa. It's pretty bare bones at the moment, but I'm waiting for the construction update to make it better. From a distance. The two stacks in the background are the communal forge. The front. The balcony is mostly sequoia, with limestone panelling. Inside, bottom floor. The pillars are limestone trimmed with a chisel. The part of the bottom floor that the dining hall will go in. I like the slightly arched ceiling! The roof, just for kicks. I used the chisel to make a very gently sloped tile roof.

Just chiming in here as a biologist to mention that there is no such thing as 'devolution'. Evolution can, and often will, result in death and unfavorable mutations. Everything on earth is equally evolved: a human being is just as much a product of evolution as the E. coli living in their stomach. There is no hiearchy of species, with some animals being more highly evolved than others. As an interesting side note, plants have some evolutionary advantages over animals. Much like how human beings have two copies of their genome, one from mom and one from dad, plants also have multiple copies. However, it is quite common for plants to have 3, 4, or even 5 copies of their genome due to duplication events. This would be like a human having one copy of their father's genes and two of their mothers. The benefit here is that an extra copy provides a safe backup gene set in case one set mutates and breaks the ability of the plant to produce an important protein. The further benefit is that the extra copy also means the plant has more DNA to make mistakes with, so mutations happen more often. Once in a while, a mutation might produce a new, better protein for getting things done in the plant, giving it a reproductive advantage while all the plant's old genes are still intact. Good times!

Yes! Much like in real life, the stamp mill will act to more finely process rocks to locate ore. Any rock thrown in could have a tiny chance to produce a small ore from that rock layer, and gravel otherwise. If necessary, the stamp mill could act as if it has a built-in sluice, and not produce gravel at all, just ore. This would not require new rock types around veins of ore, only the ability to read existing rock types. The game already tracks what types of ore can be found in different layers, and the stamp mill would just have to be capable of interpreting that data to produce the correct ore for a specific rock type. Small nodes of metal are not uncommon in nature, and the stamp mill is technology designed to take advantage of that through a 'quantity over quality' approach. Huge piles of rock are reduced to pebbles in order to find a small amount of ore. As I mentioned in the OP, many local mines in my area shut down after getting a stamp mill because they weren't able to supply it with enough rock to break even on costs. Money is not an issue in minecraft, so all we would need to worry about is the providing of energy. Your claim that people would stop mining entirely is countered by the existence of sluices. We already HAVE a way to get ore without mining. As we all know, the sluice is less effective than finding a vein and mining directly for ore, and I've never seen anyone spend all their time in a desert sluicing sand. The stamp mill would only have to be slightly more effective to be worth it, and would represent a significant time and technology investment. Again, the stamp mill would require the player to reach the Iron Age at least, which takes a fair amount of time. It would be an enhancement of existing technology, and would be a pretty cool accomplishment and tool for players that manage to acquire it.

He reads this forum already, doesn't he? I'm sure the developers have the best idea of what would fit and how it would work, I was just addressing Crysyn's argument that the stamp mill would be unnecessary. No need to pester the author unnecessarily!

Some trees, like willows, are fully capable of sprouting from a single branch stuck in the mud. Others, typically gymnosperms like the Douglas Fir, require fire to open their cones and catalyze growth. If we wanted to get truly technical with forestry, things could get absurd pretty fast! I think the current abstract system works best, gameplay wise. The player is required to think about what trees are best for various purposes, but the trees all work in the same intuitive way. The purpose of the mod is to be believable, not insanely realistic!

They would be a replacement for the sluice in the same way a forge is a replacement for the firepit. A stamp mill would just be a relatively high-tech way of seperating ore from rock. By your argument, we don't need forges, because we already have firepits capable of melting down some ores. The stamp mill would serve as a way of further processing the rocks that are mined while searching for ores, and the gravel produced could be sifted for more small ores. If it helps, think of the small ores as being bits of mineral that were so small that the player passed over them the first time, or maybe so small they were still inside the mined stone. The stamp mill would enhance the industry already present in the game, and would not detract from it at all. Why restrict our options?

For those who think footholds are silly, they have a long and illustrious history worldwide, from the cliff dwellers of the Southwestern United States, to the deserts of ancient egypt (footholds here are below the person standing in the arch). They would only add to the stone age aesthetic of the early game, and as an added bonus perhaps they could be carved using stone tools, instead of a pick. This would give them a place in the early game, before ladders become easy to obtain.