My thoughts on this mod.

[Aureolus 0]

First off, before i launch in to some silly rant, i wanna say i really do like this mod.

however it's very difficult to progress into metallurgy when some things like to break in strange manners.

Now this might have been MY OWN fault, because before i started this post i recalled that I didn't have a ceramic mold to catch the re-heated material that dissapeared on me... twice... woops. that's frustrating...

Second, the charcoal. I managed to get some finally after 3 attempts of sitting and checking up on it like a nervous overprotective father. ( As i have read all of the other threads on this i'll leave it alone)

Ingots. It took me forever from a stray comment in another thread referring to the durability of unshapen metal to realize that i had to now combine all twenty something low quality unshapen bismuth before i can make an ingot. once i had gotten rid of that bar, i go to the pit i dog to get to some nearby stone to use as an anvil, thank you wiki, and i start poking about the GUI that i had been furiously and fruitlessly clicking about earlier, only to see the green arrow on the progress bar move towards the arrow. okay. so what does this mean? good? do it some more. NOPE. entire thing of unshapen bismuth is gone. > Welp. i did something wrong. how do i do this RIGHT though? i can't find ANYTHING on how to use this GUI other than what the wiki told me, and how the hammer plays into it.

All of this is setup next to my 8x10 ash wood house which took an entire forest to make. I understand the need for realism, but daaang. so many axes lost their lives for this house.

I hate to see the rest of the world when i go and build-out the town i wanna make with this mod.

Overall, as i said I love this mod... but wow sometimes it has me wanting to throw things because i wasn't super careful, or watching what i was going exactly on time with this other do-dad. I also understand that there's still MANY bugs and balancing going on still with it still being a beta.

[BloodravenD 7]

Yep you do need moulds for the ore, otherwise it'd just melt into the firepit. I think it's something like 16 small ore will make a bar, not 100% sure on that. Charcoal is pretty easy, just make the log piles 2 high around a firepit, then top it off and cover with dirt, sand, whatever block you have on you. Wait the 18 minecraft hours and you'll have charcoal. Also you can keep the unshaped, unfinished ingot, in the firepit, that way it'll fill up as you smelt the ores.

The anvil is a little rough, but you basically want the two arrows to line up. There are certain rules, which you have to obey or you won't get your ingot, or tool. right click the stone block with a hammer, then place the hammer and the heated unshaped ingot, then create the ingot. After that you will need plans to create the tool head, then you are all set. I don't know how you lost the ingot though, that shouldn't have happened. Also once you make a saw, you will get 3x the planks per log. So it'll go a little easier with that. I actually made a plaggenhut, someone has pictures of it up on the forum somewhere, basically it's a trench in the world, that i use supports to hold up dirt. you can make it about 7-8 blocks long without needing addition supports in the middle.

[Aureolus 0]

Its the unshaped metal that i lost, not an ingot, but anyways just line the green arrow with the red one then?

I should post screencaps of my little homestead... i rather like how it's looking so far.

http://imgur.com/a/aMYQe <- 4 picture imgur album

1. Forge / Grill area (basically two firepits one next to a 2 deep hole with stone in it.) with future site of wheat farm in the background

2. backshot of my house at the charcoalpit, empty with a torch. In the distance two sleuces branching off a lake.

3. full shot of the house in proximety to the forge, pit, and farm

4. front shot of the house, from under the ash orchard. started a haphazard willow orchard on the opposite side.

EDIT: Oh and a lemon tree sapling

Edited 28 Jul 2012 by Aureolus

[BloodravenD 7]

your unshaped would've became an ingot if you did it right, and yea just get them close by. With tools it's a little easier but you could have a little bit of durability loss if you don't line them up exactly.

[Aureolus 0]

OKAY. well now i have some zinc, and it says that "this item has been worked" and i found out to late that the "punch hit upset" thing was the thing i needed to do to finish it... and now it has cooled. HOW DO I RE-HEAT IT?! the firepit is just eating logs and not heating up the unshapened worked zinc.

[Aureolus 0]

sorry for double posting, just have new issues that need assisting with. in the previous post

[Salvatos 10]

In regards to you loosing your unshaped ingot, that could happen if you brought the bottom arrow all the way of the edge of either the right or left side (meaning you worked the metal into an unrecognizable worthless piece of junk).

As for reheating, I've never had that issue and you should be able to reheat worked ingots, but that is a bug that has been acknowledged:

http://www.terrafirmacraft.com/bugs/view.php?id=474

[Aureolus 0]

Yeah someone in the shoutbox had let me know that it had been fixed in f. I was somehow on D

[BloodravenD 7]

yea i just update my server and client to f, didn't even know there was a bug with reheating metals. I would've just used the forge anyways.