Lots of beginner questions

[Zeebie 0]

Hi folks - I thought I'd save some space and put a batch of questions together

- Does material matter for weapon damage? e.g., does a tin sword do as much damage as a steel one?

- What causes cave-ins? Is my 3x3 spiral staircase in danger of collapsing?

- It seems like flux is the key to everything: leather, anvils, armor. I can't even build a bloomery without it (no mortar for the brick blocks). Is this intentional? I can't find appropriate rock anywhere.

- Are dogs much more fragile than in vanilla? Every dog I've had has died within minutes from falling tiny distances.

- The wiki says that hammers can be used to get sticks from logs. I can't seem to do this. How is it supposed to work?

Thanks for any help!

[Sda215 8]

Hi folks - I thought I'd save some space and put a batch of questions together

- Does material matter for weapon damage? e.g., does a tin sword do as much damage as a steel one?

At the moment, no.

- What causes cave-ins? Is my 3x3 spiral staircase in danger of collapsing?

I forgot what caused cave-ins, but as long as you dig the bottom stone block first (I think, please test), you would be relatively safe.

- It seems like flux is the key to everything: leather, anvils, armor. I can't even build a bloomery without it (no mortar for the brick blocks). Is this intentional? I can't find appropriate rock anywhere.

I believe it is, to keep up with the believability of Terra Firma Craft. Do you know of all the types of fluxes? There are marble, chalk, dolomite, limestone, or borax? If so, are they near your area?

- Are dogs much more fragile than in vanilla? Every dog I've had has died within minutes from falling tiny distances.

Eh, I don't think dogs have gotten their health update yet, judging from your results. So, no.

- The wiki says that hammers can be used to get sticks from logs. I can't seem to do this. How is it supposed to work?

Did you break a log block with your stone hammer? I remember that it works that way.

Thanks for any help!

You're welcome for the potentially useful information, Zeebie-san.

Also,

WELCOME TO THE TERRA FIRMA CRAFT FORUMS!

[Bihlbo 29]

Cave-ins can trigger when a block with nothing under it is broken. So if you are digging a tunnel, dig the top blocks first then the lower blocks. Think of it like this: if you're in a large cave and disrupt the floor; is that likely to cause a cave-in? What if you disrupt the ceiling that's holding up all that rock above you? When I started thinking like that, it was a lot harder to cause cave-ins. Yet it's still very handy to keep using support beams, they are awesome.

Flux is indeed useful, but not crucial early on. You don't need it to make a bloomery, but you do need a chisel for the bricks that make the bloomery block. The whole bloomery can be made out of cobble with the exception of the bloomery block and the block directly above it. That block above the bloomery block has to be either a smoothed stone, a raw stone, or a bricked stone block. I usually find it easy to quarry a raw stone, but since you have the chisel already you could instead smooth a raw stone and collect it for the bloomery. Point is, you don't need to use bricked stone or flux to make a bloomery at all.

Once you have the bloomery and have an easier time making lots of pickaxes, you have probably found at least a couple metal veins of tin, zinc, or copper. Keep digging down, sometimes the second layer of stone is a flux stone. If you find a location where one stone type changes to another, dig down there. When both of those transition into the second layer of stone, you have potentially two more chances to find flux stone. But, once you find it you have more than you will ever dream of using, limited only by your willingness to use up pickaxe durability to collect it.

Dogs are pretty ignorable, unfortunately. Both because of the reason you've already discovered, and because they will despawn if you leave them alone for very long.

[Gwtheyrn 70]

I could be wrong, but it is my experience that you only get sticks from logs if you break them with the hammer by hitting the top.

[aliceingame 114]

my answers are not exactly the same as Sda209

- Does material matter for weapon damage? e.g., does a tin sword do as much damage as a steel one?

Make a test world and see for yourself from the number of hit needed to kill mobs. I think that even in the same tier they are not all as strong.

- What causes cave-ins? Is my 3x3 spiral staircase in danger of collapsing?

As far as you go bottom you are safe in your spiral staircase, but if you hit a block that have nothing under it (like in an tunnel, it might collapse)

- It seems like flux is the key to everything: leather, anvils, armor. I can't even build a bloomery without it (no mortar for the brick blocks). Is this intentional? I can't find appropriate rock anywhere.

The bloomery block do not require blux and you can dig the bloomery structure out of a wall in ca cave or mountain for example. No flux no weapon eighter, so keep looking.

- Are dogs much more fragile than in vanilla? Every dog I've had has died within minutes from falling tiny distances.

I do think they have 400 points of life, but even so, i heard they despawn cause it's a vanilla bug.

- The wiki says that hammers can be used to get sticks from logs. I can't seem to do this. How is it supposed to work?

You need to chop a log, place in back then break it with the hammer