Metals: meteoric iron, lead, mercury

[Seldon]

Just a few ideas for the general expansion of the game because I feel the industry aspect of it is somewhat neglected.

- Meteoric iron: basically a boulder that, when chipped, would have a 20% chance of dropping q20-q30 iron (at max Industry) instead of stone. They'd serve as a source of iron and q>10 stone for hearthlings without decent access to a mine or minehole, and be low-hanging fruit at the beginning of a world that people can fight over and cause drama. Or maybe you can make a statue or obelisk out of them, I don't know. Comes in two variants, small (moveable) and large (unmoveable). Of course, they'd have to be extremely rare, and this would be extremely unfair for players who don't live near one, but whatever, life is unfair anyway.

- Lead: could appear in veins, but could also show up occasionally as a byproduct of smelting copper and silver ore. Since it'd be abundant and easy to work with, it could be used where any other common metal would do, e.g. in mine supports, cauldrons, or in the construction of stone mansions. It could also have unique applications such as bullets for slings (which function in the same way that arrows do by adding damage based on projectile quality) and maybe some fishing lures. Also, just for shiggles you could craft cups out of them which also add 1-2 hurt FEPs whenever you drink from them, I don't know. Regardless, it'd still be more useful than (pure) copper is now.

- Mercury: could be used as an additive to ore smelters to facilitate the process of extracting silver and gold ores, making the process more efficient than it would be just by setting the slider to full Industry (though it would have to be rare in itself). It could also be used to make a few curios too, I guess.

- Platinum: kind of ahistorical (as it wasn't really discovered outright until a few hundred years ago), but it would be a nice "prestige" metal to be sought after and could be used to make a variety of Symbel items and pieces of jewelry. It would have to be extremely rare, occurring only in tiny veins on the bottom two layers or very rarely appearing in smelted copper ore. Edit: actually, scratch this (graying out because this forum has no strikethrough feature).

Meteoric iron would just serve as a way to get more metal and decent stone circulating around, or otherwise be a prize to fight over which always makes things interesting. Lead and mercury were well-known substances in antiquity, and any advanced Iron Age society with mining capabilities would have found them eventually. As far as platinum goes, well, who doesn't love things that glitter. Pretty much every other metal we know about wasn't discovered until around the Enlightenment or later, so those couldn't be added into the game.

[SuperNoob]

instead of meteoric iron being a boulder you chip, why not a foragable? meteor hits earth if you have enough Expl*Perc you can find it(can be substituted for a bar of wrought iron in any recipe that needs wrought iron?).

as far as lead goes: cauldron would lead to lead poisoning faster than a cup. I like the idea of lead shot for slings, but that stuff is far too soft for most other usages.

[dagrimreefah]

Platinum... LOL

You do realize that the refinement of platinum in any usable quantity requires *a modicum of* modern industrialization, don't you?

EDIT: You did say it was ahistorical. My bad. Too ahistorical for my taste.

[Seldon]

Forageable would work. Also, people in antiquity didn't know about lead poisoning, but maybe you could just not allow it to be used for cauldrons or something.

Regarding platinum: yes, I'm aware. That's also why I didn't suggest any other more recently discovered metals besides that one. Or nix that, maybe come up with some fictional metal instead. Besides, there are already troll skulls ffs.

[dagrimreefah]

Forageable would work. Also, people in antiquity didn't know about lead poisoning, but maybe you could just not allow it to be used for cauldrons or something.

Regarding platinum: yes, I'm aware. That's also why I didn't suggest any other more recently discovered metals besides that one. Or nix that, maybe come up with some fictional metal instead. Besides, there are already troll skulls ffs.

Yeah but platinum is just corny.

[Seldon]

It's still better than the crap that Runescape does. Anyway, the basic idea is "ultra-rare metal for factions to viciously fight over".

Alright, forget that.

[Raiga]

I like the idea of forageable iron meteors of different q that can be chipped for 40-50 ore pieces. Also make meteor fall a random event much like a cavein with significantly more hhp damage )

[tremlingrendel]

+1 to the idea of metals of any kind that can be found through Foraging instead of Mining.

Sure, nowhere near in the same quantities and quality, but something to get mine supports started with.

[Seldon]

I like the idea of forageable iron meteors of different q that can be chipped for 40-50 ore pieces. Also make meteor fall a random event much like a cavein with significantly more hhp damage )

Meteoric iron consists of nickel-iron alloy, not ore—which would be a great boon to any full Nature hermit without access to a miner. Also, being killed by a meteorite would be astronomically unlikely—and more importantly, unpreventable—so that'd be infeasible. (Random thought, however: have a "comet sighted!" easter egg event in a SG that temporarily lowers the psyche of everyone in it.)

[GenghisKhan44]

Sounds like a plan.

Except... Mercury is a liquid at atmospheric tempurature, isn't it? Furthermore, touching it damages your nervous system, doesn't it?