Game Development: Steelmaking, and stuff.

[jorb]

We've been developing tonight, and here's what's new.

Expanded representation: We've expanded metallurgy quite a bit tonight. Basically the entire system has been reworked. Here's how it now works.

Ore dug from mines can be smelted in the Ore Smelter, but no longer yields generic iron. Instead, the yield is now "Cast Iron". Also, Ore that does not turn into Iron, now turns into stone. Cast Iron, in turn, can be further refined in a "Finery Forge" (Now buildable). The Finery Forge has a 50/50 chance of turning the cast iron into either "Bloom" or, if you're out of luck, "Slag". "Bloom" can be processed at an anvil, using a new craft recipe. When "Bloom" is processed, using this recipe, it has a 1/3 chance of turning into Wrought Iron and a 2/3 chance of turning back into Cast Iron.

Now, for the fun part: Wrought Iron can be placed in a "Steel Crucible" (Now buildable). The Steel Crucible is a hellish little device, whose inventories can hold, respectively, two units of Wrought Iron, and two units of Coal. The "Steel Crucible" has a fuel meter that can be filled up, per the normal procedure, using wood (blocks, branches, etc.). If the Crucible's fuel meter is entirely full, it burns for 36 ingame hours (12 hours IRL). In order to produce steel, the Crucible has to remain lit for ONE INGAME WEEK that is for 56 real, IRL, hours. This will turn one unit of coal, and one unit of Wrought Iron, into one unit of steel. If the crucible goes out, or if all coal units are removed from it, the steelmaking process is reset.

... we know this is pretty hard-core.

Any iron you may have had will have turned into Cast Iron, and all items and objects that previously required iron for their production now have new costs assigned to them in cast or wrought iron, or steel.

Meatgrinder: Cast Iron
Cauldron: Cast Iron
Anvil: Cast Iron
Chest: Cast Iron
Pickaxe: Cast Iron
Miner's Helm: Wrought Iron
Smithy's Hammer: Cast Iron
Druid's Helm: Wrought Iron
Metal Saw: Wrought Iron
Chainmail Shirt: Wrought Iron
Plate Armor: Steel

Equipment: Soldier's Helmet, Boar Tusk Helmet. The previously existing sword has now been split into "Soldier's Sword" and "Militia Sword". All previously existing Swords have been rendered as "Militia Swords".

Also, because of recent complaints about the disturbing lack of axes in H&H, a new Axe has been implemented: Battleaxe of The Twelfth Bay.

Other Changes: Log Cabins, Kilns, Smelters and Ovens now require a lot more resources to build. In particular, the Log Cabin now requires a metric assload of wood. Boars now give "Boar Tusk" as loot. Flax is now plantable. You can now lay stone via Adventure --> Landscaping --> Lay Stone. These stone tiles will, in the future, be used as the basis for roads.

And I think that's pretty much it. Feel free to opine.

[Blaze]

Egad, hardcore is right.

Please tell me that you at least boosted the chance of successfully getting iron from ore.
I haven't had much luck with metal in general. :<

Also, what's the difference between militia swords and soldier swords? Aside from materials required.

Edit: HOLY BLOOD AND SPLINTERS WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOG CABINS???
Edit2: How does one go about obtaining the Axe of the 12th Bay?
Edit3: Ah, nevermind, just learned steelmaking.

[Dwarfu]

Nice, you guys are awesome. I like how this is further showing the job professions as part of the personal preferences. Obviously better for someone who likes industry over nature. Keep it up!

[Curudan]

Is something going to be done to allow replanting of trees soon? The new log cabins will soon doom all the trees of the earth. :(

[shockedfrog]

This update is definitely somewhere between awesome and scary. Survival for us lone wolves is definitely going to be a lot harder, but at the same time, I can see ways in which we might still be able to make an impact. ;)

[Öx]

Kay.

1/5 (generous) estimate of chances of getting cast iron from ore.

1/2 of those become bloom, the rest are useless.

1/3 of those become wrought iron, the rest go back to cast iron. Infinite series here. The infinite series sums to 2/3.

1/3 + (1/2*1/3) + (1/2*1/2*1/3) + (1/2*1/2*1/2*1/3) + (1/2*1/2*1/2*1/2*1/3) ... = 2/3


1/5 * 1/2 * 2/3 = 1/15.

For every 15 ore, 1 will become wrought iron, capable of becoming steel.

Fifteen to one. Bless the miners and metalworkers who take on this task; I will not be one.

I'm not sure how to calculate the average number of smelter jobs, finery jobs, or how much charcoal this is going to consume.

[dekafu]

......
Well, I'd gotten everything set up to build my first house in the morning. I guess.....I guess that's not happening anymore.

This seems like a really bad idea, doing this before making trees replantable. There won't be a single tree left in the world by the end of the week.


This...makes me very sad.

Everything else is awesome though. Can flax seeds be used in planting grass now?

[Lightning4]

I really hope plate armor will be repairable, because otherwise, the massive work required to make them just doesn't seem worth it to lose it to a couple of bears or something.

[theTrav]

1 in 15 doesn't seem too bad to me. I'll take your blessing and charge you a hefty price for my iron :)

Deteriorating armor is a good thing as it creates need for more raw materials and craftsman (me) as opposed to everyone just having the best gear and then that's the end.

Repairs would be ok if you could do it in a similar-but-not-the-same system as the soft hp and hard hp situation where armor takes a large amount of soft damage per hit and a small amount of hard damage and soft overflows.

Soft damage being repairable with lower quality materials hard damage being un repairable

[loftar]

As for the plate armor, newly made such will be able to withstand lots more than the previous ones, so I think that will be a lesser problem. Repairing armors is something we have yet to consider fully.