Move silica melting to normal furnace

38 votes

The tier 2 "Lantern" item requires glass to make. It would make sense to move silica melting to the furnace. (and possibly add glass to other items in tier 2)

Done Balance Not Planned Suggested by: Jack (11 Apr, '22) • Upvoted: 07 Apr, '23 • Comments: 4

Comments: 4

13 Apr, '22
Kyojin
Honestly the split between the two is kind of weird.
Aluminum has a melting point of like 600 C, iron and copper are a little above 1000 C. Gold at least is upwards of 1700 C.

It’s purely a contrived game play separation.
13 Apr, '22
Jack
Even ignoring the reality, as you normally do in game design :), if Iron and Copper are the two tier 2 elements the variance will be fairly low. The usage of copper is also somewhat questionable and sometimes hard to explain. E.g. why do we use copper nails for wardrobe? It doesn't make any sense, really, probably just there for providing variance. (would make sense to use them for outdoor items, as copper doesn't rust the way iron do)
Adding a different type of material (glass) or a refined version of one (refined wood, melted sulfur, chiselled or polished stone) might feel like taking it to the next level without introducing a lot of new types or raw resources. I personally would prefer to use less materials for creating T2 workstations, but they would mostly require you to make refined materials for them, so the actual creation phase would be less about grinding resources, and more about the process.
13 Apr, '22
Jack
(I am aware that refined wood exists, btw, but it's not really used outside interior improvements)
08 Apr, '23
cmopatrick
um, melt points stated by Kyojin above are wrong. At sea level, gold melts at 1064c and iron at 1510c. Only aluminum's melt at 660c and copper's melt at 1085c are close to correct. Silica's melt at 1710c is much higher than Iron, and much closer to platinum at 1768c and unalloyed titanium at 1668c.

All that said, if the lantern is going to stay in t2 (not sure I agree, but if it does), it makes sense that glass be moved to the simple furnace. I honestly think it is a gameplay issue that can wait until some more important things (dropship slots, talents, and the like) are fixed.