There is a soft limit - as they need to be fuelled.
But there isn’t a hard limit - which would go against the idea of a sandbox.
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Thanks. This level of honesty, self-awareness, and transparency is pretty rare these days, especially on the internet. I hope I can speak for the whole community when I say we appreciate these qualities in communication a lot.
Thanks for the clarification that iron on the starter worlds is basically rare to the point of not being there. It’s oddly comforting to know that I should just look elsewhere instead of digging deeper holes hoping to find it!
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Thanks.
IMO this is the main issue. The game isn’t giving you enough information to look else where. We’re working on fixing this, by adding resource details to the planets GUI. So you’ll be able to see the breakdown per world.
The stack of communication is:
-
World Level Distributions: Go to the Worlds tab, look at the current world and it should list the resource by % on the current world: Copper 40%, Soft Coal 40%, Iron 3%, etc.
This will help players look on the right planet.
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Biome Level Distributions: We’re experimenting with the Atlas to work against a normalising number of blocks in the chunk. For example, searching in a mountain is always the best place, because mountains have the most blocks. But searching under the water might be more efficient because there are fewer blocks there. The Atlases should help communicate this.
This will help players look in the right biome.
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Chunk Level Distributions: Will be communicated by text in the resource descriptions: deep underground, high, etc.
Hopefully this will help players look at the right elevations.
And this ignores the player-2-player communication of good places to look, and different exploration / mining strategies.
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Funny thing about portals is that I can have plenty oort stones early in game, but to create portals I need a lot of time to lay hands on gems to craft power coils to be able to craft portal blocks (or equally lot of time to get enough coins to buy them). I’m talking about more solo player effort than a large group of course.
So… erm… remove power requirement in portal conduit recipe? Up spark cost instead and/or other material requirements?
Or is it a bad idea?
Work your way to a metal planet or just a higher tier planet and you’ll be able to get some a lot easier.
Same goes for coal, you go to a coal planet if you want to find the stuff a lot faster. That’s just how the game is now.
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I agree that is how it is now. . the discussion is should it be that way . . and my opinion is no. Going to a planet to explore and see the universe is a great reason to go… going to a planet because it is the only decent source of a material (Coal world) and then having to trek a good distance from the portal (because everyone is going there as it is the only coal planet and will have mined the area and the traffic will prevent regen) is not exploring in a fun way.
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Not much different than going to tech component rich spots on a world or diamond rich spots on a blast world if your current goal is to get more of something specific.
Of course there are other reasons to go to a world, but if you’re after metal, coal, gems, etc. you’re going to go to the place that is rich with that item.
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Actually, the second home worlds (the unfriendly ones where spitters are aggressive), are easy enough source of iron to have a bulk of hammers and slings made for the 3rd level world. So, all that talk that you need to go to tier 3 for iron is exaggerated.
You do it when you want get a lot of iron, more medium coal and tech components. You can also do some meteorites to get small amounts of silver/gold for higher tier machines, and then you start thinking about mining on tier 4 to find more precious metals and coal etc. (and challenge tougher meteorites).
It’s just this progression is not communicated clearly enough to new players to help them avoid costly mistakes (too much costly warping, landing in unexpected harmful atmosphere, landing on a world with creatures too hard to beat etc.)
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I find tons of coal on t1 and t2 planets. Personally I don’t think there is a major coal shortage. Most of what you’v e said I agree with. But thinking about this from a new person, and how they should progress. A coal shortage is later when building bigger things and when you really need spark for mass production. But not for noobs on t1. Most of us skipped and ran right to t2, and die alot.
Here is one big issue we all have. From a new persons view, they don’t know about iron bows and tools right? They won’t have an issue with all their copper stuff their proud of. When I first started I didn’t know about 90% of the materials at hand. I was proud of the full set of copper tools. Then I bumped into Jiivita and his glowing Ruby grapple, and I immediately hated my full set of copper tools. We need new players to enjoy their progression and not only doing the bare minimum just so they can leave. What you do on planet t1 is the exact same as on a higher tier. Just different materials.
So the dev’s are right in clearing up the objectives so eventually they leave and explore. Making iron not in t1 objects would help. There should not be a race to get off planet. They have enough coal for all the t1-2 things to do.
We on the other hand are use to Gems tools, and extra anxious to get those resources. We (admit this) ALL are rushing this game like mad right now to get Capital and have bragging rights for the review. Cornering the markets, having the first shops etc.
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t2 is just as absent of iron as t1, James even said it. Ive worn myself out on t2 looking for it, with atlas, and yep its just as rare.
Maybe I was just lucky. No atlas, no nothing. just went around and found some.
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Maybe it is just finding the right altitude to look for coal then, I am having issues keeping my machines filled with smelted copper and iron, as well as fueling a spark core. If someone knows the altitude where it is present on t1 I would appreciate the information. It may also me the area we are in has been mined so much it is not going to regen there as much.
The objectives start to introduce these items pretty early in the process as an example the iron furnace is a tier 2 objective. A requirements to even start making copper. The crafting bench, where you make copper tools will introduce iron tools at the same time. I do not think it will be unknown to new users for long.
I think you have hit it on the head, it is a race to get off the t1 planets. The knowledge that there are resources out there and the objectives make it a race.
I found good amounts of copper just a few blocks below the surface. It seems to be rich at mid levels.
I have made a ton of copper using a stone furnace though.
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Copper I am finding in abundance everywhere. . Iron and coal not as much
Like you, I have been gathering plenty of iron on my starter world. Whenever I feel like it I can make some iron furnaces. I just haven’t had a need yet for my characters. I haven’t gone to any other worlds but it was pretty obvious to me looking up in the sky a metal world was probably where I wanted to go for higher tier metals and coal and iron could probably be found on that giant coal planet when I need more. I pop in 100 coal now and then in furnace but use more peat since it’s everywhere and because I never realized peat and wood could be used before 1.0.
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I simply enjoy the game. It isn’t a competitive game at all to me, so, I don’t race. The game is for fun and relaxation. So, I have six characters so far on my T1 world and found a nice secluded little valley where it’s just me and no competition. It’s like fishing and relaxing. I saw two players one time together for about a minute. That is all I have seen so nobody to compete with. It’s awesome! 
If I felt like I were in a competition for anything or hurried then I wouldn’t bother playing. I have enough competitive games.
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People rush off the home worlds and race towards new things. that makes home worlds (especially the tranquil ones) a quiet and lovely place. I’m settling on Boori - the 3rd level world, but keep expanding and fine-tuning my builds on both home worlds and I like to be there.
I do go for meteorite hunting (solo or 2-3 people), as I find it fun and I like the random drop at the end and thrill of “will I get silver or gold?”. I mine a lot there as well for components and what-not, but I am relaxed about progressing towards higher tier machines etc. And the peacful home above, is where I like to be to relax.
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I agree. Lovely place you have there! I haven’t seen a meteor yet of course in 1.0 but I used to have homes on a couple planets with them like Vulpto and went after meteors solo. I haven’t tried it with another person yet.
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Where are you based? West or East home world?
I admit I was pretty disappointed when I couldn’t find any Iron on the starting planet – mainly because I was just used to it being there from before the wipe – But decided I’d make my way to a Lamblis and then to Grovidias TE and found a bunch so shrugs now I just need to find a nice deposit of silver, gold, and Titanium… Granted I’m thinking I’m going to have to goto one of the Inhospitable or higher Tier worlds for the last…
Also the Beckon Atlas with Iron Ore
