A proposed balance tweak to reduce reliance on tiers/improve immersion/ore distribution

Someone was saying earlier how they found it strange they couldn't obtain iron and steel beyond tier 1 - and how some materials like cloth and leather are barely used at all!; which got me thinking a little about how the ores are distributed and used in crafting recipes.

A nuclear reactor vessel may need exotic elements like uranium, californium, boron etc. But the bulk of it is built from far more conventional materials like steel and titanium. Likewise, even modern ballistic armour still has large amounts of conventional natural or synthetic fibre weaves, leather straps in addition to ceramic plates and kevlar


So, what are you proposing?

I reckon, it'd be both more immersive AND more practical if armours and equipment were still primarily made from iron, steel, wood, cloth, leather etc even into the highest tiers, and had more complex recipes. And instead, only relatively small amounts of exotic "high tier" materials were needed in their construction. For example a durasteel chestpiece might need:

3 leather - For straps
10 cloth - For padding and the underlying garment
5 steel - For buckles, bolts and rivets
20 durasteel - For the actual armour plates
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Or a durasteel spear:

10 wood - For the shaft
2 steel - For the tang, fittings and rivets
8 Durasteel - For the head
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Edit: And, obviously precious metals like copper and gold especially belong in pretty much all electronic devices

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How does this help with the tier system?

Instead of eliminating "low tier" materials from the higher tier worlds and rendering them almost completely pointless (Which is unrealistic as iron is an unusually common element due to it's unique position in fusion/fission stability when stars break down), worlds would have a "rare mineral" unique to it, for example all worlds would have iron/coal/precious metals, and small quantities of fissile material. Plus a "rare" mineral, such as rubium, that isn't too hard to obtain, but is specific to that planet and is connected to the level of the mobs there. Possibly, even linking certain rare materials to specific biomes (like certain worlds may have extra precious metals, iron or fissile materials, or less of others)

I'd also recommend changing the recipes for alloys too; instead making them alloys of precious metals (ie. copper/silver/gold/platinum) or fissile materials (ie. uranium, plutonium, solarium) rather than making them all alloys of carbon like steel; coal is already a scarce enough resource in the present model without making yet more demands.

Overall this'd reduce the reliance on grinding out tier specific materials, while simultaneously shoring up materials sinks across the board giving a more satisfying flow to how materials are obtained and used

 

This is an absolutely great suggestion!!! It adds permanent value to lower level materials AND it makes finding higher level materials actually feel rewarding (in lieu of palette swaps). I sincerely hope this or a variation of this idea is being worked on.

 

Thumbs UP! I really liked your suggestion!

I totally agree with this kind of immersive concept respecting the reality logic whenever possible.

 

Agree. And copper (or Gold) should be a component in anything requiring electronics.

 

Silver is the best electrical conductor. Copper and gold are about on par with each other, the difference being that gold does not tarnish, while silver and copper do. Of course, in the game there is no such thing as tarnish, or for that matter conductivity differences. One could go one's entire life without ever putting gold in electronics and be none the worse for wear.

 

Nice idea we need more uses for leather and this could be one of them.