Fuel for Smelting

I was watching the stream yesterday, and I saw all of the crafting they were doing with metals.
I saw that things seem already challenging enough to make, but smelting without any fuel does bother me a bit.
I would like fuel to be required to smelt things.
What are your thoughts Starbound community?

 

meh, I'm indifferent on whether it's required or not.

 

Maybe one coal to smelt 20 blocks perhaps, but I'm happy with the way things are. This game requires a LOT of blocks to create anything, so smelting items could get incredibly expensive incredibly fast.

 

Fuel is mainly for traveling. I'd rather not make the decision of smelting a few iron and jumping back home.

 

There's a small factor that you're missing: Stone furnaces use wood as "fuel" for the fire. Wood is required along with Cobblestone to craft the furnace. So the "fuel" is built into the furnace itself. Now ask yourself, do you really want an illogical recipe of requiring wood in order to craft metal bars just so you can "fuel" the fire?

 

Torches and campfires don't burn out, so why should your furnace?

 

Not a huge fan of smelting requiring fuel, though having some of the lower tier smelters use fuel while the better ones don't could work.

 

The wood would be to "start" the fire, then you might feed it some wood so it wouldn't go out.

I like this idea a lot. You could make it that smelters of higher tiers are more efficient so they require less fuel.
The tier 10 smelter wouldn't require any fuel at all.

 

If you want to go ultra-realistic in that regard, should not some sort of flux also be required for any form of smelting as well? You end up with pretty brittle metal unless there is a way to remove all those impurities.

 

Why does Starbound need all these super realistic features? Hunger and temperature bars are bad enough.

 

It's more realistic if fuel is required for NORMAL forges.

 

I agree. I'm all for optional stuff, but realism for the sake of realism in video games is simply absurd. Especially in a Sci-Fi game which by definition is anything but realistic.

 

I like depth in games... But I don't like when the depth makes the game become tedious to play as a whole. More depth doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be incredibly tedious to deal with, it could actually be fun as long as it doesn't take too much time. So I'll vote yes, because I would like to have more depth in the game, and I believe that as long as it's done right then it won't be tedious, just a fun detail type of thing.

 

that's some deep shit that i agree with

 

Everything in Starbound is already a big hassle, why make it even harder? If you look closely in the furnace, there is a slight glow, representing what? FIRE! If the fire is already in there, and already burning, you need no fuel. Besides, I'd rather NOT waste the fuel I was saving to get off this disgusting snow biome, and use it to cook a few iron bars.

 

Need to keep them fires burning somehow, would add a little depth to early smelting to need WOOD to keep them fires lit.

 

At this point in time, I have to vote "no".

There are so many features that have not been implemented, I don't know how a "fuel for smelting" mechanic would fit. Coal is already used for starship fuel and crafting half the materials in the game that are upgrades to existing gear. I often find myself turning wood into charcoal so I can create enough material for a weapon/armor upgrade.

Maybe when the game is further along and most of its features are in, I will change my mind.

 

For now, I'll have to say no. I find coal to be relatively rare in relation to other materials. Especially early game where you're worrying about creating steel and ship fuel.

However, later on in the game's development, I'd most likely reconsider this opinion as ore distribution will be more balanced (no making 2-3 diamond pickaxes before fighting the UFO boss )

 

No thanks.

 

My thoughts? Suggestion thread.