Just wanted to point out a sanity check issue. Gold 1,948F and Copper 1,984F have similar melting points with gold actually being lower than copper thus the furnace times for both metals would be roughly the same only iron with a much higher melting point of 2,800F should have a longer timer.
So you wnated it to be more real, speak, the melting time for copper and gold should be the same, right?
Sorry. English isnĀ“t my native language.... I give it a second try: You wrote: Do you want gold and copper to have the same melting point time ingame too? So it would feel more real? I hope the grammar is now better to understand?
Partially about realism and partially because I have a thing about pointless and excessive time sinks in games where they are not needed (already have time sinks in travel, locating ore nodes, mining, fighting monsters, not dying). The only thing that the ore processing timers do is require the player to compensate for the time sink by adding a-lot of furnaces which take up space that could be used for other things. The fact that the timers do not reflect the actual melting point of the material just kinda underscores the main issue by showing how artificial the time sinks are. On the other hand Iridium has a much higher melting point than iron so the timers make sense although I doubt you can get over 4500F with a coal furnace you would need an industrial smelter (upgraded furnaces have also been suggested a lot).
Thank you for going further in detail. I now understand what you mean and I think you are right. It takes really much time. I like to say "yes" to your suggestion =D
I agree with your reasoning, but also do realize that gold is considered rarer than copper in this game (and real life), and that the smelting times are most likely supposed to reflect that.
But once again there is nothing gained by doing things that way at least where balance is concerned the difficulty and time sinks are all in gathering the ore. There is honestly no real need for machine processing times at all due to the fact that gathering materials consumes most of the players actual time in the first place its just surplus time wasting for no real logical reason