Silver, Gold and Platinum? Really?

What's with that? Doesn't it detract from the whole sci-fi theme? Silver, Gold and Platinum, and to a lesser extent Copper and Diamond, just seem out of place. I understand that Gold is easy to distinguish because of its unique color, but Silver and Platinum have no such excuse, and there are alternatives, and Chucklefish doesn't seem to have any problems giving ores unrealistic colors (Hint: Uranium isn't actually green, Plutonium isn't actually pink).

 

What is the problem here? Silver, gold and platinum are all elements and minerals no matter what time this game is set in, why are they out of place?
The fact Uranium is green and Plutonium to a similar extent is to allow players to easily recognize the stereotypical fuel cells.

 

What if we changed platinum into some sort of iron, but instead of dark grey + brown, some sort of goldish + silver


Uranium ore:


And I dont know if plutonium is a real ore irl, but seems if it is, is like this:

 

You're right. Silly me. There's nothing wrong with having a drill made out of gold, obviously.

Why pink? That's not something people associate with plutonium. That not even something people associate with nuclear fuel of any sort...

Also, I wasn't saying it's a bad thing that they are unrealistically colored, if you hadn't noticed.

 

Honestly I couldn't understand what you were complaining about from your original post, but yes, I understand that gold is one of the weakest minerals and a drill made out of gold doesn't make sense.

And pink because sci-fi generally associates pink and purple with alien or space-age tech and a pink fuel cell makes perfect sense to me.
I guess the reason they are unrealistically coloured is because
A: to help with stereotypical association
and
B: To differentiate between different ores easier, since ore in real life is kind of boring and looks all samey

 

Additionally, I'm confused as to why the progression system is the way it is:

Copper --> Silver --> Gold --> Platinum --> Diamond

Iron --> Steel --> Titanium --> Durasteel --> Aegisalt --> Ferozium --> Cerulium --> Violium --> Rubium --> Impervium

I mean, having different materials in a single progression line is fine, and having branching progression lines is also fine, but this is different. This is completely unsynchronized. There's no order whatsoever.

For weapons:
Iron --> Steel --> Titanium --> Durasteel --> Aegisalt --> Ferozium --> Cerulium --> Violium --> Rubium --> Impervium

For armor (I think, this is off the top of my head):
Copper --> Iron --> Silver --> Titanium --> Gold --> Platinum --> Aegisalt --> Ferozium --> Cerulium --> Violium --> Rubium --> Impervium

For tools:
Copper --> Silver --> Gold --> Platinum --> Diamond

And then you have the whole pickaxe/drill thing, which is also quite confusing.

It just doesn't make sense.

 

If you look at it from a player perspective it is somewhat helpful, If you start searching for iron and then copper you get a layered progression that hopefully has very few gaps or lapses in active play.

 

I vote to replace Silver, Gold and Platinum with Aluminum, Osmium and Tungsten. Respectively. Aluminum would be silvery, Osmium would be bluish (a bit more bluish than it is in real life), and Tungsten would be a very slightly yellowish grey.

 

Aluminum? As in aluminum pickaxes?! That stuff is too soft. How is that any more realistic that tools made out of silver or gold? Anyway, you'd have to have electricity to separate the molten ores via electrolysis. And, to be realistic, you'd need to introduce a flux ore to lower the melting point.

Titanium? In real life they collect sand with a high-titanium content, then separate it with centrifuges. Then they have to use a high temperature electric arc furnace to be able to smelt the stuff! Why do you think titanium parts can cost hundreds or thousand dollars for something that weighs less than a pound?

Tungsten? That's also a high-tech material and rather difficult. You're not thinking of Tungsten Carbide, are you? (Though, it would make sense as it's about like diamond in being able to take the abuse of grinding and drilling through rock and concrete.)

I'm not against replacing the current metal system as it is rather silly. But if you want more realistic materials, perhaps take a bit of inspiration from Dwarf Fortress?

It should be more like:

Wood --> Silver (too soft for anything other than blunt weapons like hammers) --> Bone (from monster kills) --> Copper --> Brass --> Bronze --> Iron --> Steel --> Adamantine (or some imaginary metals).

Though it also has other alloys, like Electrum, Fine Pewter, Lay Pewter, Bismuth Bronze, and Black Bronze. And you could also introduce flux ores, like I said, to lower the melting point. But why make the game that complicated? And characters do have access to space age technology.

 

It is, however, quite strong, and the hardness thing can be hand waved by saying that it's actually an aluminum alloy and not pure aluminum.

I didn't say Titanium, I said Osmium. lrn2read?

No, I am not thinking of Tungsten Carbide. I'm thinking of elemental Tungsten. Tungsten Carbide is a ceramic, not a metal.

 

Correction: Aluminum is quite strong for it's weight. As such, it has many practical applications in our modern society. An aluminum alloy may be stronger than pure aluminum, but it's still very, very soft compared with other metals and alloys, like steel. (And I don't like the idea of hand-waving away the use of alloy metals.)

There's a reason why we do not see aluminum pickaxes at the local hardware stores. Aside from the softness, the light weight is such that it would make for a poor digging implement.

You probably won't even find aluminum garden hand tools. There is such a thing as aluminum shovels, though. It's supposed to be used for light stuff, like shoveling snow off sidewalks or stuff like grain. We have one. It's very badly worn, with a ragged edge, from using it to shovel gravel.

I'm not saying aluminum is completely impractical for Starbound. Characters are space-faring and I'm sure they eventually have the means to make it and there are plenty of other uses for it.

Wow, umm... my bad? I could have sworn I read titanium somewhere...

 

it's a game, i'm sure some one will make a realistic ore/sedimtary layers mod like they did in minecraft if you wait

 

I'd say give up on being able to visually distinguish ore, and just have a hand scanner that you can use to identify ore. There could be some base categories that you can tell at a glance (precious metals are glittery, metals have a sheen), but beyond that you'd need the scanner or to process them.

I get this is a game, but the more real ores they introduce the less they have to make up and shoe-horn in.

I'd leave gold and silver and platinum in, but make them mostly useless for crafting except for vanity objects and a small portion for certain electronics (not gold, but the other two, platinum is used in cars and silver -could- be used for more efficient wiring than copper, it's just more expensive). They could still be used to be traded with natives however.

My major mining suggestion is that they make certain substances unminable without a tool of a certain level (the most gross abuse of this is the nutso break into a hightech lab with a stone pickaxe routine).

I do agree it would also be a fairly easy fix and much more reasonable to progress stone pick axe to copper pick-axe to bronze pickaxe to iron pickaxe to steel pickaxe to steel drill and up from there. Depending on the flexibility of the crafting system (and I would argue there should be a lot of flexibility) it might be nice to have copper drills and up as well (so that you could potentially switch over to drills as soon as you learned wiring, even if you didn't know how to process anything higher than copper).

Oh, and Plutonium ore doesn't exist on earth, it's halflife is apparently too short. But it likely does on other planets and on asteroids, along with other heavier elements as well, most likely...just depends how long ago they were ejected from a star.

 

I'd just take silver, gold and platinum out of the recipes for armor, weapons and tools altogether. Those are precious metals and should be reserved for electronics or aesthetic uses. Everything else can be used for those everyday work jobs and hacking, banging and skewering because the remaining metals are durable enough to perform in that capacity. There's no reason those three classifications need to have unique progression chains and in fact, it doesn't make sense for them be manufactured using different materials.

I'd like to see mining expanded so that alloys can be created and byproduct metals can be obtained through refining the ores and stone we already see. That way we could get access to zinc for brass or tin for bronze without complicating world generation with more unique blocks to place. Or not. I don't know what effect it would have to introduce more ores.

So the possible final progression for WEAPONS and TOOLS (items experiencing heavy wear and tear) would look something like this:

Stone
Bone
Copper
Bronze (Copper/Tin)
Iron
Steel (Iron/Coal)
...
Advanced Metals.​

The final progression for ARMOR can look like this:

Double Weave (from cloth)
Leather
Lined Leather (Leather and Cloth)
Copper
Bronze (Copper/Tin)
Iron
Steel
...
Advanced Metals.​

The final progression for light use items like high tech COMPONENTS or LUXURY items would be something like:

Copper
Brass (Copper/Zinc)
Aluminum
Silver
Gold
Platinum
...
Ultra Rare Metals.​

Gemstones should be a different category and should be used to refine an item's effects rather than be the base component. That would mean that what's now a diamond pickaxe would become something like a Steel Pickaxe with Diamond Tip. The diamond (or whatever optional jewel is used in the manufacture) can increase the efficiency of the tool, the damage of the weapon or the defense of an armor (maybe) by a preset multiplier. Or alternatively, it could affect some other mechanic that is being used like durability or speed. That's a little harder to justify, but not as bad as crafting an entire pickaxe out of diamonds ... and then using it!!

Anyway, that's a way to keep things pretty simple while still offering a few more layers of complexity, but most importantly, not putting the player into a position where they feel something is so silly that it can't be ignored. I would put using gold tools to hack into solid stone, into that category. You don't need to be a metallurgist to see a problem with that. I'm certainly not one, otherwise I'd have more suggestions for alloys. More diversity would be welcome, so long as the resultant material is used in ways that don't defy common sense.

 

More complex item builds would be nice yes.

I've been bothered more by the use of coal to refine every metal to its higher even version. I think coal should be used to fire the blast furnace those alloys need but something else should be needed. You should have to build the blast furnace as well.

 

The easiest fix for this is to change the names on the ores, and came up with fictionary names instead, then they wouldn't have to change the mechanics of it, and I think the mechanics if needed to be changed would take some time.
I think they used them to familiar of minecraft actually.

 

That would be a simple solution, yes. Though I do hope they eventually expand on the metals and make them more realistic as is being suggested here.

If the devs decide otherwise, though, I'm sure - sooner or later - an ambitious modder is going to rework the ores and metals to something along these lines. I look forward to that.

I think that's a bad thing. Already, a lot of people compare Starbound with Minecraft (and Terraria). And some seem to want to make Starbound more like Minecraft (i.e., with suggestions such as adding an experience and level-up system). They should keep Starbound more unique.

 

In deed!
can't wait to see what the next patch will bring! plus not to mention the final version!

 

I'm hoping for some Paladium, and the armor for it looks kinda iron manish.

 

I think the introduction of dwarf fortress-like progression would be a neat idea. Although, there is also stone. Everyone seems to forget about stone. So in theory, it'd go.. Wood -> Stone -> Silver -> Bone -> Copper -> Brass -> Bronze -> Iron -> Steel -> so on.

The issue with that, is how abundant copper is. You might end up skipping silver just because copper is more available.