After a busy week, I finally managed to get some shots of my very humble abode: Heaven Evanescent ("It's home, but who knows for how long.") You can see my low level Stone Forge and Copper Reinforced Saw Table with the homestead in the background.
I haven't made much progress inside. If you're involved with the alpha, what is your method of laying down building material, especially before you get advanced building tools? Right now, I am laying it down voxel by voxel. But it's time consuming and there are other demands on my time and resources. Am I doing it wrong by playing Monet?
I think Bhagpuss and I were tooling around on the same server. But this sign had changed when I got there. It's right near the hub of Serenity Basin (Tier 1), and sits above an open crafting workshop, where I made most of the items I made last night.
Among other things, I made a Bronze Grappling Hook at the Donut Shop. As has been said elsewhere, it's mostly a novelty right now, but I can see how it might be useful later. Meanwhile, I'm just hanging out here on this saguaro.
Since they don't have herbaceous plants to harvest, I get all sorts of strange goodies when chopping down trees. Like that bag of flax.
With my trusty new Bronze Pick in hand, I got to the end of an Iron vein (finally)—only to discover something (silver?) that I couldn't mine. Right now, I just wish there were something (maybe a tooltip) that identifies the resource, so I can skip the mining node if the attempt is pointless.
The other thing that concerns me is the chatter about hiding the veins completely underground—I guess in an effort to make it more "realistic." The problem is the folks pushing that concept don't understand geology. In real life, companies mine where they do because someone analyzed the surrounding geological features and "species" of rock to determine that there is something there worth mining. We don't just blindly start digging in hopes of finding ore. I would encourage Dave and the other devs to take that into consideration when they talk about burying the resource veins. There needs to be some indication that, "Hey maybe I should try digging here."
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I don't think it's chatter about the veins going underground. That was always the intention - the current surface model is just a temporary bodge to get us through this phase before the full underground biomes come in. Prospecting below ground for ores is going to be a substantial part of the gameplay I believe. They've already said that making people just tunnel randomly in the hope of hitting what they need won't work (i.e. won't be entertaining) so there will be some form of location system but they haven't said what. The days of having everything lying on the surface are limited though.
ReplyDeleteAs I commented elsewhere, I would guess that (bugs and glitches aside) early alpha will be one of the easiest times to play Landmark. As well as having resources right up there in plain view on the surface there are no aggressive monsters, no falling damage, no death mechanism, almost every type of wood and plant material drops off almost every tree and so on. Really, most of the gameplay isn't in at all yet.
On the other hand, there will be an auction house and a Station Cash shop and if all you want to do is build you will probably be able to buy your way out of having to gather or mine at all, so it's swings and roundabouts I guess.
I don't mind the digging itself; if they implement some sort of "metal detector device, that's fine, too. I'm not really to worried about increasing the hazard/risk, either. That will just be part of the game. On the other hand, I can foresee them making low risk servers to appease those folk who will inevitably demand something similar to the current alpha experience.
DeleteIf they have any sense they will have "Free Build" servers like every other building game so the people who really just want to build can get on with it.
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