End game endless metal production
The Metalwood Tree
There is a real life process of producing lumber that is as strong as steel and completely fire resistant. It takes regular wood and through a process similar to making paper, produces this product.
For the purposes of Timberborn, maybe this can be a special researched tree that takes 60+ days to grow, and needs to be processed in a special building, perhaps a chemical steam press, before it can be used as metal.
The Hyperaccumulator Plant
Alternatively, there is a class of plants called "hyperaccumulators", in where the plant is able to extract specific metals from the ground.
These plants don't harvest large amounts of metal and take significantly longer to extract than what humans are capable of, but the purity of the metal is good, so having a farm sized plot of them should produce a decent amount of metal for beavers to use.
Comments: 32
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12 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin"Some sort of way to get iron slowly after all the ruins have been salvaged" (suggested by Oliver on 2021-09-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
I think there should be some sort of way to get iron slowly, to allow you to keep making buildings that require iron even after you have salvaged all the ruins. An idea I had was a mine that can only be placed on the ground that looks like a hole (and maybe the iron teeth can have scaffolds on the top of it so you can place stuff on top) and it slowly produces a low amount of iron in return for providing it logs or planks (depends on what is most balanced) for the mine shafts.
Maybe it could even have higher output when it is placed away from water, with there being an area around it that you can't destroy with dynamite and can't place any other mines in. -
17 Sep, '21
PurserIf you want to use a real tree name for this idea, then the Ironbark trees of Australia could work. It's got the metal in the name, and it's also a wood so dense that it sinks in water. The outside bark is naturally fire resistant, due to the frequency of bush fires in Aus.
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17 Sep, '21
pmaraMaybe a mine building could use explosives to create metal?
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18 Sep, '21
PakistanIf you are looking for a way to extend your metal supply till you wait for an official alternative, you can just modify your save file and increase the amount left in your scrap pile, just make sure you don't go over 120 or your game will crash :)
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18 Sep, '21
KrufarOr extracting ionic metal from the river. Could be a building with two water tanks and electricy created by two flywheels plated with electrodes from steel. Or how ever you would make this lumberpunkstyle.
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20 Sep, '21
Thaina YuInstead of having new tree for this, I think berry bush is fine to say it was hyperaccumulator. We could have an ability to mark bush as able to be cutted into twig then use your incenerator to turn it into scrap metal
The incenerator might need metal so you need to havest normal scrap ruin first anyway. And so the forester will have more work to replant berry bush too -
20 Sep, '21
MINIMAN10000Just throwing my voice out there that an infinite source of iron is on my short list of things. ( Basically anything that isn't infinite or is irreversible makes me feel like I've messed up forever and can't revert it )
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20 Sep, '21
Rusartkill MergedA building that mines ores or scrap metal from the ground.
I've ran multiple times out of scrapmetal on my map.
Would love like a very late game mining building.
This would probebly need alot of workers and only produces a little metal but atleast its a way to get something if there is nothing on the map anymore. -
20 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin"A mine" (suggested by Rusartkill on 2021-09-20), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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20 Sep, '21
IterHumanity brought metal on the surface.
With time it gone back in to the ground as oxide.
Water slowly cycling those oxides around - filter water for oxides or use magnets, then add charcoal and heat. It is a way for Iron Teeth. For the Tree folk it should probably be some kind of plant. -
21 Sep, '21
Frithgar MergedTo fit with the more eco-friendly beaver approach, we could have bog iron as a renewable metal option. In real life it was the first type of iron used on a large scale and is actually renewable (iron lumps take about 25 years to reform). If there were bogs in the game that could be harvestable for a small amount of bog iron every few in game days, this could be smelted into scrap iron.
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21 Sep, '21
ZachAlso alternatives to using metal -- right now Fun and Awe 3 require metal. I'm hoping there will be more buildings later on.
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21 Sep, '21
pmduda Admin"Renewable Metal With Bogs And Bog Iron" (suggested by Frithgar on 2021-09-21), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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23 Sep, '21
MeTwo MergedMetal is the only non renewable resource in timberborn. However i am now in a point in the game where i have run out of metal. so it would be really cool if you can add a really really end game way to get metal
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24 Sep, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin"recycling of metal" (suggested by MeTwo on 2021-09-23), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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24 Sep, '21
JoshIt would be nice to be able to get more metal beyond ruins but I would be happy if there was simply a way to recycle the metal from building so that there wasn't a permanent penalty for deleting a structure that uses metal. Maybe a way to "Mark building for salvage" and Scavenger Flags will reduce the building to scrap metal?
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25 Sep, '21
Lion-Ryeoff map exploration too scavenge for more metal
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27 Sep, '21
Dan KScrap metal could come from in-stream debris after the droughts end. Flash floods wash all sorts of stuff downstream, including metal chunks and iron ore. This could be implemented with a strainer system like human dams have, scrap pickers working on debris covered squares, or sediment blocks that can yield resources or infill your watercourse if you don't maintain it.
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27 Sep, '21
ChurchThis would be a fantastic addition, perhaps as someone else said, a new mine building that consumes explosives to generate scrap or "ore" that needs to be processed. As it stands, the limited metal in a map can kill the longevity and ever expanding nature of the game when you finally run and out and go "oh well guess that's it", especially when you get none back for deleting a building, making original placement crucial that it will be permanent.
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30 Sep, '21
MichaelAn interesting alternative could be that you have to use dynamite on "ore rich" blocks of earth to get scrap metal- would still keep the feel of finiteness but gives the player an option-of-last-resort if they must have more metal late game
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08 Oct, '21
carpiiMaybe add a mine building, but not any beaver can operate it.
Instead the beaver has to be 'wise', which is a trait gained by having all its wellbeing needs met for a couple of years.
This way it can be difficult to access (so impossible to use early game), but still allows the game to have renewable metal. -
09 Oct, '21
RakazielMake the mine a building that regularly consumes Logs and Explosives and produces Scrap Metal - and that maybe needs a few HP to run (cranes, air pumps, water pumps)
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12 Oct, '21
Scorpio Swiftshot MergedIt would work something like this:
Option 1: For around 200 metal I-beams you could build a budget metal producer. It works off of planks and makes them into makeshift metal. This feature would be liked by many as late-game players can't gain more metal.
Option 2: Possible regeneration (in some way) of ruins. -
13 Oct, '21
Gin Fuyou Admin"Add a way of gaining infinite metal" (suggested by Scorpio Swiftshot on 2021-10-12), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
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15 Oct, '21
mjevansExploratory blasting for mining could work. Stripmines would be easy in the current map data structure. Tunnel mining would require a 'hole' entity of some type, which sounds very much like a path made like a scaffold, but stronger than a levee to me. Probably 1/2 the logs and 2x the planks to hold back the earth.
In another thread I hypothesized about a tier 2 mechanical pump which could use paper filters to collect some river sediment. Instead of processing that as an ingredient for new land, a different process could burn off any organic material and refine traces of metal out. It would probably require a large metal structure and ruinous quantities of lumber for paper and fuel. -
16 Oct, '21
olijakobThe beavers could use natural magnets to catch iron sand out of the river. The building will need a big surface of flowing water to be build on and then slowly generates metal.
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16 Oct, '21
pehiOr what about an excavation site, to keep the current narrative of ruins. Like some huge building / place with open roof , 10x10 or something, where you can send, let's say, up to 10 beavers or more and they will look for scrap metal. It can have progress bar like other buildings but very slow and produce the scrap metal directly.
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18 Oct, '21
AngeloScrap coming down the river would be the easiest way to implement this. Lore friendly with the deadly water :p
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21 Oct, '21
AlfredoI like where you're headed, and I agree with the slow process. I'm just not really onboard with the plant, that seems like something a little to advanced for some beavers, but hey what do I know, after all they did out live the humans XD
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31 Oct, '21
bobmining may be a issue on the way the current under map area is constructed.
It would mean masses of code to try and exclude the water & other object under the map
like how to handle people tunneling into rivers etc.
you only have to take a look at the game "RUST" as an admin under the map to see the mess of not forward planning things.
Perhaps a better way is "abandoned" pre-allocated mine workings that are at fixed locations on the map and pre-built tunnel systems
maybe old human railway infrastructure, littered with various grades on metals & quantities? -
21 Dec, '21
pmduda AdminWe added Metal Mine so I'm closing it now.
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27 Dec, '21
SapioitThank you!