Smelting Mineshaft Rails

[DerAlex]

Through Vioki LP Episode 27 or 28 I learned that you can smelt 8 rails to get 3 iron ingots. I tried smelting them before, but only with a few rails ( <8 ), which obviously didn't work, so I assumed there is no such recipe.

But now... no more iron trouble for me... that more than doubled my iron, and I didn't even bother to pick up the rails in mineshafts most of the time because I didn't know you could smelt them... It feels cheaty for me. So much that I used the new iron to make a floor and swear to myself to never use the recipe again...

Encountering a fully armored Zombie went from "holy fuck.. dat iron!" to "...meh" in a matter of minutes.

Risk vs. Reward vs. Time invested feels reeaally off with that recipe. Like, 10 fold. Maybe generate Mineshafts with much less rails or maybe weathered rails that smelt to Nuggets or something

Everybody tells you to build a mob grinder for all your iron needs, when the answer should be "look for a mineshaft a bit".

I didn't find this observation in this Sub. I hope I'm not grinding your gears here... I would love to praise the hell out of you and your work... aah what the hell, the new SFS recipe and what it means for a playthrough is brilliant! I even switched back to diamond locked away all my SFS stuff, since I'm now not officially there yet.

Anyway, keep up the great work! And if I'm out because of this, as a portal sentry would say, no hard feelings. ;)

Edit:

I just found a new mineshaft by accident, so I just tested it a bit. In about 30 minutes in a mineshaft, I got:

15 ingots by ore (about 140 nuggets)
27 ingots by smelting drops (another fully armored zombie was at the wrong place at the wrong time, adjusted for luck this would normally be about 3-5 ingots I would say)
20 ingots by minecarts
74 (!) ingots by rails. And I stopped after 3 stacks.

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, but I think it feels off.

[Gunnerman21]

FC has stated before somewhere that he isn't aiming iron ore at being the main source of iron for late game production. And yes rails are a huge iron get, but that's only a matter of time for someone to find them or travel enough to generate them. I think of mineshafts as little bonuses for exploring enough caves. Plus FC did change how they generate to make them a lot more dangerous with mobs around corners and such.

[Husbag3]

From my understanding, FC very much in favor of persuading the player to explore, both underground and on the surface. The same thing can be said for strongholds; the doors and bars there are a massive bonus to your iron stocks but exploration is required to obtain them.

[DerAlex]

I get that they reward exploration. There is so much exposed ore through the way the tunnels are generated, plus you walk out with a couple of minecarts from chestcarts in there. That is perfectly fine, even though maybe a touch too much already. But the rails are everywhere.

Something as important and rare (and through the access to the end gamechanging) as a stronghold should feel more rewarding than mineshafts which are freaking everywhere.

Villages and the two kinds of temples within a certain radius from spawn do not have the best items in them. Why do mineshafts?

[FlowerChild]

You've made your point with more than sufficient verbosity man, to the extent that my eyes glazed over and I only skimmed your post.

You also thought it a good idea to include a suggestion in your post, crossing it out in a "but I'm not really doing this" way, indicating that you were well aware of what you were doing there.

Enjoy your vacation.