Other Types of Stone

So I watched the Desktop Tuesday on the Blacksmith, and the first thing I thought when I saw the coal ore was

“That looks like dark stone, I’d love to build with that material! But it’s probably coal, so I wouldn’t want to waste it.”

This is much the same way I feel about Minecraft’s coal blocks. I love how they look, but I’m never rich enough to build with them.

Speaking of Minecraft, does anyone remember early in the 1.8 snapshots when they added the new stone types, which generate like ore? I fell in love with the “new colors of stone” immediately. Unfortunately, they still don’t feel as feature-complete as the original stone. You cannot make stairs, slabs, or tools from them. I think part of the reason for this is they were put in so much later than the original stone.

As Stonehearth is still early into development, I hope it can side-step this pitfall. I don’t care if new stone types generate in ore-like veins in the current stone, or if different areas are dominated by one type of stone. I just want more types of stone for use as building materials, and I want them to feel just as complete.

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to add to that, we need more options for stone floors, i dont always just want a checkered stone floor…

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I am a big fan of as many building blocks as possible. Especially in base resources like stone, wood, dirt etc.

I think the consequence which would have to be avoided would be over-cluttered stockpiles. However I personally don’t think that would be enough of a problem to make a limited amount of resource types.

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Those are the -ite blocks, as I call them: diorite, andesite, granite. Agreed on the limited usability of them besides basic decoration, they’re fairly generic as of now.

Part of the ambiguity is that we’re already able to achieve different designs of walls, roofs, and floors with the same base material. I suppose my question in regards to this is how many different variations will we get for each material, and will there be tiers that further build on them? (Also, will those improved materials look as good as some of the earlier designs?)

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Who can say no to variety? Personally, I love the idea of finding some nice stone, marble for example, a ways distant from the main settlement, and then setting up an infrastructure to collect and transport it back to town for fancy manor houses and the like.

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They might use coal for the forge, I guess.

And I bet marble would make a very lucrative resource to work with. You can make statues of white marble, black marble and different kinds of stone.

The danger of clutter is high though but I’m sure the devs will think of a clever way to solve that problem if they want it as a core feature… Maybe if you gain access to let’s say granite it’ll unlock the option to make things in granite.

In otherwords mining granite turns it to “stone” but unlocks the option to make a darker grainy looking variant of the masons craftables, and the same will apply to other kinds of stone, or wood etc. I mean we already see that in the floors and walls of our buildings you just need wood to make different colored walls and floors regardless of type.

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Clutter isn’t really a problem for the devs, it’s more a matter of how the player designs things. Granted, we do need better storage solutions than “dump everything on the floor”, but once that happens, there shouldn’t be a problem unless people let it become a problem.

TBH, I’d prefer if different wood types had their own colour, and the objects made from them would inherit that colour. So the oak furniture in most of the settlement has that same brown colour we have today, but the fancy mahogany furniture in the mayor’s manor that we trekked for hours to obtain had a rich, dark tone to distinguish it. Because if we’re going there for stone, it wouldn’t make sense not to do the same with wood.

I’d also probably do away with the generic “stone” resource. It wouldn’t really make sense among all the specific stone types.

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Different wood types? That brings up an interesting point.
https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/business6/uploads/stonehearth/_optimized/11e/c8a/24e94b796f_690x388.jpg
I’d love to have the type of wood shown in the stairs of the concept art.

@Thulfikar Your suggestion makes since, but I would almost rather it be the other way, i.e. dark and light wood floors would require different wood types. However, I think this is pushing it, because it leads to a continuity problem (Wooden furniture is made of alternating light and dark stripes and only needs one type of wood, so what makes buildings different?) and an intended purpose problem (Aren’t the alternating colors a texture, not different materials?).

I think the building designer could be changed to let us build with the current set materials, but choose a wood or stone type first that would influence the color and maybe the pattern [as different types of rock are coarser/finer, and different types of wood are harder/softer/more irregular].

@Atreyu The generic stone is in need of a renaming if more stone materials come about. How does Hunk o’ Genericite sound?

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As far as different tones in furniture items go, I think there’d be enough variation in the tones of the wood to support it without being an issue. It would probably depend on the difference between the palettes more than anything - if the dark bits on the oak are as dark as mahogany, then it starts to look wrong, so as long as there’s enough difference between the dark parts of one material, and the light parts of the next, it should be fine.

I figured the “stone” would just be replaced entirely with specific types, but Genericite has a nice ring to it. I think it would need some more made up stone types to accompany it though, lest it be the odd one out.

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i would also love to see sandstone…

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when i came into this thread i had things like rubies saphires and emeralds in mind, but now after reading all i can think of is the stones variety from gnomoria

from wiki
Basalt
A type of rock that is dark grey or black in color.

Bauxite
A type of rock that is burgundy (dark purple) in color.

Granite
A type of rock that is grey in color.

Lapis Lazuli
A type of rock that is blue in color.

Marble
A type of rock that is white (light grey) in color.

Sandstone
A dark brown rock that appears to be the most abundant in the upper layers.

Serpentine
A type of rock that has a light green tint.

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What about discoloration in stone near certain ore/coal veins?

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Personally I don’t like this idea too much as it’s too much like Timber an Stone and it’s one of the things I don’t like about that game.
I like the game the way it is where you have just one generic type of “Stone” and “Wood” and everything is made from that one resource. Any differences in wall designs are simply handled in the building editor by picking a different design.
Timber and Stone gets into way too much micromanagement having to make separate cobblestones, flagstones, bricks.
That’s fine in the beginning when you only have 8 or 10 villagers to deal with but what happens later in the game when you have a city of 200? Are you still gonna be able to keep track of all the different stuff in your inventory?
There’s just too many different resources that really do nothing for gameplay but clutter and complicate things.

For example, in T&S you cut down a tree to get “Logs”, then you need to tell your guys to cut those logs into “Planks” or like 2 different types of “Lumber” and only then can you use those items to craft actual finished products.

In Stonehearth, you cut down a tree and get “Logs” You can then craft furniture, tools, and build wooden structures directly from those “Logs”. It’s just automatically assumed that your workers cut them into lumber or planks as part of the building process.

I know we PC gamers always want “more” but there’s a difference between content and complexity that adds depth to gameplay and just clutter.

Stonehearth is great because it’s gameplay is deep but elegant and easy to manage.

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very good point i really don’t care much for having to have a certain type of stone for something. however that said, i think they should add things like sandstone. thus being completely different from the normal stone, not just a variant of the normal stuff.

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Okay, another somewhat-relevant issue on stone.

That bluish ore is an iron vein. That brownish rock is an iron ore item. Why are they so different? Personally, I’m a fan of changing the block to look more like the item, instead of the other way around, as Minecraft has taught me to believe iron ore is a yellowish brown color.

Also, I don’t like the way ore veins look. Right now, they’re a solid color blatantly contrasting with another solid color. IPerhaps there could be a block blending between the ore and the stone it is in - much like how grass is in a few different colors across several blocks. Also, the concept art shows stone in less of a solid color. This might make ores “fit in” better.

@BorisS1990 Technically, we already have two types of wood, although they are functionally the same. I am with you in not wanting to micromanage the state of materials (such as logs vs. planks, bricks vs. cobblestone). But I wouldn’t mind managing different types .

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I think they need to highlight the Tin ore color also, when you zoom out a bit you cannot tell it from a regular lump of stone or change the coloring of the stone clustering the ores.

I also wouldn’t be opposed to a log cabin style texture when you set the outside walls of your home in the build menu.

Maybe these transition blocks then have a chance for producing either ore or plain stone? The closer to the actual vein, the more likely the chance.

I’ll also agree with this. Right now, there’s not much need to actually have different types of resources. But once we have to start dealing with structural damage, possible weathering effects, etc., there will be a greater need for hierarchy in construction materials. While some higher tier variations may just need more of a base material (wood, stone), eventually it should also require additional or specific variations of supplies.

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Runescape uses a dark brown like that colour for iron ore. The dark brown is a lot more readable.

[quote=“Azhrak, post:19, topic:9645”]
Runescape
[/quote]dang, been ages since i played that game…

[quote=“Azhrak, post:19, topic:9645”]
dark brown like that colour for iron ore
[/quote] well isn’t oxidized iron naturally a reddish brown color? (or am i just making stuff up now…)

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