Copper vs Dew

[kory]

So, the new fox houses use crystallized dew, which is a bit shocking, but maybe it is fine on balance, not sure yet, but it does highlight something I've noticed for a while, there are no recipies that care about copper vs dew, they are identical in all input ways (except for the fox houses, now). Is there a plan to make these two more different in the future? even if its just something like "copper uses fewer bars to make tools, while dew uses fewer to make pipes" or something.

[Mouse Lover]

I think fox houses are 2 expensive compared to other villager houses.
Dew takes a while to unlock / get / find and it's expensive on the market.

I do have to say I use more dew bars on my games than copper bars.

[Snobby Hobo]

Originally posted by A Mouse Is Fine Too:

I think fox houses are 2 expensive compared to other villager houses.
Dew takes a while to unlock / get / find and it's expensive on the market.

I do have to say I use more dew bars on my games than copper bars. :pickax:

Agreed. They're 2 planks + 2 dew bars if I'm not wrong - which is by an absolute landslide the most inconvenient price of all houses at the moment.

I get that it's part of the balance pie, but damn with those costs the foxes can piss right off to the abandoned shack in the back of the yard.

[kory]

Originally posted by A Mouse Is Fine Too:

I do have to say I use more dew bars on my games than copper bars. :pickax:

Mostly because dew is easier to get, and can do everything copper does (and more, now)

[LotusBlade]

Foxes have passive ability to ignore hostility of the forest, so they don't need houses as much as others.

Copper bars are already harder to make, since you need copper for roads, some curses and other recipes.

As for balance between dew and copper, if i recall corectly, after foxes release devs are going to work on reshaping metals system in the game entirely, so yeah, if you have some specific ideas, i suggest sharing them with dev. High chances for it to be implemented.

[Lil brekky]

at p5 and p9, with a complex food and some other basic resolve buffs, foxes have been consistently in the blue without me building a single species house. Their hostility immunity makes them play kind of like harpies

[kory]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

As for balance between dew and copper, if i recall corectly, after foxes release devs are going to work on reshaping metals system in the game entirely, so yeah, if you have some specific ideas, i suggest sharing them with dev. High chances for it to be implemented.

I thought with this update they declared the metal system "done", thats part of what worries me. I don't any specific ideas besides what I said here (specifically, some distinction, maybe even just they are each better at producing different recipes), but generally, I just see it as a strange design hole in the game that they are so similar.

[LotusBlade]

Yes it is kinda weird that they checked out metal system with this update. Hm.

[Syrris]

I don't see it as an issue that they have the same uses. So do many other things. Instead, the difference is how you get it: copper comes from mining and smelting. Dew is produced via rainwater synthesis.

Thematically, the latter is also probably why foxes need it for their housing and can't substitute copper.

[Morannon]

It may make sense thematically, but dew is 100% devoted to building tools in my games as copper bars are a giant waste of effort. Copper bars require multiple buildings to harvest the ore then smelt it, whereas there are multiple methods that just create crystallized dew from nothing - Forester's Hut, some biomes the stuff falls out of trees, synthesize it from a multi-use resource like rainwater (yes technically this is multiple buildings, but the rainwater collectors/geysers are usually built for a different purpose in the first place).

I stopped chasing copper bars a while ago. Copper ore all goes directly into roads, Dew goes into tools so I can harvest caches for Rep, and the foxes can sit in the empty shacks after I build nice houses for everyone else. They're the only house that isn't built from a low-cost "starter" material and I cannot fathom any reason for them.

If they wanted a rainwater themed material for the fox houses, build them out of bricks and rainwater direct with the thematic notion that you're making the mortar out of rainwater. Crystallized dew is too valuable for houses.

[PhailRaptor]

In addition to the Forester just straight up producing Crystalized Dew (at the cost of Fertile Ground tiles), there's a relatively common Perk that creates Crystalized Dew from harvesting Berries. The Berry/Dew Perk pairs really nicely with the Perk for improving the number of Berries harvested, creating a bit of a feedback loop.

[Morannon]

I agree that there's a lot of ways to produce dew, but almost all of them build up slowly over time. I typically don't have any for several cycles. If I get a supply going, I immediately turn them into tools. Late game I'm usually swimming in the stuff, but by then I'm not building a lot of houses anymore. Housing is something that I'm usually a lot more concerned about during early game and expansion. By the time I have a surplus of dew, I'm into late stage and just trying to finish off a few orders or find a few last caches...

[kory]

Originally posted by Syrris:

I don't see it as an issue that they have the same uses. So do many other things. Instead, the difference is how you get it: copper comes from mining and smelting. Dew is produced via rainwater synthesis.

I mean, it is a major point of the game that quite a few things can substuite for other things, but can you think of any two resources that are *as* identical as copper and dew are. In particular the fact that every recipe sees them the same, except for fox houses.

The pottery/barrels/wineskins are a close match, but at least some resources prefer one over the other, so they have different "ideal" uses and then work as substitutes for eachother. Whereas copper and dew have no "ideal" uses, they are just identical.