Composite Obsidian - Only at the Volcano!????

[Silverbell_TTV]

This is not just a rant. Serious comments only please. Really hope the devs take a look.

I...uh....loook I can live with it being composite obsidian instead of obsidian, fine, but to not even be able to repair it without going back to the volcano utterly breaks the stuff.

I mean, what is the point of having to haul all the way up there through the dungeon just to make the ingots? How is that supposed to be fun? Less tedium means more time spent on the fun parts of the game. I mean, you don't have to trudge all the way to the bloody ice forge just to make black ice!!!!! But guess what? There's only one black ice tool - the pick. Yet it's still more balanced than the obsidian I guess, because it still takes hardened steel to repair, but you can make that at your own base.

Yeah I know there's patch kits, but they have all kinds of issues. Use to be I could just throw my obsidian tools/weapons into the blacksmith's bench and click repair. We could even make the tools right there at home.

Now you might as well have to forge obsidian tools at the volcano, just like the weapons and shield, because you can't even make composite obsidian ingots outside of the volcanic forge.

I could not believe this. Please, at least let us make the ingots at our own bases.

[JHarlequin]

I don't necessarily like having to go to the volcano for anything obsidian, but obsidian tools and weapons are very good. Getting several of them anywhere might have been just a little bit too easy and cut off star metal.

Now it requires one trip to the volcano every few days. It might be a bit often and waiting around for the bars isn't exactly exciting.

I also have the other issue where my cold protection from armor ended up stacked and isn't clearing up, so even with the best heat protection and eating ice I am in heatstroke range. Still trying to get that fixed before I got back for more bars.

Otherwise, it is nice that you just have to make a boatload of bars, perhaps do a few runs and stock up, or take a few friends and all carry as many as possible so that you are all prepared for anytime that you want to use Obsidian tools and weapons.

It is tougher than it used to be, but it isn't really a major problem if you can manage to get the recipes and get to the forge in the first place.

[Jiala]

What I do is just use an encumbrance build, haul 1000 steel bars up there. I have a small outpost just outside the entrance to the volcano where I keep a change of armor and little else, swap out my cold armor for hot armor and then go into the volcano and down to the dungeon, mining obsidian as I go. Then I toss it all on the forge there, set it to go and collect the last batch I left going on the forge before I leave.

Now obviously this won't work on heavily populated servers, as someone will just steal your work you left there. But if you're on singleplayer or on a small private pve server it will work.

I really wish they'd hurry up with the star metal fix, cause the obsidian and star metal tools are almost exactly equal in output, and that would make star metal the easier to get material...

[Silverbell_TTV]

Thing is, obsidian has more harvesting power than even star metal unless I'm mistaken, and yeah that's a good workaround, but what a tedious pain. Why make the least enjoyable parts of the game take the longest? I just think the game would be a lot more fun without having to go to such lengths just to get something as mundane as the ingots.

I play on a server where the npcs do double damage, so....going up there solo is a bad idea, and hardly anyone is ever on, so that doesn't help, ahaha. xD

That was one of the reasons I loved obsidian, it made star metal unnecessary. It was easy to get the mats and repair your stuff, so instead of spending all my time trying and failing to grind enough bars to keep stuff repaired, I could actually spend time building up a nice little npc village full of thralls and cool-looking structures, or out exploring and running dungeons.

Thanks for the thoughtful responses!

[BigBombz]

I don't bother crafting composite obsidian, master repair kit is only 3 hardened steel bars if you have T4 blacksmith. I don't craft hardened steel either, there's usually hardened steel in other players storages just waiting for me to come and get them. Actually I haven't ever even learned obsidian tool recipe, all my obsidian stuff is stolen.

[Silverbell_TTV]

*facepalm*

[Jiala]

Actually... I have both a starmetal pick and an obsidian pick, both with an advanced upgrade toolkit attached. And frankly? The difference in harvesting power is zilch. Or its so negligibly low that I don't notice it, cause I seem to hit the same number of nodes per run with the starmetal as I do the obsidian to fill up before running back.

Now weapon wise, yeah the obsidian weapons are much more powerful. But Dragonbone weapons jump even further ahead in power over obsidian, they just have even less durability then obsidian. And arguably right now dragonbone might be easier to get ahold of. Though with double npc damage on your server, the dragons might pack a considerable wallop, even the small ones that are easier to hunt. And the area they roam in is a corruption zone.

Edit to add: Though the above post from the raider does make a good point. Obsidian tools can be repaired with the Master repair kit as long as you don't fully break it, and don't mind it running at only 90% durability max.

[Silverbell_TTV]

Yeah, just gotta make sure to apply any upgrades before you use 'em, since that can only be done when they're at 100%.
The difference is pretty small, between star metal and obsidian, but obsidian used to be much less of a pain to use and repair than star metal. I have yet to mine even a single meteor, because the road to being able to get the stuff is so long, and now it's even worse, what with the meteors expiring as soon as they land.

[Jiala]

Eh before they bugged it it wasn't so bad. Kill a few iguanas, gather some volatile glands from 'em, and then get an alchemist of any level. Make a few demonfire orbs and about 6 grease orbs for each demonfire orb. That would split open the meteors in a very cost effective manner.

Now that they nerfed the volatile gland drop rate, and bugged the star metal meteors so they expire right after they hit... yeah its bad. Though at the point I'm at in my private server, I can actually mass produce the regular explosives now easier then the demonfire orbs. Mind I choose a location for my palace specifically so I would have lots of resources in easy reach, especially brimstone. Set up shop between the Den and that noxious gas springs basically.

[SpeedFreak3]

It may only be Picks and Sickles but Acheronian tools are pretty convenient and as good as their obsidian counterparts.

[JHarlequin]

Originally posted by Jiala:

Actually... I have both a starmetal pick and an obsidian pick, both with an advanced upgrade toolkit attached. And frankly? The difference in harvesting power is zilch. Or its so negligibly low that I don't notice it, cause I seem to hit the same number of nodes per run with the starmetal as I do the obsidian to fill up before running back.

Now weapon wise, yeah the obsidian weapons are much more powerful. But Dragonbone weapons jump even further ahead in power over obsidian, they just have even less durability then obsidian. And arguably right now dragonbone might be easier to get ahold of. Though with double npc damage on your server, the dragons might pack a considerable wallop, even the small ones that are easier to hunt. And the area they roam in is a corruption zone.

Edit to add: Though the above post from the raider does make a good point. Obsidian tools can be repaired with the Master repair kit as long as you don't fully break it, and don't mind it running at only 90% durability max.

Have you gotten a new obsidian pick and new starmetal pick since the patch? Some tools got minor changes, though I believe the changes were all just durability. I should go back and double check the patch notes to be sure which things were changed.

[Silverbell_TTV]

I'm still upset about this. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that. xD