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I would love to have this!

42 (58.3%)

I'd use it, but I use Civilization Forge anyway so I don't need a separate mod

8 (11.1%)

I might try it out

16 (22.2%)

Sounds too complicated, I wouldn't use it

6 (8.3%)

Other

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 72

[Mephansteras]

Ironworks mod

The mod has been updated to work with 31.10

This is a fairly minor mod consisting of the iron and steel industry enhancements that I included in Civilization Forge. I've split them out so that they'll be easier for people to use with Vanilla DF or work into other mods.

Download the mod!

I did a fair bit of research on the subject, though I am by no means a metallurgist or blacksmith. I also made a few compromise and balance decisions for game play purposes. Hopefully it does the job of being both more realistic while adding more fun to Dwarf Fortress.

This mod includes the metal values from Arrkhal's weapon and material mod v0.3. Link provided for those who want to use it's other pieces as well.



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Features
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Ironworks

* Iron created at the smelter can no longer be used for weapons and armor. Instead, Iron can be work-hardened at the Finishing Forge to create Wrought Iron, which is about equal to Bronze.
* Steel is no longer created at the Smelter. Instead, I am using some more historically accurate was to create steel.
* Pattern-welded steel is created by taking Iron Bars, Pig Iron Bars, and charcoal or coke and hammering them together at the finishing forge to balance out the carbon levels between the two types of iron. This is the most labor intensive way to make steel, and dwarves usually have better options, but can be done if other resources are lacking.
* Pig Iron no longer requires Flux
* Two types of Steel are made at the new Crucible furnace. Normal steel is made by taking Iron Bars and Wood and heating them with fuel or magma to add carbon to the iron to make steel. Crucible Steel is a special form of naturally alloyed steel made from Ilmenite (now an iron ore found in gabbro). Crucible Steel is made using Ilmenite, Wood, raw green glass, and fuel/magma. It is stronger than normal steel due to impurities of Vanadium in the Ilmentite.
* The new Blast Furnace is a dwarf-only building that allows for large-scale steel production. Six iron ore, six flux stones, and six coke/charcoal are placed into the blast furnace and fired with fuel or magma to create six steel bars. This is by far the most efficient way to make steel, but since it only works in large batches and requires flux you may still find yourself making steel using the other two methods as well.
* The new Charcoal furnace is a high efficiency furnace that turns wood into two units of Charcoal, although it is slightly harder to make than a normal wood burning furnace.

New Files are all appended with _ironworks




Changes

* Bronze, Bismuth Bronze, and Brass now use a more realistic ratio of copper to tin/zinc. It's 4/1, although in reality it should be 9/1.
* Ore frequencies and values have been balanced. Ores are now worth less than the smelted metal they produce, and platinum no longer shows up in veins.
* Ilmenite is now an ore of iron.
* Steel making has been removed from the standard Smelter
* Bronze can now be used to create Anvils




Changed Files

inorganic_metal.txt
entity_default.txt
inorganic_stone_mineral.txt
reaction_smelter.txt

[Djohaal]

Yes I would be interested in such add-ons for ironworking so long you don't add some silly stuff such as "tool" objects that are required for reactions and yadda. 

[Mephansteras]

No, no tool objects. Just more sensible material requirements that match a bit closer to how steel is made in real life.

The Blast furnace does require leather for bellows and Wrought Iron bars for the puddling process, but I consider those more raw building materials than tools.

[Djohaal]

Makes sense. And I want some epic looking workshops while you are at it 

What about magma versions of some of these workshops?

[Arkenstone]

I personally love the idea of having this (and other) game balance tweaks put in separate mods, apart from the "flavor" stuff.

[Mephansteras]

@Djohaal: Yeah, I have magma version of pretty much everything.

@Arkenstone: I've been trying to keep things as separate as possible. The only real issue I have is that I've done a ton of other balance fixes (my own and other's) in Civilization Forge that changed the core game files and all my work here has been balanced with those other changes in mind. Makes it a little tricky to extract. Plus, things like this require changes to the Entity files for them to actually show up in game.

[Arkenstone]

True, true.  I'd still like to be able to "fix" vanilla DF while keeping the feel of vanilla intact.

[Mephansteras]

True, true.  I'd still like to be able to "fix" vanilla DF while keeping the feel of vanilla intact.

Hence my thought that people might like this as a separate mod as well.

[Djohaal]

Is that three of us that think alike with adding tiny punctual improvements to vanilla DF without ruining taking the "vanilla" off DF? 

I have some plans in the cooks for a mod that would go a bit like "DF+", with add-ons such as this, but no whacky excessive stuff like omfg 20 new races.

[Arkenstone]

I'd like to help in that if I can remember!

[bdog]

I like that!

but more than that I'm interested how you'll do that:

  Steel making is removed from the Smelter
  Pure Iron can no longer be used for weapons & armor

The first one is quite easy, just remove permitted reaction STEEL_MAKING from entity file but how will you block iron from forge?

[Mephansteras]

I just removed the tags from Iron that let it get used for weapons and armor. It can still be made into furniture and crafts.

For reference, all of this is done and currently being tested. The question is just whether nor not it's worth the effort to extract from the primary mod.

[bdog]

I just removed the tags from Iron that let it get used for weapons and armor. It can still be made into furniture and crafts.

For reference, all of this is done and currently being tested. The question is just whether nor not it's worth the effort to extract from the primary mod.

Sounds good and as I said before I like the idea + I've voted for a separated mod. It's not that I don't like Civ Forge but I think that way you'll get much more "customers" (and it'll be easier for me to just install this rather than extract it from CF ).

[Arkenstone]

Why make iron not usable in weapons when it is used in furniture?  The only reason iron was ever used when bronze was stronger is because iron was more abundant and easier to make.

[Mephansteras]

Soft iron is pretty much unusable for weapons, and not that great for armor. You have to work harden it into Wrought Iron for it to be feasible for those uses. Technically, I'm sure you could make a mace out of it and it'd work fine, but since I can't control what gets made out of what down to that level it's easier to just take the tag away and give it to Wrought Iron.


Check out this thread for more information and links on everything.