rework materials from the ground up

[Nnystyxx]

"Jagged/Spiky" material trait that causes touch interactions (stepped on for boots, punch/grab for armor, punched by someone else for gloves) to do brute/bleed would be cool.

Basically materials would have their standard traits (permeability, hardness, sharpness, etc.) that would or wouldn't apply, depending on the usage, and then certain materials/alloys/ores would have traits unique to them that would be more deserving of a snappy tagline.

Remember how somebody posted that Minecraft smeltery thing? The mod that's from works a lot like this-- tools' composition determines their mining ability and durability and such, but the different material parts have special traits like repairing when used, doing more damage to specific enemies, and so on. (The tools in that could also have certain objects attached as modifiers that added some numerical trait like more speed/damage to anything, with a limit to modifiers based on the materials/traits.)

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Somebody mentioned making lamellar armor with floortiles and cables once

[Keelin]

Lots of neat ideas here. But we need to keep one thing in mind here:
Crafted items can't just flat out be the best items. I'd love to do some of the more crazy stuff here but some of it would probably just be too good.

[Sundance]

Lots of neat ideas here. But we need to keep one thing in mind here:
Crafted items can't just flat out be the best items. I'd love to do some of the more crazy stuff here but some of it would probably just be too good.

Regarding "crafted items can't just flat out be the best items"; I don't think anyone was insuating that. It's the time/reward ratio. Spend little time and use standard ores = mediocre item. Spend a considerable amount of time and use top tier ores = robust item.

I've condensed the neat ideas for you to work off, in terms of what to fix, what to add, what to remove. Just so as you said in your previous post where "everyone has a different idea" to make it to something everyone can agree on:

To Remove:
Remove the recombobulator.
Remove material properties "bloat", useless properties such as scattering.

To Fix:
Fix the loom. Make it work simply by accepting 1 part metal bar and 1 part material to make cloth composites.
Fix the workbench. The current GUI is unruly.

To add:
Add more interesting and usable stats, see previous post
Add more craftable items, particularly clothing, see previous post.

Future prospects:
Re-add the additive barrel with specific chems which can be used to treat metals, for improving stats.
New ores for mining to have ~cool~ features (will make seperate efforpost in the future)
Forge to replace the recombobulator; works by scanning general most non electrical objects.

[Nnystyxx]

Lots of neat ideas here. But we need to keep one thing in mind here:
Crafted items can't just flat out be the best items. I'd love to do some of the more crazy stuff here but some of it would probably just be too good.

Regarding "crafted items can't just flat out be the best items"; I don't think anyone was insuating that. It's the time/reward ratio. Spend little time and use standard ores = mediocre item. Spend a considerable amount of time and use top tier ores = robust item.

I've condensed the neat ideas for you to work off, in terms of what to fix, what to add, what to remove. Just so as you said in your previous post where "everyone has a different idea" to make it to something everyone can agree on:

To Remove:
Remove the recombobulator.
Remove material properties "bloat", useless properties such as scattering.

To Fix:
Fix the loom. Make it work simply by accepting 1 part metal bar and 1 part material to make cloth composites.
Fix the workbench. The current GUI is unruly.

To add:
Add more interesting and usable stats, see previous post
Add more craftable items, particularly clothing, see previous post.

Future prospects:
Re-add the additive barrel with specific chems which can be used to treat metals, for improving stats.
New ores for mining to have ~cool~ features (will make seperate efforpost in the future)
Forge to replace the recombobulator; works by scanning general most non electrical objects.

The recombobulator does do all of about one cool thing: ectoplasm + the scanner will allow you to make intangible stuff. As far as I can tell this only applies to walls, causing them to take standard sprite, block light, but allow objects and people to occupy their tile. (Which is hilarious if you wall off a hallway with intangible walls and everyone is convinced they can't go through it.)

As long as that and similar things still exist I won't at all mind the recombobulator dropping off the face of the earth, I literally had no idea it did anything of note until someone dropped the hint the other day.

All in all: Please listen to Sundance, he's cool. Keelin, if you take anyone's input on the system and culture, TAKE HIS. He's a smart guy and does far better in cohesion and organization than I can, for how much I love writing ad nauseam.

[Keelin]

I take everyone's input, that's what we're here for

One thing that's important though. The loom. I don't think i'll make it quite as easy as that to make composites.
The loom and the material type separation were introduced like that because people simply made materials that were "everything".
I'm sure you remember this from back then. This made balancing the different types a bit of a pain and ultimately pointless.

If anyone has an idea on how to make it easier to work with the material types without allowing people to create supermaterials of organic-crystalclothmetal, i'd very much appreciate it.

Edit: Thanks for the effort everyone is putting into this. Especially certain people. You know who you are!

[Sundance]

If anyone has an idea on how to make it easier to work with the material types without allowing people to create supermaterials of organic-crystalclothmetal, i'd very much appreciate it

I didn't really explain my idea very well in my post, but having clothing that only has some of the stats active will essentially balance things out. I'll explain in full:
A) Supermaterials such as cloth composites will only be possible by constant smelting of the cloth with various high quality ores. This should be the case if your average "cloth" material isn't going to have a high stat in shear strength for example, so it will require the above process.
B) Take the example of the Plain uniform/suit - 

Will apply some thermal conductivity + flammability + permeability + various armor strengths. Only aesthetic difference between uniform and suit. 

Emphasis on the word some. A certain % of the cloths above stats will be applied to it, not all. This makes an armored tank uniform not possible, but with enough work you can make a decent uniform that's hardy.
While checking out the Armored glove - 

Will apply some of the various armor strengths. Cannot be insulated. 

Will only apply a % of the armored effects. Will nullify all other stats such as thermal conductivity + flammability, etc. This means an armored glove only has specific use in armoring yourself, and is balanced out that way.

[poland spring]

Make Mining Great Again

[Frank_Stein]

I think something to consider with fabrics is stuff like weight, flexibility, and how well it "breathes"

So you could try to make tank uniform, but whether that's something you could wear and move in comfortably enough without getting winded, slowed down, or overheated in should be another matter.

[Keelin]

I think i got a pretty good idea of what we want.
I'll start working on it properly now.

This will take some time though.

EDIT: 

[Nnystyxx]

Cool, Keelin! Any Cliff's Notes on what all you currently intend to do? With this and Noah's borg patch in the works, I'm really enjoying following folks' progress & goals.

[Keelin]

I'll probably write something up once i got it coded!