Release of minor patch, v0.2.3, to fix an issue (mistake on my part) that made Expanded Matter crushed ores impossible to smelt.

I appreciate you saying that, I can see what you mean. NightstalkerAvi

Right now I am not being very sharp at learning the C# stuff I need, so I'm taking my time mostly focusing on models at the moment for v0.3 and possibly some other future stuff, as it takes a while to do too (and plan in some cases). 🙂

That's alright! I may have said it here before but I will always admire people that spend time working on mods given that communites can be really toxic to said modders sometimes. It's unpaid work and takes time, so don't stress about it and focus on not getting burnt out as well as taking time to relax!

v0.3 is coming along but I am simply not having enough time to work on it proper so the C# code side hasn't progressed a lot. So far, I have made the models for the new shingles clay cutter, the sintering oven, the stone tablets and the grindstone; some stuff is placeholder or incomplete, but WIP screenshots for all of these are up on the roadmap (and animation preview can be seen attached with grindstone card)! 😁

NightstalkerAvi

Yeah, just to give some context, I prefer to make Lithocraft be standalone as much as possible because it's a mod that I make with the mindset of a "core mod" that I always want to play with myself, because I don't like the idea when you have a dependency that the dependency might break and then the whole mod breaks too. So, I like to add integrations and compatibilities but prefer to not have any hard dependencies for this reason.

And thanks for mentioning the ashes mod, I had seen it a while back but hadn't tried it yet! I'd probably look at integrating ashes from it too then.

As for Expanded Foods, I do play with the mod on usually and yeah, there isn't really a sensible use for vegetable-source oils in any of the things I'm planning right now. There is a lot of complexity to oils and fats (in fairness much of it goes beyond me) and so, generally speaking, you can't just use any oil for any job that requires a specific type of oil. The properties pertaining to lubrication, temperature-based phase changes, flash points, compression and so on are all somewhat particular to specific oil formulations, which is likely much of the reason so many different oils are used in real life! That said, if there was a sensible/applicable use for a cooking oil in something I'd planned, I would look into it.

While in a pinch you could probably use the "wrong" oil or fat for something requiring a specific one, there's usually going to be a reason why you'd want to avoid the "wrong" one; for example vegetable oils are not so good at inhibiting metal corrosion and may not have appropriate viscosity in some applications. As another example, tallow (animal fat generally) can be used as a draggy lubricant, and while it works fairly well for this purpose, it does eventually just harden up and become pretty bad at its job.

And yes, thank you for bringing it up all the same; comments like these are useful to me because of the thought processes that follow.

I really like that idea! I agree that it's not as simple as a hammer and chisel but it could be something done later in progression then just a copper hammer and chisel with good scaling!
Of course there should be a variety of options that don't rely on other mods but intergration with other ones is always nice! Speaking of, I know I use 'ValleyOfAshes' which has plant ash, and wood ash, with one other I think I am missing!
Still, with some vanilla items and maybe a bit of EM added in it could be a very nice spin on the idea of making bricks!

Instant Edit: 'Expanded Foods' Also has seed oil which is pressed from any seeds and Flax Oil which is pressed from flax grain, the later being used in recipes as an alternate to fat a lot of the time. I do not expect this to be added in compatability wise to be entirely honest, but I did want to bring it up. (Something, something, cooking oil isn't typically used for Masonry... duh)

    - Avi

Hmm... Possibly some kind of stone & ash brick; this could be something like VS gravel or EM rock dusts mixed together with a choice of an appropriate ash-like substance or other finer dusts and some clay. It might not exactly be as simple as just using a hammer and chisel but in terms of scaled production it may be an adequate alternative to the way you could make ashlar bricks. Edit: Actually I could probably also integrate that oils mod in a recipe like this, as I see it has wood ash which would be an applicable choice. NightstalkerAvi

Thank you for showing me the mod, your link didn't work but I was able to find it by the name. The mod looks like something for which I could add some integration, I'll need to have a closer look at it later to see exactly what would "fit" but at a glance I could make their oil lamps also be craftable from my mineral wax or the oil when I add it. Skull_Pankakes

Makes sense! And yeah, It's mostly that needing full rock blocks can be a massive pain for making the ashlar bricks, if you feel like making a crafting recipe using the hammer and chisel then go for it!
I guess the big thing is that, as you said, the loose stones would have to be really big unless something was used to bind the stones together... either way! It would be nice to have that QoL recipe if you think it fits the vision of the mod!

Edit: Maybe the recipe could use rock dust from EM or gravel as way of showing using lots of smaller stones being combined to get a small amount of bricks? Could be interesting if the ratios and recipe makes sense, at least in a basic sense.

NerArth
Oils! From Seed to Substance - It adds soap too!

NightstalkerAvi

My feel for the idea using mineral wax for ashlar is that it's not quite there in terms of believability, to me. The mineral wax would melt or at least begin a glass transition during even moderately warm seasons, effectively meaning it wouldn't be able to hold any structural strength at anything warmer than "average room temperature".

Is the QOL issue for you the fact that in order to normally craft ashlar bricks, you would need to use full rock blocks? I had a quick look inside the mod you linked and yeah that recipe's ratios certainly seem generous.

I wouldn't have an issue adding a hammer & chisel recipe for making ashlar bricks that didn't involve full rock blocks but I'd have to think about the ratios.
My main issue aside from that is that to make up ashlar bricks the size they are, you'd need to be finding pretty big loose stones!

And yes, it certainly is, don't I know it. 😂
Anyway, I'll sort of keep this in my head and see if I can think about something that might seem believable enough.

Heyya, I had an Idea that Is going to keep me awake if I don't suggest it before bed.
How do you feel about a crafting grid recipe using mineral wax in the center and loose stones surounding it, like the cobble recipe with clay, in order to get Ashlar bricks in some ratio; say 4 in each tile so 32 total and one mineral wax for ~16 bricks?
Or any ratio that feels right to you. I think coding wise this would be a smidge annoying to code in but just uses the crafting grid so it wouldn't be terrible or take any specialized coding/modeling.

The main reason I bring this idea up is because one of the classes added in Mr1k3's 'MoreClasses' mod lets you use a hammer and chisel to create said Ashlar bricks. It's more so intended for MP and I find the ratio to be a biiiiit much, so, it would be fun and interesting to see an updated as well as class-less spin on the idea with a more reasonable ratio then what is used (You could also add in support for Geology Additions />,~~,>/ ). Another ratio I could see working and not being as unreasonable is a + shaped recipe with the loose stones on the edges and the mineral wax in the center!
Anyway, sorry for the rambling idea, just thought it was on track with other stone recipes added by the mod and could be implimented in way that doesn't disregard what is added by your work! (I also know I would have the lost twice the time it took to write this thinking about it while trying to sleep; ADHD is a menace lemme tell you.)

...ANYWHO! Take it easy and stay safe, we all love your work!
    - Avi

Thanks for the suggestions. Skull_Pankakes

Bitumen as in black pitchy stuff, hadn't appeared in my mind yet, so I'll have to think about that one, but for roofing it's an idea I like. Semi-related, flashing for rooves is something I'd like to look into as well at some point.
I'm not sure I want to add asphalt/tarmac-y types of paving because that's kind of the domain of More Roads & Paths.

Stone roofing, this has been on my mind a while but it's sort of at the back for now because of the required amount of texture-work for it to look good. It's actually quicker for me to make models than it is textures so anything that needs a lot of texture-work will usually be at the back.

In 0.3 I'm adding mineral oil derived from mineral wax. The mineral oil will be usable in non-food applications, I'll have to look into how food-safe greases are made because I'm not familiar with the specifics. Can you link the oil mod you're talking about?

I have a few more items to add to the sugestion list 
Bitumen - used as an alterntive for morter/resin, paved path blocks, roof shingles(might be a strech) 
Stone shingles/roof tiles - we have slate but i also found ones made of Sandstone, Quartzite, Basalt, Granite, Marble, Gneiss, Phyllite, and Limestone. 
Grease - to be used in place of fat in cog and other recipes. food grade grease for sealing crocks. compat/intergration with oil mod?

I've released 0.2.1 which hopefully fully fixes the issue with the missing snow texture on ashlar stone walls, let me know if there are any issues Skull_Pankakes

Edit to add: Unless people find any critically serious issues that aren't already a known issue, 0.2 is unlikely to receive any further minor patches, as I will be focusing on 0.3 development, which will likely take a while!

Edit: Removed the 0.2.1 release because of a mod-breaking bug I introduced by accident, will be fixed in a 0.2.2 upload! 🤪

Of course! I'm glad that you liked the ideas, even though the multi-block one isn't currently feasible!
All around it's just awesome seeing how the mod has progressed so far and I wanted to give you some compliments and encouragement on that front!

Hi NightstalkerAvi, thank you for sharing your thoughts.

1) I do have plans to look into multi-block stuff but I think that will be a ways off for me, as I've only just started looking at C# modding at the end of last week. Basically, yes, I am planning multi-block and special processing-related stuff, I'd like to explore these if I can manage to actually do something with code. I do like your idea for an automated polishing machine, and it is an interesting concept, yeah.

2) This sort of stuff is very much on my mind! I am very partial to that sort of thing too, so thank you for the suggestion, I will add a proper card for it. I do plan to do stuff with new light source blocks/objects in general, and some of my ideas aren't fully formed yet (like tinted flames) but the focus of such things will be in v0.4. The work of 0.3 will help me learn to do stuff with C#, which I feel is important for me to get into early on.

Heyya NerArth! Been a bit since I added a comment but it's been awesome seeing all the work that you have been putting in so far!
I have a few (two) suggestions/ideas that might be interesting to add if everything works out for it in the future.

1) I know that you have been working on the stone vat which can hold 500u of liquid, I think it would be interesting to see a multi-block building related to fluids; something like a liquid storage pool, evaporation pond (I think you mentioned wanting something like this before), or large boiling structure to quickly process things.
Adding to this a structure like this could be used for some aspect of stone processing, like a polishing process that uses the multi-block, water, and mechanical power to polish stones without needing to use a hammer and chisel? It would take a LOT of work most likely so it probably isn't feasible but is an interesting concept I wanted to throw out there.

2) Stone torch holders made using a combo of polished stone, ashlar blocks, and maybe some mineral wax? It would help ease off the metal demand for making gothic looking castles, or more likely, lighting up a path or the outside of your base.

I absolutely have Geology Additions; that mod indirectly led me here :)

Ryan_Thomas Good to hear! If you haven't already, I strongly recommend checking small_fern's Geology Additions for more geology stuff.

More proper stoney construction stuff is planned for Lithocraft but the next major version will focus on metals, crafting and balance.

I can't make changes to the mod until at least next weekend but I will fix this ASAP then, thank you for reporting the issue! Skull_Pankakes

The top of ashlar stone fences have the red "?" texture when it snows

Thank you for this mod, I'm a geology and construction fanatic.

v0.2 is complete. Please feel free to report issues or comment on the Discord topic for the mod or on the comments right here; Discord will make it easier to understand problems if you share screenshots/logs there.

Edit: Roadmap has been updated further for v0.3 and v0.4 planning begun.

v0.2 is maybe about 90% done. That's including some more changes that I wasn't intending to make on this version, but they were quick to do.

v0.2 is about 60% done. The roadmap has some screenshots showing some of the new stuff. 😁

Thank you for the suggestion, I'll add that to the wishlist so I can have a look at it at some point! Skull_Pankakes

one sugestions i have while playing reclenty is that mineral wax should seal crock pots. 

No problem at all. Skull_Pankakes I really dislike the idea that this issue was there for quite a while. I hadn't noticed it myself because in my solo world I did find shale and thought I had tested the process. 😅

Yeah, I think casting the wax as bars or something would be kind of cool but part of the reason nothing right now requires a crucible to process was to avoid the back-end implications of that. Maybe an idea to revisit in the future though.

Thanks for the fix.

Also while unintended, i think the idea of smelting either kerogen/shale to make miniral wax then use ingot casts to get wax bars was very cool. though it might be a bit more anoying to do compared to the intended way

👍

I have spotted why this is happening now, I made a stupid mistake when copying things around to make the process in the first place. Will release a patch to fix this very soon. Skull_Pankakes

Edit: v0.1.2 is out now and fixes this serious bug; just process the kerogen in an open fire pit without a crucible now! Very sorry you had to deal with this bug and I hope you did not lose a lot of resource from it.

If you want to give yourself the mineral wax you were supposed to have received, either enter creative mode and go into the Lithocraft tab, or use this command:

/give lithocraft:chemicalresidue-mineralwax number

I'm sorry you had this problem. I had to test this myself, the fact that you were able to smelt it in that way with a cooking pot->crucible is an unexpected and unintended behaviour.

You can process graphite (or the appropriate EM powders) or shale stones, without a crucible in an open fire.

I understand why the term smelting may have caused confusion but sadly I cannot change this on the display without affecting anything else using that text. So I will correct the handbook note for kerogen to be much more specific in the next version, thank you for bringing up this issue. Skull_Pankakes

Edit: If you meant that you're having an issue with smelting kerogen into mineral wax in a crucible, then that is a bug and I will look into it, and if I find it's an issue I'll release a patch for it. (If you want to send me logs that could help too)

---

To be very clear on how you *are* supposed to get kerogen, without shale, in 0.1.1, here are two videos I recorded just now:

VS Lithocraft - Kerogen made in Bloomery using graphite and coal

VS Lithocraft - Kerogen made in Firepit using graphite and coke (1340C temp)

how does one get Miniral wax withouth shale. I've got my kerogen smelted in a crusable then poured into ingot molds but now i cant pick em up their cold but still soft.

Also you cant put kerogen in crusables normaly, you have to place a cooking pot or saucepan first to get the 4 slots for the kerogen to go in, then replace it with a crusable to smelt it.

Thanks for the feedback and the advice/suggestion! I think things like bauxite processing will be for the scope of v0.3 and I've been loosely planning that in my head today. small_fern

As a note, I would really like to add some of these processes for the "highly industrial" metals like aluminium, stainless steel and titanium, and I'll likely make the complexity reduced compared to real life.

My main concern when dealing with complexity for Lithocraft is that in VS we already have a lot of non-trivial things to do, so for a solo player (like me) I imagine getting into very complicated processes can be off-putting or difficult to wrap your head around if there isn't a simple crafting process/setup. The processes I've already added in Lithocraft are near the edge of what I tolerate myself with the current crafting systems I can employ. 😅

If I could create custom crafting processes or contraptions in C#, I think this would allow for reducing complexity while also providing better balance, but I am not able to put in the time for C# coding, since I'd need to learn basics about it. I could try to integrate the Chemistry mod instead but I fear it would become a dependency.

I can't think of anything you're not doing that I would want to see added, maybe Aluminum extraction? Maybe using the slurry system you've put together to make bauxite refineable into aluminum? ( It's a really complex process IRL and I looked into adding it into the game awhile back... VS should have most of the substances required in the base game, or at least similar enough substances, to pull it off.) i'll let you know if anything else comes to mind!

Regarding the texture situation, Photoshop has an option called "Match Color" which might be useful, it saved me hours creating the new textures for a lot of the rocks in GeoAddons. Speaking of the name, it's Geology Additons but I just generally say/type GeoAddons because it's less of a hassle :P

Keep doing what you're doing though, I'm really excited to see where this mod ends up going!
NerArth

Made a publicly-visible roadmap for the mod. Added to mod's main description above; no pun intended, nothing is set in stone.

small_fern Thanks for looking; is there anything in particular you'd like to see regarding compatibilities with your mod? Also, should I be writing it as Geology Addons? The modpage says Additions but the modid is Addons, confuses me! 😅

I have a few ideas for more integration but it'll probably take me a while to get to them. My main issue right now is with custom rock-based blocks Lithocraft adds/will add, and which need custom textures for several different variants.

This is why the high polish rocks don't have texture compatibility yet, but I also don't have a workflow or process to help me make many variations easily right now; would appreciate any ideas or advice if you can think of anything.

Looks really cool! Thanks for adding compatibility for Geoaddons!

Changelog for v0.1.1 is available here and in the "files" tab here in the moddb.

Changelog for v0.1.0 is available here and in the "files" tab here in the moddb.

Next steps are to correct any missed bugs, update the flowchart as and when, and then the focus of v0.2.0 will be to start adding some new blocks.

Planned additions for 0.2:

• Stone vat which can hold 500 litres and which can be used for barrel mixing
• Decorative "crystal" or "gem" block(s), for things like lapis lazuli
• Decorative monolith blocks
• Stone paving flags
• Pencils made with graphite or lead as an alternative for ink (if easy to implement)

It's been on my mind but I don't know if I want to make a public roadmap or not yet for other ideas/future versions.

Edit: Please note, the changelog for this version missed out the following change:

• Cellulose is now made using barrels by mixing strong salt water with firewood

That's something I've thought about for other things. Currently I don't know how hard it is to do without special code but it's something I'd like to look into. NightstalkerAvi

Edit: For 0.1 I had actually already added a placeholder process for using the pickaxe to break full ore blocks but due to implementation issues, it will only work with ungraded ore; this is things like coal and sulfur, not metals.

General comment:

Progress on v0.1 is nearly finished, I just need to tidy up some loose ends with code typos and bugs and add some UI text where it's missing.

0.1 will include some compatibility for Geology Additions but blocks added by Lithocraft will not have appropriate textures for GA rocks, this will be added later.

I'm not sure if it's possible to have the pulverizers give multiple outputs but what do you think about having a crafting or crushing recipe to break entire Ore blocks down in exchange for a higher chance of getting crystalized ore?
Because as it stands if you either break all the blocks surrounding an ore block, either by mistake or on purpose, you just end up having to place the ore back down to break it directly.
I think it could create a potentally interesting situation where you are more interested in taking entire blocks of low richness ore because you could get more from them than if you were to just mine it.

Would probably be annoying to code in the extra drops if it can't be done with precent values but there is an idea for you to poke with a stick!

Yeah of course! Glad I can help and give some feedback where possible!
The main reason I brought up Sulfer is because the area I am settled in has a massive lack of it and even most of the chunks around me in a pretty large range are also lacking so a possible crafting chain for it would be cool!

NightstalkerAvi

Yes, pyrite is an iron-sulfur mineral and that's something I've thought about myself. I had noticed pyrite as a mineral in the mod, as well as a few other things of interest. Although chemistry is a weak point for me, I think you can hypothetically extract the sulfur by chemically breaking pyrite down with the use of water or oxidising action, probably crushing it first since it's brittle, to essentially make a sulfuric acid solution, from which you could then further process by drying or precipitation (unsure) until you got some kind of elemental sulfur (and likely iron oxide). So potentially it could become a dual extraction process where you get both elements.

I would like to apply similar logic to other things, such as gemstones in particular, which are often some form of metal oxide, often aluminium, but sometimes containing other trace elements that affect the colour, such as chromium (which incidentally is important in stainless steel production). If the game had tailing ponds and such like we could probably also have processes to extract trace metals through leeching, though I'm likely dreaming too far here.

While the intent right now is that most "alternative" recipes are supposed to be for when you're in a late bronze/early iron age, I did think the synthetic fibre cost was a bit unkind to begin with. I did not find synpulp appealing on my own survival world despite being in a state of flax shortage there. The changes in the next version will address this cost a little bit because ammonia will be a liquid and fine ratio control should be easier with liquids.

Your feedback is fine and I appreciate it, thank you.

Edit: NightstalkerAvi I've seen what you said about the cellulose/salt ratio. Cellulose production in real-life can be done in a few ways and the salts involved are not table salt, which is what halite is (sodium chloride); there is a lot of compromise in the way it's made in the mod and I'm not looking to do a full chemistry represation because then I really ought to be integrating the mod with the Chemistry lib mod, something I wouldn't have time for right now.

To address the concern; I found the salt cost to be a bit disproportionate when playing around with it myself and the ratio is going to be changing; because of the new unified liquid I'll be adding, the process may end up using barrelling instead with a new liquid, possibly with some alternatives.

I should add that for my design intent, things like barrelling, distilling, crushing and so on are important for the mod because they encourage base growth and creation of specific-purpose rooms, as opposed to grid recipes which only need to involve a single storage unit and manual crafting. That said, I am not super keen on long recipe periods (yes, compost...) so it's unlikely anything from the mod will ever take too long even with barelling.

I think it would be interesting to be able to acquire sulfur through some method of finding trace amounts in other materials, and concentrating it. For compatibility with Geology Additions you could make a chain where you acquire sulfur through Pyrite, which a very small glance at the internet makes it seems like it can be used to acquire sulfur.

Other than that I like the ability to make Flax without farming for it, however it does seem a little too expensive in overall cost compared to just waiting for better weather (assuming you don’t live in a super cold/hot area). The only thing I could think of is maybe making the ratios a little more generous but it is from residuals so I’m not sure how it would work out balance wise.

Wish I could give better feedback, sorry ‘>,~~,>’

Edit:
I'm working on my first batch of Flax using this mod's crafting chain. I think the salt requirement for the intial cellulose is a bit steep, I'm using the culinary expansion mod so I can dry salt water into salt eventually. Even with this it still took a large amount, I would say maybe balance it with a higher wood cost and slightly reduced salt cost?
I am not very versed in real life chemistry by any means so I'm not sure how accurate the salt cost for this process actually is but this is my intial feedback currently. Still working through it so I will keep you updated!

If you have any thoughts on balance/recipe throughputs for anything added by the mod, especially compared to vanilla mechanics and systems, I would appreciate hearing about it. NightstalkerAvi

It's good to know that people are interested in mod compatibilities and I have been taking a look at Geology Additions; while I do already have a lot of on-going changes I need to finalise for v0.1.0 before I can seriously consider proper integrations, the upcoming version will at least already have some quick and basic compatibilities and will likely come out at some point this coming week.

Edit: About compatibilities, would also be good to know what specific sorts of compatibilities people would expect to see.

This looks pretty interesting! I'm gonna grab it and try it out! Thanks for taking the time to make it!
I would also love to see some compatibility with Geology Addons, however I am well aware that time is limited and it might not fit your vision of the mod!

Been working on next version and so far:

• Pulverised alum will be combinable with some form of sulfur to produce potash with ratios of 1:1:3
• Ashlar stone wall (fence)
• Ammonia with distillation process instead of crafting grid
• Some small fixes to a couple of issues

Thanks for the feedback. I was not aware of that mod and I'll have a proper look at it on the weekend and then see what kind of integrations/compatibility I might be able to do. LordWungus

I really like the complexity of the crafting chains in your mod. Do you have any plans to include compatibility with Geology Addons?