Mods / Steelmaking Expanded
- Tags:
- Author:
- fallenstar
- Side:
- Both
- Created:
- Jun 1st at 1:40 PM
- Last modified:
- 1 day ago
- Downloads:
- 1944
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Recommended download (for Vintage Story 1.22.0 - 1.22.3):
smex_0.8.7.zip 1-click install
Recent release warning:
Any already placed Smoke Stacks will stop working since they were built from fireclay bricks! Replace the bottom part with refractory bricks to make it work again!
Description:
An industrial era iron- and steel-making production chain for Vintage Story, implemented as multiple multiblock structures and network blocks.
The main goal of this mod is to add horizontal progression after vanilla cementation furnace. Now you can smelt iron in bulk using a blast furnace (Stage I), then refine it into steel in a Bessemer converter (Stage II). Mod also adds gas pipes to move air, blast and exhaust between the machines, molten canals to plumb the liquid metal to molds and vaste storage in form of iron barrels. Some blocks require mechanical power (MP) to operate.
Progression gate: most of these structures are built from tier-3 refractory bricks and a truckload of iron, so you need to be in the steel age already before you can build the line.
Recomendation: Get the iron stage running reliably before you attempt the steel production. The converter is expensive and feeds directly from the iron output.
Caution: All processes inside the machines are real time based and measured in real seconds. Meaning, sleeping won't fast forwad the progress, it will only affect temperature and hence all of your converters/canals/molds will solidify! Also, the machines don't work if not loaded by the player.
Note: This is my first attempt at modmaking. Even though I'm a programmer, I have no experience in game dev or modding for Vintage Story, so there may be errors or bugs. I've tested this mod myself during development and on my private server, but you may find new issues!
If something goes wrong or feels unbalanced/unfair, write about it in the comments! I'm open to any suggestions for changes and may implement more features if requested.
You can also contact me on discord: fallenstar1975
The character art on the mod's logo is by: ariburin
If you get lost, the in-game handbook ("Advanced Steelmaking") has the full step-by-step walkthrough, or if you are into that sort of thing, here is a diagram for full production chain:
Also, here are some videos where I try to explain how all of this works:
The mod can now be fully configured via json file! It automatically generates at VintagestoryData/ModConfig/smex.json at first game start with the mod. If production numbers or something else seem off to you, simply tweak that file to make everything suite your needs!
Stage I – Iron Production
Blast Furnace
A tall multiblock built mostly from refractory bricks with ist's own specific door, two tuyeres (hot blast intakes) low on the shaft, two gas outlets (exhaust output) high up, two hoppers (reinforced and bell), two molten metal taps (the higher one is for molten slag, the lower one is for molten iron).
Build: Place the blast furnace door block, then use Ctrl + RMB to show the build outline. For all multiblocks in the mod I reused the vanilla building mechanics, so this should be familiar from the beehive kiln and cementation furnace. Fill in every highlighted block until it reports that structure complete.
Operation:
- It doesn't consume ore directly, it burns blast mix (ore + fuel + flux) inside the chamber, produced for you by the hoppers (more info on them below).
- When you put required materials in the reinforced hopper and enable bell hopper dropping, it starts filling the internal furnace shaft. Let it do exactly that, and when there is enough blast mix in the chamber, ignite the blast mix piles with a torch and close the door.
- While firing, the temperature inside the furnace slowly climbs to ~1400 °C which is not enough for iron smelting. You need to supply it hot blast from a cowper stove through the tuyeres to push temperature past iron's melting point (~1482 °C). After some time firing at higher temperature the furnace will begin to melt iron.
- When melting the furnace converts blast mix from inside the chambeer into an internal reservoir of molten iron and molten slag. You cannot open the door while furnace is fireing (it will extinguish!) so you need to supply the materials via hoppers to achive continious burning and molten metal production.
- The frunace is a tender girl! Opening the door, running out of blast mix, a choked/backfed exhaust, or an overflowing reservoir of molten contents will all snuff out the fire and solidify everything inside into metal or slag blocks. You need to clear out the furnace chamber before firing again.
The blast furnace is desighed for continious melting process, meaning it is better to stockpile ores and materials, prepare a lot of molds and operate the furnace for a prolonged period of time to smelt everything at once.
Reinforced and Bell hoppers
- Coke Oven (vanilla) used to bake coal into coke. The furnace needs substantial amount of coke, so prepare it before hand (may need do use multiple ovens).
- Pulverizer (vanilla) is required to crush the coke and iron into items usable for blast mix.
- Reinforced Hopper contains inventory to load crushed iron ore + crushed coke + lime (flux). It combines 12 iron + 3 coke + 1 lime into 16 blast mix at a time and stockpiles it in internal magazine for use. This hopper also can accept reclaimed blastmix, if you pick it up by accedent. The loaded blastmix is prioritised and goes directly into the internal magazine.
- Bell Hopper sits below the reinforced hopper and used to actually deploy blast mix inside the furnace. It automatically drips blast mix into the furnace shaft (the dropping can be toggled) and stops when the furnace becomes full or materials run out.
So to keep the furnace supplied with materials can be done entirely through these hoppers. This is the intended use and it allows to feed the furnace continiously, even while firing.
Cowper Stove
The furnace by itself caps out at around 1400 °C which is not enough for iron smelting. The cowper stove is a multiblock structure that serves as regenerator that reclaims the furnace's wasted heat.
- Pipe the furnace's hot Exhaust into stove's main intake (the starter block for multiblock) and allow the output of the chilled gas from the outlet on the other side of the build. The flowing of hot exhaust heats up internal heatsinks, which can be used for heating air later.
- Route plain Blast (pressurised air) through the heated stove which will heat up the air to usable temperature. Hot blast than needs to be piped into the two tuyeres that furnace has at the bottom. When suppied with hot blast the furnace heats up faster and it's max temperature jumps to ~1700 °C, which is enough to smelt iron.
Intended setup: two stoves as a pair. While one charges with heat on exhaust, the other discharges to create hot blast. When the discharging one cools down to unusable level, swap their roles using gas valves.
Setup all the piping before operation!
To produce blast, you need to route the air from air intakes to gas blowers. Those are blocks that use mechanical power to increase pressure in gas pipes, turning output gas into Blast. Be aware that those blowers require high axle rotational speed, so it is recommed to set up double large gear transmission to speed up the axle to required RPS (revolutions per second).
By itself cowper stove heats up slowly, but you can remedy that by helping the gas flow inside. Burn a coal pile directly beneath the cowper stove intake block to add another hot air flow and speed up heating process. This is really necessary to increase the time window you have between switching stove roles (since the stove heats up faster, you will more probably have the stand by one ready when you need it).
Keep exhaust and blast on separate paths! If they mix inside the cowper stove it cannot heat up and starts to push exhaust into main output line. (Burning low-grade coal (anything other than anthracite) produces exhaust out the stove's main output so mind what you use as fuel.)
Smoke Stack
A furnace makes more exhaust than the stoves can swallow. The smoke stack is a multiblock structure that vents the surplus gas to the sky so the exhaust line doesn't back up and choke/extinguish the furnace. Treat it as a safety valve for the whole system or a safe sink for the gases.
The smoke stack will try to consume all the gas in the network, so you may run into issue where cowper stoves don't recieve any exhaust and everything gest smoked out into the sky. To prevent this use pressure valves to separate pipe networks so, for example, exhaust routs to cowper stoves first, and than goes into the smoke stack.
Mind that pressure valves are directional!
Stage II – Steel Production
Bessemer Converter
Takes molten iron and blows blast through it to reduce carbon content and turn iron into steel. This is the most demanding machine in the mod that costs a lot of materials (and some Jonas components), needs both mechanical power and a blast supply, and only works as the final stage of an already-running molten line.
Build: Place the control block, use 4 rusty gears + 12 iron/steel rods to start the converter building process (it spawns the converter block for you), then build it up the stages untill construction is complete. You will also need to place a gas intake, a transmission, an input tap, and an output canal start block to complete the multiblock structure and to route in required materials.
Connect everything:
- Mechanical power is supplied by an axle to the transmission so the vessel can tilt and blow (requires high torque, so don't use the high speed MP line here).
- Blast is piped through the gas intake block (from a blower powered with MP).
- The intake and transmission must face the same way as the control block or it won't couple and converter won't operate!
- Run a molten canal from a furnace start block that carries molten iron into the input tap. Second canal network starts below with output start block which is used to output steel toward your molds.
Operation:
- If the machine is operational, use control to set to Filling and pour molten iron into the input tap to fill the converter (doesn't actually require max capacity to operate).
- When ready, switch to Normal (vertical orientation) state. If power and blast are flowing the converter blows air through the charge iron at ~1700 °C for about five minutes, refining it into steel.
- When the steel is ready, set the convertet to Pouring state to drain the finished metal into the output canal.
The convertion process itself is exotermal, so while processing the iron inside will hold the temperature, but if not poured out of the converter in time the metal inside will soilidify.
If the charge cools and solidifies before you pour it, break the converter with a steel pickaxe to recover some of the metal, then rebuild the machine from the control block.
If you accidentally pour into converter some metal other than iron it wont work. Pour it out into molds or barrel before it solidifies!
The Network blocks
The mod adds a mechanic where specific blocks can form a network that can supply and move materials between the machines. Right now there are two such network types:
Gas network
Everything breathes through gas pipes. Gas comes in three kinds: Air, hot Exhaust, and pressurised Blast. Straight pipes, bends, T- and X-junctions carry it, plus there are a few special blocks:
- Intakes – draw fresh Air from the open world.
- Blowers – axle-powered and used to pressurise Air into Blast (this is what drives the cowper stove and the converter).
- Valves – open/close a line by hand (essential for swapping the two cowper stoves).
- Pressure valves – open automatically once enough pressure builds behind them (sparate networks and set up overflow scenarious).
- Outlets – used as part of multiblock structures to connect them to the network (tuyere, stove, converter intake are variants of this that consume gas instead).
Each network tracks its gas type, volume and temperature. An open-ended pipe leaks, so make sure to use correct pipe variants to form sealed network!
Molten network
Liquid metal is poured into canals, not carried by pipes.
- Lay a Molten Canal (Start) block as the anchor for the network, then run straights, bends and junctions from it.
- Drain the furnace with its Molten Metal Taps (the lower tap pours iron, the upper pours slag) each into the start of a canal below.
- A Canal Tap can be used to pour metal out of the network into a barrel, large molds or a converter.
- Mold Pedestal used to place a fired mold and fill it from the network. (This mod adds larger casting molds: plate, quad rod and double ingot (clay-formed and fired like any tool mold)).
- Molten Barrel is a bulk storage option for molten metals. Use them to store excess iron, or hold slag drained off the tap of the furnace.
Mind the temperature! Metal in the canals cools, and if it drops too far it solidifies in place!
A hardened canal stops flowing and must be broken to clear it (you recover most of the metal as bits). Keep molten canal runs short, keep them fed, and empty them before they go cold.
You can seal a straight canal to use as manual valve! Use 4 fire clay on an empty straight canal and it caps over on both ends, severing the network there so the two sides become independent. This can be used for isolating section when you don't wont the metal go there any more. A canal that still holds metal cannot be sealed. Use a chisel to break the seal and recover 2 fire clay.
A freshly filled mold is dangerously hot! Holding one bare-handed burns you (wear heavy leather or blacksmith's gloves), and a still-molten mold will spill if you pick it up or rack it before it sets.
Notes
Byproduct uses
Since the smelting process is wasteful and produces byproducts, this is what you can do with those:
- Slag tapped off the furnace can be ground into powdered slag, which has two uses:
- mixed with slaked lime in a barrel to make mortar (the pozzolanic powder reacts with the lime and stands in for the sand in an ordinary mortar mix).
- used on farmland as a phosphate fertilizer with a lasting soil boost.
- Blast mix is not wasted. It behaves like a coal pile and if you end up holding loose blast mix (knocking a pile out of the shaft, breaking a hopper), just lay it on the ground back into a pile inside a furnace, or supply it through the hoppers.
- Solidified metal in mods or barrels can be chiseled out and recovered in form of bits. Mind that per vanilla convention, if you try to recover solidified metal from ceramic mold it will shatter!
Vanilla overrides (possible mod conflicts).
This mod swaps a few vanilla classes for drop-in replacements so the molten line behaves correctly. Nothing changes vanilla recipes or balance — these only add the plumbing the new machines need:
- Tool mold – filled molds produced by the mold pedestal can now be picked up, placed, and racked while still carrying their metal (vanilla molds never carry contents in the item stack, so the metal would otherwise vanish). A still-molten mold spills if placed or racked before it sets.
- Mold rack – spills a molten mold the instant it's racked (you must let it set first).
- Coal pile – gains blast-mix behavior: a pile of blast mix burns down into solidified slag after a while, unless a blast furnace is actively consuming it.
- Tool mold patch – adds the larger plate / double-ingot / quad-rod mold variants and a two-handed hold for molds.
Check out the source code to see exactly what they do.
Other notes
- Build and make sure iron tier works first (may be best to do this in creative to understand the layout of structures and networks). Only add the converter once you can reliably produce iron.
- Point at any machine to read its live status in the block-info overlay (charge, temperature, what it's waiting on). Cowper stove displays it's internal temperature on the heat sinks themselves, so use the hatchdoor to look at those.
- The production flow is designed so one smoke stack can deal with the exhaust from one blast furnace. If you buld more or have other gas sources, than you may need more stacks.
- The entire production build is vertical, meaning you need a lot of vertical space for it. The blast runace is tall by itself, but molten metal can only fo down. The bessemer converter lowers the bottom of the structure as well, so you may need to dig a hole for those.
- Would be cool to build a steelmaking plant with walls and roof at some point.
- The mod tries to model 19th century steelmaking process. If you want to learn more, here are some wiki links:
Future development:
I will continue to patch this mod as it is, untill everything is stable and people can reliably use it. But after that i have some plans for improving SMEX and future mods:
- Current gas blover is just a placeholder. Real steel plants of 19th century used steam powered engines to pressurize the gas. So my plan is:
- To modify the pipe network to accept water and steam, simulate pressure.
- Add boiler (Lancashire pattern) multiblock structure that will be able to produce pressurised gas.
- Add two engines (probably both Cornish pattern) for air pressurization and mechanical power production. These would be multiblock as well probably.
- All three structures will include right click constructable components.
- Mod right now includes a lot of parts that probably need to be separated into libs (techincally done in code) and separate mods. For example, molten canals can actually be used to pour any metal, since start block accepts metal from crucible. So you could use it at lower tier metal production to automate mold pouring. Piping should also probably be separate, and so on.
- Maybe add reverberatory furnace multiblock structure to allow copper smelting, but that probably unnecessary since why would you need copper when you have steel in this game.
- Create another mod using gas (and water in the future) mechanics to allow house and greenhouse heating. I've always found it wierd how valid room made you invoulnurable for cold, so this will change it + add the ability to grow crops at winter, if you will be willing to burn a lot of coal the whole winter.
- Create another mod using converter mechanics to allow mass lower tier metal production. I've always found it odd how small crucible can fill 4 anvil molds. This should change that and require a large crucible to be built before you coud produce more metal.
| Mod Version | Mod Identifier | For Game version | Downloads | Released | Changelog | Download | 1-click mod install* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.8.7 | smex | 334 | 1 day ago | smex_0.8.7.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Fixes:
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| 0.8.6 | smex | 582 | 5 days ago | smex_0.8.6.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Changes:
Warning: Any already placed Smoke Stacks will stop working since they were built from fireclay bricks! Replace them with refractory to make it work again!
Fixes:
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| 0.8.5 | smex | 235 | 5 days ago | smex_0.8.5.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Changes:
Fixes:
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| 0.8.4 | smex | 231 | 6 days ago | smex_0.8.4.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Changes:
Fixes:
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| 0.8.3 | smex | 73 | 6 days ago | smex_0.8.3.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Changes:
Fixes:
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| 0.8.2 | smex | 190 | Jun 2nd at 8:25 PM | smex_0.8.2.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Fixes:
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| 0.8.1 | smex | 116 | Jun 2nd at 12:00 PM | smex_0.8.1.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Fixes:
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| 0.8.0 | smex | 183 | Jun 1st at 1:43 PM | smex_0.8.0.zip | 1-click install | ||
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Public release candidate. Iron and steel features complete. | |||||||
Ugh... the beelhopper will not drop any blast mix, doesn't matter if I put in blast mix or the formula for blast mix, it wont drop in :(
Hi! Very good mod, thx for your work ^^
Welcome to the VS modding and lets make it better (Including with the help of ponies)
THIS is your first mod?? This is AWESOME!!
I'm not sure if I could fit this in with my current playthrough with friends, but holy hell, I will want to play with this in future runs. Especially with your future dev ideas. Ho, ly, shit.
I will observe your career with immense interest.
The process does not do anything with Meteoric Iron right?
And blastmix needs pulverizing ore chunks right?
The furnace consumes crushed iron and vanilla doesn't add a pulverization option for meteoric iron. So no, if other mod doesn't add that option, you can't do anything with meteoric iron, but I probably will do something about that in the future. Plus, blast furnace is intended for bulk iron smelting, stacks of iron/steel at a time, not couple of ingots that you can get from meteoric iron.
Yes, you need to crush iron and coke with pulverizer.
Was gonna say, if you ever do an addon that uses the meteoric steel mod, I would absolutely love to see this expanded to cover that.
I really like this mod, however there appear to be some issues to make this useable on Survival difficulty:
1. The "smoke stack intake" block shares the same crafting-recipe as the "cowper stove intake" block and can therefore not be crafted.
2. The "gas blower" block requires wooden axles, however the axles are not the vanilla ones and dont have their own crafting-recipe and can therefore also not be crafted.
3. The overlay/construction check for the cowper stoves may not work properly and doesnt show up for me (I dont know if this is a client-issue or not)
Thank you for looking over those issues and I'd love to see how this mod develops.
Thank you for reporting issues!
Alright, thank you for the fixes!
How do you make the new molds? They seem to be missing from the menu.
I swear those were working couple of days ago...
Thank you for reporting, should be fixed in new version.
Wow
Truly amazing. I wish I could have had this for Vintage Engineering. Would have fit right in. Congrats, it looks fantastic.
Wow, glad that my mod is interesting enough for big modders!
If you read the desc and prev post here, I plan on adding steam power to complete 19th century steelmaking process. But I didn't plan to do anything with electrical power, at least because in the time frime that I reference, steam turbine still wasn't used. But, that simply a historical thing, to implement it once I have all the steam systems layed out and debugged wouldn't be difficult. The problem is that will require creating more shapes, and I abolutely hate that(
But maybe at some point that will happen, and I'm curious, when you say "would have fit right in", what do you have in mind?
Well, I have a multiblock API system and pipe API system done as well as a slew of other little bits and pieces.
Plus the fact I was planning on doing a very simlar molten metal casing system in the MV or HV tier.
With a mod as big as Vintage Engineering I can't give super detailed attention (yet) to individual processes like you've done here as I'm focused on knocking out the big issues (like the multiblock system)
This would have fit in perfectly with the LV tier blast furnace plan leading to a higher tier and faster melting of an HV arc furnace eventually. One of the most requested features of VE is a way to use molds en masse to cast things.
I peeked at your code as well, very well done. How long were you working on this project? You gave me an idea of how to handle having a multiblock know a specific location of a pipe connection that I want to investigate.
I Love this mod! It really makes steel making a lot more interesting.
Im planing on building a huge steel mill using this, and just finished the "skins" for the different strutures.
I wanted to drop This here to show how much potental this mod has, the only limit i can foresee is finding enough ore!
Those are awesome builds! Myself I was never using chiselling in game that much, so it's always cool to see, what people can do. I'm working on major extension for this mod, so probably better to wait before full steelworks build. Here are some sneak picks on what I'm working on:
Cornish steam engine. It's supposed to be modular and can serve as MP generator, fluid pump or air blower for the furnace.
Lancashire boiler, used to produce steam for the engine.
So, I hope you understand why I'm suggesting for you to wait)
Also, when you're done with building, it would be awesome to put screenshots of that in the description of this mod to make people more interested, if you are willing to do that of course!
Thanks! Its a lot of work. The new stuff look/sounds really cool, love the Cornish steam engine, Ill definitely wait for the new stuff.
I was already hyperfoucused on building my ideal metal workshop with improved metallurgy, so things just got alot more complicated in the best way posseible, meaning i've got lots of stuff to do while I wait.
Any idea when said update might come out? Your mod is great so far so please no rush. Any thoughts on a "blast kiln" scince clay vitrifies around steel melting temps?
Also, i would love to send some pictures your way after its all done, it might take a bit to build though.
I cannot give specific time frame, but I've already done all the model work and most of the pipe network framework rewrite is done, but the scope expands sometimes (I realised that there sould be at least 2 versions of engines and boilers, so those would cover after/before BF iron availability) and it will take some time to debug to at least somewhat playable state. But it shouldn't take more then a week, probably another 3 days or even faster if everything goes without much issues.
I unfornutately have some tasks at my job that I was pushing down the line because of this mod development and those may catch up with me soon heh
Man I'm reading your replies to people here and I'm not sure you're aware how absolutely insanely amazing your work is, lol. I love how seamlessly this builds off vanilla VS mechanics, but adds so much satisfying mechanics and processes, especially with the upcoming steam engine and boiler. Keep it up, this is probably my favorite VS mod ever already!
This looks awesome! I have a few suggestions that you might be interested in adding to your todo list at the end:
I haven't tried the mod yet, so I'm not sure if this is already set up: from your YT video, the slag barrel uses a backpack slot. Backpack juggling is always tedious, and this would be much smoother as a CarryOn interaction instead. IIRC, CarryOn cannot have its json tags assigned to placed backpacks, so this might require a config option or compatibility patch that swaps the default slag barrel with a placeable container block version.
It might be worth adding a device/process for mixing the blast mix instead of it automatically mixing in the hopper: something that could either be operated manually or powered by windmill and fed into the furnace hopper with chutes.
Personally, I would love to see a building animation for the multistep construction of the Bessemer Converter, even if it's just the standard VS block interaction animation. I always find the instant "click to add materials" interaction feels very cheesy and non-immersive.
Also wanted to say your last two mod ideas (room heating and low/mid tier metal production) sound awesome!
Sorry didn't replay sooner
As for the barrel, that thing is not supposed to be a container, it doesn't inherit game's container behavior and you need to chisel the hadened metal from inside of it. I've put barrel in backpack slot because it's supposed to be a heavy block that you will have issues to move around, and you don't supposed to move those while operating BF, since barrels serve as overflow for molten metals. Also, I tried to play with carry on multiple times and it never seemed to work for me nor my gf, so I didn't consider this compatibility.
I'm planning to add an ore mixing structure closer to final release, because it will allow to encapsulate compatibility with other mods materials. But right now I'm focusing on steam power side of things.
Build animation would be beyond me to do, simply because I hate working with models/animations and since I simply reuse vanilla's RightClickConstructibe behavior I'm restricted by it. I always thought that there is no reason to reinvent the bisicle, and if the VS developers decided that this is immersive enough, then so it is.
Mid tier metal production could be interesting, but I still don't understand why in this game someone would need copper when they already have steel.
post hooves
wow
Hello, I built it exactly how it's supposed too be, just like in the videos. But for some reason once I fill up the hoppers, it won't drop blast mix? If I put in blast mix at the top it'll drop a little but only enough too make the first layer. After that it'll just stop, also with the cowper things even if they're heated up the pipes will just say empty and now allow the gas back into the furnace. Also when placing pipes with valves up and opening and closing them, the entire pipe moves
You need to enable dropping by hitting ctrl + rmb on hoppers. There is interaction help for it and block info shows state if dropping or not. By default hopper dropping is disabled, so it won't drain all of your iron supply without warning.
I didn't quite understand the issue with cowper stoves. If you allow to mix exhaust and air/blast inside, then it won't be able to heat up or do anything.
The valve is a bug, I'll fix it in next version.
Hello, yeah the cowper wasn't an issue I was just stupid and forgot too close one of the valve's, with the hoppers, I've got it enabled and on a dropping status, sometimes it works but sometimes it won't do anything. I have too manually remove and readd the hoppers and pray it will drop the raw materials and turn it into blast mix
so how do you get the molten metal taps ? they dont seem to be craftable
Fixed in new version!
Hello, i can put this mod in a world already played for many hours? Or isn't safe?
safe
Is it possible to use this structure for mass smelting of nonferrous metals, too? Or is it just steel/iron?
It's just iron/steel
There are several mass ingot mold mods out there. Foundry is technically out of date, but works fine, and creates 12 or 24 ingots at a time.
My mod models 19th century steel production specifically. The blast furnaces weren't used for production of non ferrous metals back then because the chemical processes inside would simply destroy all of the metals and vent them out with exhaust. BF can be used to produce copper, but that requires modern oxigen processes and converters + electrolysis. The bessemer converter can be used as part of 19th century copper making process, but that vill require me adding reverberatory furnace multiblock and the resulting process will be more complex than steel.
Btw, I don't quite understand, since BF requires steel to construct, why would you need to mass produce copper at that point?
Alloys cannot be made in the furnace.
Would this work with Improved Metallurgy?
Funnily enough, I actually also have a server running Improved Metallurgy and would also like to know if there's someway that could compat these two mods, I really like the extra metals+under water nodules from Improved Metallurgy but I'd much rather use this mods furnace than that mods because of the complexity
Regarding Improved Metallurgy features, there are reasons those are absent from this mod. Underwater mining is simply outside the scope of steelmaking mod, since that requires changing world gen. New alloys will bring new complexety that will require all the other mods be aware off, or I would need to write compatibility patches for all new weapons/tools/items in general on moddb. Plus there is an immersion reason, since my mod models specific Bessemer process of steelmaking, that cannot be used to make modern superalloys like iconel.
Ok thank you, I'll probably use your mod then instead, keep up the amazing work.
Currently crashing to client menu getting disconnected from the MP server when breaking the blast furnace door, in an attempt to relocate it.
3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Warning] Exception at client 46. Disconnecting client. 3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Notification] Client 46 disconnected: An action you (or your client) did caused an unhandled exception 3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Debug] Despawn player entity PerkCuss. 3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Event] Player PerkCuss got removed. Reason: Threw an exception at the server 3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Error] Exception: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Vintagestory.GameContent.BlockBeeHiveKilnDoor.GetDrops(IWorldAccessor world, BlockPos pos, IPlayer byPlayer, Single dropQuantityMultiplier) in VSSurvivalMod\Block\BlockBeeHiveKilnDoor.cs:line 73 at Vintagestory.API.Common.Block.SpawnDropsAndRemoveBlock(IWorldAccessor world, BlockPos pos, IPlayer byPlayer, Single dropQuantityMultiplier) in VintagestoryApi\Common\Collectible\Block\Block.cs:line 1119 at Vintagestory.API.Common.Block.OnBlockBroken(IWorldAccessor world, BlockPos pos, IPlayer byPlayer, Single dropQuantityMultiplier) in VintagestoryApi\Common\Collectible\Block\Block.cs:line 1103 at Vintagestory.API.Common.CollectibleObject.OnBlockBrokenWith(IWorldAccessor world, Entity byEntity, ItemSlot itemslot, BlockSelection blockSel, Single dropQuantityMultiplier) in VintagestoryApi\Common\Collectible\Collectible.cs:line 720 at Vintagestory.Server.ServerSystemBlockSimulation.TryModifyBlockInWorld_Patch1(ServerSystemBlockSimulation this, ServerPlayer player, Packet_ClientBlockPlaceOrBreak cmd) at Vintagestory.Server.ServerSystemBlockSimulation.HandleBlockPlaceOrBreak(Packet_Client packet, ConnectedClient client) in VintagestoryLib\Server\Systems\World\BlockSimulation.cs:line 410 at Vintagestory.Server.ServerMain.HandleClientPacket_mainthread(ReceivedClientPacket cpk) in VintagestoryLib\Server\ServerMainNetworking.cs:line 275 at Vintagestory.Server.ServerMain.ProcessMain() in VintagestoryLib\Server\ServerMain.cs:line 964 3.6.2026 16:18:35 [Server Event] Client 46 disconnected.Fixed in new version!
My hero
Beside that, would you consider separating the gas network thing into a fluid pipes library? Having a proper way to carry around gases and liquids without buckets could be huge for automation mods (maybe implementing a basic pressure mechanic, so gases have a constant pressure and liquids gain pressure when they go down or something?)
Also, is there an option to make the bessemer converter not require jonas components (for Homo Sapiens gameplay) or should I tinker with the files?
I wanted to separate the network lib (it is already separate in code, I simply make it compile directly into the main dll for now). I have some future plans for mods that will rely on the network system, so when I implement those I will separate the lib into the separate mod. For now, I leave it like this, so people won't complain about needing to download dependencies (I hope at some point moddb will do this automatically).
You can add a PR to change transmission recipe based on the game mode.
This mod looks amazing! Is it compatable with the mod Interesting Mining & Extraction?
People already asked me about that, but building actual compatibility would take too much work, so if someone is willing to do it they can, but I probably won't implement it myself.
Ahh, makes sense, but too bad. Talk about a match made in heaven, hopefuly somebody picks it up
Dang this looks cool, but I'm still playing in 1.21.7. Any possible chance you might consider a backport? Also how would this react to other mod molds? As in if the part that the mod mold makes can be made from iron or steel would they work with mold pedistals (example: the various clock part molds from Deco Clock Revival or the tool head molds from Stone Quary)?
It may work in previous versions, I simply didn't test it because I only have latest installed. You may try it out and if there is no issues I can flag 1.21.* versions as supported.
Mold pedestals accept any vanilla toolmold-* item, and the new molds that I added are patched into vanilla toolmold.json. If those mold mods implement their molds this way as well and don't use custom implementation, than there is no reason those shouldn't be compatible.
Cool, I might poke around with it tomorrow when I have more time and report with my findings.
Ever since this mod hit the DB, someone in Leetman's server for Expanded Foods has been talking about using the hot blast furnace to fuel a Stone Bake Ovens stove for breadmaking.
I'm not saying you should add that, I'm just saying it because it's hilarious and this mod's influence has risen rapidly.
I actually want to implement mod that will allow heating with hot exhaust next, so that is a possibility. But the exhaust form the furnace is 1k degrees, I think it will burn to charcoal any food if piped to the ovens xD
So this mod looks incredibly, impossibly good. Can you verify that no AI was used for this? Is it truly so incredibly peak?
I used AI to analyze vanilla code and implementations because there are almost no documentation and I would spend another 6 month on this mod othervise.
Okay, did the AI write any code or did you just read what it wrote?
Antigram, as someone in software engineering navigating the changes AI is continually bringing to the industry, I think if you're going to insist on organic, all-natural, 100% AI-free code in all software you consume, you're going to be disappointed. There are positive/responsible ways to use AI in coding that greatly accelerate things like rote, boilerplate code sections; and there are bad/sloppy ways to use it, that result in buggy, insecure, derivitive software. Having AI-written lines of code in a codebase is not in and of itself either positive or negative.
I was super not asking you even a little. I didn't ask if you or anyone else thought that it's "inevitable", or if there are "good ways to use it", I asked in which way it was used.
Yeah, obviously there is code written by ai in my mod. I don't think it is even possible to write code without ai autocomplete or suggested edits in modern code editors. Anyway, believe me, there is no difference who writes the code, and ai won't be able to write smex by itself. There are too many complex systems and if I was wibecoding it than it simply won't work. The ai can do simple edits, quickly analyse code base and find out the problems that I've missed, which is enormously helpful. But in terms on envisioning and implementing a feature ai is simply helpless. It can do it, but only if I write out all of the logic step by step for it, and at that point, writing it myself simply faster. So, as the commenter above said, the ai isn't the issue, the people using it incorrectly and promoting it as a magical solution that can do everything for you.
Also, the one thing I always use ai for is comments, because I hate wasting time writing those and ai 99% of the time will write the same thing I would, only it will do it faster.
I built exactly the same structure as in the images; all four components are fine, but I can't get the temperature above 1400°C and the heat sinks stay at 20°C. How should they be positioned? I'm not getting any errors, and this block isn't symmetrical. Does that matter?
Something's missing.
I've added a video trying to explain this into the description. Look it up, maybe it will help!
The video was really helpful; my mistake was not opening the exits and I didn't understand how to play with the two Cowper Stoves.
And a nice surprise with the new version that allows both mold mods I use ^^
Just one question: is it normal for the manual valves to have an animation when they're open? xD
Yeah, I wanted the valve to actually spin, so I implemented those as animatable behavior and gave them closed and open state animations. Other option was to tesselate the valve handle as different mesh and rerender it on interaction, but then the valve will simply switch position, not rotate.
Wow! This mod is looking very nice. I'm going to try it!
I'm sorry, accidentally deleted the comment instead of replying to it.
Yes, you absolutely need 2 cowper stoves and a smoke stack for the system to work. And you do need to route the hot exhaust from the blast furnace to cowpers for them to heat up, and then route blast through the preheated stove for it to heat up to usable temp for the furnace.
Mmm, I do need to record video explanation of sorts for this...
Okay, thanks for the reply. After the update, the temperature rises to 1420 and the heat sinks are heating up; they're at 1133.
How long does it take for it to stop heating? I just heard the Blast Furnace dropping more elements and got a 30-second countdown.
And the pipes at the bottom don't give any indication of the temperature compared to the ones at the top.
And then, after several minutes, there's another reloading noise, and now the structure is incomplete because everything has become solidified slag.
I've added a video trying to explain this into the description. Look it up, maybe it will help!
hello,
These mods are very interesting. I think I just managed to complete step 1 in my creative world.
But in your screenshots, the pipes go right through the structure. Is that normal?
I started a full heating cycle, but the temperature went up to 1400, and when I opened the door, everything turned into a solid block...
What did I do wrong? Wasn't the temperature supposed to go up to 1700?
Is 1400 enough for iron?
If I build the first structure, is that enough for iron, or do I absolutely need both the stove and the chimney?
Whatss the actual production rate? Right now i run 40 bloomeries and 4 cementation furnaces. Im going to build this regaurdless, but id like to know it will be worth it. IM hoping it can produce 64 ingots a day, is that feasable?
Right now the numbers are like this. The blast furnace takes around 10 minutes to begin smelting. When blast furnace is smelting, it produces 60 molten iron each 10 second by consuming stack og the blastmix inside the furnace (16 blastmix is made from 12 crushed iron which is 5 iron units each, which is where the 60 number comes from). The furnace by itself can hold 2400 molten iron, and molten tap can pour it with the speed of 20 units per second. You can pour it directly into molds, or you can route it to bessemer converters that can convert 1200 molten iron at a time per 5 minutes (so you need 2 converters per furnace). After that you can canal the molten steel to molds. I added molds for 1 plate, 2 ingots or 4 rods, each taking 200 units to fill. So to consume 1200 units of molten steel you need 6 pedestals with molds, or 12 if you want to produce tool heads instead. But since the metal cools slowly than the furnace and converters work, you will need a lot more molds on hand to replace the filled ones.
So, simply put, production speed is 60 units of molten metal per 10 seconds. The issue there is to be able to consume that output without it clogging or solidifying.
So roughly 3 stacks of steel or iron per hour, if you keep everything running and operate pretty optimumly? Fantastic!
In last version I also added json config for the mod (generates in the VintagestoryData/ModConfig/smex.json) so you can tweak all the numers to your own taste and needs.
Finally a mod to satisfy my gtnh craving in vintage story
This mod is fascinating and scaring me at the same time. I do want more endgame progression but I don't feel quite ready to get a PHD in metalurgy. xD
It's not that difficult, I promise heh
Since Vintage Story itself models a lot of real pocesses, I thought it would be more immersive and correct to overall game's design to implement how blast furnace actually operates without too many magical blocks or gamefication.
Damn, this is perfect. VS really needed a way to scale up resource production to these kinds of levels.
Blast mix isn't being counted as loaded, and the cowper isn't getting heated by firing anthracite.
Blast mix issue should be fixed in new version. Cowper stove doesn't heat up only with anthracite, it needs hot exhaust from the blast furnace. Anthracite gives boost to heating speed.
What blocks go inside the cowper stove? Heatsinks! I totally missed them when looking through the block list
If there was a list of which blocks are required to fully construct something that'd be helpful, as the highlights doesn't tell me which blocks are needed.
I added chat logs for required to complete blocks and total block cost in handbook article in new version!
Thank you!
What is it with the influx of so many metallurgy mods? Not that I am complaining, mod looks peak.
Wondering how much it takes to fully build everything....
I think people collectively realized last year that tyron is not particularly interested in expanding the survival/crafting mechanics of the game
hello the mod is incredibly peak. But i think ive got a bug or maybee im retarded idk but there is alway this part of the cowper stove that cant be fill, i try all tier of refractory brick and all the pipe/block that the mod add ( I think ) and its still dont work. So is a bug or did miss something ?
This is where iron hatchdoor goes! It is used to look at the heatsiks to see the internal temperature when the cowper stove is operational.
thank for the help 😄
sorry to bother you again but ive got a problem, when i fill the blast furnace with blast mixt it didnt count on the door and i cant start it even if it fill to the top
Should be fixed now!
absolute peak, good job
Holy crap, this needs a follow. This looks incredible! Like a genuine advancement in late-game technology. I'm focusing on a proper early-14th-century playthrough right now, but this in combination with Yang's forthcoming trains mod may well make a 19th-century playthrough super interesting.
I'm curious about compatibility for mods that add other iron ores (Geology Additions and Advanced Geology are the only ones I know of that add other iron ores to the game), or potentially even things like Interesting Mining and Extraction, which replace ores entirely for piles of muck which you process into iron directly (it sounds like IME's muck is a good analog for the ore you place in blast mix). Regardless, this looks awesome!
I build this mod mostly using vanilla mechanics in mind, hence where those multiblock structures, "fire the piles and close the door" and other stuff comes from. I tried to not add new items if not absolutely necessary, so the only thing that my mod adds is slag bascically, everything else is patched into vanilla types or overrided to add new behaviors. This is also why there isn't any new alloys or tools, to make it more compatible with everything else.
But I could add compatibilty with other mods' resources if needed. Simply write about what you want to be added!
if you want im trying to make a mod that make it kinda compatible with IME that create a recipie for crushed iron with the muck . but im kinda bad at modding so if someone can give me advise it would be nice. and also i will try do do a machine that render directly muck into powder
Message me on discord, we can talk there about what exactly you want to be added!
definitely need youtube gide, very complicated but still awesome. Can't wait to try it
I actually ended up making something like that heh
Woah, this looks amazing!
Following this, looks interesting so far