Possible Actions

Quests from Arceus

While this isn't the best option, shards-for-blocks right now is a reasonable compromise until a better idea comes aruond.

Crates to Blocks

Thermal Foundation adds a number of blocks like a carrot crate, a sugar cane crate, etc, to the game. The player should eventually have many many more of these than they need, setting up a farm should be relatively easy. What if we made it so that these crates could be turned into building blocks?

Liquid Interactions?

Task: Check if Astral Sorcery's Laval/Liquid Starlight interactions can actually be changed, or if they face the same problems as the Water/Liquid Starlight interactions.

Result: I realized the liquid interactions are ONLY for recipes that are done inside the containment chalice. So, yes, we can add things to what is generated, but, no, we cannot actually change in-world fluid interactions.

Describing the Problem

Early on in the game, the player has a very small quantity of 'natural' blocks to build with. Each block has to be stolen from a Pokemon. This is in stark contrast to manmade blocks. The player has access to wood planks very early on, and wood planks are a manmade building block.

The earliest the player can get a potentially 'infinite' source of natural building blocks is after they obtain their first lava. This gives them access to infinite (lava + liquid starlight) sand (and therefore also sandstone) as well as infinite cobblestone. The sandstone is easier to obtain because the player does not have to manually break blocks; dropped sand can be caught in a wooden hopper or with the help of a hopperhock and will slowly accumulate over time. This should probably be mentioned to the player.

If it were possible for the player to 'grow' natural blocks in the early game, even slowly, it would greatly improve the rate at which the player can build outdoor and underground habitats. Something that isn't as fast as a real cobblestone generator, per se, but that doesn't require too much mindless grinding.

At present, to generate ores, the player needs stone. But there are very few places to obtain stone. That is semi-intentional, but still warrants some consideration. One can mine for a bit in the drowned dimension after gaining access. One can mine netherrack, place it quickly around a stack of floating pure daisys using the astral sorcery builder's wand and then mine it. One can set up an automated setup with mana where a rannuncarpus places netherrack near a pure daisy and, after a timed duration (using hovering hourglasses), the newly minted cobblestone is broken. A similar setup can be used with a traditional cobblestone generator, although there will be some degree of blocks lost to the lava.

While stone should be at something of a premium because of its relationship to the orechild, consider that other blocks should not necessarily be gated like this. in particular, on-theme blocks like basalt, blackstone, and black sandstone, should be easier to produce than they currently are. (is it possible to change astral sorcery to produce different sand colors? the water/liquid light fluid interactions didn't work, but it might be worth trying out some lava/liquid light recipes to see if they work)

In the extreme late game, access to some kind of cobblestone generator-- and indeed a generator for many different block types like basalt and blackstone--may be warranted.

Currently, this problem is partially addressed by...

1. Nincada drops Soul Dirt
2. Grubbin and Charjbug drop more coarse dirt
3. Offerings to Arceus now has a section where one can buy blocks provided one already has one in one's inventory, such as basalt and sandstone.