Originally posted by Isaac_Clark:

I also just do it the vanilla way. Sailing home with a longship full of iron from a swamp I just fully cleared always makes me feel like a boss.

Even if clearing an entire swamp is pretty time consuming, usually taking at least 2 or 3 RL days.

I felt the same way first few dungeons full of metal I cleared...
But then I found that each person need 120+ metal to create more or less full set of armour and weapon of choice + shield. Then you also need Iron to make additions to you crafting tables. And then there are many decorations that also require Iron...

I mean, if each weapon, for instance required 5, heck, even 10 of Iron ore, it would be much more comfortable to abide by the game's own laws. At least it didn't feel that dull during Bronze era, imo.

Nope. That is wrong! No viking would ever do that
Sailing home with longship full of ore warms my heart

I do not do that or use mods. I have plenty of time to waste to this game so I just think of a nice in between place to set up camp. I agree it can be a bit time consuming due to where your swamp and mountain locations are but it adds to the overall experience to me. YMMV

In addition I try to scout neighboring islands to see if they offer all the biomes instead of just 2 or 3. I got lucky and found all 5 present on the next island on my current seed as well as the trader. Hope that helps.

Originally posted by 1337:

Originally posted by Isaac_Clark:

I also just do it the vanilla way. Sailing home with a longship full of iron from a swamp I just fully cleared always makes me feel like a boss.

Even if clearing an entire swamp is pretty time consuming, usually taking at least 2 or 3 RL days.

I felt the same way first few dungeons full of metal I cleared...
But then I found that each person need 120+ metal to create more or less full set of armour and weapon of choice + shield. Then you also need Iron to make additions to you crafting tables. And then there are many decorations that also require Iron...

I mean, if each weapon, for instance required 5, heck, even 10 of Iron ore, it would be much more comfortable to abide by the game's own laws. At least it didn't feel that dull during Bronze era, imo.

Seems like most of the time people complaining about how long it takes are also people who refuse to not upgrade everything. Don't waste your time upgrading it if it feels like a time sink. Takes 60 to craft the armor, and it'll work just fine. Absolutely nothing in the game encourages you to upgrade. Pro tip, things aren't that expensive unless you willingly and knowingly double or triple the cost. Stop it. Save your Iron for the next set or for the weapons. Armor barely matters.

As for the OP, no, I don't. If you apply that logic to any other activity in the game, it becomes pointless to play at all. The journey home is the rewarding part because it's nerve racking and things tend to go wrong the more you have on the line. If you told me the "fun part" is collecting the iron then we'll have to agree to disagree. Crypt diving for hours is fun MAYBE the first time. Maybe. So collecting it isn't fun, skipping the tense journey entirely with it isn't fun... why even waste the time? If you want to guarantee good results every time you try something you might as well just cheat in everything you want and turn on god mode until it becomes clear that there isn't any game left. If having the pointlessly maxed out stuff that's going to be lost or replaced is the only fun part of it for you, you're gonna run out of things to do in a hurry.

Reminds me of the people who spawn their items back in when they die because "they took so long to get". Yeah, that's kind of the point. That's why it feels good to accomplish it, and like you're actually taking risks in the game. But hey, you do you, everyone has a different style. For me, using any exploit at all seems like a much bigger waste of time than earning things the way they were intended to be earned.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention, hands down the most fun session I've had in this game was mining Iron for hours with friends then sailing back home with it -- and losing it. We didn't cry about it, we didn't think it was unfair, and it was like a five hour session that was nothing but pure fun the entire time (very first Swamp trip). I don't know why you play games, but personally I don't care about "BIG NUMBER = GUD" more than I care about having fun.

Originally posted by Vinegaroon:

I did but now I have the unrestricted portal mod

+1 to this, makes the game much more enjoyable.

Never. I'm fine with transporting ore using carts and ships.

It can even be fun, at least when it comes to silver.

Started just before I did the plains, so I've done both sailing and hopping. Funny thing is that I still sail quite a bit, but it is purely for exploration searching for new areas for settlement or for hunting serpents. Sailing is more fun since I started hopping!

I guess a better question is how long are you willing to take to move materials. Even with the mods I have installed I still have a 5-10 minute trip to my bases with unrestricted portals. Before I was spending 30-45 minutes each way traveling because of where the swamps were located. It was fun the first few times but it got boring fast. So essentially what I have done for my game is sped up the process of some of the tedious aspects of the game "grinding and moving materials" so I can do more of the parts I do enjoy. Sailing, exploring, Hunting, Fighting, Building ect.

Originally posted by caroraim:

Sailing is more fun since I started hopping!

^This

My first playthrough was without teleportation/world hopping. The 2nd one used world hopping. Every play after that was with the better portals mod so I could TP everything. It's a nice mechanic the first time around, but just ultimately a time sink that isn't worth it.

I did but now I have the unrestricted portal mod

Personally I don't do it as I prefer to play games the way they are intended to be played. It's a bit cheesy and makes many things meaningless in the game. I think it's a nice game mechanic that you can't transport ore through portals.

Originally posted by morph113:

Personally I don't do it as I prefer to play games the way they are intended to be played. It's a bit cheesy and makes many things meaningless in the game. I think it's a nice game mechanic that you can't transport ore through portals.

Same here. Maybe I'll do it some when Mistland drops, I don't know yet.

I also just do it the vanilla way. Sailing home with a longship full of iron from a swamp I just fully cleared always makes me feel like a boss.

Even if clearing an entire swamp is pretty time consuming, usually taking at least 2 or 3 RL days.

Depends on my mood really. I try to abide by the progression while I'm actually progressing, but with my current game I'm just building at this point so not being able to port iron is particularly painful.