Originally posted by Tom:

It would be nice if there was a basic furnace that could be made with just stone and coal and would only be useful for making bronze. That way a Blast furnace made with Surtling cores would be an upgrade, maybe even make it use a little less coal per ingot due to more efficient flames or something. Heck maybe there could be a basic furnace which only does 'basic' ingots, copper, black iron, silver. And the Surtling furnace can do alloys and basic ingots so bronze, Damascus iron, Electrum silver or whatever.

Edit. Also if they do add a basic furnace and make the Surtling furnace capable of making more powerful stuff then they would have to make Surtling cores rarer, maybe larger more dangerous dungeons? Make Surtlings rarer and more dangerous themselves, maybe even needing special means to kill rather than the normal whack em with a stick strat?

Why change what is already there? The current smelter is unlocked at the appropriate time, in the progression, WHEN the player is able to actually mine the ores and WHEN the player needs to start thinking about upgrading weapons and tools etc, past sticks and stones.

That wasn't just a "willy nilly" decision to do it that way, to add filler, or to inflate the grind... It's that way to unlock progression at the right time and not before, plus it fits nicely having "magical fire element" being needed for something that is going to smelt metals.

Using your example of "a basic furnace that could be made with just stone and coal and would only be useful for making bronze."... Means you are suggesting that they make a furnace which is basically useless after only 1 biome, and, using the mechanics in the game as a pattern, would mean that the recipe for such a furnace gets unlocked by either picking up a stone or a piece of coal ( any burnt piece of food ), which could easily happen the very first day.

Does not make sense to have a furnace unlock that early in the game, especially when the player can't even mine anything during the first biome progression, and would only end up being a distraction and confuse people...

The way it is,the smelter is used for a little over 1/2 the game, up until the player needs to smelt black iron... Enter the blast furnace which takes over for the second half of the game, as Im sure they will add many more resources as new biomes are added.

Adding more furnaces and changing the surtlings and their cores just doesn't seem like something that's needed.... It's simple and beautiful just how it is, IMHO.