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.