More interesting crafts at the celestial altars.

[Ohan]

I know the altars and mysterious energy etc are still a work in progress but i thought id just put this out there. 

I think its a pity that all the Celestial tab crafts we have gotten so far are rather banal. a sword, an axe, bath bomb, 2 turfs and sculpture sketches. Such a mesmerizing station which you have to piece together yourself, presumably from outer-space, guarded on its own island by a unique sanity aura and Gestalts and the best it has to offer is a sword and an axe made with ordinary wood and twigs? 

The sword imo at least delivers on the Lunar fantasy by being more effective against Shadows but the boards in the recipe makes it so banal  as if its just a normal tool and not inspired by whatever otherworldly knowledge is emanating from the Celestial Altars. 

I also dont really understand why Moonrock walls, Moon dial, Cratered moonrock and Ocuvigil dont need a lunar station to be crafted. If thulecite walls need pseudo science why are Moonrock walls simply crafted at an alchemy engine? it makes moony things feel less special, although i could see how restricting structures could be annoying since u cant craft a bunch and bring them with you. Moonrock walls and cratered moonrocks though could definitely be restricted to the altars. 

Every summer i stroll by the Grotto because i love the scenery and make use of the occasion to collect moon shards but i have nothing to use them on. Moonrock walls are the toughest walls in the game, surely some kind of armor could be crafted using the same material? The most magical moony thing we've gotten so far is the Moon Caller's staff and while the full moon event is really awesome, the star caller's is still crafted at the pseudo science station. 

I hope we'll see more interesting and magical crafts for the altars in the future.

[Well-met]

mega agree.

It's high time the celestial becomes a real ruins-tier station.

[Omid.R.G]

Moon shards are literally some sort of glass! I'm sure there are a lot more uses for glass than just an axe and sword. Decorative and gameplay-related. 

[GelatinousCube]

Yeah for sure, it is a bit lame that all we can craft of actual value are the special axes and special weapon.

Lunar crafting needs to have interesting and unique items like the Mag, Lazy Forager etc.

[QuartzBeam]

I agree that the current Celestial crafts are pretty bland, but their blandness makes perfect sense considering that getting them is not remotely as risky as raiding the ruins. You can find the Lunar Island as early as the first autumn and, even if the first trip takes some time, subsequent trips are no more than a minute of brain dead sailing in a straight line. (The Lunar Island and the mainland are always linked by unobstructed coastal ocean.)

I suspect that the Mysterious Energy will serve as an upgrade to the Celestial Altars, unlocking more unique and powerful items. It makes sense that something as easily accessible as the Celestial Altar would have its true potential locked behind some late game task and summoning the Mysterious Energy fits the bill to a tee. Not to mention the whole RoT questline requires permanent changes to the world: cracking Pearl's Pearl and triggering the Grotto War, which implies this is not some task we're gonna need to repeat periodically. (Plus, the devs have said they're looking for the "right way" to implement certain highly requested features, such as a rain-making item, and late game celestial crafting seems to be the obvious choice.)

 

Regarding the moonrock crafts, I don't really see what there is to be gained from restricting them to the Celestial Altar, besides making them all even more annoying to make. Moon rock doesn't exactly fall from the sky, after all. Well, it does, but you know... All that would do is add some artificial "use" to the Lunar Island.

Then there's the thematic aspect of it. Moon Glass is explicitly supernatural, because it's organic and regrows miraculously in the grotto. (The extra durability vs shadows is more ambiguous, as it could simply be due to shadows not being corporeal per se.) Moon Rock, on the other hand, is just some extra durable rock. While it might have some weak magical properties, the player needs to combine it with gems to have it do anything special. It would be strange to restrict moon rock crafts to the Celestial Altar, when they don't seem to actively employ lunar magic in the first place.

Last but not least, I don't think moon rock armor would be particularly interesting either. Because, again, moon rock is pretty expensive (late game Winona setups aside) and it would probably just be a rehash of marble armor. And marble armor already has an "upgrade" in the form of the Thulecite Suit, which very few people make as it is. There doesn't seem to be much of a gap that moon rock armor could fill. And it would run into the Glass Axe/Cutter issue of "mundane item, but slightly different.

What I would love to see, though, is some kind of Moon Glass Armor that mirrors damage back at your attackers. It would be fairly frail due to being made of glass, but it would only absorb a small fraction of the damage (say 5%), while sending 75% back to the attacker and letting the other 20% reach the player. I'm not convinced it would be practical, but at least it would be somewhat unique. :P

I also want to see that Lunar Shovel that has been suggested, for digging up reeds, cacti and maybe light flowers and glowberries, so I can use them in my base and not have to burn half the cacti cause they are in the middle of the latest build I'm working on.

inhales

[HowlVoid]

If the mysterious energy is a portal to a new biome that is an inversion of the ruins, you can expect many more crafts to come!

Or at least, that's what Im hoping for...