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[bool1989]

We all know that adamantine is the best metal so far, usually because of it's ease of access and high qualities.

But what if there was there was an even higher quality of metal that was rare and hard to get without going to extra lengths to get it?

The idea I present to you is rainbow gold, and ghost silver.

In this idea, Unicorn horns are made of rainbow gold. A single horn, when melted down, yields a varying amount of bars.

The quality of the metal depends on how old the unicorn is. 100 year old unicorns should yield metal that is maybe half as good as adamantine, while 200 year old unicorns should yield metal that is just as good, with older unicorns yielding the best quality.

Ghost silver comes from the bones of undead that have been around for a while. when an Undead has been around for at least 10 years, their bones start hardening into ghost silver.

Like with Unicorns, the older the undead, the higher quality the bones are.

What do you guys think?

Edit: obviously, Unicorns would have to be altered to make this an actually rare thing. Ideally, once a unicorn reaches 10 years of age they become legendary in all combat skills, and are untamable from birth, have a preternatural ability to dodge arrows, and become hostile to dwarves when their young are threatened.

Just throwing some ideas out there.   

[Salmeuk]

you know, I don't know if this will ever make it into the game without modding. its quite a nice idea, if you don't particularly value the lives of unicorns.

Turning the horn into metal bars through a custom reaction might be possible. and I'm not sure if you could somehow define the material received from butchering a unicorn according to age, then being able to increase the quality of the produced metal in steps.

The undead ghost silver is also very thematic, but might lead to an overabundance of the stuff. I mean, have you seen the zombie sieges as of late? gigantic!

the general theme of 'creatures that turn into useful metals over time' is worthy

what about a bird that lays a golden egg ? 

[bool1989]

you know, I don't know if this will ever make it into the game without modding. its quite a nice idea, if you don't particularly value the lives of unicorns.

Turning the horn into metal bars through a custom reaction might be possible. and I'm not sure if you could somehow define the material received from butchering a unicorn according to age, then being able to increase the quality of the produced metal in steps.

The undead ghost silver is also very thematic, but might lead to an overabundance of the stuff. I mean, have you seen the zombie sieges as of late? gigantic!

the general theme of 'creatures that turn into useful metals over time' is worthy

what about a bird that lays a golden egg ? 

Regarding the value of unicorn lives: If unicorns became untamable, it would make it a lot harder to get one's hands on them. Also, the unicorn would have to be of at least 200 years of age for their horn to be as valuable as adamantine.

Regarding undead hordes: It's all about the age and size, but I see your point, perhaps ghost silver could be twice as useful as steel or something, but no better.

Since unicorns would be rarer, and given that a single horn would only yield a few bars, it still makes sense for their horns to be of a higher value than adamantine.

[bool1989]

Adding on to this idea: intelligent undead. The older an undead is, the more intelligent it becomes, until it reaches 100 years of age, at which point it regains the intelligence it had when it was alive.

Lich tombs: Necromancers seal themselves in a tomb for 100 years for their bones to turn in to high quality ghost silver, then emerge as a lich to make a lich tower.

Ancient Intelligent Unicorns ally themselves with elves or men to slay the demon at the heart of a goblin civ.

Heroic Unicorns, Unicorns that go on quests to slay evil.

Unicorns that get angry when their young is threatened.

Ancient Intelligent Unicorns that seek out dwarven fortresses where their kind is captured and bread for their horns, and when the unicorn gets there, they basically become like a forgotten beast or titan who is there to kill the fortress.

you know, things like that.

[voliol]

Definitely the kind of stuff I'd like to see for Myths & Magic. Would be fun to seek out a rare beast to craft the ultimate blade, or see the goblin horde hunt unicorns to near-extinction when raising the army.

+1

[Mr Crabman]

The specifics here of new metals feel like the sort of thing mythgen should come up with, but the bigger thing here, IMO, is the general idea of creatures undergoing custom changes over time.

Some generalized way to specify for a creature to gradually have body tissues replaced, or have other tags removed/added over time (both in gameplay, and during worldgen) would be great.

[bool1989]

The real goal here is simply to have new types of metal that is rarer than adamantine.

Having that metal be part of a hard-to-kill creature is the only thing that makes sense to me, in terms of keeping the metal rare. Things like the features that would be added to make this possible are only part of the equation for me.

And this is a suggestion for the main game, not an idea for a mod. I'm just putting this out there for toady.

[A_Curious_Cat]

Sounds to me like something that should be procedurally generated.

[Eric Blank]

Absolutely. A really cool feature for the myth and magic arc, special metals (and other materials) made important/powerful by the creation of the world, available in particular creatures (and plants!) or interaction targets (undead) in the world.

And yeah, your thread started out on new types of rare metals, but you simultaneously hit upon a really cool creature/interaction mechanic that just so happens to fit the theme of the myth and magic arc that you wrapped up into it. Now you have to put up with all of that.

[Thunderforge]

Unicorn gold sounds a bit… elfy to me.

Personally I have modded adamantine to the weight of iron and renamed it gromril.

[Nordlicht]

How about metals that only exist during certain times of the day, or moonphases. Then vanish and reapear.  Metals that turn into other types when leaving their home biome, or get destroyed when exposed to moon/sunlight.

[Thunderforge]

Hmm, I put the Daymetal amulet in a Nightmetal chest and now I can’t get it out because the chest disappears while the amulet is in it, but when the chest appears the amulet isn’t visible! 😂

[Timeless Bob]

This sounds like it should possibly be in the "Alchemy" suggestion tab.

[Eric Blank]

We have tabs for suggestions? I don't see any

[Egan_BW]

How would you make a metal which is better than adamantine anyways? It's already basically infinitely sharp, durable, and rigid. You could make it heavier but that's more of a sidegrade.

Maybe a metal with a very high or low fixed temperature could be more destructive in battle. The wielder would probably need some special protective gear though. :p