TFC:TNG 1.18 final thoughts

Good:
 - Caves look incredible.  The Stalagmites/tites, calcite, icicles, lava lakes, all of it looks awesome with the multiple stone levels and colors.
 - Overworld is gorgeous.  Vegetation is everywhere.  The twigs, leaf piles, dead trees, all of it is good ambiance.  Well done.
Generation is very realistic, best I’ve seen.  In anything.  I know that this one comment reflects what I’m sure is literal months and months of work, but I do understand and note all of it was very well implemented.  Love it.
 - Specifically with rivers.  I’ve seen other tries. It is literally best in any mod, wish it was vanilla.  The shores can be a bit daunting, but the current iteration is still the best by far.  Congrats.
 - Hot springs look much better, if a bit frequent dry gen
 - I like the concept of the wolves as wandering trouble.  No zombies/skellies being replaced by a random threat, great idea.
 - Aqueducts are a great addition that I can’t wait to see fully implemented when gears n’ such let us raise water up.  Great idea, love it.
 - The new, more realistic crops are interesting.  We had some issues with some of the system, but I think it’s partially due to how we need more time to adjust planting methods.  I do love the 3 nutrients and need for different hydration.
 - New fruit tree mechanics/grafting are nifty. (I’d say more but I’m not the one that messed with them)
 - Love the current wear and tear mechanics.  It gives reasons to not just breed the same ones forever while not just having them some day be useless w/o warning.  Perfect.
 - Putting the fantasy mobs back underground is well executed.
 - Ground cover is lovely but many express annoyance at slowing down (I’m okay with it)
 - Blast furnace accepting processed iron is a massive improvement.
 - I thank you and am honored for getting an achievement name.  Perfect place.  BOOM.

Bad:
 - (Of course that means the first issue is) Boom boom needs work.  We tested, it is smaller and took months of work to not even get enough for one boom.  Even with dirt being more resistant than 1.12, the size of the hole is reduced.  A lot.
Caves are too abundant.  ‘Nuff said.
 - Too easy to get food (though I only say this because that’s what we encountered, hear that’s better)
 - Minerals very difficult to get in quantity.  THIS IS A BIG ONE.  I like that ores get more abundant the deeper you go, but literal MONTHS were spent, probably over 60 hours of gameplay, to try and get minerals in this with little success.
Liginte/bitiminous coal are pointless since you can’t easily find it, and if you do, it’s a shallow vein that produces little.
Kaolinite and Graphite are way too difficult to get in quantity without a surface indicator for how essential they are for advancement
Sulphur is WAAAAAY too rare for the amount needed for one boom.
	I understand realism, and the deeper better thing, but there NEEDS to be a better way to locate those minerals!  Surface indicators, core samples, area scans, phases of the moon, I don’t care, right now it’s just not fun.  The difficulty/fun balance is WAAY off.
Ores SUGGESTION - Hotsprings should be related to the 'long range' deep material scan... there should be like... a COUPLE gravel blocks of different things from the area as part of the hotspring bed. (Mjevans)
 - Not enough danger on surface.  1.12 you had to clear the threats around you before you could expand, be them lions, tigers or bears (oh my) there was stuff.  This time there was no stuff.  I explored a TON this season, and never really felt threatened except by a few bears.
 - Need some form of water weapon.  Harpoon.  Something.  I'm chasing a killer whale with a lead and an axe as it squeaks at me.  Arrows suck.
 - Oceans need something else to get blubber from, sperm whale with large amount or more from the killer whales...which should attack you.  Because:
 - Candles/fat in general (for a small light upgrade) I think should be an easier thing to get.  Multiple ways of getting to the end of some things would be good in general.  Like, candles shouldn’t only need whale blubber.  Get salt from boiling salt water. Paper shouldn’t only need reeds.  etc.
 - Rotating crops right now is fruitless as they are difficult to rotate with hydration requirements (though this may be part of adjusting to new strategies) and they don’t put down enough nutrients to be even a little self-sustaining.  I understand that soil can’t start with nutrients because we just rip it up and place it down, but now it nutrients need to start going the other way towards sustainability.
 - Also, having some kind of flow reduction block to adjust the source block of water would reduce the empty plots around water sources.
 - Fertilizer should drop more than 1 each time to make it easier to get your farm going.  You would just need such a huge field of composters right now to sustain a field that just getting more per cycle makes sense. (the fact that a minimum of 8 items goes in and one comes out is another bit for that)
 - I know it’s a 1.18 thing, but SMP horses suck.  Without a fast travel in game and needing to go long distances, it was VERY felt.
Actually GETTING your fruit trees is difficult to get a positive growth.  Dead bushes seem too easy.  Start in potted plant maybe?
Food spoilage - only the one method of preserving without going down the method of vinegar was annoying for stuff like fruit.  Needs a drying mechanic for fruit at least.
 - Bamboo needs a use other than sticks.
 - All the water caves beg exploration and there’s no method for that.  Either less of ‘em or need a breathing rod.
 - I know it’s been part of TFC forever, but tree farms mid/late game are tedious to the point of aggravation having to break hundreds of leaves just to get saplings.  I’d like a setting to get the sapling when cutting down a tree, or maybe you get the saplings with metal axes.
 - Animals with one use when 2 are obvious.  Would make more sense to have the output be lesser vs. dedicated.
 - Olive oil shouldn’t be the only source for long term light.  Add wax, blubber, find oil veins, etc.  Olive oil should be an option, not the rule.
 - Dogs are broken.  They have no AI after trained.
 - Icicles are nice, but spawn/grow a bit much
 - Eggs.  Eggs, when we're using sandwiches, soups, salads for everything are pointless.  I have eggs in ALL of those things every week.  Don't copy vanilla, they're wrong!  Eggs are food, not just a pie and cake ingredient!

Suggestions
Bring back ornamental armor (Nihon)
Tamable rats (Lyeoj)
A late game food item that can have all types of food in one meal (like pizza from a pizza oven or something...Me)