Loot, Pickup, Smelting: Making Materials Matter

In triangle, everything you get is something you've earned — not found. That means no item drops, just raw materials you’ll eventually smelt and craft with.

This devlog explores early steps toward that vision:

• Material Drops: Destroy asteroids to get iron (currently shown as blue circles). These drops don’t interfere with your path and behave predictably.

• Pickup System: Your ship has a magnet-like range and pulls materials toward it. If they get close enough, they’re picked up automatically.

• Smelting: Materials are automatically refined based on the best available smelter. The ship comes with a built-in tier 1 smelter, but future upgrades will be needed for rarer resources.

I started designing a crafting UI but decided to focus on automation instead — it keeps the gameplay flowing and fits the theme better (for now!).

Read the full breakdown here: https://drone-ah.com/2025/05/13/materials/