Reliable Smelting 0.3.1 — Deep North and refill reliability

Automate nearby supplies for charcoal kilns, smelters, blast furnaces, the Frigid Kiln and Frost Foundry. This beta adds Deep North fuel handling and optional free refills for both new stations.

Ice and Liquid Frost

The Frigid Kiln consumes Ice as fuel and produces Liquid Frost. The foundry uses Liquid Frost and retains its native single cast slot. Eligible locally owned, closed, public wooden/reinforced/black-metal chests supply fuel.

Foundry.AutoLoadCasts and Foundry.AutoCollectCastOutputs both default to false. Enable cast loading only when you want eligible plain casts in nearby chests processed automatically. Leave it off to choose equipment manually. Automatic cast output requires a living local player and emits one item per slot without manual collection skill/yield bonuses.

Optional free refills

In BepInEx/config/au.tyvalheim.reliablesmelting.cfg, set:

[Fuel]
KeepFurnacesFueled = true

Default remains false, and your existing setting is preserved. Enabled: owned smelters, blast furnaces, Frigid Kilns and Frost Foundries refill without taking chest or carried fuel. Both periodic refills and manual fuel clicks are supported. No chest or transfer budget is needed for free upkeep.

Free Frigid Kiln Ice means free Liquid Frost output. Casts, ores and charcoal-kiln wood remain paid. Ovens and fireplaces are outside this option's scope. General.Enabled disables all automation and free-refill handling.

Multiplayer and access

This runs on a client with a living local player, within loaded areas. It does not keep areas loaded or run offline. Every paid transfer requires owned, accessible machines and closed owned chests. Open and close eligible chests normally to acquire them.

ClaimNearbyMachines remains an experimental option, with proximity, nearest-player and settling checks. Disable it to leave ownership unchanged by this mod. Settling is not a network acknowledgement. Matching free-fuel settings on potential owning clients keep behaviour consistent after handoffs. Dedicated-server handoffs still need gameplay testing.

WhileLoaded is the default mode; NearbyOnly also enforces PlayerRangeMeters. General.RangeMeters defaults to 10, scans to five seconds, discovery to 15 seconds. Existing protected-wood rules remain.

Compatibility and installation

Requires BepInExPack_Valheim. Exit Valheim and install the ZIP, keeping one ReliableSmelting.dll. Preserve the existing config and restart after edits. If using Reliable Crafting, update it to 0.1.10 so handled free-refill clicks cannot also stage fuel.

A detected local Fuel Eternal patch configured for the matching setter takes priority in periodic fuel management when RespectFuelEternal is enabled. Other clients' settings cannot be discovered locally. No Fuel Eternal files are bundled.

Material handling and testing

The Smelting 0.3.1 DLL is unchanged and has been retested with the new Cooking and Crafting builds. Paid transfers now complete the native machine write before inventory callbacks. Rejected, uncommitted transfers are restored. Accepted transfers are not refunded or replayed after a later exception. Unexpected errors pause automation until restart; preserve the log and check inventories. While free refills remain enabled, manual fuel clicks stay blocked after a fault instead of becoming paid clicks. Deliberately disabling free refills restores ordinary paid handling. Foundry output rechecks ownership immediately before ejection.

71 policy assertions and 2,302 shared isolated native Unity assertions pass against Valheim 1.0.17, including paid/free Deep North refills, zero-budget free upkeep, cast opt-in, remote-owner refusal and combined Reliable mod interactions. The final Cooking 0.1.2 / Crafting 0.1.10 / Smelting 0.3.1 trio has zero failed native groups. The author retested all three mods together and approved publication on 14 October 2026; multi-client disconnect/reconnect and save/reload scenarios are not comprehensively verified. This is a beta release.

Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0. Promotional title/header images are AI-generated illustrations, not in-game screenshots.

Credits

Reliable Smelting: Gomisan. Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0.

Fuel Eternal compatibility references Marfinator's Fuel Eternal 1.2.1, which credits XenoFell/cstamford's original TorchesEternal. No Fuel Eternal or TorchesEternal DLL/source is bundled. AutoSmelter provided feature context for this independent alternative; its assembly was inspected for compatibility. No AutoSmelter DLL/source is bundled. BepInEx team and contributors: mod framework. Iron Gate: Valheim and the game systems used by this mod. Game and framework assemblies are not bundled.

Existing promo artwork was generated with OpenAI image generation and is illustrative artwork, not a gameplay screenshot.

Thunderstore installation

Install with your mod manager, or exit Valheim and extract the BepInEx folder into your game folder. Keep one copy of the DLL. No configuration or saves are bundled.

AI disclosure

Coded with the assistance of ChatGPT 6.0. Packaging and documentation were prepared with OpenAI Codex. Promotional illustrations and the store icon use OpenAI image generation and are not gameplay screenshots. The Thunderstore assembly adds AI attribution metadata; its gameplay methods and resources are unchanged from the tested Nexus DLL.

Promotional artwork

AI-generated promotional illustration already used on Nexus; not a gameplay screenshot.

Discord and feedback

Nexus comments/bug reports or Discord are equally welcome. Use whichever is easier; no need to cross-post. Gomisan's Mods Discord Reliable Smelting — feedback and bug reports New members should join using the invite before opening a direct post.

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