Fibre processing continues with retting and some spin-off features

[Sami]

By now spinning code is all done and tested and polished, and we're happily able to spin both nettle and hemp yarn. With some new flora_*.txt tags added it's actually possible to add fibre yield for any flora_*.txt plant, although the textilecraft processes are modelled for nettle and hemp. But yes indeed for example flax as a new fibre source can be added relatively easily.

We've also added straw, a mere stalk of certain plants, as a new item type. Straws will be a byproduct of threshing plants such as nettles and hemp, but with a flora_ tag of their other plants can be also given straw yield. Straws don't (yet) have specific use of their own but do serve as material for fibre processing. Straw items were added for the sake of being able to thresh valuable plants for seeds and leaves first, and still have the straw remaining for fibre.

And now there's "retting" added for textilecraft options. It's a process for separating the fibres from the stalks of harvested plants, and the first and foremost option of them all. Retting is done by soaking the plants in the water for several days. The soaking needs to be done by open water and the sufficient soaking time depends on the water temperature, varying from 5 to even 25 days. The warmer the water, the faster the retting process is. The retting doesn't occur at all in very cold water so it can't be done for example in the winter. However, nettles are a speciality and you can peel fibres from them by hand without retting, but it's relatively slow and mostly used only if small amount of yarn needs to be spun.

Now the remaining steps to do on our way to completely finished textilecraft system for fibre processing would be drying the retted plants, and extracting the fibre.
So let's continue ...

These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.63.

[koteko]

Would villages process their raw hemp and nettle too? If so, it could be interesting to tie the final fibre stock in a village, to its rate of clothing production (chance of finding a nettle/linen clothing item).

In this way, a player might actually go to villages around, selling or gifting them fibres and getting a new wardrobe next season

[Sami]

Would villages process their raw hemp and nettle too? If so, it could be interesting to tie the final fibre stock in a village, to its rate of clothing production (chance of finding a nettle/linen clothing item).

In this way, a player might actually go to villages around, selling or gifting them fibres and getting a new wardrobe next season

Actually yarn will be available as village product, so you can find nettle and hemp yarn from villages every now and then. However, its' availability and restock rate isn't modelled with that much precision.

[Dungeon Smash]

Wow!  is there a plan that eventually animals such as cows and sheep will need to eat during winter, making straw a valuable resource?

[Erkka]

is there a plan that eventually animals such as cows and sheep will need to eat during winter,

The official development list, in section "Livestock and domestic animals" mentions:
"*Ability (and need) to feed animals, including grazing".

I'd guess this indicates that there is such a plan.

[Ara D.]

Nit picking here but you do not feed animals straw not a lot of nutrition in the stuff. Straw is for warmth and well basically livestock sized litter box. You feed hay, ie grasses and other vegetation cut green and relatively young. Then dried for preservation.

[Erkka]

This is a topic I've seen mentioned in the forums a few times before, and decided not to comment (for I've thought that this will be discussed again, once the need to feed livestock gets implemented in the game). So, not going to go into details of this discussion now, when plans for "the need to feed livestock" are just that - plans, and not yet in the works. Just a short mention, one point:

As a person living in the countryside, with decades of first-hand experience in feeding domestic animals like horses, cows and sheep, and as a person who has read something about the history of animal-rearing in Finland, and also has first-hand experience about the old traditional breeds like the Finnhorse and Finncattle, I'd like to make a point: "hay for food, straw for bedding" is a relatively modern invention. 1000 years ago it was more like "feed your animals with what ever you managed to gather in the summer", which meant things like dried bunches of broadleaved saplings, moss, straw, and yes - wild hay. (For bedding it was most likely peat and moss).

I've seen my own Finnhorses deliberately choosing to eat straw when hay is also available. Those old breeds have digestion all geared towards survival, they like to chew tree bark etc. Finncattle digestion is more like a reindeer, than a modern cow bred for maximum milk production.

Oh well. And in case someone disagrees and feels a need to continue this discussion, please do so in "general" or "off-topic" sections instead of dev.news which is for announcing features Sami is working on, not about going into details discussing future plans.