Messages

46

Gameplay questions / Re: How exactly to make elk leather

« on: January 25, 2019, 10:16:05 PM »

Are you sure that 0.4 lbs is enough to hold 4 lbs of water? This here is "large" but takes only 1.1 litre, about 2.5 lbs of water: https://www.etsy.com/listing/501655255/large-hand-crafted-authentic-medieval

I made some quick calculations assuming it was cylindrical and got a capacity (or volume) of little over 5 lbs of water, or about 2300 cubic centimetres. No idea why capacity seems so low compared to that.

Anyway, I seriously doubt this would be so light, though I might be wrong. 0.4 lbs is the weight of a hamster or a baseball...

This is a really hard topic to search for. Apparently leather is graded in ounces, based on its thickness per square foot. That's not very useful to understand how much it would weigh.

It seems that a rabbit pelt (with fur) is about those 0.4 lbs or a bit less. Would one rabbit hide be enough for a container like this that takes a bit over 4 lbs of water? Would you need thick leather for it? Won't the pitch or beeswax for waterproofing kind of add to the weight? How much leather would you need to wrap around a 2 litre bottle of soda?

You are correct about a number of things here. 5lbs of water is a little over 2 litres so the skin would be about the size of a pop bottle. In terms of holding the weight some fairly thin leather would be fine for it - it's the waterproofing that's the problem.

Sources mention a couple of things. One is the use of a stomach or bladder from a large animal. One is using rawhide as wet rawhide doesn't let much water through it. Of course that involves drinking rawhide flavored water.....

Another interesting one is the use of a goat hide flesh side out hair in with apparently no additional waterproofing reputably used by the romans. Now, that climate is much hotter and drier so maybe they simply accepted some water loss or the water evaporated at roughly the same rate as it soaked through. This would have the side benefit of keeping the water inside cooler. Or maybe goat skin is more watertight than other skins - like seal skin is.

The Sami made theirs out of reindeer hide. Maybe this shares the characteristics of the aforementioned goat hide. Or, they waterproofed it.

In terms of waterproofing pitch would do, as would pine resin or bees wax. All of these would make the skin quite stiff. They would add a bit of weight, too, but I don't know if it would be significant. Birch oil would be possible, too. It's made as a step in making birch tar and birch tar is something we know was around. Birch oil would effectively make "Russian Leather" that is was sold as a valuable export for the very reason it was waterproof.

All in all, I think I might have to experiment and see what I can come up with. I'm not drinking out of a raw hide skin, though. 

   - Shane

47

Gameplay questions / Re: How exactly to make elk leather

« on: January 25, 2019, 06:33:15 AM »

That's really wasteful - and I say this as someone who makes leather stuff. Throwing out 2lbs of leather to make a 1lbs object? You're throwing out twice the amount you're using. You can always find a use for those scraps (well, mostly). Those leather strips that you stitch with will also be part of the weight of the object as a whole not to mention 0.5lbs of tying equipment that should be what's used there.

I modded mine to require 0.4lbs of leather and 0.1lbs of tying equipment. For me it's not about game balance, it's about realism. Even with those stats it's pretty wasteful.

If you want a RL example go to a hobby store and pick up roll of leather thong (just lift it up, don't buy it unless you have a use for it) and consider just how much it takes to get a half pound of it.

   - Shane

48

Modding / Re: Torch with no light?

« on: January 25, 2019, 02:22:38 AM »

Like in "Quest for fire"?

That's more of a primitive lantern than what I'm talking about.

I'm looking at something more like Otzi the Iceman. He had a dried mushroom that would have contained an ember that burned for days. You keep it wrapped up in something like small piece of leather to exclude as much oxygen as you can - kinda like a miniature charcoal making process.

There are references to things like this at least into Roman times.

But if I can't, then no biggy.

   - Shane

49

Bug reports / Re: Cannot throw 1 handed

« on: January 24, 2019, 06:56:13 AM »

It will only let you equip 1 item if your arm is that badly hurt. presumably it'd be the unbroken one. 

   - Shane

50

Modding / Re: Torch with no light?

« on: January 24, 2019, 06:54:50 AM »

Test items based on the torch are lightable, but what I'm looking for is something that's lightable which doesn't produce light. A small glowing ember would not allow me to see inside a cave, for ex, but it would let me light a fire pretty easily and would weigh a lot less than a torch.

Basically looking for a way to carry fire without illumination. No real biggy if it's impossible. I thought just because I can't figure it out doesn't mean a better modder hasn't. 

   - Shane

51

Modding / Tag for Nettle and Linen only?

« on: January 24, 2019, 04:08:20 AM »

So, the [Cloth] tag allows you to use and textile for leather to nettle. We also have the [Animal hide] tag that lets you only use leather and hide. is there an equivalent that lets you use any cloth except animal hide?

   - Shane

52

Bug reports / Cannot throw 1 handed

« on: January 24, 2019, 04:04:14 AM »

If you have an arm that's too badly hurt to use you are unable to throw equipped items like rocks that should be throwable 1 handed. You can still throw them from inventory, but it takes extra time to ready it first.

Be nice if you could just have a rock in hand to peg a bird you stumble into.

   - Shane

53

Mod Releases / Re: Community mod BAC project: Smith, Cooking, Punts, Survival, Carpentry

« on: January 24, 2019, 03:55:59 AM »

I noticed that your diy_Boneworking has knife handle parts but I can't see anything that uses them - all the knives seem to use a branch for the handles.

   - Shane

It's used only by the Northern knife

Ahhh, so it is used, thanks!

   - Shane

54

Modding / Torch with no light?

« on: January 24, 2019, 03:52:01 AM »

Can you make a recipe using a torch as the base item that produces no light?

I ask because a very ancient way of fire lighting was to have a smoldering ember of something and carry that with you. The torches functionality with lighting a fire would be the in game equivalent, but such things wouldn't produce any light, especially when tucked away in a pack.

   - Shane

55

Mod Releases / Re: Community mod BAC project: Smith, Cooking, Punts, Survival, Carpentry

« on: January 24, 2019, 03:47:58 AM »

I noticed that your diy_Boneworking has knife handle parts but I can't see anything that uses them - all the knives seem to use a branch for the handles.

   - Shane

56

Bug reports / Re: Persistent injury effect on speed?

« on: January 24, 2019, 03:45:52 AM »

My Finn has speed maxed out and was walking at 8 kmh in his hunting gear...  until he took an arrow to the knee 

You might have to move to Skyrim and become a guard.....

   - Shane

57

Gameplay questions / Re: ermines weasels and pine martens

« on: January 21, 2019, 02:43:14 AM »

Light deadfalls work. Fresh meat as bait - not cooked or processed (ie dried). If you can hit them with a blunt arrow or rock they can also be run down fairly easily.

   - Shane

58

Modding / Re: Modding in valuable metals (Gold, Silver, Copper) for trade.

« on: January 21, 2019, 02:40:16 AM »

A spear head is still a lot of gold - we're talking a pound or two. Keep in mind that all the gold ever found throughout history worldwide would fit into a couple of swimming pools. There just isn't that much of it, let alone in easily smeltable form. Most large  - beyond ring size - gold objects are hollow, merely coated with gold, are not pure gold or a combination of any/all of these. It's a pretty rare thing for something to be solid 24k gold.

Rings and bracelets would certainly be made, and maybe a very small knife. Gold used as decoration, however, is another matter. Gold inlay is fairly old and could be done to the head and shaft using relatively small amounts to radically increase the value of the spear. In fact, the better weapons makers might just do this to make more of a profit. The same is true of silver and gemstones.

Silver OTOH is more doable. A silver spear head would be quite valuable and you could make valuable things like knives out of it. In terms of functionality neither would be very good, but they'd function as status symbols. Expensive, but doable. Jewelry is already in the game and would absolutely be around.

   - Shane

59

Modding / Re: Modding in valuable metals (Gold, Silver, Copper) for trade.

« on: January 20, 2019, 11:52:06 PM »

One aspect of precious metals is that they were rare. I mean really rare. Items weighing in at the pounds level would be vanishingly rare for silver and almost non-existent for gold. Copper is much more common and would still be used for all kinds of utility items such as pots and tools like knives - particularly if alloyed into bronze. Anything to be used as a weapon would very rarely be made of anything but iron/steel.

Really, copper and bronze are the metals that would still be in significant use in the iron age. A "decorative" copper spear point is quite possible as a badge of office or some such but a silver or gold one? Not too likely and massively valuable if they did exist. A bronze spear point might actually still be used - just don't hit anything made of iron or steel.

General rule throughout much of history is copper/bronze:silver is about 1:20 and silver:gold is about the same 1:20. So a gold precious spear would be 400 times the cost of the copper one and that's if there is enough gold around to make one.

   - Shane

60

Mod Releases / Re: Community mod BAC project: Smith, Cooking, Punts, Survival, Carpentry

« on: January 20, 2019, 06:31:46 AM »

I do think it could be an interesting chat in another thread.

Fair enough. 

And done! https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=4740.0

BTW, I don't use much of this mod, but the parts I do use are fantastic!

   - Shane