From tendons to sinew yarn

[Sami]

We're aiming to release a new version this month, and one of the last things to be added is obtaining and utilizing animal tendons in the making of sinew yarn.
This is nicely linked to ongoing improvements with making of clothes as it's been traditional to sew leather and fur clothes with sinew yarn.
In the game other type of yarn will just as well, but being able to produce sinew yarn will surely come in handy in many ways.
Compared to spinning plant fibres into yarn making sinew yarn is quite a lot slower process as it needs to be done merely by hand. However, availability and rather easy processing of animal tendons into sinew fibres is in favour of producing sinew yarn.
One downside of sinew yarn is that you can't use it for fishing gear as it comes loose when getting wet. It's yet to be decided to what extent and how we'll be manifesting this in the game world. Groundwork of obtaining tendons, drying them and separating the sinew fibres is now laid out, and soon enough I think we'll be seeing some preview screenshots too.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.86.1

[Matti-patti]

I guess we will get new bowstrings as well (or maybe a requirement for quality bowstrings)?

(Edit) Though it seems like sinews were actually weaker and linen/hemp were preferred for stronger bows. So maybe not.

[Sami]

I guess we will get new bowstrings as well (or maybe a requirement for quality bowstrings)?

(Edit) Though it seems like sinews were actually weaker and linen/hemp were preferred for stronger bows. So maybe not.

Actually sinew has much greater tensile strength than plant fibre yarn, so it's been used for bowstrings too - and for heavy bows too.
But again, if sinew bowstring would get wet (from eg. rain) it would soon be in danger of breaking apart. That's why sinew bowstrings were traditionally covered with thinned birch-bark. I think we'll allow making bowstrings from sinew yarn just like that in the next version, but somewhere in the future it would be nice addition to require that birch-bark covering too.

[Matti-patti]

I see. Though I would think the main benefit of sinew is it's better capacity to store/release energy? I.e. it results in a faster string, and no matter how many pounds of wood you are bending the arrow will release at faster velocity? If string quality or material could separately affect arrow velocity/power like I belive arrow and bow quality do, that could be represented.

[JP_Finn]

Are we expecting tendons as additional drop when butchering? Presumably only larger game; seals, pigs, reindeer, elk bear?

[Sami]

I see. Though I would think the main benefit of sinew is it's better capacity to store/release energy? I.e. it results in a faster string, and no matter how many pounds of wood you are bending the arrow will release at faster velocity? If string quality or material could separately affect arrow velocity/power like I belive arrow and bow quality do, that could be represented.

Yes, it's likely that one could make sinew bowstring thinner and lighter and thus somewhat faster compared to linen or hemp string, but I don't think the difference in arrow speed would be very dramatic. At least for now it feels a bit overly complex to dig all too deep into this, but surely the material differences may leave room for some tuning in the future.

[Sami]

Are we expecting tendons as additional drop when butchering? Presumably only larger game; seals, pigs, reindeer, elk bear?

Yes, that's how it's going to be, tendons are obtained by butchering. Large game tendons are naturally the most practical and preferred, but we'll likely allow collecting also smaller tendons from hare/fox/badger sized animals upwards.