Compost
Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 7:25 pm
I've been reading through some of the suggestion threads recently, and thought I'd bring up the idea of a compost heap. This is specifically to address what to do with surplus seeds, but I think it also creates an outlet for other organic byproducts like saplings, cactus, sawdust, and rotten flesh.
Before someone jumps down my throat about "adding uses for useless items", let me say I don't think that restriction applies here. This is a fairly broad idea that addresses several needs, and it fits well into the low-grade technological aspect of BTW. Whether it's a good idea is still open to debate. It is original, as far as I can tell - please correct me if not.
Anyway, the obvious question is "what would the end product of the compost heap be?". The obvious answer is some kind of fertilizer, but I think that need is definitely met by bonemeal and dung. The "RL" answer would be dirt, but dirt is pretty easy to get. I suppose there is some appeal in making dirt a "farmable" resource like cobblestone, but only for players who do a lot of terraforming work. A combination of the two might be viable - a "rich soil" that could be added to planters to make plants grow slightly faster, or in poorer light, or maybe just to add an alternate crafting recipe for planters that doesn't require a bucket of water. Depending on what raw materials are allowed, a compost heap might also serve as a source of tannin for tanning leather.
The concept probably has more potential if it's treated like the cauldron, where different combinations of materials produce different products. One could mix "soft" materials like seeds or cactus with dung or rotten flesh to produce rich soil or some other kind of agricultural product. "Woody" materials like saplings or excess fences/ladders/sticks/etc. could produce tannin. You could use it as a still for sugar cane or melons, to produce alcohol as an alchemical ingredient or some such.
I'd like to hear other people's ideas and see if we can't collectively make this a really useful tool.
Before someone jumps down my throat about "adding uses for useless items", let me say I don't think that restriction applies here. This is a fairly broad idea that addresses several needs, and it fits well into the low-grade technological aspect of BTW. Whether it's a good idea is still open to debate. It is original, as far as I can tell - please correct me if not.
Anyway, the obvious question is "what would the end product of the compost heap be?". The obvious answer is some kind of fertilizer, but I think that need is definitely met by bonemeal and dung. The "RL" answer would be dirt, but dirt is pretty easy to get. I suppose there is some appeal in making dirt a "farmable" resource like cobblestone, but only for players who do a lot of terraforming work. A combination of the two might be viable - a "rich soil" that could be added to planters to make plants grow slightly faster, or in poorer light, or maybe just to add an alternate crafting recipe for planters that doesn't require a bucket of water. Depending on what raw materials are allowed, a compost heap might also serve as a source of tannin for tanning leather.
The concept probably has more potential if it's treated like the cauldron, where different combinations of materials produce different products. One could mix "soft" materials like seeds or cactus with dung or rotten flesh to produce rich soil or some other kind of agricultural product. "Woody" materials like saplings or excess fences/ladders/sticks/etc. could produce tannin. You could use it as a still for sugar cane or melons, to produce alcohol as an alchemical ingredient or some such.
I'd like to hear other people's ideas and see if we can't collectively make this a really useful tool.