Pottery

Thaulos · 2019-04-27 05:32:41

I've been thinking on how to expand the existing pool of jobs that can be available in a town across the town life-cycle.

The "clay tech tree" seems rather underdeveloped and could potentially help as quality of life improvements to town life.

I would divide Clay Products into four categories:

Utensils: clay spoon, bowl, plate, mugs
Storage: clay jar (solid storage: carrots, grain, onions, tomatoes), clay jugs (liquid storage: water, salt water, vinegar, milk, cane juice, palm oil)
Decorative: vase (flowers, bonsai), art, small statues
Building Materials: bricks, tiles

Lately I've seen more and more kilns separated from the main forge area specifically dedicated for clay products. Unfortunately there are only so many bowls and plates you need in a town. Having a larger array of options for pottery would be awesome.

While pottery could be used for "high capacity long term storage" that would probably be a bit unbalanced as pottery is rather early tech. Clay based storage could serve more as an everyday storage kind of niche. A couple examples:

A clay jug could maybe only hold 3 water bowls, making it impractical for farming, but could be good enough to keep one in the kitchen for pie making.
A clay jar could perhaps only hold 5 items such as carrots. That is a carrot stack which would not improve overall storage but could help in transporting those carrots from one place to another. I could have a jar of my own and go refill it whenever I needed more items.
Clay jugs could help unclutter some of the intermediary products such as vinegar, cane juice, palm oil. By having each jug hold 3 bowls' worth as an example, players could start working on actively making those ahead of time before they are needed. Could potentially create an entirely new profession.

Decorative vases or random art could also be fun additions. Perhaps a "vase made by" message when you mouse over it as well. It certainly wouldn't hurt towards the road to 10,000 items haha.

Bricks and whatnot could potentially also had additional options for construction. Perhaps could be a more efficient version of adobe? Or maybe have adobe come from mixing reeds with soil instead? I'm not very enthusiastic about this category but I'm sure plenty of people in the community would love to have new materials to play with.

What do you guys think? Would extending pottery in the game be a good addition? What other items would you guys want?

Last edited by Thaulos (2019-04-27 05:35:29)

Starknight_One · 2019-04-27 12:56:02

Amphorae and canopic storage jars have been found with wine that was still good after hundreds or thousands of years. One jar from an Egyptian tomb even contained primitive ancient wheat seeds that were still viable, if I recall correctly. So perhaps not 'high capacity', but 'long term storage' is certainly doable with pottery.

I've put forth the idea of extending pottery by two items before. Adding wet clay to a wet clay bowl makes a wet clay amphora. Once fired, an amphora can be filled with up to 4 wheat, and moved where you want it. An amphora can go in a box, chest, sledge or cart, but not a basket or a backpack. (Might be able to make a balancing rig with a tied straight shaft and two amphorae to carry more, but that would take up the backpack slot.) Other things could be stored in them, as well, not just wheat, but that was the primary clutter I was addressing at the time.

The other item, purely decorative, is a vase for displaying flowers. Add a wet clay bowl to a wet clay plate to make a wet clay vase. Once fired, it holds roses and any other flowers that are added. Maybe indigo? I also think 'bouquets' of carrots or knives would be amusing, but that's another subject.

Let's see: currently we have two basic clay items, bowl and plate, plus the lump of clay itself. Taken two at a time, and allowing two of the same item to stack, we get:

bowl + bowl = crock recipe (only currently existing one)
bowl + plate = vase recipe
bowl + clay = amphora/jar/jug recipe
plate + plate = roasting pan? Allows for making roast beef... yum!
plate + clay = clay floor tiles?
clay + clay = large lump of clay, use a netted wooden frame on it to get bricks?

Of course there's the possibility of a new clay item using a different tool, or just adding a third thing after plate when smashing clay with a rock.

Joseph Stalin · 2019-04-27 13:08:06

I like it

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-04-27 05:32:41

Pottery

#2 2019-04-27 12:56:02

Re: Pottery

#3 2019-04-27 13:08:06

Re: Pottery

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