Wet firewood

[Unsolved_]

If you expose a wood pile to water/rain/snow, the firewood turns into wet firewood.

wet firewood can't be used for fireplaces, or any other of their use.

If you let the wet firewood unexposed to any moisture, it dries back to normal firewood after some days -> near a lit fireplace, piles dry faster

This would make storing firewood a little more difficult, but I think it would be cool

 

 

 

[Gonnnn]

I always build a wood shed at my base even though I dont really need one I would love some form of implementation for this

[pigfood]

As someone who is storing the wood in chests, I fail to to see the point of this suggestion.

[ArgentLuna]

6 hours ago, sushieater said:

As someone who is storing the wood in chests, I fail to to see the point of this suggestion.

Ok.

Meanwhile, I think it would be a neat thing to have but not a huge need as its very easy to store wood under cover anyway.  An actual need for drying out would be more if it was a factor of if its green timber cut fresh from a tree or dead (and would need dead trees added)

[-Glue-]

This is a really interesting idea tbh. It would make the world feel more dynamic, and make survival that little bit more involved, which I am all about!

Sure, it is super easy to store your wood in a chest, or build a small roof over the piles, but its that little detail that you need to find a dry place to store them that really sells it.
I think having rain sorta "blow" under blocks a bit, so you need a one block overhang for the pile to keep dry, would help. That way, you can't just put a single dirt block on the piles and call it a day, it requires a bit more effort to keep away from the elements. If that makes any sense.

This could also be transferred to stuff like ore. Like iron getting rusted when left in the rain, or copper oxidizing. Not sure how that would affect smelting them, but its a thought.

[Booker42]

This could also be expanded to wet clothing. Maybe it could impose a movement penalty (wet clothing can be heavy) and low body temperature.

[Samnson]

On 1/13/2024 at 11:43 AM, sushieater said:

As someone who is storing the wood in chests, I fail to to see the point of this suggestion.

Specifically because it would be a new mechanic for the survival sandbox to increase the difficulty and for us to think about how we set up our bases.

Instead of just being purely utilitarian or doing things just for aesthetics. 

[Thorfinn]

It's still trivial to accomplish -- just build a ladder 25 or 50 high, place even a single packed earth to serve as a roof, climb back down, retrieve your ladders, and stack your firewood until it hits the block.

Makes a nice marker, too, for those of us who play without map. Though there are easier ways to accomplish that.

[LadyWYT]

It's one of those things that sound cool on paper and makes sense logically, but I can't really think of a way that it adds much for gameplay value. It does add some immersion, this is true, but I could see it easily being too much of a pain to deal with, or such a trivial thing that it's just ignored by most players.

I think a while back I either saw a mod/suggestion that unused firewood could turn into aged firewood that burns a bit better/longer, provided that it sits in storage long enough. That might be a good option, giving the player a reason to put it under cover and leave it for a while, but not penalizing them either if they just chop firewood as needed.

17 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

It's still trivial to accomplish -- just build a ladder 25 or 50 high, place even a single packed earth to serve as a roof, climb back down, retrieve your ladders, and stack your firewood until it hits the block.

I mean, I tend to live under a tree until I have the means to build a proper wilderness shack. So yeah, keeping things dry isn't terribly hard.

[Samnson]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

It's one of those things that sound cool on paper and makes sense logically, but I can't really think of a way that it adds much for gameplay value. It does add some immersion, this is true, but I could see it easily being too much of a pain to deal with, or such a trivial thing that it's just ignored by most players.

I think a while back I either saw a mod/suggestion that unused firewood could turn into aged firewood that burns a bit better/longer, provided that it sits in storage long enough. That might be a good option, giving the player a reason to put it under cover and leave it for a while, but not penalizing them either if they just chop firewood as needed.

I mean, I tend to live under a tree until I have the means to build a proper wilderness shack. So yeah, keeping things dry isn't terribly hard.

I mean, we can think of "dampness" as the over all mechanic that could apply to a bunch of things;
particularly if at a very early stage where many of your buildings resources will be made of wood/grass

Damp things could give a negative multiplier to everything around it, damp wood can slowly enter a "Rotting" stage; which would make wooden structures more temporary if not planned around. Cobblestone and Bricks can end up exposed to too much moisture and start growing Moss or Roots. 

In the case of Cellars, damp/decaying blocks can effect the preservation multiplier. Or in particularly unkept cellars, become infested with mold and cause stored foods to rot faster.

Which then opens the game up to repair/reservation mechanics like Treating Wood with dyes/lacquers to prevent rotting;
Or Salting/Scrubbing stones to remove moss and slow its growth.

Or even later stage materials like concretes that will resist moisture completely. 
Edit:
And thats not even to mention how is could be used in Health/Temperature mechanics,
Like being more prone to getting sick, or warming yourself being less efficient. 

Edited May 28, 2024 by Samnson

[LadyWYT]

9 hours ago, Samnson said:

Damp things could give a negative multiplier to everything around it, damp wood can slowly enter a "Rotting" stage; which would make wooden structures more temporary if not planned around. Cobblestone and Bricks can end up exposed to too much moisture and start growing Moss or Roots. 

While it would be cool to watch things weather with time, I feel like this would probably use a lot of processing power to calculate, though I'm not a coder so I wouldn't swear to it. I think the bigger concern though is whether that kind of mechanic is fun or not. It seems like it would be fun at first, until you end up constantly devoting time to cleaning up your builds rather than doing other things. At that point it becomes a tedious chore for the player, especially the players that like to build a lot.

 

9 hours ago, Samnson said:

In the case of Cellars, damp/decaying blocks can effect the preservation multiplier. Or in particularly unkept cellars, become infested with mold and cause stored foods to rot faster.

Which then opens the game up to repair/reservation mechanics like Treating Wood with dyes/lacquers to prevent rotting;
Or Salting/Scrubbing stones to remove moss and slow its growth.

Dyes and lacquers for building materials would be cool, but I'm still not sold on needing to maintain all the blocks that you build with in order to keep them from falling apart or causing other issues(such as food storage). On the one hand, it sounds like it could be cool, as it adds more realism, but I still see the novelty wearing off fairly quick. Blocks that are partially or fully submerged in water though--these I can see being an exception as water is rather hard on building materials, though I still don't know what effect the deterioration would have on the blocks other than cosmetic changes.

Overall, I think if that kind of mechanic were added, it should probably have a toggle option in the world settings, similar to what the cave-in mechanic has currently.

9 hours ago, Samnson said:

And thats not even to mention how is could be used in Health/Temperature mechanics,
Like being more prone to getting sick, or warming yourself being less efficient. 

The temperature mechanics feel fine currently, aside from the oddity of being able to wear full winter gear in the blazing heat without penalty. I imagine it may be addressed one day, in addition to possible sickness mechanics, but it really depends on if those things can inspire any fun gameplay loops to go with them or not. If the gameplay loop isn't satisfying to play, it should probably either be reworked to address the issue, or potentially removed from the game.

[Thorfinn]

14 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

It seems like it would be fun at first, until you end up constantly devoting time to cleaning up your builds rather than doing other things. At that point it becomes a tedious chore for the player, especially the players that like to build a lot.

And especially those who like to do a lot of chiseling.

I suppose you could make chiseled blocks immune to weathering, but without that, I'd expect a major outcry. And just think if your mixed drystone fences and blocks started deteriorating and you had to make another pass through 8 different rock strata to replace them.

Most would likely choose to build out of easily replaced dirt or maybe cobblestone.

[Tommy Tucker]

Love this idea, with player customization for intensity as fits their play style. Wish this dev team would increase it's size by 2-3x so they could implement new things quicker but I know Tyron has major concerns about features being implemented at a rate beyond which he can examine them with the fear it would dilute his vision of the game. Tough call on that one. Maybe a team that completes develops and refines features with a beta release that he has the final say on down the line would expedite things 

[Krougal]

On 1/13/2024 at 11:43 AM, sushieater said:

As someone who is storing the wood in chests, I fail to to see the point of this suggestion.

Heretic!

LOL

So it isn't a horrible suggestion, especially if it were coupled with aged firewood burning longer.

I think someone has done it as a mod actually.

Edited August 15, 2025 by Krougal

[Entaris]

I dunno, if you're gonna go that  far, you may as well implement a layer system as well, wherein the wood DIRECTLY exposed to the elements gets wet, but has to reach a Soaked status before more "protected" stacks further into the cord start to take on water. 

[Krougal]

Oh, I somehow missed some of the conversation. Mold great idea. Then they could let us make bleach to clean it. Then people will get tired of cleaning and start drinking bleach. </sarcasm>

 

[Entaris]

12 hours ago, Krougal said:

Oh, I somehow missed some of the conversation. Mold great idea. Then they could let us make bleach to clean it. Then people will get tired of cleaning and start drinking bleach. </sarcasm>

 

Be a better way to get out of a sinkhole than waiting to starve, tbh

[Facethief]

2 hours ago, Entaris said:

Be a better way to get out of a sinkhole than waiting to starve, tbh

Carry around some deathcaps for that!