A glass making system

[Emily the commoner]

Throughout history, the basic knowledge and techniques of glass blowing have been highly coveted, and at times, held sacred by only a select few. This information was handed down secretively from glass blower to apprentice for thousands of years.

Throughout history, glass blowers were literally held hostage for fear of their knowledge being leaked. During the 1st Century A.D., Phoenician glassworkers were forbidden from traveling, although those who escaped spread the art form into present day Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Similarly, for Venetian glassblowers, leaving the island of Murano was a crime, punishable by death.

Glass can occur naturally; causes include volcanic eruptions, lightening strikes, and meteorite impacts, during which certain rocks melt at high temperature, then cool quickly and solidify. Such natural glass includes obsidian, from volcanic origin, and obsidianite, from extraterrestrial origin.

Many cultures accidentally discovered glass making. Shipwrecked Phoenician sailors are said to have discovered it when they built cooking fires on a sandy beach. It is also said that potters in Egypt and Mesopotamia discovered glass through trial and error in glazing their pottery.

I feel like it would completely make sense to have glass in vanilla and a glass system I would love to make glass doors and windows through this way as well

 

 

 

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1340054124485410963/1340054124741398548/antonio-neri-l-arte-vetraria-glass-blowing.jpg?ex=67b0f628&is=67afa4a8&hm=ee697954010cc20f9c04a1a37bc03640b96ebf5213d398f35c49e5b5f3d8f804&https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1340054124485410963/1340054125517340733/U13058-Gaiety-in-Green-e1470421327532-300x229.jpg?ex=67b0f628&is=67afa4a8&hm=9927db3c372ce9847e1cc17f9a73dcafb7787cc9533c07fc3f2e04ed197f32e8&https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1340054124485410963/1340054125257429023/Glassworking_England_1858.jpg?ex=67b0f628&is=67afa4a8&hm=62d1f7f16a43ff5e86a79073c2d1c7d2b7b0ad69a6e5d7195e2047214dec024d&

[Michael Gates]

It's an interesting notion. Aside from the obvious bottles for wine etc. and maybe some better tableware (we can haz NICE bowl?), the game does seem to be getting a little into chemistry lately? It might be nice to store my sulfuric acid in something a bit less.. organic.. than a wooden bucket.

 

Also, I am now contemplating the process of making a tube for use in glassblowing with the smithing mechanic, and people would scream. They would wail, and howl, and tear out their hair, and waste immense piles of iron ingots trying to get a 6-voxel long tube, and it would be glorious.

 

[Katherine K]

I would absolutely love to see glass blowing. I want fancy bottles for my wines and brandy. It does sound like more work on herbalism/brewing is at least planned, hopefully including more aging mechanics for existing spirits, and ways to brew some completely new substances, both practical and less so. All of that would be greatly complimented with glass as a requirement at higher tiers. Sulfuric acid is, indeed, a fantastic example. There are things you only ever want to store in ceramics, things you only ever want to store in glass, and things you only ever want to store in metal, and it'd be great to have all of these as options. Even if it's just aesthetics, honestly.

And yeah, I think it needs to be one of these systems that is pretty delicate and way easier to mess up. Something where messing up a voxel means you have to start over, or having to make sure you move the glass to an annealing kiln before it cools too much, or it'll just shatter. That would neatly follow the established progression. Mistakes in clay can be fixed easily at no cost. Mistakes in smithing cost you durability or even an ingot. Mistakes in glass would mean starting over.

[Echo Weaver]

There's this mind-blowing mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/glassmaking

I don't know what I'd want to make out of glass yet, but I would love to try this. 

I guess it they get more into alchemy or actual chemistry, we'll need bottles and beakers. Sulfuric acid in a wooden barrel seems problematic. 

[Katherine K]

On 7/25/2025 at 7:28 PM, Echo Weaver said:

There's this mind-blowing mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/glassmaking

Entirely tangent, but I don't know why it didn't occur to me until I saw this that yeah, generators are perfectly viable at the level of tech we already have. Sure, drawing and coating enough copper wire would be a right pain, but technically, nothing stops you from building one if you have access to copper, iron, wax or resin, and driving it from a windmill isn't that different from anything else we do with mechanical power.

Realistically, the kind of RPM you want to get practical voltages would wear out the wood gears and axles instantly, but so would all the gearboxes people are building to make their hammers go brrrr. At some point, "it's a game," does have to come into play.

Fingers crossed, future steam power update will give us more options with mechanical power transmission and conversion, and between that, glass blowing, and alchemy, we'll be able to make custom neon signs.

Pointless? Yes. But what a flex it would be to show off neon signage on your builds.

[KoviBat]

On 2/15/2025 at 12:34 AM, Michael Gates said:

I am now contemplating the process of making a tube for use in glassblowing with the smithing mechanic, and people would scream. They would wail, and howl, and tear out their hair, and waste immense piles of iron ingots trying to get a 6-voxel long tube, and it would be glorious.

 

Because of how the smithing works, you wouldn't actually be able to make a hollow tube, because the voxels just drop to the lowest point of the grid they occupy. The only way to do it would be to put something else, maybe a ceramic 1x1x6 voxel rod in that spot while you're smithing before moving the rest of the metal on the top. Could be a multi-step thing like clay forming. Step 1 is clear the spot for the rod. Step 2 is shown once that spot is clear, and you just right-click with the rod. Then it shows the final step, where you just move the rest of the metal on top of it. It would be a bit sophisticated, but by no means frustrating, so long as the instructions on how to make it are clear. Maybe even make it a requirement to have the ceramic rod before you can even select the tube.