Fabric Processing Expansion

[River Oak]

At the moment, processing flax into linen is very simple, all you need to do is:

1. Plant seeds and wait for them to grow.
2. Harvest the flax plants, giving the player seeds and flax fibres.
3. Combine four flax fibres in your crafting grid to create a flax twine.
4. Combine four flax twines in your crafting grid to create one square metre of linen cloth.

To me, the above is too simple, out of place with the rest of the game, and doesn't respect the real life work. In real life, the process is far more complicated, looking something like this:

1. Plant seeds and wait for them to grow.
2. Harvest the flax plants.
3. Remove the berries with a heckle (comb) or flail.
   i. Crush the berries to release the seeds.
   ii. Separate the seeds from the husks via winnowing. You now have usable seeds.
4. Rhett the flax stalks in a body of water for a little over a week. This makes it possible to separate the skin and inner fibres.
5. Dry out the rhetted flax.
6. Separate the skin from the fibres via beating or crimping.
7. Remove course fibres via combing with progressively finer combs. You now have flax fibres.
8. Spin the fibres using a distaff and spindle or spinning wheel. You now have flax twine/string/thread.
9. Use a loom to weave the thread into cloth. You now have linen fabric.

That's a long and complicated process, it makes you wonder how early humans ever figured it out! So-much-so that it'd be annoying and un-fun in game, but I believe a happy middle ground can be found to expand on the current in game process making it more realistic, giving it a similar level of complexity as other game mechanics, and be enjoyable for the player to engage with. I imagine something like the following would work:

1. Plant seeds and wait for them to grow.
2. Harvest the flax plants, giving the player stalks and seeds. (skipping the threshing process, like other crops)
3. Seal the flax in a barrel of water to rhett for a of couple days. (similar to processing leather in game)
4. Beat or crimp the flax to release the fibres. (either with a crimper or using a club and fibres in your crafting grid) Alternatively, just comb the rhetted flax to get the fibres.
5. Spin the fibres with a distaff and spindle or wheel.
6. Turn the twine into linen cloth with a loom.

The loom and spinning equipment could also be used for processing wool. Wool production should also be added at some point, given it's incredible importance throughout human history for it's usefulness in creating garments and bedding. I haven't looked into wool production much, but I imagine in game it could look something like:

1. Domesticate a wool bearing animal. (irl sheep, goats, rabbits, alpacas and dogs have all been raised for wool)
2. Shear the animal when the wool is grown.
3. Wash the wool.
4. Spin the wool.
5. Weave the wool.
6. Turn the wool into felt as a possible extra step.

The world has forgotten how much effort really goes into making fabric thanks to fast fashion, polyester and heavy machinery. It'd be nice to see cloth production respected in game. Heck, maybe even silk worms could be added one day, that'd be fun and a little bit gruesome.

[ifoz]

In a new interview with Tyron and Saraty by Mahjong Blonsky, Saraty mentioned she'd like to have immersive weaving in the game at some point, and being able to make custom carpets pixel by pixel.
Very exciting stuff!

[LadyWYT]

Cotton would also be a very nice option for fiber crops, and could use the N nutrient rather than K like flax. Not only does it give an extra option for textile crops and fabric types, but it would be very useful in warmer climates where the player might want to grow rice(which uses K) as their staple grain crop.

[EnbyKaiju]

It does sound like one of the next big immersion directions they go in might be the weaving side, as ifoz said from the interview with the devs. 

Having an alternative textile crop would be an amazing include for making that happen, as LadyWYT says cotton would be good, especially for warmer climate growing, but also perhaps wool from sheep & goats. I don't know if they would go in on making different warmth levels based on the type of fabric (that sounds like a lot of extra coding), but even just having a few different kinds to turn into twine, then cloth, using historic methods like spinning wheels and looms would be a great way of getting it out of the crafting grid.

Getting as much stuff as possible out of the grid really does seem to be the devs' intention, and I'm all here for it. Especially if it gives us more immersive tasks to keep us busy over winter.

[LadyWYT]

2 hours ago, EnbyKaiju said:

I don't know if they would go in on making different warmth levels based on the type of fabric (that sounds like a lot of extra coding),

If there were penalties for overheating, could do like Hydrate or Diedrate and give a cooling bonus to certain clothing items. Then things made specifically with cotton or linen could be good at cooling but not so great for staying warm, while wool could be good for warmth but not good for cooling off.

[EnbyKaiju]

1 minute ago, LadyWYT said:

If there were penalties for overheating, could do like Hydrate or Diedrate and give a cooling bonus to certain clothing items. Then things made specifically with cotton or linen could be good at cooling but not so great for staying warm, while wool could be good for warmth but not good for cooling off.

Yeah, this all feels like it falls into the status effects realm. Which does make me wonder if the devs are ever going to make needing to drink like in HoD a thing. But if they do ever go that in depth having different fabric tiers for levels of warmth/cooling would make a lot of sense.

[kiuru]

Excellent stuff. I'd not gate flax behind barrel tech though, flax was processed (rhetted) by soaking it in ponds/streams weighed by rocks or even left in the field on a rainy week as all it needs is just moisture, no tannin/salt etc.

I definitely would see a different need/demand for different fabrics, flax/cotton for staying cool and dry / wool/fur for staying warm and then possibly, as suggested above, silk for behing fancy

Now that we mention it, other fiber crops exist and we can even expand the meaning of fiber. Nettle and hemp were among the first cultivated plants in Eurasia and were used for fiber and even clothing. Sisal / jute / rattan for making fiber / weaving for hotter climates? In colder/temperate regions, linden bark was used to make mats and rope.