Ceramic alternative to Barrels - Dolium

[Perdido Street]

Ancient Romans used barrel sized ceramic containers called Dolium, or Dolia plural, (usually buried up to the rim in the foundations of rural villas) as storage, and particularly for fermentation.

Having an earlier game version of the barrel (with its uses for liquid storage, fermentation, and especially for making compost) would be nice, and could be balanced by having less overall efficiency.

 

Also, not the main point here, but Dolium would make a fine addition to ruins; especially considering their secondary use as a method of burial (called Pithoi in that context).

The hidden content here isn't actually a spoiler - it is an image of an excavated Pithoi with a skeleton inside (I don't know if that would be distressing to some people, it is ancient, so decide for yourself).

Spoiler

 

Edited May 24 by Perdido Street
example pictures

[cjameshuff]

1 hour ago, Perdido Street said:

especially considering their secondary use as a method of burial

Got to wonder about how the decision to bury the first person that way was made.

Diogenes lived in a pithos, a similar large earthen vessel, also used for burials.

[Perdido Street]

The main idea here is about adding a ceramic alternative to the Barrel, but to take a brief detour into the burial topic:

8 hours ago, cjameshuff said:

Got to wonder about how the decision to bury the first person that way was made.

Diogenes lived in a pithos, a similar large earthen vessel, also used for burials.

Yeah, given the lore in game about people going underground into bunkers, it is easy to imagine some old catacombs/tombs being repurposed for the job. Regardless, the survivors wouldn't be able to waste wood on making coffins, so the only way to deal with corpses (aside from cremation or cannibalism) would be to bury them in the floor/walls; If burial vessels were used at all, they would have to be either stone sarcophagi (solid, but large and difficult to make - which is why they historically were reserved for aristocrats) or ceramic Pithoi (space efficient, relatively cheap/easy to produce, and resistant to decay - which I would guess is the historical basis for their use as burial vessels too).

  

I imagine that it could be pretty interesting during a play-through to knock on the walls of a ruin and find a burial niche behind it, or be out digging in the fields only to find a Pithoi submerged in the ground. These types of burial sites often included offerings, and finding an idol, a rusted piece of armor, or gold coins alongside the bones would tell a little story by itself (in addition to providing useful goods for the player).

That, or it could just be empty. Look anywhere that humans have lived for a long period and you will find pottery shards. Settlement Mounds are the archaeological term for the masses of ceramic, old buildings, and biological remains from human settlements building over each other for millennia (ex: all the different layers of Troy).

 

Edited May 25 by Perdido Street
grammar + examples

[Heegrim]

I think the existing storage vessel should be able to be used for fluids, but with a smaller max volume and needing fat/wax to seal it to start a recipe (same way as a crock).
 

This would require the whole liquid system to be reworked but I think it is about time for that.

All the weird volumes should be harmonized (items stack in multiples of 2 but fluid containers are all over the place: barrel - 50L, bucket - 10L, jug - 3L, cooking pot - 6L or 2.4L if it is honey… this drives me insane!!!!). 

We also need a better way of moving fluids than the key-modifiers + different container sizes. I suggest using the mouse wheel to move 1L at a time, exactly how it currently works with items. 
 

Cooked meals should also get updated to be fluids since they already have to be in containers anyways. Then we could easily move them in and out of bowls, crocks, and cooking pots instead of the one-way dance we have to do now. This way I can finally fill my bucket full of slop for a long journey (jk meals should probably be restricted to certain containers, or at least have a spoilage penalty when improperly stored).

[Vafthrudhnir]

On 5/28/2026 at 1:00 AM, Heegrim said:

I think the existing storage vessel should be able to be used for fluids, but with a smaller max volume and needing fat/wax to seal it to start a recipe (same way as a crock).

Ash glazing should be a thing.