Firewood Seasoning

[Stellarbone]

Firewood seasoning is simply leaving firewood somewhere dry and covered, to age and 'dry out', giving it a hotter and cleaner burn. Typically IRL it takes 6 months to 2 years depending on wood type. This would be greatly beneficial to longer runs in colder climates, and I believe it could be accomplished quite simply by giving firewood an aging mechanic like cheese. 

[MobiusvanMars]

And include peat as well, but that should dry out much faster like IRL and be much nerfed as wet fuel because it is very waterlogged. Also peat can be punched in small amounts with your bare hands, while firewood requires an axe.

 

Drying time for wood in a sheltered place ~1 vanilla year.

Drying time for peat maybe 1-2 vanilla months in a sheltered place. So peat is not instantly useful, but fast enough to make it viable on a non-frustrating timescale for lime and a kickstart fuel for flint.

There are mods to do this, but the one I currently have is a bit OP in the burn time and has a long drying time for peat like for firewood.

 

Suggestions for vanilla:

Green firewood: 600 degrees with the original burn time so it won't make early game too hard --> dried firewood 800 degrees with double burn time.

(balanced to not burn lime, but a better starter fuel for flint/smelting than it is now)

 

Wet peat: 500 degrees with the original burn time --> dried peat 950 degrees with double burn time.

(balanced to burn lime a bit faster and more economically, but not able to calcine flint on its own)

 

 

[qualicabyss]

While I know what you mean, sprinkling herbs on your firewood so it smells nice when you burn it would be hilarious

[SnapJelly]

While I do thing something like this would be cool as an addition I will also say that logistically I don't think it would add all that much.

Think about how much firewood you use in a regular playthrough and then think about how much wood you gotta chop and how large a firewood storage you'd have to build to actually have a decent enough amount to use after 6 WHOLE MONTHS of waiting. It can't just be a small slanted roof next to your main house like it would be in most irl cases because like 4 blocks worth of firewood is only 64 pieces, which is almost nothing.

If firewood stays the same but the aging is just a small bonus you could have if you wanna go through the trouble I'd be fine with it but I absolutely wouldn't want it to be a requirement for the wood to properly dry first like it is irl, that would just add a time sink with no real gameplay benefit. For that reason other things that would irl first have to airdry before you can use them don't have that feature in game (i.e. peat and pottery need airdrying irl but can be used right away in game)

[SnapJelly]

21 hours ago, qualicabyss said:

sprinkling herbs on your firewood so it smells nice when you burn it would be hilarious

Yo, smoky flavor bonus to food? I'm diggin it!

[LadyWYT]

21 minutes ago, SnapJelly said:

I absolutely wouldn't want it to be a requirement for the wood to properly dry first like it is irl, that would just add a time sink with no real gameplay benefit.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/seasonedfirewoodredux

The Seasoned Firewood mod handles the concept pretty well. It takes time to properly cure firewood, but if you do take that time, it burns much longer than the standard(though not as hot for balancing reasons). Rather handy stuff for cooking or keeping warm in winter.

[Mushroomancer]

Always wary of the line between realism and tedium, but I do think if seasoned firewood is given an edge in some regard over normal firewood without degrading the role of normal firewood and peat TOO much, it's something that can work. Although if things like sticks were made slightly better as fuel, you might even be able to get over the early game issues that firewood seasoning would cause.

I DO think drying out peat would be nice. We would have fewer peat pit fires.

[MobiusvanMars]

52 minutes ago, Mushroomancer said:

I DO think drying out peat would be nice. We would have fewer peat pit fires.

So the peat terrain blocks and wet peat won't burn at all. That makes even more sense!
Drying time for peat should be short then (like IRL) to make it worth the effort. Like a month in dry conditions.

[SnapJelly]

34 minutes ago, MobiusvanMars said:

Like a month in dry conditions.

A month?! Like 9 ingame days?? I'd hardly call that short man

[Mac Mcleod]

On 9/4/2026 at 12:32 PM, MobiusvanMars said:

So the peat terrain blocks and wet peat won't burn at all. That makes even more sense!
Drying time for peat should be short then (like IRL) to make it worth the effort. Like a month in dry conditions.

For hand-cut peat in northern Europe:

• First few days: Freshly cut sods were left lying flat to drain and begin drying. In Scotland, they might be left for several days until they were firm enough not to flop over.
• Next 2–4 weeks: They were stood on edge or arranged in small stacks so wind could circulate around them. Scottish sources describe roughly 3–4 weeks in this stage.
• Total: About 4–8 weeks was a reasonable traditional expectation in a good drying season. Historical Scottish material gives 6 weeks to 2 months for some hand-cut Highland peat.
• In poor, wet conditions it could take 2 months or longer. An 1832 Irish account says peat normally needed 1–2 months, and longer in wet seasons.
  
  Scotland Guides: Peat Cutting
  Library Ireland: On the New Mode of saving turf or peat fuel from Irish bogs.

 

[Mushroomancer]

34 minutes ago, Mac Mcleod said:

For hand-cut peat in northern Europe:

• First few days: Freshly cut sods were left lying flat to drain and begin drying. In Scotland, they might be left for several days until they were firm enough not to flop over.
• Next 2–4 weeks: They were stood on edge or arranged in small stacks so wind could circulate around them. Scottish sources describe roughly 3–4 weeks in this stage.
• Total: About 4–8 weeks was a reasonable traditional expectation in a good drying season. Historical Scottish material gives 6 weeks to 2 months for some hand-cut Highland peat.
• In poor, wet conditions it could take 2 months or longer. An 1832 Irish account says peat normally needed 1–2 months, and longer in wet seasons.
  
  Scotland Guides: Peat Cutting
  Library Ireland: On the New Mode of saving turf or peat fuel from Irish bogs.

 

I'm curious if there are modern methods used for drying peat faster. I know that peat cutting isn't as prolific as it used to be, but I'm wondering if industrialization resulted in things like kiln drying that can be done for firewood.

Edit: On that note, I'm wondering if it would be too redundant to introduce a system for kiln seasoning/drying firewood.

Edited Sunday at 08:14 AM by Mushroomancer

[SnapJelly]

4 hours ago, Mushroomancer said:

I'm curious if there are modern methods used for drying peat faster.

I don't think peat is used tor fuel anymore, most peat bogs are protected areas now as far as I know

 

That being said:

5 hours ago, Mac Mcleod said:

For hand-cut peat in northern Europe:

• First few days: Freshly cut sods were left lying flat to drain and begin drying. In Scotland, they might be left for several days until they were firm enough not to flop over.
• Next 2–4 weeks: They were stood on edge or arranged in small stacks so wind could circulate around them. Scottish sources describe roughly 3–4 weeks in this stage.
• Total: About 4–8 weeks was a reasonable traditional expectation in a good drying season. Historical Scottish material gives 6 weeks to 2 months for some hand-cut Highland peat.
• In poor, wet conditions it could take 2 months or longer. An 1832 Irish account says peat normally needed 1–2 months, and longer in wet seasons.
  
  Scotland Guides: Peat Cutting
  Library Ireland: On the New Mode of saving turf or peat fuel from Irish bogs.

 

 

On 9/4/2026 at 2:32 PM, MobiusvanMars said:

So the peat terrain blocks and wet peat won't burn at all. That makes even more sense!

If you guys are concerned with realism; peatfires are a serious concern that happen irl too

[MobiusvanMars]

5 minutes ago, SnapJelly said:

If you guys are concerned with realism; peatfires are a serious concern that happen irl too

Fair point. It only happens in a drought like it did in Belgium recently, but that's too complicated to implement in VS. 

And thanks Mac Mcleod for the fact check. Close enough to stick to my original suggestion:

~1 month in ideal conditions --> translating that to VS means in a sheltered place

~2 months in less than ideal conditions --> outside during growing season (when saplings grow)

Too cold to grown saplings --> drying is paused. Same logic for firewood on a longer timescale.

[Kulze]

Well, mod-wise we already have drying wood and peat, and trying them out... they're not really intrusive, so I would say it would be a fine addition, as long as the recipes allow to take into consideration that you can use the dried versions for the same crafts as the non-dried ones, otherwise it can become quite a bit of tedium. Or if the drying takes respectively long, which I'm leaning towards.

As for timeframes... since this is solely a improvement of pre-existing materials which already get us through the time well... it can take long, there's no issue with it. Some very very long-term mechanics are actually something which VS would do well with.

So, I would argue that it all can take substantially longer.
Initial drying which can happen outside taking 6 months to make higher quality firewood, which simply burns longer. Outside you're forced to 'top cover' it with something, not a solid block but it would be nice to use for example branches from the berry bushes we destroy for that, so no new items have to be introduced... but leaving the potential to introduce boughs from trees for it along the way if so wanted.
Another 1 year when stored as firewood then to make it into hot- and decently long-burning firewood. That has to be done under actual solid-block coverage, but outside a 'closed room' to allow ventilation to dry it out naturally.

And I'm against a stop of drying time in cold climate, if we take it as a substantially long time then that shouldn't need to be taken into account.

But ultimately such a mechanic can go many routes ultimately in how it's implemented. That one shouldn't cause too many issues plainly spoken but provide a good chunk of immersion and reasons to build more realistic. So I would say it's a 'pro' overall.

And as a bonus I wanna say I like to season my wood oriental style. Some Garam Masala is definitely more enjoyable then the salt and pepper approach!