Wax Tablets - An In-World Notebook

[peitum]

There’s a lot to do in this game, and part of the complexity comes from proper time management. Quite often in this game I find myself writing things down, whether it’s future projects, the next day’s chores, or the goods a particular trader is looking for. While this works, I would love a way to do this in-game. Signs and charcoal exist, but they are stationary and require a lot of space for longer lists. I think there can be a better solution—something portable, that doesn’t require consuming precious charcoal. Wax tablets!

Wax tablets are wooden tablets covered with a layer of wax, that can be marked and ‘erased’ by use of a stylus. They’ve been used for thousands of years in real life. I propose their inclusion in the game as a form of in-world notebook. They could be craftable from beeswax, boards and a stick, and when right-clicked, open up a large writing space that can be edited freely, with a much larger character limit than the signs (preferably at least 500 words). Perfect for note-taking on the go.

 

Suggested recipe:

(Blank) Stick (Blank)

Board Beeswax Board

Board Beeswax Board

Edited November 30, 2020 by peitum

[William Huang]

I agree.  Having an in-game notebook would be very helpful and immersive.  I find myself needing something like that whenever I travel to various traders to see what I can sell to them.  It would be great to write down a list of items that I can go home and make.

[GhillieEilish]

This would be a huge boon. I think just about every player does this. Maybe at some point add inkwells, quills and parchment/papyrus?

[peitum]

On 11/28/2020 at 9:04 PM, GhillieEilish said:

This would be a huge boon. I think just about every player does this. Maybe at some point add inkwells, quills and parchment/papyrus?

I like this idea! Papyrus is already a plant in the game (although it appears to give the same items as cooper's reeds). I see ink and parchment as more of a permanent, non-editable option, though. It's hard to erase ink. It would be great for multiplayer servers, as a way to send letters and record events. Let's see, going to ramble for a bit here...

For papyrus/parchment:

From this site: "Papyrus sheets are made by arranging two layers of papyrus, one atop the other, at right angles. The layers are then pressed together, and the gum released by the breakdown of the plant's cellular structure acts as a glue which bonds the sheet together."

So a basic crafting recipe could look something like this:

Stone

Papyrus Sheet

Papyrus Sheet

Would give you one sheet of papyrus.

Alternatively, an in-world crafting process could be right-clicking with the two papyrus sheets onto a solid block and then placing the stone on top. This might need to be left for a while, half a day or so.

Alternatives to papyrus (because it is quite localized) could be parchment made from dried hides, or paper made from linen. I don't know a lot about making paper from linen, but making parchment is a (link contains pics of animals skins, btw) bit of a process, requiring the hide to be soaked in limewater, scraped, and then stretched out over a period of time.

For the ink:

Inks could be made in a barrel, or a placed bucket of water. Ink making looks pretty complicated from just a brief bit of reading, but simplified for the game, it could require a combination of water + a solid pigment. There appear to have been a lot of different types of pigments used throughout history, but the ones that stand out are charcoal and ocher.

Charcoal is simple, just stick some charcoal in a quern and grind it. Mixing this with water would give you black ink, at maybe 1:5 ratio giving you 5 units of ink.

For ochre...this could either be a new form of ore, or a mixed combination of ground-up iron ore nuggets + a clay ball + sand. Mixing this with water would give you brown ink. Because of the steps involved, perhaps this could give you more ink per piece of pigment used (say, 10 units water + 1 part pigment = 10 units of ink).

And then there's olivine already in the game, which could give you fancy green ink.

Edited November 30, 2020 by peitum

[GhillieEilish]

On 11/29/2020 at 10:27 PM, peitum said:

I like this idea! Papyrus is already a plant in the game (although it appears to give the same items as cooper's reeds). I see ink and parchment as more of a permanent, non-editable option, though. It's hard to erase ink. It would be great for multiplayer servers, as a way to send letters and record events. Let's see, going to ramble for a bit here...

For papyrus/parchment:

From this site: "Papyrus sheets are made by arranging two layers of papyrus, one atop the other, at right angles. The layers are then pressed together, and the gum released by the breakdown of the plant's cellular structure acts as a glue which bonds the sheet together."

So a basic crafting recipe could look something like this:

Stone

Papyrus Sheet

Papyrus Sheet

Would give you one sheet of papyrus.

Alternatively, an in-world crafting process could be right-clicking with the two papyrus sheets onto a solid block and then placing the stone on top. This might need to be left for a while, half a day or so.

Alternatives to papyrus (because it is quite localized) could be parchment made from dried hides, or paper made from linen. I don't know a lot about making paper from linen, but making parchment is a (link contains pics of animals skins, btw) bit of a process, requiring the hide to be soaked in limewater, scraped, and then stretched out over a period of time.

For the ink:

Inks could be made in a barrel, or a placed bucket of water. Ink making looks pretty complicated from just a brief bit of reading, but simplified for the game, it could require a combination of water + a solid pigment. There appear to have been a lot of different types of pigments used throughout history, but the ones that stand out are charcoal and ocher.

Charcoal is simple, just stick some charcoal in a quern and grind it. Mixing this with water would give you black ink, at maybe 1:5 ratio giving you 5 units of ink.

For ochre...this could either be a new form of ore, or a mixed combination of ground-up iron ore nuggets + a clay ball + sand. Mixing this with water would give you brown ink. Because of the steps involved, perhaps this could give you more ink per piece of pigment used (say, 10 units water + 1 part pigment = 10 units of ink).

And then there's olivine already in the game, which could give you fancy green ink.

I like this as well. Could also make paper from wood pulp, by taking a saw to logs and then to the resulting planks, taking the raw wood chips to a quern, and soaking the resulting wood pulp in lime water.

[Hal13]

and before wax tablets were used clay tablets solved the same problem (but wax was way superior).

or slates and chalk to write on it and a piece of linen to wipe it clean? one chalk stone could get you 2-4 portions of chalk each of these portions could be enough to write two times as much as can fit on the slate (if they have the same 500 words limit) or you could only be able to fit a few dozen words on it but wouldn't use it up, the recipe could look something like this (still unsure if 4 boards may be to much and 4 sticks would be better, and maybe there could be other darker stones to be used than slate too)

(empty)   board   (empty)

board   slate stone   board

chalk stone   board   linen

 

And in the long run i'm totally in for making parchment and paper and books...

Edited December 6, 2020 by Hal13