making thread/yarn

[Stroam]

This is a discussion on acquiring fibers for making into yarn, twin, and rope. Just going over the history and difficulties involved in refining some of the fibers used in the production of clothing. This is so that we all have the same background. Then I'm going to go over the current way we get fibers in-game and uses. Finally, the processes that I think should make it into the game.

• Flax & Hemp - (10000 BCE) - Harvest stalks, ret the stalks, then comb/card then it is easy to spin compared to wool.
• Cotton - (5000 BCE) - Fibers are around seeds. Is a pain to remove fiber from seeds making it unviable in large scale until the industrial revolution. Once fibers are separated, comb/card then it's difficult to spin compared to wool.
• Sheep and Alpaca Wool - (10000 BCE) - Most animals had short hair. Required selective breeding to get longer haired animals for wool that didn't involve killing the animal. Once the wool is separated from the animal, wash, comb/card then spin or rub into felt.
• Silk - (3000 BCE) - Each type of silkworm only feeds on specific types of leaves, described below. Once the caterpillar is separated from the cocoon it only needs to be boiled before easily being spun compared to wool.
  • Samia Cynthia - Castor bean 
  • Bombyx Mori - Mulberry bush
  • Attacus Atlas - Citrus, cinnamon, guava

In learning the history, I know why most early humans were either naked or had furs. Making fabric is a lot of work and time. With the history out of the way. Now for what we have in-game. Right now the only fibers we can get is from growing flax and cutting it down or killing drifters. These fibers can then be crafted into twine which can be used as is or crafted into linen.

For what I think, I need to distinguish between yarn and twine. Yarn is a refined product used for making cloth and twine is a rough product good for tying things together or making rope. Since this is going to be focused on cloth the processes will be for yarn/thread. I'll be laying out my thoughts on the production process for each material.

 

Hemp, flax, and nettle would all have the same process. Cut to get stems. (optional) For getting grain you'll need to thresh the stems, by holding right click. Place stems in water until color changes. Place the color changed stems in a wooden brake and operate it until all stems are processed into broken stems. Hold the broken stems and right click a wooden, bone, or metal comb to get fibers. Fibers then need to be processed in yarn/thread one at a time using a spindle, or multiple at a time using a spinning wheel. Hemp and flax should be hardy being able to be grown in a large variety of areas.

Cotton would need to be harvested by hand and not by scythe. That would result in raw cotton. Then you need to knap out the seeds of each cotton. This is done the same way it is for stone except the seeds are randomly placed and you have to click on each one. Then after that you just need to comb then spin as you would for hemp or flax. It takes more cotton to produce an equal amount of thread compared to flax and hemp. All the manual processes of processing cotton make cotton good for small production but not for large production. The less thead per cotton as compared to other fibers is to express how much smaller the cotton fibers are compared to the other types of fiber. Cotton would need hot and dry climates to grow.

Wool shouldn't be a thing you can harvest from wild animals. I feel like the animals should first be tamed and then breed to have longer hair before you can even start producing wool. That means it takes more effort to start producing wool but wool also easy to process. Shear animals, toss dirty wool into water and then pick up. Then comb and spin like the other fibers. Animals breeding can also increase the amount of wool you get from each animal making wool the easiest fiber to mass produce late game. The longer the hair the less heat tolerant and more cold tolerant the animals become meaning an increase in thirst in warmer climates. (Max tolerable temperatures limited by how many times an animal can drink in a day)

Silk requires growing the preferred plants. that have narrow tolerances, in view of the sky or under glass. Finding silkworms and putting them on said plants for them to eat. Replacing the plants as they get ate up. Waiting for the silkworms to make cocoons. Harvesting some of the cocoons, leaving enough for some to turn into moths to renew the population. If a cocoon hatches it destroys the cocoon. Boil the collected cocoons and then click with a wooden reel to get silk thread at which point only needs spun. 

[tony Liberatto]

I like your ideas,  just wish we had body temperature, to actually justify clothes. After all, there is a reason the Indians in the Amazon Forest run naked. They do not need clothes. 

 

As with any feature in the game we need to introduce the challenge to the player at the same time as we have the solution. 
On my update for the Neolithic Mod, We will be introducing the Sisal plant. It is a major producer of fibers, and mostly used for making ropes, but it has been used for clothes and carpets. So the subject of how to process the fibers interest me.
Besides body temperature, another reason for clothing is in areas where the vegetation can hurt you. Like why cowboys used leather clothes to get better protection from cactus and plants with thorns. 
A Hat would also be useful to protect your head from the hot sun.

[Stroam]

Body temperature would be amazing when combined with a thirst mechanic. I've been looking into how to add such mechanics. So far I've been successful in adding a drowning mechanic but not in adding a visual indicator because the HUD stuff just got recently transferred to the API.

[Stroam]

New info

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-thread-bronze-age-britain.html

I have been unable to figure out how plant fibers are spliced together.