From Golden Combs (1.16-1.18) Apiculture Mod

[Vinter Nacht]

An Apiculture Mod By Aetherial Labs

Author: Vinter_Nacht, Texture Artist: AnxietyPealope
JSON Files Assist: Raccoon
Translations: Macoto Hino

 

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MOST HIVE COMPONENTS (BROOD BOX, SUPERS, BASES, CERAMIC HIVE BASES) MUST BE CARRIED IN A BAG SLOT.
THEY WILL NOT GO INTO AN INVENTORY SLOT.

From Golden Combs began as a simple project with the intent to learn how to code in C#, and to add a simple new type of hive to the world of Vintage Story. The first item introduced was a ceramic hive (then called the Claypot Hive) that didn't have to be destroyed to harvest its bounty.  Having achieved that small goal, I set out to do something more ambitious.  1.3.4 saw the introduction of the Langstroth Hive. This hive has individual boxes known as superstructures (or supers, for short) and frames on which the bees build wax and store honey.

 

 

Current Features (As of 1.3.4):

      - Clay forming recipes for honey pot and brood pot.
      - Ability to place colonies in the brood pot using a populated skep.
      - Repeatable harvest by emptying the honey pot with a knife, and returning it to the brood pot.
      - Movable brood pots, both with and without a bee colony
      - Langstroth Hives - Multi-box hives with high capacity (and improved output), available in millions* of color combinations!
               - Hive Components in 169 possible color combinations
                             - Langstroth Superstructures (Known as Supers) -The base component of your hive
                             - Langstroth Brood Boxes - Where your bees live!
                             - Langstroth Bases - To keep your hive off the ground.
               - Frames for your bees in 16 possible color combinations

      - Frame Racks - Used for lining, harvesting, and repairing your bee frames

* - Yes, millions. You can stack your individual hive parts in any order you want. To be a hive it must have a populated brood box at the top (Right click an empty brood box with a populated skep) a base at the bottom, and up to 4 supers stacked in between. Each individual part is available in up to 169 different color combinations, so the possible combinations are nearly endless!

       - Configuration Options
             - Duration for a hive to fill configurable by hive type. (skep, ceramic, and langstroth)
             - Change the height to which a hive can be stacked (default is 6 individual items. So up to two blocks high)
            - Change maximum and minimum yield when harvesting a frame
             - Change the durability of frames
             - Optionally display time until the hive produces more comb

Coming Soon (?)
      - New Utility/Vanity Items
             - Honey Jar

      - New Bee Products
             - Propolis
             - Bee Bread
             - Pollen
             - Royal Jelly

      - New Hives
             - Layens Hives
             - Warre Hives
             - New color variants of Ceramic and Langstroth Hives

      - Bee species 
              - Range of Temperature tolerances
              - Flower preferences
              - Attitudes (some are more defensive of their hive than others, even in domestic hives)
              - Different rates of production for honey/wax

       - Advanced hive maintenance
              - Hive temperature
              - Humidity
              - Population
              - Disease
              - Hive collapse
              - Swarming Mechanics
              - Pests (Wax moths, Hive Beetles, and Varroa Mites! Oh My!)
              - More Predators (Mice? Skunks? More?)

 

 

 - Version 1.18 Known Bugs (??)

 

Edited March 6 by Vinter Nacht

[Travis Pluid]

Very interesting mod, and a very nice one as well!

[Vinter Nacht]

Just a preview of the beginning steps of the Langstroth hives.

 The base upon which you'll build your hive

 An individual "super" or honey box, where your bees will make and store wax and honey

 A brood box, arguably the most important part of the hive

 The maximum height to which you'll be able to build your hive!

 

These are just textured models, and there's a lot of logic that will have to go into making them do their trick.  Currently the intent is that you'll have to build and separate your hive one piece at a time.  The individual supers and the brood box will have to be carried in bag slots, while the base can go into your normal inventory.  When accessing your hive you'll have to deconstruct it piece by piece to get to each of the honey boxes, and then restack them.

For now, this is just being designed for immersion and my personal aesthetic tastes for interacting with the game.  Now, back to work!

[Travis Pluid]

Hmmmm... if I already had those, I'd have an extra max-height stack sitting to the side, that I could just plop the brood hive on, when I need to harvest the first- that way, I wouldn't feel like I was "wasting" any productive bee-time.

[Vinter Nacht]

It's a legitimate strategy!  Some more excerpts from todays labors.

 

  An open super with one frame

  An open super with one full frame

  An open super with ten empty frames

  An open super with ten full frames

Edited October 3, 2021 by Vinter_Nacht

[Travis Pluid]

Very nice modeling. Will you have to craft the Frames from planks, or are they part and parcel of the Super?

[Vinter Nacht]

I'm uncertain, though I know that sticks and flax are going to be involved.  Possibly wax as well, as is done with many modern frames.
 

[Travis Pluid]

Are you thinking of Durability for the frames? Or just a "don't lose this and you'll be fine" situation?

[Godogma]

From personal experience I can tell you that frames years if not decades and only really break if you mishandle them. We have some that grandpa hand made that were still in use or fine in storage until some small children decided to play with them.

[Vinter Nacht]

I'm with Godogma, really. I don't see any reason to add durability to the frames, except as a resource sink.  By the time you're able to fill five supers with ten frames at a cost of one linen patch each, a resource sink is probably unnecessary.

[Streetwind]

Beyond a resource sink, anything that has durability is a potential trade good in a multiplayer setting. One player is too lazy to craft their own, another player makes piles of them, trade happens, much immersion.

[Vinter Nacht]

Now *that* is a solid point.  Perhaps durability could be configurable, with setting it to -1 disabling it.  Hmmm... I think waxed linen patches will be necessary for making the frames.  Kind of a VS stand-in for the guides put in some frames to help bees make straight combs.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Vinter_Nacht

[Vinter Nacht]

I only had a little time to work on this this morning, but.
It begins... I will now be working steadily to add the Langstroth Hives to the mod.
Additional potential additions include a configurable fill time for hives based on season.

[Vinter Nacht]

I'm making progress.   I put frames in, I get frames out.  I break it, it scatters frames. I do need to adjust it's Y setting to get it right.  With this done, the rest should be "Easier(TM)"

[Travis Pluid]

Nice!

[fgryson]

An idea I had for the crafting of the frames is a plank with a beeswax beneath it. That way this is a higher tech bee keeping apparatus that requires some development in your beekeeping already. 

[Travis Pluid]

5 hours ago, Frederik Gryson said:

An idea I had for the crafting of the frames is a plank with a beeswax beneath it. That way this is a higher tech bee keeping apparatus that requires some development in your beekeeping already. 

And that is sort of supported by real life anyways. Beekeepers smear a bit of wax along the underside of the top section of a frame to give the bees a "guide". Though I'd say a Plank and 3 sticks for an "Empty frame", then add some amount of empty frames, maybe 5, and a beeswax together to get five "Prepared Frames" that can actually have bees build comb on them.

By the way, question for Vinter- are you planning on adding a need to "correct" and straighten out wax combs, like in real life? Maybe as an optional task you have to do with a knife, that increases output?

[Hells Razer]

2 hours ago, Travis Pluid said:

By the way, question for Vinter- are you planning on adding a need to "correct" and straighten out wax combs, like in real life? Maybe as an optional task you have to do with a knife, that increases output?

Please no that sounds just like busywork for busywork's sake.

[Vinter Nacht]

 

21 hours ago, Travis Pluid said:

And that is sort of supported by real life anyways. Beekeepers smear a bit of wax along the underside of the top section of a frame to give the bees a "guide". Though I'd say a Plank and 3 sticks for an "Empty frame", then add some amount of empty frames, maybe 5, and a beeswax together to get five "Prepared Frames" that can actually have bees build comb on them.

Empty Bee frames will require four sticks.
A completed frame will take waxed linen (linen patch +  beeswax) to make.
Waxed linen is either made from four waxed linen twine, or a linen patch & beeswax.
Frames take durability damage when you harvest them, and will be repairable either with waxed linen twice, or by replacing the waxed linen patch when fully damaged.
(Fully damaged frames turn into empty bee frames).

 

On 10/14/2021 at 10:13 AM, Frederik Gryson said:

An idea I had for the crafting of the frames is a plank with a beeswax beneath it. That way this is a higher tech bee keeping apparatus that requires some development in your beekeeping already. 

Your recipe will also end up being used, but not with this style of hive. There is a type of hive called a "Top Bar" hive or a "Warre" hive.  These essentially function similar to the above, but don't use a guide (like waxed linen) to guide the bees. It will be cheaper than Langstroth Hives as a result. 

But...
 

Quote

Travis Pluid - By the way, question for Vinter- are you planning on adding a need to "correct" and straighten out wax combs, like in real life? Maybe as an optional task you have to do with a knife, that increases output?

19 hours ago, Hells Razer said:

Please no that sounds just like busywork for busywork's sake.

It's likely that Warre/Top Bar hives will require this kind of interaction to maximize output.

 

And now? An update that introduces the 'Super Stack'.  Since no part of the hive (excepting frames and their outputs, of course) will be storable in chests/storage vessels/etc... This is being provided as a convenient way to store your supers when not actively part of a hive.

 

[l33tmaan]

2 hours ago, Vinter_Nacht said:

... I really want to toss a full stack of those into that lava pit.

[Vinter Nacht]

19 hours ago, l33tmaan said:

... I really want to toss a full stack of those into that lava pit.

You know... I can't think of a good reason I shouldn't make it possible to pick up that stack with CarryCapacity.
If I'm feeling really froggy, I might even try to figure out if there's a way to set a whole stack on a hive at once. XD

[Vinter Nacht]

You want fat stacks? I'll give you fat stacks.
Fat stacks of supers.

[Vinter Nacht]

Progress continues on the hives.  Have a little thinking to do about how to handle best handle the next steps.  Progress may slow down a bit this upcoming week, but we're steadily progressing towards functioning Langstroth hives!

Edited October 17, 2021 by Vinter_Nacht

[Vinter Nacht]

Along with the above, I'm considering adding the following to further ease storage of Langstroth hive components.  Do note that including this shelving would also mean I reduce the size of both the current claypot hives, and the upcoming Brood Boxes that sit on top of Langstroth hives.  Not sure that's a problem.  I actually think I prefer the appearance of the more compact brood pot (The clay version)

mponents. Edited October 17, 2021 by Vinter_Nacht

[Travis Pluid]

Looking pretty nice. You could also make peg-boards to hook them on to hang from, since they're both meant to be hollow, yes? Just a suggestion if you want something a bit more interesting than shelves.