wool from sheep

[Kolyenka]

As the title says. Linen is a great resource, but since sheep already exist in-game, why can we not harvest wool from them? Hell, shears even already exist.

Sheep should produce 1 raw fleece every year when sheared (idk if it would be possible to set it so that they're shearable in the spring specifically, but that would be ideal). You can attempt to shear them at any generation, but until they reach gen 3, there's a high chance they'll attack you.

Each raw fleece then needs to be sealed in a barrel for 12 days with water to clean it (this is an irl way to clean fleece! it's called a suint bath). This produces 1 clean fleece.

The clean fleece can then be turned into twine and bolts of cloth like flax can. 1 clean fleece = 16 yarn = 4 pieces of wool cloth.

The wool cloth should then have a much higher temp rating than linen cloth does, and could be used to produce warmer clothes.

It would be ideal in climates too cold to grow much flax. And I don't think 4 pieces of cloth for a 3rd+ gen sheep is particularly OP (or particularly unrealistic--a small sheep might produce 2 pounds of raw wool. 1.25 once washed and well skirted. Once spun, that's maybe 1 adult sweater's worth of yarn. 4 pieces of cloth seems a decent ratio.)

(I also think spindles, spinning wheels, and warp-weighted looms should be added to the game, but that's a whole other ball of yarn.)

[junawood]

I would also love to have wool in the game and be able to craft the wool blocks that are already in the creative inventory. But: "Bighorn sheep don't have wool; in fact their coat is more like that of a deer than a domestic sheep." https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/view-wild-bighorn-sheep-in-yellowstone-national-park-high-country/

So I guess we'd need other animals first, like yaks. Yaks would be a great addition for some regions anyway.

[Windego]

I'm all for the wool shearing. There is even currently a mod that already allows you to do so. Farm Life.

[Kolyenka]

1 hour ago, junawood said:

I would also love to have wool in the game and be able to craft the wool blocks that are already in the creative inventory. But: "Bighorn sheep don't have wool; in fact their coat is more like that of a deer than a domestic sheep." https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wildlife/view-wild-bighorn-sheep-in-yellowstone-national-park-high-country/

So I guess we'd need other animals first, like yaks. Yaks would be a great addition for some regions anyway.

Ah, interesting. I'd never heard of bighorn sheep, and assumed they were similar to primitive sheep breeds that DO have wool.

Yaks would be very cool. Or perhaps wool-bearing sheep (Jacob, maybe? Mostly bc seeing a sheep with an odd number of horns would be very funny, and Jacob sheep are known for that).

Goats, too. Especially if goats would eat the brush in whatever area they live--that would be a good utility animal, and Cashmere and Angora goats would give wool as well.

And the wool blocks would be cool! I didn't know they're in the creative inventory, I'll have to go give them a try!

[Maelstrom]

Perhaps wool could be sheared from a pack animal, such as an alpaca or llama and kill 2 birds with one stone.  Introduce an animal that provides a different benefit than food, in this case increasing capacity of long journeys for rare material, while creating a source of wool as well.

[Windego]

Big horn sheep are more like goats, so in theory we already have goats. Even their behavior is similar to goats in real life. (I have one goat on my irl farm.)

To have bisons in the vanilla game would be quite nice. Currently they are available as part of a mod.

[David Stark]

Long wool coats were actually bred into domesticated sheep during the domestication process. So it would make sense if after enough generations, the bighorn sheep would become woolier and shearable.

[Maelstrom]

Bighorn sheet don't have wool as they are more goat than sheep.  I think a better option would be llamas or alpacas which could be sheared but also be pack animals to increase capacity to lug stuff between places in the overworld.

 

[AdrianNumbers]

@Maelstrom I think you misunderstood what @David Stark wanted to say. The wooly coats that domestic sheeps have are most probably (there are few theories) a product of cross/selective breeding of bighorn sheep/muflon over the centuries. At first they were used for milk, meat and leather , only with "help" from humans have they become those fluffy clouds we know. But i wont say no to other animals as well.

[ArZog Magescales]

On 12/8/2021 at 3:53 AM, David Stark said:

Long wool coats were actually bred into domesticated sheep during the domestication process. So it would make sense if after enough generations, the bighorn sheep would become woolier and shearable.

I think this would be the most viable option sort of like how players obtain milk.

[Thalius]

On 11/9/2021 at 10:17 PM, Maelstrom said:

Perhaps wool could be sheared from a pack animal, such as an alpaca or llama and kill 2 birds with one stone.  Introduce an animal that provides a different benefit than food, in this case increasing capacity of long journeys for rare material, while creating a source of wool as well.

Literally scrolling down into suggest the same after reading the OP. Would enjoy seeing these animals make an appearance in the VS world at some point.  I live on the western side of South America. These animals are all over the place in the highlands, and are very useful in multiple ways... and just fun to have around.

And on another note-

I personally hope that Vintage Story, when it comes to adding new creatures into the game world for functionality and such, does not use the same old animals we have seen in so many other games; sheep, cows, horses, etc, etc...

The world is full of diverse animals that serve the same function as those main "western" stereotypical farm/ranch animals.  I'd love to see the devs go the route of using some of the more rare and exotic animals.   Make them available in, and preferring to be in, their own preferred climate zone, and thus create a different vibe and culture in the game world.

Edited December 12, 2021 by Thalius

[Maelstrom]

I was born in Ecuador, so South America has a special place in my heart (specifically Ecuador), thus my love for alpacas as an in game animal.  

I believe that chickens, pigs and goats are the globally most used farm animals.  Cows are a distant 4th (iirc).  Glad to see the VS team has some understanding of global farming

Edited December 13, 2021 by Maelstrom

[Thalius]

1 hour ago, Maelstrom said:

I was born in Ecuador, so South America has a special place in my heart (specifically Ecuador), thus my love for alpacas as an in game animal.  

I believe that chickens, pigs and goats are the globally most used farm animals.  Cows are a distant 4th (iirc).  Glad to see the VS team has some understanding of global farming

Lol.. small world. I am living in Ecuador with my family (wife and five kiddos). Moved here from the U.S. almost seven years ago. Beautiful and wildly diverse little piece of the world, here.

[Fredrik Blomquist]

I would love to see wool in the game. When i first noticed drifters drop flax i figured it was a placeholder for some sort of wool that came from them. (don't know why they would carry flax fibers. It might be some destroyed clothes if they are turned seraphs but since you can't scrap other clothes so...) I don't know about bighorn sheep but what i know is that poor peasants here in Sweden in lack of sheep wool used wool from cats, dogs, goats, cows and horses. They don't give much, and the quality is low, but it works. The modern sheep with is thick coat of underwool and nearly no guard hair is a pretty modern development of breed. I do have a blanket of cow wool myself. 

[Hussar]

I'd also love to see wool. Llamas would be fantastic (domesticable, can be used as pack animals, for wool, for meat, even for milk?)

Okay, pack animals. I really want pack animals.  Wool would be a bonus.  Donkeys, llamas, reindeer, water buffalo, some kind of pack animals.  In North America, the Native Americans used dogs to pull travois (a type of sled).