Wooden cage

[Theda]

Yes, I have two.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Madfish, it's expensive when you don't have tons of access to those resources- for the same reason bronze tools were implemented. Of course it's not expensive for a well established town or a town in the mountains that is close to coal, hematite and limestone. But in that mountain town, building a wooden one would be expensive.

And I don't think anyone was talking about making dozens of cages in a building. I was referring to having 2 or 3, in case of having multiple offenders, as quite often, there are jailhouses with 2 or 3 separate rooms for prisoners. Again, it's more about the option of being able to customize a jail or restraining place as you'd like with a variety of choices.

"Hmm... well, we have this much steel... we have this much wood. It will take us 10 days to regain the steel we use or 40 days to make a trip to get enough wood." or "It might take us 40 days to get the materials and make enough steel, whereas we can get enough wood in 20." or "We have no access to steel at all, and we live off of bronze tools. But we have plenty of bronze and wood!"

Maybe even, "Well, we could use steel or wood, but we really need those for other things right now, so maybe in the distant future we can return to this idea."

If we can't build cages in buildings, we ought to be able to do so.

[Snickie]

There's a cage in the jail in SH. It can be done already.

And there's also the situation: "Well, it's a long boat trip to the nearest town that could trade steel or the ingredients to make steel. We don't know where to get hematite. And wood is at least a year's walk from here. We can make better use of them."

Wooden cages should be able to be destroyed with axes like those used to farm timber, and given that the character is strong enough.

[madfish]

I don't see why it's a problem for them to be expensive in some places. It's not like we need to create alternatives to telescopes because Noniwrok has no glass so why are we giving a way out for places which don't have steel. It's like those Africans who complain about having to walk for ages to get water. Move the village closer to the river.

I would support a related device, like stocks or chains, which are easier to make but offer less benefits. But wooden cages would make steel cages redundant. They don't make sense anyway. Unless they are built out of 500 year old solid oak a grown male could easily kick through a wooden cage.

[EchoMan]

I would like to see you kick through a cage built from 2-by-4's.

[Doug R.]

Bamboo. Nearly as good as steel.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

It doesn't make it any more redundant than the many building types we have. We could just have stone and wood buildings, as those resources are in more areas than not, rather than marble, brick, bone, mud, grass, timber...

Buildings may be more necessary in general, but I don't see why that should mean that options on less necessary items should be limited.

As I stated earlier, I don't think difficulty is the right word- difficult isn't an issue, but having more options and more choices. So long as the wooden cage had equal difficulty and expense (more resources to add and must have a lock built independently), then there shouldn't be an issue with adding one.

[madfish]

I would like to see you kick through a cage built from 2-by-4's.

Easy, I just chip away at it with my trusty bone knife then kick at it . Better yet I use a bit of metal to spark a fire then let it burn down. The Shawshank Redemption would be a much shorter film if the prison cells were made of wood.

[Laura_]

why can't we build steel cages in ship's cabins?