Cotton Gathering Tool or Something!

[Nixit]

Mmkay. I realize that cotton is supposed to be fancy. For clothes anyway. But it has a practical use. String. Now, as string made from hemp, cotton, and silk have been combined, cotton or hemp or silk have all the same value when it comes to Practical uses (e.g. not clothing).

But cotton can only be gathered at 100 grams per DAY! To me that's ridiculous... and Silk Cocoons only 75 grams per DAY! Hemp is gathered at more than eight times their rates.

Now, Cotton is almost even more ridiculous than Silk, because to make string out of silk, it's only Silk Cocoons>Silk Yarn>String... whereas for cotton, it's Cotton>Cotton FIBRES>Cotton Yarn>String. There's a whole NEW step to it!
Hemp, again only has the same three steps as Silk.

I suggest one of two things - either increasing the gathering rate of cotton (and maybe silk too) to at least 200 grams per day... OR at least create an expensive tool that will significantly increase the cotton gathering rate (perhaps for cotton too). Now, I would have proposed the cotton gin for this, but that is conveniently placed to not SPEED up production, but to add a whole new step to the process, making cotton CRAP.


/end rant

[Marian]

I like the way cotton is rare....wouldn't a much more practical suggestion be, just make string out of something else? (in areas were cotton is the only thing available, string would naturally be more valuable. But gain I don't see any reason to change the game mechanics beause of that...)

[Nixit]

I like the way cotton is rare....wouldn't a much more practical suggestion be, just make string out of something else? (in areas were cotton is the only thing available, string would naturally be more valuable. But gain I don't see any reason to change the game mechanics beause of that...)

I just think it's wayyyy to rare. And yes, cotton happens to be the only resource of silk, cotton, and hemp on the island.

The problem is is that string really isn't that valuable in terms of trading... because the only real use for it is bowstring and for quarry's, which in turn the string has to be turned into rope. You only need 10 grams of string for a bowstring, and Quarry's aren't exactly in high demand. Except in the one location we are in. It's just a hassle, and if you'd look at all the steps needed to get a medium sized rope, maybe you would see where I'm coming from.



EDIT: And thinking about it now... if my character knew that there was hemp on a somewhat nearby island, he probably would try to set up a trade route for it. But if it's more efficient to TRADE for a different resource on a different island than to gather the original resource that's IN your location... then something's wrong.

[Sho]

I'd put this down as a positive regional variation. It's not altogether preventing you from making certain things, but is giving you an incentive to trade or develop in different ways.

[Nixit]

Well, maybe this calls for a need of a use for clothes... but because the only real thing cotton has over the other two is 'fancier' clothing... but that doesn't really count for much in the long run. I agree it gives a regional variation, and that's all well and good, but there's no reason why any other island would trade their silk/hemp/both for our cotton... since cotton is also gathered at such a slow rate that we wouldn't even BE ABLE to get any real quantity of hemp or silk in any reasonable amount of time.

*sighs*


Am I rooting for a lost cause here?

[Sho]

Not suggesting that you trade your cotton out. Surely there's something else? Since cotton is so slow to gather, you'd probably still save time if you sailed to another island and traded common resources for hemp at the base gathering rate value. Or even gathered the hemp at the other location.

[Nixit]

Not suggesting that you trade your cotton out. Surely there's something else? Since cotton is so slow to gather, you'd probably still save time if you sailed to another island and traded common resources for hemp at the base gathering rate value. Or even gathered the hemp at the other location.

Well, sure - but then why even have cotton at all?

[sem]

Because hemp is likely to get more expensive the further you are from the coast?

[Nixit]

Because hemp is likely to get more expensive the further you are from the coast?

I'm sorry... what? That doesn't make sense. Because it is completely unreasonable to gather cotton and use that, we should trade for hemp, but if that becomes even more unreasonable, we should use the cotton?

[Sho]

Not suggesting that you trade your cotton out. Surely there's something else? Since cotton is so slow to gather, you'd probably still save time if you sailed to another island and traded common resources for hemp at the base gathering rate value. Or even gathered the hemp at the other location.

Well, sure - but then why even have cotton at all?

Because the alternative is that you could be stuck without any local textile resources whatsoever.
It has been suggested elsewhere that varying the resource gathering rates from location to location might be a good thing. Think of your cotton patch as a hemp patch an eighth of its normal size, or vice versa. If you just want a bowstring, you'll stay. If you need a quarry, you'll look elsewhere to get your larger quantities.

[sem]

Because hemp is likely to get more expensive the further you are from the coast?

I'm sorry... what? That doesn't make sense. Because it is completely unreasonable to gather cotton and use that, we should trade for hemp, but if that becomes even more unreasonable, we should use the cotton?

Your suggestion that my suggestion doesn't make sense doesn't make sense. Apart from the word 'completely' your second sentence sums up the situation perfectly.

[Marian]

The fact is, cotton is great for people who want fancy expensive clothes, but not a good choice for people who want string, unless you're desperate. So, the question is, are you desperate? You choices basically come down to either import something better, live with expensive string, or live with no string at all. How badly you and the other people in that area need strign would determine your answer.

All I have to add is be lucky you even have something to make string with. Try living on Aki sometime, we'd kill to find even one town with that cotton your complaining about.

[Nixit]

*grumbles* I guess I lose this one. Still, I think some sort of tool would be nice.

[Nosajimiki]

I wouldn't say you loose, you've just been arguing the wrong rational. Truth is, silk and cotton are valuable resources with plenty of players who like to buy them. In thier prossessed forms they are both worth 50 grams per day which is about the same as iron makinging it a great way to diversify trade in game... the only problem is without tools to increase it's gathering rate, people can't profit from it's production. If you trade at a day rate, 75 raw silk for 1100 potatoes for example, and the potatoes are gathered with a harvester then the person with the harvester gets a 1:7 profit ratio by opting to use machines instead of coming to your town and maunally gathering the resource himself, whereas the silk farmer can only get a day value for the silk, giving him no incentive to trade it. Since silk is ussally in forests, then the would be silk mercants might as well make axes and get their 2:1 ratio off of the wood.

My sugestion:
The reamer, which I just noticed has no current use could be used for farming cotton. Because of it's cobalt requirement, it's a hard tool for a lot of people to make so most people would preffer to trade with cotton farmers who have reamers than gather the resource themself, it should probably function to multiply production anywhere from 3-5 fold, since they are more complex to make than most harvesting tools.

As for the silk, I think there should be a machine called the silkworm incubator or something like that. I've seen on TV silk farmers will actually have these tubs where they cultivate silk worms, so it would make logical since as a way to mechanize thier production. They should probably be kind of expessive, maybe taking stone, windowglass, and maybe a small amount of iron to make, and have about the same multiplyer ratio as the reamer. It would also be intersting if the project used to cultivate silk required vegitable matter like carrots or potatoes etc. So maybe it would take 800 grams of vegitables to produce 250 grams of silk coccons in one day, but I don't know if machines are programmed to be able to do that right now, so if not, then I'd say don't bother, I just think it would make things more interesting.

[Sicofonte]

In this thread some people (me between them) complained about the same:
http://www.cantr.net/forum/viewtopic.ph ... ool#228642


One point: when humans (cantrians) find some obstacle, we try to overcome it. Cotton's output is an obstacle... we'll do something!

If there is a reason to implement especialized tools and machines for increasing the output of many resources, why we can't do it for cotton too?

The reasons "it is a positive regional variation" could be applied to any resource in Cantr... but it seems the only resources so badly balanced are those three: cotton/silk against almighty hemp.

And the "you can go and gather a different resource" is a completly out of place comment. It is obvious. Even you can go and play a different game.