Granary multiblock structure for grain preservation

[csiler2 3]

It was suggested that I spin an idea about grain preservation off from the 'ideas about food preservation' thread.

Grains last a long time because they're basically dry seeds, but you've got to watch out for rodents, bugs, and other animals that will pick away at your stores. What if we could build multiblock granaries that emulated elevated granaries of ancient times designed to keep animals from getting into our grain stores. The granaries could also be used to store seeds or maybe other foods that have been cooked/salted or smoked (if the proposed smokehouse gets added.

 

Most traditional granaries are elevated off the ground to make it more difficult for animals to get in. Perhaps we could require that it be elevated on fenceposts or lumber? That would ensure that players had at least gotten basic metal tools. We could also require a trap-door for access underneath.

 

Opinions?

[Treyflix 277]

I honestly can think of many pros OR cons here. The only two I can see is Pro; adds detail and immersion. And Con; may take some effort to code.

Usually I think "wow this suggestion is awesome" or "this suggestion sucks" but I don't have any opinion here...

So I'll play devils advocate and ask this: what is wrong with chests? A solid chest should keep stuff out at least as well as any Granary. The purpose if a granary is if you have but loads of grain. There isn't a high enough population in TFC to need that much grain.

HOWEVER if you actually needed to feed your livestock (me gusta) then this would be helpful and make sense.

[iced 3]

I think this is more of a thing where you have a single player world and you have a farm with lets say an 8x8 plot of land for each crop. You live near the equator so your crops can grow year round. Its time to harvest. You harvest all the food and store it in a chest. You cut off decay and eat as much and as fast as you can but youve got other things to do than cut decay, you come back from a mining trip that took you 5 days of traveling and mining and 5 days back, you go to your chest to grab your food and it all decayed... now all you have is the food in your inventory that you got while on the trip and or brought with you and continued to cut. This grainary could help slow decay just like salting and cooking meat, all things considered it should be primarily grain. and you can still use the ark underground room for veggies while you keep your salted and cooked meat in a chest. I think its a good idea, but the question of if its necessary? No its not, but it'd be a cool feature to have nontheless . 

[csiler2 3]

I suppose I forgot to say what the benefit would be.

 

Granaries were designed to preserve grains and protect them from scavengers. So you would get a better preservation benefit against rot than you would by putting your food in jars or cold places. Ways to balance this benefit would be to make them similar to barrels in that a granary can only accept one type of grain/food item at a time, though it can store more than a single stack. You could also make them expensive to build by requiring the bottom be covered in metal sheets thematically to keep animals from getting in.

 

As for the Chest argument - While it's true a good solid chest should keep things out, mice and wild animals can be very determined. I've seen mice sneak into closed pantries and gnaw through wooden containers.

[csiler2 3]

I think this is more of a thing where you have a single player world and you have a farm with lets say an 8x8 plot of land for each crop. You live near the equator so your crops can grow year round. Its time to harvest. You harvest all the food and store it in a chest. You cut off decay and eat as much and as fast as you can but youve got other things to do than cut decay, you come back from a mining trip that took you 5 days of traveling and mining and 5 days back, you go to your chest to grab your food and it all decayed... now all you have is the food in your inventory that you got while on the trip and or brought with you and continued to cut. This grainary could help slow decay just like salting and cooking meat, all things considered it should be primarily grain. and you can still use the ark underground room for veggies while you keep your salted and cooked meat in a chest. I think its a good idea, but the question of if its necessary? No its not, but it'd be a cool feature to have nontheless . 

 

I feel like the TFC edition of the granary should be expanded to all food just to give more storage options.As an aside - Shouldn't you keep all your food in clay vessels? Don't they add a preservation bonus that chests don't?

[iced 3]

From what I know they only protect against decay when in a dark place and if ive salted and cooked my meat I dont think its necessary to store it in a vessel. Ofcourse it provides more protection but I dont feel its needed

[munin295 18]

Rather than a specific structure, perhaps this could be implemented by simply saying that food decays slower when not adjacent to any dirt/farmland/grass/sand blocks (the source of bugs, etc.). You put your vessels on the ground or in a simple dirt hole, things are going to get at the food. If you build a stone pit or other finished structure (ideally dark inside too) then they can't get at the vessels and your food doesn't "decay" as quickly. That way people will find their own ways to build food storage solutions.

 

From what I know they only protect against decay when in a dark place and if ive salted and cooked my meat I dont think its necessary to store it in a vessel. Ofcourse it provides more protection but I dont feel its needed

 

Depends on your latitude. Near the equator, you want as many options as you can get.

[Treyflix 277]

From what I know they only protect against decay when in a dark place and if ive salted and cooked my meat I dont think its necessary to store it in a vessel. Ofcourse it provides more protection but I dont feel its needed

Vessels (regardless of wether it's dark or cold) HALVE decay rate. So it's very much worth it. I even store the food I carry around in my inventory because it's such a high bonus.I understand what the OP is saying now and think this would be a decent feature.

[Atharsea 13]

I like having more options, particularly specialized options, for how to store/display items. Logpiles and tool racks are great, and I wish there were a lot more options.  Vessels make sense for a small amount of grain, but wouldn't be practical for a larger yield.  Grain is tiny, imagine pouring several bags of rice into a cardboard box and then trying to retrieve it all.  Sacks of grain stored on a shelf, larger ceramic urns or some sort of granary would be more logical than a chest.

[Visitor 36]

I am not sure if we really need to code special granary. I'd simply adjust grain/seeds/flour to be nearly completely resistant to decay if stored in a container and in not overly hot temperature, to ensure it's very long shelf life. Or, with all this jute and alternative containers ideas floating around, allow making bags to be filled with the above for the effect described.

But yes, it'd be nice if grain would be realistically resistant to the passage of time if stored properly. Right now it's not much different than other edibles when it comes to stocking up on it.

[mdtexeira 18]

I think this would be a nice feature if only for the servers where you have large towns that share a collective food storage system.  For SSP, I'd prefer just to 'large vessels' that are placed like chests.  

 

Oh, and these:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator

[csiler2 3]

Rather than a specific structure, perhaps this could be implemented by simply saying that food decays slower when not adjacent to any dirt/farmland/grass/sand blocks (the source of bugs, etc.). You put your vessels on the ground or in a simple dirt hole, things are going to get at the food. If you build a stone pit or other finished structure (ideally dark inside too) then they can't get at the vessels and your food doesn't "decay" as quickly. That way people will find their own ways to build food storage solutions.

 

I like this idea. This would allow people to build whatever style of granary or food deposit they want, whether it be an elevated granary, or an insulated cellar.

[Hotchi 0]

I think this would be a nice feature if only for the servers where you have large towns that share a collective food storage system.  For SSP, I'd prefer just to 'large vessels' that are placed like chests.  

 

Oh, and these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot-in-pot_refrigerator

 

Really like the zeer idear :-)

that would make a cool 2x2 large pot with a normal one inside

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

I like this idea. This would allow people to build whatever style of granary or food deposit they want, whether it be an elevated granary, or an insulated cellar.

 

Idk, I think that granaries and cellars should be very different objects... wait...

 

 

Cellars I think, should just be something you naturally and intuitively do, just digging into the earth and storing things there in the darkness and cold.

 

A granary should ideally be a multiblock structure based on a 'granary hatch' block placed on the underside of a variable size and shape container. I feel that if you make a closed container of any size between 3x5x3 and 7x7x7 out of (a single type of) wood plank blocks, keep it at least 2 blocks away from any dirt, grass, sand, or clay blocks, place at least one trapdoor in the top face, and place a specially crafted 'granary hatch' block in the bottom, it should form a multiblock structure similar to a bloomery. You'd toss grains into the top as item entities and the first one thrown in would determine which grain the granary can accept (it will likely only be able to handle one type, for coding purposes. Also for coding purposes, the grain must have all decay removed first). It would create a 'grain block' slab similar to the ore/charcoal buildup in a bloomery, preventing you from overfilling. It would hold up to 2560 oz of grain per internal air block, I'd say, as that's the amount you could store in 4 vessels filled to capacity and placed on 1 block on the ground (so a full 7x7x7 granary could hold 320,000 oz of one type of grain, the same as 125 blocks worth of full vessels).

 

As far as getting it back, right-clicking the granary hatch on the bottom would open up a GUI with the name of the grain, the amount stored, and an output slot with '0.0 oz' underneath it. Placing a vessel in the output slot will cause the number under the slot to steadily increase, and if the vessel is pulled out then there will be grain items inside it totalling up to the number stated in the GUI, which will be deducted from the granary total.

 

Keeping your grain in a real granary will reduce the decay to 1/16th of it's rate otherwise, but at the catch that the decay is evenly spread through the entire granary, and can't be removed without removing every ounce from it and cutting the decay away manually, then re-adding all the grain back in.

[transcengopher 349]

can't be removed without removing every ounce from it and cutting the decay away manually, then re-adding all the grain back in.

 

That sounds monstrous.

[EternalUndeath 1,208]

That sounds monstrous.

 

Oh it absolutely would be. That's the downside of having stupidly reduced decay rate - once one part gets infected, it ALL gets infected.