The History of Ice, Food Decay and You.

[Jarik C-Bol 4]

Ok, I learned about the 'pillar of thatch' refrigerator trick, where a player can store food at the sky limit virtually forever, and that the Devs have stated that this will be nerfed somehow in the future. (I thought it was a good way for me to fall to my death, so I never built one.) However, this got me thinking about food storage in a pre-electric era, which reminded me of the book "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingles Wilder. It is the story of her husband as a child, in the 1860's. I vividly recall a part of the book where they spend a part of the winter cutting ice. The ice was harvested from a lake using large saws, then taken to the ice house on the farm, where it was wrapped in burlap and then packed in straw, where it would keep well into late summer. 

 

So, the suggestion is:

I suggest that this becomes possible. To emulate this process, we would have to make burlap or a substitute so either wool cloth, or maybe a new burlap item made from jute fibers. Then, we would need to harvest ice using a saw, wrap it in the burlap (8 blocks of burlap around a block of ice perhaps) then, for playability's sake, wrap that block in thatch to simulate the packing of the ice in straw. (another 8 blocks of thatch around the burlap wrapped ice). This new block would be able to decay at some rate related to the ambient temperature, ideally into water, which would need to be removed with a bucket (because ice in water seems melts faster which allows for similar code as food decay), and be affected by light levels much like food decay already is. 

 

Lets call that Prepaired Ice" to make this easy to talk about.

 

Now, ideally, the way this would work for food storage (assuming this can be coded) would be for a player to make a fair number of these blocks, then build (or dig) a room for them, where they would be placed. Perhaps this room would have to be lined with thatch blocks as well. Then, vessels of food could be placed next to the prepared ice. Any food item that is in a vessel that occupies a space directly adjoining a prepared ice block decays at say, 50% the normal rate of decay for that environment.  (obviously, this rate would need to be balanced by the devs, i'm just exampling here) eventually, the ice blocks would decay into nothingness, and perhaps have a chance to drop some or all of the burlap, but none of the thatch. this means a continual investment in more straw for thatch, as well as more burlap, as well as more saws for cutting ice, so it is by no means a 'free' system, and the entire thing must me monitored and water removed to guard against the ice melting away to quickly. If the block melts entirely into water, it could either disappear at that point, or even add a percentage of spoilage to the nearby food, as it is now soaking in melted ice water.

 

The result I am aiming for here is essentially, longer term storage, but without the 'place and forget' over powered situation of the thatch tower refrigerators. 

[Gatsu 3]

I agree it's a fantastic idea. It could rely on the apparent temperature system by making the arena nearest the block of ice a lot colder.

[Maga 99]

An almost identical idea has been presented on the food preservation thread. Please research your suggestions to make sure they are not duplicate threads/posts.

[Jarik C-Bol 4]

My apologies, I must have missed it. Feel free to moderate this post out of existence.