New Brick types, old building methods

[Paragon83 10]

Hello,

Considering that TFC is about realism I think it would be interesting if perhaps there was the inclusion of new brick types, such as adobe, mudbrick, and/or rammed earth. These were common building materials for many of the ancient civilizations and I think it adds some more variety and uses for current game blocks, especially dirt blocks.

According to wikipedia adobe is "a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure)", which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun". In this case the organic material would be sticks seeing as how straw and manure do not exist in-game.

Mudbrick, while being made in a vary similar fashion to adobe, could be a slightly easier variant made with sand, dirt, and water, with the optional addition of clay depending on how difficult you would want it to be to make. Then the player would have to let the mudbrick sit out in the sun in order to dry as well.

Rammed Earth is " is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel", furthermore "building a rammed-earth wall involves compressing a damp mixture of earth that has suitable proportions of sand, gravel and clay (sometimes with an added stabilizer) into an externally supported frame or mould, creating either a solid wall of earth or individual blocks. Historically, such additives as lime or animal blood were used to stabilize the material". Earth, chalk, and gravel are already in the game, and lime could be extracted from chalk or limestone by perhaps cooking them, or maybe lime can be excluded simply to make it easier to make. I'm not sure how compressing the materials would be handled in game, perhaps a new tool or primitive machine.

Perhaps this is all too in depth and not worth putting in the game but it seems interesting to me and I think it could add some historical flavor as well as uses for dirt blocks which are plentiful but under-utilized. What do you guys think?

[Lumireaver 101]

I'd love to see different building materials just because they would add so much colour.

[Teranz 37]

Seems intresting and part of it reminds of Millenaire mod, i think it is the mud bricks that are from millenaire but overall would be quiet nice to see new types of bricks...

[letalhell 8]

For compressing the rammed-earth you could make the mixture in the crafting table, 3 lines of sand, gravel and clay then it would make a block of uncompressed rammed-earth, then you would place it somewhere and place some stones in the sides an a cobblestone over it. When finished it would be a slabtall rammed-earth block.

Historically, such additives as lime or animal blood were used to stabilize the material"

Piggy piggy piggy, come here piggy *evil grimm*

[Paragon83 10]

I like your rammed earth idea letalhell, and in your suggested recipe to make the rammed earth I think dirt can perhaps be interchangeable with gravel or sand. Also, with the resulting slabtall rammed-earth block, I am guessing you would need to combine two slabs to make a full rammed earth block. Only thing is, would you compress these one at a time? That would be pretty labor intensive as it was historically but for the sake of the game maybe you could make several uncompressed blocks and then compress them all together with your compression idea somehow.

Or maybe instead of the craftng table, maybe you have a 3x3 area and the first layer is clay, second level is dirt/gravel and third layer on top would be sand, then you would compress it all together and be left with 9 slabs of rammed earth, of course this might necessitate the creation of some kind of 5x5 mechanism for the compression, not sure.

Piggy piggy piggy, come here piggy *evil grimm*

Haha, yeah, that would be pretty brutal.

[letalhell 8]

I was thinking in the recipe number of item divided by 3, so if the recipe is 9 blocks(3 dirt, 3 clay, 3 sand/gravel) would produce 3 rammed-earth bricks, plus the second slab(your sugestion) would grant 6 rammed-earth bricks per block.

Or maybe instead of the craftng table, maybe you have a 3x3 area and the first layer is clay, second level is dirt/gravel and third layer on top would be sand, then you would compress it all together and be left with 9 slabs of rammed earth, of course this might necessitate the creation of some kind of 5x5 mechanism for the compression, not sure.

That's even more interesting, perhaps you would have to soak them with water(or blood hehe) before placing the compressing stones.

For that mechanic you would need 9 blocks of clay(equal 81 clay items) which is a bit is costly :/

[JoekerJoe 1]

Yes I like this and it is similar to my concrete idea, heating limestone to make quicklime which is mixed with clay, sand, water and crushed rock (cobblestone?) to make concrete which has been used as an very important building material for a long time in history

[barkingnoise 19]

Better Than Wolves has wolf poop as a resource. Currently, it drops from wolves after they are fed (don't remember if the time interval is fixed), but it used to drop randomly. This is a feature that could be added to pigs in TFC, or cows. Or sheep for that matter, since they're already grazing automatically.

[Paragon83 10]

For that mechanic you would need 9 blocks of clay(equal 81 clay items) which is a bit is costly :/

Yeah, you're right, that is a bit too costly...

That's even more interesting, perhaps you would have to soak them with water(or blood hehe) before placing the compressing stones.

Well how about this, the same way that you throw three sticks down to make a firepit or throw coal down to get the forge going, or even the coal and mineral in the bloomery to get it going you could make rammed earth in a similar fashion. For example, you construct a 3x3 encirclement with the middle block left empty, then you throw in a sand block, a gravel/dirt block and a clay piece (instead of having to make a clay block) and then fill it with water, that would create an uncompressed earth block, then perhaps a tool or placing a cobblestone block above it would slowly compress it and you would have your rammed earth slab after letting it dry of course.

It could be something similar with making adobe or mud brick or we could just stick with the crafting table, that works too.

The cool thing is that adobe, mud brick and rammed earth all have different looks (just google all three building types and see what I mean), of course we would have to establish the strengths of all three materials with rammed earth being the strongest and mud brick the weakest.

Yes I like this and it is similar to my concrete idea, heating limestone to make quicklime which is mixed with clay, sand, water and crushed rock (cobblestone?) to make concrete which has been used as an very important building material for a long time in history

Concrete, right on, yet another building material that has its own unique look that would be great to implement.

[Lumireaver 101]

Chiming in with some impractical ideas. Snow bricks, made by packing snow together by hand, for igloos. Cinnabar lacquered wood, shoji walls, and tatami mats for Japanophiles.