Cattail Roots

[Fitz]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but I would love to see cattail roots implemented. They're a good source of food in survival situations and we already have the cattail plants spread through the world. I would propose that they require an investment of time (hour or two) but produce a large amount of root. The quality would be higher than stalks, and improve even more with cooking (as the starch is harder to break down uncooked). As the roots grow below surface, it would require breaking ice like at a fishing hole and would also results in wet gloves/pants/boots.

[Mroz4k]

I honestly don't think anyone would go digging for roots in solid ice, that's just crazy. You would exert much more energy than what you would get in return back.

IMHO, cat tails need to be nerfed down even further - it's still very powerful source of energy. If anything, I would like to see cattail plants be renewable, but only provide half of the calorie value they do now, but instead, they would have much broader significance.

I imagine that at some point, there will be more cooking recipes and options in the Long Dark. If that happens, the cattail stems and roots would be useful as "vegetable" component in cooking recipes, rather than a powerful "raw food" item (stems would still be edible raw, but at very low calorie value)

Cat tail heads are only good tinder if they contain the cotton - and that cotton is a very useful natural substitute for the "down" materials in the modern clothing. So Cattail heads should be used to fix "down vests" and similar clothes, even Parkas.

[Fitz]

5 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Cat tail heads are only good tinder if they contain the cotton - and that cotton is a very useful natural substitute for the "down" materials in the modern clothing. So Cattail heads should be used to fix "down vests" and similar clothes, even Parkas.

Love this. Would also be good for making new vests when they add more crafted clothing items.

12 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

I honestly don't think anyone would go digging for roots in solid ice, that's just crazy. You would exert much more energy than what you would get in return back.

As for this I did some research before I posted here. A clump of cattails can provide well over 5kg worth of root with about an hour's work [Source]. So digging a small access hole to reach the water/mud and roots underneath may be well worth the time and effort.

[Thrasador]

I thought we were already eating the roots, lol...

I thought that was the 150 calorie "food" part, lol....

I do wish all the plant life in the game respawned after a certain number of days. I don’t like that there is a very limited number of rose hips in the game total...

Plus they are better food than medicine and some should be able to be eaten raw like cattails.

Birch bark tea would technically be closer to "asprin" than rose hips anyway. Birch bark has similar compounds in it as willow bark. Willow bark is often used as herbal asprin....but birch bark could be too...

[JAFO]

8 hours ago, Thrasador said:

I thought we were already eating the roots, lol...

Nope.. just the stalks.. which are edible IRL.

[Thrasador]

25 minutes ago, JAFO said:

Nope.. just the stalks.. which are edible IRL.

Yeah, but the roots are where it's at...they have two turn tables and a microphone...

I sing show tunes into the top part of the cattails, as I serenade Chuck on the second floor of the Camp Office...I think he likes it...

[Mroz4k]

15 hours ago, Thrasador said:

I do wish all the plant life in the game respawned after a certain number of days. I don’t like that there is a very limited number of rose hips in the game total...

Plus they are better food than medicine and some should be able to be eaten raw like cattails.

Birch bark tea would technically be closer to "asprin" than rose hips anyway. Birch bark has similar compounds in it as willow bark. Willow bark is often used as herbal asprin....but birch bark could be too...

 

Never heard of birch bark tea. You could make a tea out of the needles of all the conifer trees - personally, I like fir tree needles in my tea the best, but spruce is pretty good too, just a bit more bitter. 

All of those teas contain high concentration of vitamin C. Personally I wish they were in-game and served as a substitute to the herbal tea.

Also, by the way, rose hips and reishi mushrooms do respawn after some time, not really sure how long but it's somewhere about 30 - 35 days in game, someone here will probably know how much. (also, I think you need to be in a different region for them to respawn, so for example, if you live in Pleasant Valley but looted all the rose hips in Mystery Lake, if you come back to Mystery lake after a while, you can loot them again. They will regrow on the same places you took them from last time.

It's birch/maple saplings and cat tails that don't respawn at all. But you can find cat tail stalks and sometimes even saplings washed out on a beach at Coastal highway or in Desolation point, so technically they are "renewable".

[Fitz]

33 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

Also, by the way, rose hips and reishi mushrooms do respawn after some time, not really sure how long but it's somewhere about 30 - 35 days in game, someone here will probably know how much. (also, I think you need to be in a different region for them to respawn, so for example, if you live in Pleasant Valley but looted all the rose hips in Mystery Lake, if you come back to Mystery lake after a while, you can loot them again. They will regrow on the same places you took them from last time.

You sure about this? Cause I played hundreds of days and returned to find that they hadn't. Granted that was before Cartographer so maybe changed then.

Also I am definitely all for needle and bark teas. These would be a very worthwhile addition.

[JAFO]

1 hour ago, Mroz4k said:

Also, by the way, rose hips and reishi mushrooms do respawn after some time, not really sure how long but it's somewhere about 30 - 35 days in game, someone here will probably know how much. (also, I think you need to be in a different region for them to respawn, so for example, if you live in Pleasant Valley but looted all the rose hips in Mystery Lake, if you come back to Mystery lake after a while, you can loot them again. They will regrow on the same places you took them from last time.

Nobody has ever reported anything like this.. it sounds to me more like you've encountered one of those "respawning" events that happens when a new update patch is released. They often result in a whole lot of different loot spontaneously reappearing.

[Thrasador]

1 hour ago, JAFO said:

Nobody has ever reported anything like this.. it sounds to me more like you've encountered one of those "respawning" events that happens when a new update patch is released. They often result in a whole lot of different loot spontaneously reappearing.

He could also be playing on Xbox One with the new saves not saving bug...

People have been losing progress due to saves not actually saving...

Or it may have been a bush he "thought" he harvested, but got distracted or missed it and then found it a second time.

Bottom line, positive they don't...but wish they did....maybe someday...

[Mroz4k]

No, I am playing on a PC, and I am definitely sure that medication items respawn.

Unless they re-spawned because I played in between two updates, and the update reset them.

Still, I am fairly sure I had seen rose hips and reishi mushrooms respawn on more than one occasion.

 

P-Edit: I just checked some other references, and it seems that the items do indeed respawn as a result of a update. Well I guess that means I will be a lot more mindful of using these resources in the future.

[Thrasador]

8 minutes ago, Mroz4k said:

No, I am playing on a PC, and I am definitely sure that medication items respawn.

Unless they re-spawned because I played in between two updates, and the update reset them.

Still, I am fairly sure I had seen rose hips and reishi mushrooms respawn on more than one occasion.

 

P-Edit: I just checked some other references, and it seems that the items do indeed respawn as a result of a update. Well I guess that means I will be a lot more mindful of using these resources in the future.

Well hopefully that means there will be new resources in Mystery Lake next week, as they have told us to relocate from the map and take all our gear with us....