Lichen upgrade

[Nordique]

In boreal forests in winter, lichen is a superstar. Not so much perhaps in an acute survival scenario, but especially for winter stores many peoples in the US, CA, and Scandinavia have collected bagfuls of the edible varieties. As posted previously, one can find many uses for the various lichens in the Northern hemisphere. I think a couple relatively minor changes to the lichens in TLD would be an easy way to add depth to the game.

I don't suggest plain-out adding this to the game without balancing. Do you have any ideas?

Canada's Horsehair lichen as a darker variant of the current Old Man's Beard. It is edible, actually fairly nutritious, either after a long cooking time, or in a Scandinavian style, after an alkaline bath. A popular traditional source for alkaline is ... charred birch bark.

Could put the humble charcoal to further use, no? Or the birch bark? I like the idea of having to for example weigh using birch bark for condition recovery or in making lichen edible!

notes:

I) Horsehair lichen (Bryoria)
Edible and with respectable calories, once cooked for a long time.

II) Reishi
Ground Reishi tinder for bow drill, and/or for fire-carrying a coal inside a hollowed out one.

III) Old Man's Beard
A good firestarter straight off the tree, no need to dry.

[SpanishMoss]

5 hours ago, Nordique said:

In boreal forests in winter, lichen is a superstar. Not so much perhaps in an acute survival scenario, but especially for winter stores many peoples in the US, CA, and Scandinavia have collected bagfuls of the edible varieties. As posted previously, one can find many uses for the various lichens in the Northern hemisphere. I think a couple relatively minor changes to the lichens in TLD would be an easy way to add depth to the game.

I don't suggest plain-out adding this to the game without balancing. Do you have any ideas?

Canada's Horsehair lichen as a darker variant of the current Old Man's Beard. It is edible, actually fairly nutritious, either after a long cooking time, or in a Scandinavian style, after an alkaline bath. A popular traditional source for alkaline is ... charred birch bark.

Could put the humble charcoal to further use, no? Or the birch bark? I like the idea of having to for example weigh using birch bark for condition recovery or in making lichen edible!

notes:

I) Horsehair lichen (Bryoria)
Edible and with respectable calories, once cooked for a long time.

II) Reishi
Ground Reishi tinder for bow drill, and/or for fire-carrying a coal inside a hollowed out one.

III) Old Man's Beard
A good firestarter straight off the tree, no need to dry.

I like the idea of more flora in the game, however for balancing purposes it has be be thought about very carefully. When you add something useful into the game, you have to make something else harder, or make the item hard to get (like with the crampons and technical pack, they are put in a hard to get to region as a way to balance their useful ability's) If new wild flora are added, they should be unique to a region. I would say either broken railroad or hushed river valley, as there isn't much motivation to go to those regions in a long term game, adding a unique aspect such as useful flora into those regions would incite people to go there. If something new (that is helpful) is added, something else needs to be harder (or the item has to be hard to get).

[Mroz4k]

I have been hoping for some sort of upgrade to the Cooking systems for the past two years. I think it will come eventually - there is so much potential for more cooking options with the cooking skill and cooking pots now in the game. One of the things I would like to see added would be some sort of renewable edible flora. The lichen looks like a great idea! It could be found on the ground in some forested areas similarly to how birch bark does. Which areas would spawn it could be determined by seeing the lichen on the trees but too high up to reach. The reason I prefer this to the conventional way plants work is because I think that cooking edibles should be renewable. Another way, and I really like this idea as well, would be if the "plants" areas would sometimes have a piece or two of the plants on the ground around them which would respawn in small amounts. That would make the alternative medicine renewable, would still allow the players to harvest the plants, and encourage players to use and collect the medicinal plants more. Could even eventually include them into diet as edibles - many of those plants can be parts of cooking recipes.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Mroz4k

[one_shurbbery]

@Nordique I really love these. I definitely think it'd be nice to add more edible or medicinal plants or fungi, or better yet, more uses for existing flora in the game. Some more examples could be: 

1. Bryoria or horsehair lichen could also be used to create primitive bandages, as an alternative to nonrenewable cloth ones. 
2. Using cattail down to insulate clothing like socks, increasing there warmth rating. Would add more usefulness to cattail heads after fire starting level 3. 
3. Rock tripe (Umbilicaria). A famine food found throughout North America when boiled. Was notably eaten by soldiers of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. 
4. Chicory can withstand winter temperatures and it's roots have historically been used as a coffee substitute. Originally from Europe, it has now become naturalized throughout North America. 
5. Using old man's beard lichen and birch bark to create fire bundles that carry leftover smoldering coals. Fire bundles could last about 6 in-game hours and light a fire.

Edited February 27, 2021 by one_shurbbery

[Nordique]

On 2/26/2021 at 10:40 AM, Mroz4k said:

One of the things I would like to see added would be some sort of renewable edible flora. The lichen looks like a great idea! It could be found on the ground in some forested areas similarly to how birch bark does. Which areas would spawn it could be determined by seeing the lichen on the trees but too high up to reach.

Yes, an upgraded cooking system would be a very welcome addition, something I really hope will come up -- if not to the base game, to a mod later. A more intricate cooking could very poignantly highlight the (admittedly few) cozier moments in TLD, you know, for both when huddling away a blizzard in a farmhouse with a six-plate stove steaming away, or the very rare cosy evening with a fire going at a viewpoint, to provide a super stark contrast to the daily grind of survival.

Now this is a good balancing step, @Mroz4k, perhaps the traditional long stick would need to be fashioned to reach the horsehair lichen -- maybe after reading up a book on past native life and customs? Here's hopin' the future would hold a deep forest area, possibly ancient growth and thus hard to navigate, which in turn would mean hundreds of years' worth of lichen growth to be harvested!

On 2/27/2021 at 7:03 PM, one_shurbbery said:

 

1. Rock tripe (Umbilicaria). A famine food found throughout North America when boiled. Was notably eaten by soldiers of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. 
2. Chicory can withstand winter temperatures and it's roots have historically been used as a coffee substitute. Originally from Europe, it has now become naturalized throughout North America. 
3. Using old man's beard lichen and birch bark to create fire bundles that carry leftover smoldering coals. Fire bundles could last about 6 in-game hours and light a fire.

This is so true! The boreal regions hold a reserve of edibles that would perceivably be available in the game's scenario -- if not really realistically growing throughout the winter. Then again, with just a little bit of the suspension of disbelief the Aurora mechanic already calls for, perhaps it could be in line with the lore that there could be regions which have e.g. wind-sheltered rock faces (possibly requiring climbing?) where the lichen could regrow to edible proportions over hundreds of days?