Ropes and Rocks are precious in Wilderness scenario

[Viik]

I’ve started Wilderness scenario, following Rycon’s roleplay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwaQHZaVtBQ&list=PLxIQ9fpV90xOoEfiZWRDhsKxXz2vIWMNG). In short, there are no cities, roads and etc. Pretty much everything have to be made yourself (More survival tools and medieval content mods help a lot) and some basic random items can be foraged, like an empty plastic bottle or a spike.
I’m almost done with building log cabin on the bank of the river but what I can’t build easily is a door
Makeshift door, requires two small ropes. To get 2 small ropes I need either 32 small strings or 72 weathered plants or hay. The problem with this is that it would take me about a week to gather 2x72 weathered plants from punching bushes and I would have to go camping in some other forest for this, as punching so many bushes will devour my local forest.
The better alternative I believe, is to try to grow something that can be turned into plant fiber>small string>small rope. Or to “grow” hay. I was searching for how to grow “hay” but couldn’t find anything. I know you can find it on farm, but even in case that farms did spawn somewhere in my world, it won’t be sustainable.
So short question - how do I grow hay?

Maybe there are other ways to get consistent amount of fiber, even if labor intensive. I’m fine with extracting it from cattails for example, but as I can’t plant them, they will be gone rather fast.

[Peregrin-E]

Hay piles are by-products of harvesting wheat, just like irl.

[pisskop]

hay is for horses
c is for cows
im told perigrines like other birds
but i dont see owls

i suppose you could dig a pit and board over it for access. damaged tents might also work, just build a tent over you intended doorspace and bash the back wall

[Viik]

If I’m lucky I’ll find some wheat by foraging. Will use spiked pit for now then.
Btw, I’ve checked receipt for makeshift door again and 2 short makeshift ropes can be used instead of regular ones, and makeshifts are much cheaper - 32 weathered plants instead of 72, per each.

[mlangsdorf]

Plant just about anything: you usually get 4 withered plants per harvested tile, so two or three crop cycles will have you swimming in withered plants.

The other solution is to find a helicopter wreck. Grind up your Fabrication to 5, build a rock forge and a clay crucible, and then start forging nails. It is a pretty tedious process, and every nail will be precious, but 200 nails is plenty for all the doors you need in a log cabin.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

Cannabis produces plant fiber ingame.

Hemp | Cordage

[Flare]

Does smashing shrubs no longer drop withered plants?

Smashed 10 shrubs got around 10 of them, some drop nothing, looks like 2 withered plants is the max. Seems pretty common.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

Smashing in recent experimentals gives 0-4+ shrubs wit a bias toward 0. Harvesting gives 6 if lucky.

[Solusphere]

Getting 144 withered plants by smashing shrubs and undergrowth would take a couple days at most, hardly a week. Unless you have to make ropes routinely, that should easily suffice.

For planting, at low skill levels you can use dogbane. Each plant converts to 10 plant fiber. Not a great ratio, but it’s common and easy to grow.

Cotton is a much better option, but might be difficult to get on a wilderness start.

As far as I can tell it’s not possible to make hemp ropes/thread in the base game?

[Viik]

Going for nails is an option. I’ve re-read receipt for makeshift door and it can be made with 2 makeshift ropes, which are 32 weathered plants each. So twice as less than what I’ve counted before.

The reason why I estimate a week for foraging that many weathered plants is because there isn’t that many things you can make to carry large volume. As you destroy undergrowth in process, you rather collect plants in a forest few tiles away or further. From each trip I can carry about 10-15 plants, depends what else I forage. It will get easier when I make a duffel bag. But each rag is rather precious.
I’m not going for collecting cattails anymore, without a rope at least - fell into a sinkhole last time but was lucky to get out. Didn’t expect it as I could clearly spot other sinkholes.
Farm is already going, with 30 days seasons will have to wait a bit but it might provide all the weathered plants I need

[Solusphere]

In that case, your best bet is honestly to just keep foraging. Eventually you’ll find a canvas sack. This can be effortlessly crafted into a Swag Bag, which has 15 liters of volume, compared to a duffel bag’s 30.

Note that it’s the canvas sack you want, not the canvas bag.

Then again, if you’ve been watching Leif’s Tale, you’ve probably heard Rycon mention all this already.

[Viik]

That would be splendid! I’ll try doing 1-2 short foraging trips a day, will help with recovering food stocks and maybe I’ll get lucky with canvas sack.

[mlangsdorf]

100 nails is 2 wooden frames turned into a travois that holds 37.5L - enough for 3 logs and some change or a bucketload of withered plants on a scavenging run.

You’re going to want to be able to metal forge anyway, because a hoe is so much better for farming than a stone shovel.

[Solusphere]

Nails can unfortunately be very hard to come by in a wilderness start, but that’s a good option if he does manage to find or eventually make them.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

DangerNoodle created a mod for mining in the wilderness:

DangerNoodle/mining-mod

You can harvest iron ore for nails using their mod.

[Viik]

@Solusphere Got lucky RNG and found a second heli crash not far from my base, this one had chest rig and military rucksack!

@mlangsdorf In wilderness, nails have to be forged or obtained from airdrop crates. Later is not too common and supply is limited but former requires quite some preparations. Like currently I’ve run around of rocks to collect in fields 20 tiles around the base. Will try to get some from heli crashes, need to collect that metal scrap anyway.

@BorkBorkGoesTheCode Thank you! I’ll give it a try if I can’t sustain my production on scrap from heli crashes. I’ve read about this mod before, it generates overmap veins of materials. I don’t thing it will generate them on already revealed. Will be a cool roleplay scenario where character have to go on mining expeditions.

Overall I really like how this is going, gameplay changes quite drastically from how I’ve played before. There is more focus on what I have to do and much less distractions. Extra fun from browsing 200+ receipts that I can’t craft (and won’t ever be able to) and dreaming that one day I’ll find that random piece of something that will allow me to make a new thing like for example a rubber hose for a slingshot

[Solusphere]

Yeah, you can make a crucible out of clay (remember that there’s a Clay Kiln construction, seeing as the crafting menu’s Brick Kiln can’t be bootstrapped with wilderness materials), but getting enough metal to make an anvil requires multiple helicopter crashes worth. I think two crashes might be enough if you convert the scrap metal and pipes into steel chunks, but don’t quote me on that.

[Viik]

Yeap, collecting rocks for clay kiln now as I’ll need not only crucible but next generation of cooking utilities too. Might even get something for starting chemistry - can’t make even simple lye right now.
I do hope that those two heli crashes are enough to make anvil and basic tools. I could add mining mod and elevate some of the metal scarcity but mining require pickaxe, which have to be forged, which requires tools and anvil…

Sadly we can’t do ritual like in Unreal World to please RNG Gods. They gave me military rucksack but now grim howlers and swamp creatures starting to show up.

[Viik]

Hmm, I wasn’t sure if clearing heli crash give you rocks but watching latest Rycon’s episode:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIS-Qm2vi9A)
I see that he is not getting any rocks out of wreckage. Is it just a chance thing?

[Solusphere]

You never get rocks out of heli crashes. You get scrap metal, chunks of steel, wire, pipes, and rarely a military item.