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TheTrickster

Buried treasure!

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Let us bury stuff.

 

I don't mean bodies, I mean booty. 

 

There are 3 major components in what I envisage, the first is the ability to bury objects , the second is protection for objects (which may a separate suggestion, because it has other applications), and the 3rd is an entirely new element that I think highly unlikely to be developed but would be terrific.

 

  1. Instead of digging only to lower terrain or acquire dirt etc, let us simply dig a hole which can then function as a one-item container (or a fixed-volume container), in the centre of the tile.  You drop your loot in the hole and then fill in the hole to restore the tile to dirt.  The tile functions just like a normal dirt tile except that "dig a hole" on that tile will open the hole that is the container - and damage the container itself significantly (10%?  maybe more?).
  2. In addition to waxpaper, and sealed liquid containers, let us make other preserved/preserving containers.  This is not just for burying, but useful for a lot of other purposes.  
    1. The treatment materials are already available, tar, oils (cooking and olive) and wax, in order of decreasing efficacy.  Treating an object with these would a) reduce decay on the treated item to some small portion of normal (something like 10% or even less) and b) prevent decay on anything in the item while the container exists - kind of like magical chests do.  In fact a magical chest could be viewed as an object that has been treated in another way - magically.
    2. Any "closeable" can be treated, but once treated opening and closing them damages them. The treating material would be appropriate to the container (tar for timber, oil for leather and cloth, wax for paper and pottery).  Containers of the size of chests downward would fit in a hole to be buried.
  3. Mapmaking. Something we do not have at all in the game; an ability to create and mark a map of an area.  This would take a fair bit of development, and in fact what I am describing here is almost two entire mechanics (depending on the scale you choose).  Have sheep and pigs (deer?) produce skins on butchering, and have lye treatment turn them not into leather but into vellum.   Vellum and an inked pen or a bit of charcoal, and you can map an area.  You may have to set the scale when you create the map, "local" say 100x100 tiles for example or "island" to create a map the same scale as the in-game.  Maybe use a piece of vellum, a charcoal, and a string of cotton (to roll it up and keep the charcoal secure) to create a blank map.  Activate the map and on an object in your POV select "mark on map".  The vellum is marked with an icon (the first icon would go a little left of the middle, maybe) and the icon is added as a legend down the RHS.  To mark a new feature on the map, you need to be able to see some other feature already marked (with the sole exception of the starting point).  If you start at a waystone, for instance, you could map the road running as far as you can see it, and other things you can see, like a guard tower or a mine/tunnel entrance or a bridge.  When you add the item you can include a description, which goes on the map (e.g. "tunnel to Market Lake", "inn with free beds").   For the "Island" map, there could be an action to copy the basic in-game map (or several actions, each copying a portion) and after that you could then customize with your own markings. With a blank map, you could copy an existing map.

 

The mapping is a huge deal and really the other parts could function with or without it, like it could function with or without the other element.  I can think of SOOO many uses for player-made maps.  For example, a map of a village could be posted on the village board, or copies could be given to new citizens.  A handy reference showing where stuff is.  A mud map of how to get from one location to another without a string of text instructions.  A general "we are here" map of an island, to locate a deed or some other location without stepping out of the game.  Also, a treasure map for your buried stuff (if we could bury stuff).

 

With the preservation and burial, here is an example of what I am talking about.  When you create a book, the cover takes all the damage and then the pages start to decay as loose pages.  Currently normal decay applies to the cover. What I am suggesting is that you could treat the cover with oil so it decays more slowly.  Bind the pages in an oiled cover; put the book in an oiled satchel; put the satchel in a tarred chest.  Essentially, even off-deed, what you have written could be preserved for a very long time.  Histories could be written in-game.  Now, say you need to be away from the game for some time, and you are not the mayor of your deed and you are not 100% confident the mayor will no disband in your absence.  You find the most permanent thing in your area (a crossing of two highways for instance) and go about 20 tiles off the side and bury your hoard of impalong prizes and mementos.  They will last there for a very long time, will not be subject to bashing and looting, and will NOT be an eyesore to anyone else.  You could bury stuff specifically for other people to dig up; treasure chests consisting of entirely player-made content.

 

If you have a bunch of stuff you don't want, and it doesn't "discard" and you don't have a trash heap handy.  Just bury it untreated.  Even with normal decay applying, it shouldn't matter because it is at least out of sight, no longer on a tile, until it decays.

 

Sadly, I am not even sure if Wurm physics could cope with burying stuff.

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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Nope. Nope. Nope.

The entire terrain would just be a ton of holes and a general mess.

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er.. you do realize that burying something leaves no hole, don't you?  Also, did you see the NFI starter towns?  

 

Nevermind, I was really reviving this one for the mapmaking part of it, anyway

 

 

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While players burying things has a crapton of issues. It would be interesting to fish up treasure maps. The mechanics for arch catches could be used. Basically copy and paste the code for that, add new loot table. Boom exploration and fishing boosts.

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