QUALITY - the comprehensive guide to understanding its implications

[Digital Aura]

I've scoured these discussions and the wiki to find out "what exactly is QUALITY, and what does it do, and how far does it go?"
I've not been able to find a comprehensive list of answers.
I'm hoping people will make this thread into kind of a comprehensive guide dealing with quality and its impact in game.

As for what I've found, these points may or may not be correct, it's just the info I've compiled. Please help me make any corrections needed.

QUALITY (Q) is, simply put, 'how good' something is in this game. Consider it like a chain reaction - the Q of the structure built is related to the Q of the resource used, which is the result of the Q of the tool used to acquire said resource, which itself is the result of the Q of the base components in the tool as well as the skill of the tool maker. You can see that Quality is very important.

INFLUENCE (%) Within this 'chain' the tools and skills can "influence" the quality in differing proportions. For example, when constructing a Practice Axe, the final Quality is 'influenced' by the quality of these things: Linen rope (10 %), Hardwood billet (50 %), Carpenter's toolkit (10 %), Carpentry Skill (30 %). So, the most important component is the billet's quality, which will reflect half of the final Practice Axe's quality. The Q of the toolkit and the rope plus the carpenters own skill level contribute the other half of the Q.

SKILL - How does SKILL relate to QUALITY? - this is actually a whole other topic, but I found this interesting:

Originally posted by jasonjtmc:

... YOU can equip a 100 quality weapon but its only as good as your skill level. So if you at 45 skill with a 85 weapon hit me. The game will reduce your 85 weapon to a Quality 45 weapon and then do the damage calculations. So as i said before you are going to be forced to raise your skill to 100 if you want do to max damage. Meaning that the damage your strength stat is held back by your skill level and the weapon quality.

Here is how quality relates to key game concepts:

Hides - Skinning animals currently only yields minimal quality, to get 100Q in skins you need to get them from your barns and stables.

Originally posted by Le Deflagosseur:

To achieve that, I had 100 in all required skills (hunting, animal lore and procuration to hunt/tame/slaughter the animals but also had 100 in construction and mats prep to make good racks and tubs. Good water is a bit trickier to get if you're new to the game, you will need either to find good fertile soil to put your well/fountain on or use "dung" and fertilize the soil under your well/fountain.
In the barns/stables/coops, once the animals have reach 100 quality, every new born will have a quality of 100, its just a matter of time before you get this done but after that, you have infinite thin AND thick leather (not to mention quality 100 dung, bones and wool)

Tools - remember the chain reaction. Blacksmith shop should be used to make tools, as it adds 20% quality bonus. Starting with 100Q trees you chop them with 100 skill level in lumber to achieve 100Q billets for your forge/kiln/furnace. Also, the handles must be whittled from 100Q softwood using 100Q knife by a 100 skill carpenter. The blacksmith must also be 100 level when trying to make 100Q tools, and his own tools must also be 100Q in order to achieve this. (What about the quality of the anvil?)

Water - used as an ingredient in many craftable items and structures. 100Q water can be made by building a well on 100Q fertile soil. (I assume the well itself must be 100Q). Also, considering that the soil quality affects the water:

Originally posted by RedRobin:

Higher quality of water may be aquired by placing higher quality soil in water itself. This affects the quality of caught fish as well.

100Q Sand, Rocks, Ores - they're out there. They tell me. To find them, begin your search in an area where high Q items can be found and move 5-10 quadrants to each side to see if that resource Q improves. Continue in this manner. Often, highQ materials are close to each other. You can make 100Q ores as well. Consider this:

Originally posted by redwinger333:

The best way of getting high quality iron is to smelt your bars/ingots and make armor/items at a blacksmith shop, then recycle it in a bloomery. Making the armor/item will add quality, which is maintained after you recycle the iron back to usable bars/ingots. Repeat the process until you're at the desired quality.

Charcoal - Does the Q of charcoal matter for blacksmithing?

Originally posted by CarbonFlakes:

So I did some testing on my own and it seems the quality of the charcaol does not affect the quality of the ore your smelting.

The Q of charcoal only affects it's burn time (that is to say, it's duration in the kiln or furnace)
Note: I can produce Q99 Charcoal with a kiln made from Q88 clay and Q12 plant fibre - if you use Q100 billets. Obviously the billets are key here. Oddly, your own skill DOES NOT factor into the making of charcoal, yet your Materials Preparation skill will benefit from creating it.
Tip: The kiln works more efficiently with charcoal as fuel...even if you're making charcoal. Trick is to light the kiln with charcoal BEFORE you add the billets you want to make into charcoal. Otherwise it will consume wood or charcoal randomly as fuel. DONT use the bellows. It causes it use more fuel, and higher heat is not needed.

MORE TO BE ADDED. feel free to help

[Digital Aura]

Soil - How do you get 100Q seeds and plants? Consider this:

Originally posted by Moschops:

The quality of the plant is influenced by the quality of soil being planted in.

There are a couple of spots where the soil quality is up in the 80"s/low 90's. Planting a low quality seed in this soil produces seeds/crops that are the quality of the soil, provided you let the crops fully ripen before you harvest them.

Same goes for low-quality soil. If you plant high quality seed in low-quality soil, the quality of the crops will decline to the quality of the soil.

Because of this, it is MUCH more efficient to have smaller gardens of high quality soil, rather than huge fields of low quality soil (though fields like that do serve a purpose).

Problem is coops don't produce nearly enough dung to keep even a small patch of soil fully fertilized (you may have to fertilize over and over again to get the soil quality up to 100), and heavier livestock isn't available until they fully implement animal traps.

I have tested the output of dung from barns and stables (using GM mode), and these structures produce more than enough dung, so the capability to sustain efficient, high quality farming is definitely planned, but just not really possible at the current time.

it has been noted, additionally, that the weather plays a key role in harvesting a 100Q crop.
Tip: to check the quality of soil, dont dig... rather harvest plant fibre. Plant fibre is highly coveted for crafting and always has the same Q as the soil its in. That said, if you need 100Q plant fibre, you need to make 100Q soil.

Note: It has been stated elsewhere that soil quality matters for forging and other crafting. This is not the case. Soil Q is only important for farming, and wells. (forestry?)

Poop - there I said it. Consider the effectiveness of fertilizer in this comment:

Originally posted by Sir.Vaughn:

Using dung on the same tile multiple times does increase the soil's quality, but the bonus per use decreases. i.e. when the soil's quality is around 20, fertilizing increases soil's Q to around 30. When fertilizing soil with quality 90, the bonus is only 1-2.

In general:
- quality of seeds does only affect the quality of yield, not the quantity
- quantity of yield is affected by quality of soil and weather
- it's not possible to gain the max. harvest amount (up to 12 units per tile) on non-fertile soil, so you should always fertilize soil (or replace it with fertile soil)
- max. harvest amount needs a good mix of sunny and rainy weather, so
1. make sure there's no building, tree, etc. casting a cloud on your fields (at no time of the day)
2. it might be helpful to sow crops when it's rainy (you can see wet foots-steps on the ground when it is)

Trees - Quality of trees depends on the Q of the sprout + the skill level of the forester. Soil Quality is, oddly, NOT a factor in Tree Quality.
What about apple trees? Does Q affect the apples rate of growth and the ability to re-harvest them? No. It would seem this is simply a server setting. Don't forget, too, that while the Farming Skill determines the Q of your apple trees, you need 100 level Forestry to pick the 100Q apple tree sprout! Consider getting your friendly neighourhood Grandmaster forester to get your apple sprouts.
Also consider this gem from our friend Sir V again:

Originally posted by Sir.Vaughn:

Low quality trees should be used as building materials for fortifications (like palisades), houses and decorative furniture (chair, table, etc.), or as fuel. Quality doesn't matter when creating these buildings/furniture.
When creating handles for tools/weapons or when constructing workshops like Blacksmith-workshop, Carpenter-workshop or kitchen, you should always use high quality trees, no matter if needing billets, boards or building logs.

[Digital Aura]

Buildings/Workshops - Structures like the Blacksmith's Shop can 'influence' the final quality of tools and product that the smith creates there. The Q of the building is often neglected. Consider this post:

Originally posted by Oressus:

When making a crucible, the end-product quality is a product of many factors. The q of the metal is 50% of the end quality, your skill is 30%, your hammer q is 10%, and the quality of your forge is 10%. If you used low-quality products making your forge (like q 5 stone) then it's dragging you down.

Any craftsman worth his salt will want a 100Q shop to work in - make sure you gather 100Q resources to make it with, and have level 100 in the appropriate construction skill.

Remind me to offer Sir Vaughn drinks on the house (once I get my 100Q brewery built). Here's more sage wisdom from him:

Originally posted by Sir.Vaughn:

My experiences (given all skills max., no outfits used):

Smithing
- blacksmith-workshop (any building material Q) + Q100-hammer = Q100-tools/weapons, even with resources < Q100 (f.e. Q85-ingots + Q95-handles = Q100-tool)

Carpentry
- Q100-tree + max. skills = Q100 boards/logs/billets, even if saw < Q100
- constructing Q100-tubs, drying frames, spinning wheels, loom is only possible when using Q100-materials and a Q100-mallet (blacksmith hammer decreases Q !)

Procuration
- producing Q100-leather is only possible with Q100-devices (see above) and Q100-water ; Q100-dried hide + Q95 water in Q100-tub will produce Q99-leather
- using Q100-tubs increases flax-Q by 1-2 points

[Digital Aura]

please feel free to contribute thoughts, experiences and corrections to this thread... I'll try to keep it up to date and accurate. There's lots more QUALITY issues to discuss.

[Vossie]

Also note that Fertilizing your soil makes the Q go up. Which is influenced by the Q of your Dung.

Edit: Noticed it was already coverd.

[Digital Aura]

let me ask you, does soil affect the quality of the tree planted? Does it help when trying to make Q100 trees to put fertilizer on the soil?

[redwinger333]

Thanks for putting this all into one location. From what I've seen, the only thing that impacts quality of planting normal trees is the quality of the sapling. As for farming trees, it may be dependent upon BOTH farming and forestry, as our 100 farmer still reduced quality of apple trees upon replanting, but with 100 forestry and 100 farming, this was not observed.

[Digital Aura]

That's kind of what I thought. So is the lvl100 needed by the planter? or the picker? THAT is the question.
BTW, redwinger...thanks for your contributions here as well, I came across several of your helpful posts. ;-)

[Digital Aura]

Originally posted by Vossie:

Also note that Fertilizing your soil makes the Q go up. Which is influenced by the Q of your Dung.

Edit: Noticed it was already coverd.

Thanks though. Appreciate your thought.

[Digital Aura]

we need some input here on FOOD quality and its bearing on the Food quality meter. Anyone have insights?

[redwinger333]

Food quality is dependent on cooking level as for the maximum you can make. From there, the majority of the influence comes from quality of ingredients used, and to a lesser extent, the quality of the cooking pot used.

[redwinger333]

For example, Codfish with Cabbage, 30% of quality comes from the Q of cod used, 30% from the cabbage used, 10% from the cooking pot Q, and 10% from the quality of the cooking apparatus used. The remaining 20% is from your cooking level

In a more complex recipe like Meat kabobs which takes 5 ingredients, each component contributes 12% of the overall quality, with the cooking pot and cooking apparatus contributing 10%, and 20% from cooking level.


As a rule of thumb, 60% of quality is from ingredients.

[Digital Aura]

good info! thx. What about the actual Food Quality Meter, and its implications to your skill progression. I'm still cloudy on that stuff.

One thing that bothered me about this game so far, is that I'm already maxed out on Skillcap and Statcap, and yet our farmer is only just getting the ability to make 5 ingredient foods. The boiled eggs are STILL filling us up better than the complex meals.
At this point, the cooking seems to lag behind other skillsets and now it seems we don't even need the benefits of it. Cooking should level up really fast so you can reap the rewards of complex meals.

[ScareCrow]

perfectionism kills! thats all i have to say about that, stop trying to be perfect before it kills you. I got a story from world war 2 about a soldier who was inside a house and he spottet a painting on the wall slightly crooked hanging on the wall, he went over and adjusted the painting so it was hanging straight..... BOOM! the painting was boobytrapped the whole building went down killing all inside.. that should teach everyone something... have a nice day all. Crow out :)

[redwinger333]

A fundamental part of the game requires you to strive for higher quality... There's really no downside to aiming for 100 quality "Perfection"

[Digital Aura]

Originally posted by ScareCrow:

.. thats all i have to say about that,

you keep saying this, but you STILL insist on hijacking this thread. Feel free to contribute to our discussion on how seeking Q100 materials offers a richer play experience... or make your own dang thread about how perfectionism could have lost us the war.