Is it just me, or is cotton really rare, now?

[LokitheWeaver]

Started a new game, last night - my usual drop most of the newbie gear and run around trying to find branches, rock shards and iron rock to make crude tools, etc. In about two hours of searching forests, patches of grass with rocks and anyplace else I could think of, I had not found a single piece of cotton, nor a single tree branch. I did have one rock shard, one flint and one iron rock - so I could at least make a crude knife.

But . . . not a single tree had a branch on it? And I had several healing poultices, from all the other stuff I had found (new and old) but not a single piece of cotton - which is such an important item early game (healing ! ! !) Especially when I discovered that crude stone shovels, crude stone axes and crude knives don't seem to work as weapons. I ended up kicking a small bird to death, when I was desperate for food and my knife did no damage.

Then had to run away from a ruddy sheep (a young one, at that), when after many rounds of combat - me thinking I was whacking him with my stone axe - I finally looked closely at the combat messages and saw I was doing no damage with the axe. I had managed to punch and kick him a couple times. But he had returned the favor, in spades, and I was at half health.

Normally I use the grace period of quick healing at a start of a new game to gain a little combat and first aid skills. But with no cotton, that plan did not work out well <LOL>

I am guessing that all the new items for cooking are now on the same list as cotton . . .

[Ozgamer]

Tundra is usually the place to get cotton,

[Arch]

With 1.3 the forage table is a little larger, yes.

Cotton is more common when you're over 15% wounded iirc too.

[LokitheWeaver]

@Ozgamer - not certain which area you are referring to (since "tundra" usually means area cold / arctic). The grassy areas with no / few trees and random scattered "rocks"? (I think that is the area. At least in past games that was where I usually found plenty of the stuff - which is why I was so confused / worried that I had not a single piece in several hours of searching)

BTW - I did finally find one piece of cotton, last night. After about 9-10 hours (real world) of searching <LOL>

@Retrograde - now there is something I did not try. Desperation : ) Usually I plan to have some bandages and healing covers "before" I get wounded. Your team may want to keep an eye on how the new items effect more commonly needed drops. I kept finding all sorts of nice new cooking herbs, etc. but most of those become more important later in the game, when a character has access to better "stuff" and probably has a farm (or access to one).

At that point, a single herb can be farmed and provide plenty of what you need for cooking. But cotton? No cotton = now bandages. No cotton = no fishing pole (so the only way to get meat is to fight . . .) No cotton means no "clothes" (not a problem for most characters with the nice newbie gear, but still useful for gaining skill in tailoring which is needed for all sorts of stuff.)

Which brings up a question. Is wool still only used for hats and a couple of decorative items? I know I have suggested (in the past) that wool clothing might be an easy addition (no real new models needed). Sheep seem pretty common in my game (compared to cotton : )

In fact, wool might even be an interesting additional "healing" item. Raw wool (as long as it is not "soiled") contains lanolin, as well as having better absorbtion, compared to cotton. When my sheep are sheared (in real life) they often get cuts or nicks, which heal up pretty well on their own (and I am told part of that is the lanolin, etc.)

Cheers.

[Ozgamer]

you are 100% correct on the tundra, but in wurm world it's the red colored area, where you are likely to find more berries and cotton and wemp plants than anywhere else.

[LokitheWeaver]

Originally posted by Ozgamer:

you are 100% correct on the tundra, but in wurm world it's the red colored area, where you are likely to find more berries and cotton and wemp plants than anywhere else.

That makes sense. All the hours I have spent playing this game and still basic things to learn. Oddly enough I am not certain I have even seen that biome. My creative spawns tend to place me right near the water, with normal grasslands, forests and the odd deposit of clay / tar. Once I get a rowboat I just head across the water to the nearest sheer stone cliff face and hope I get lucky with iron and other resources.

There are literally huge areas of the map I have never explored in many hundreds of hours of play. <LOL>

Thanks for the info. Just out of curiosity, does it show up red on the map and I am just not noticing it (since I am typically just trying to ID my spawn location and close landmarks?)

[Brewdu]

If in creative, look In the SE section of the map along with the SW and yes it is a reddish hue on the map. Will add a screenshot of creative map soon if you can't find it.

[LokitheWeaver]

Originally posted by brew:

If in creative, look In the SE section of the map along with the SW and yes it is a reddish hue on the map. Will add a screenshot of creative map soon if you can't find it.

Ah, no wonder I have never seen it. That is evil "black light" territory : )

I am more a "Fo' ish" person. Hang out on the nice beach, pick a bunch of flowers, cut down a bunch of trees, kill a bunch of animals. Hm. Come to think of it, perhaps that is why I never make it to becoming an actual Priest <LOL>

No worries about the screen shot. With the SE / SW info, I can check it out on the map, tonight, when I get home.

Thanks.

[Myst Leissa]

just a thought, why is tundra red? >.> @Retrograde - is your entire team colorblind :p

[Arch]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra

Tundra is red in many places! Especially the north of sweden, reason for this is it's cold! "Many plants have leaves that are dark red. Dark leaves allow the plant to absorb more heat from the sun in the cold tundra climate."