Originally posted by Marukay:

Hey there! Thank you for providing us with this essential mod! I can't imagine any culture without some kind of writing in it, and it already feels so much more at home.

However, I have a question. Why cotton?

First books were codices, wooden plates with wax surfaces bound together. Then they used leather (vellum) for centuries, and only a couple of hundred years ago did they start to use paper. I'm talking about the pages, not even the cover. And papyrus was its own thing, and has never been used in bound form (to my knowledge, at least).

I'm not saying I miss additional complexity with paper-making workstations or some such. But using leather and wood would seem more reasonable in my opinion? Through the ages it has been one of the cheapest, easiest crafts known to humanity. I bound a few books myself with just paper, thread and glue - it really is that simple. But these are merely my thoughts, and I'm open to your argument for cotton! :)

Secondly, you said you are open to introducing fiction books. I am in two minds about this. For one, you already established textbooks for recreation. There are a few people I know who would read a textbook about crafts for fun (including me), but that's a rare species and the book needs to be good. Poets and writers of all ages created fictional stuff for entertainment, which is the stuff to go.

What makes fiction unique, when the people of Rimworld are content with reading textbooks? I could only suggest for writing fiction to work with the art skill instead of intellect, and that the product's quality works just as any other art would. I am not sure how the mechanics work in this game, whether art or intelligence can and/or should affect speed. To my personal experience as an amateur writer, writing textbooks about a skill I have (I wrote a couple of documentation and handbooks about IT-systems) is much easier than creating fiction (still working on my first book). Also, fiction can fail dramatically or be surprisingly good, while a skill has been field-tested and can't fail to hit the mark. Fiction should always be a ton of work, harder than writing a skill-book. The advantage is that the artist doesn't need any other skill, you get the standard art-quality-mechanics and inspirations to work.

And if you go that way, perhaps consider introducing the "copy book" bill. As I implied, the initial work into a book is extreme. But it's easily replicated afterwards. :)

Originally posted by CTH2004:

Originally posted by Marukay:

Hey there! Thank you for providing us with this essential mod! I can't imagine any culture without some kind of writing in it, and it already feels so much more at home.

However, I have a question. Why cotton?

First books were codices, wooden plates with wax surfaces bound together. Then they used leather (vellum) for centuries, and only a couple of hundred years ago did they start to use paper. I'm talking about the pages, not even the cover. And papyrus was its own thing, and has never been used in bound form (to my knowledge, at least).

I'm not saying I miss additional complexity with paper-making workstations or some such. But using leather and wood would seem more reasonable in my opinion? Through the ages it has been one of the cheapest, easiest crafts known to humanity. I bound a few books myself with just paper, thread and glue - it really is that simple. But these are merely my thoughts, and I'm open to your argument for cotton! :)

Secondly, you said you are open to introducing fiction books. I am in two minds about this. For one, you already established textbooks for recreation. There are a few people I know who would read a textbook about crafts for fun (including me), but that's a rare species and the book needs to be good. Poets and writers of all ages created fictional stuff for entertainment, which is the stuff to go.

What makes fiction unique, when the people of Rimworld are content with reading textbooks? I could only suggest for writing fiction to work with the art skill instead of intellect, and that the product's quality works just as any other art would. I am not sure how the mechanics work in this game, whether art or intelligence can and/or should affect speed. To my personal experience as an amateur writer, writing textbooks about a skill I have (I wrote a couple of documentation and handbooks about IT-systems) is much easier than creating fiction (still working on my first book). Also, fiction can fail dramatically or be surprisingly good, while a skill has been field-tested and can't fail to hit the mark. Fiction should always be a ton of work, harder than writing a skill-book. The advantage is that the artist doesn't need any other skill, you get the standard art-quality-mechanics and inspirations to work.

And if you go that way, perhaps consider introducing the "copy book" bill. As I implied, the initial work into a book is extreme. But it's easily replicated afterwards. :)

I linked your ideas Here