.
Ah cool
Thank you for your Answer.
I like the idea of a ropery in the game. I read on the internet that ropes were even made out of flax or are still being made. So it would fit well into the game.
First having the normal simple iron and then in the endgame steel is a great idea, so that you have another goal in mind.
At Noraskog in the Swedish parish of Järnboås, there has been found traces of blast furnaces dating to around 1100.
In Lapphyttan in Sweden there was an old blast furnace that was in operation between 1205 and 1300. It looks really good and would fit perfectly into the game.
I’ve played The North 6 and 7 already a lot and I noticed a few things in terms of balancing etc. Are you interested that I write a detailed test/report about it in German then? Maybe you like some ideas or even have them already in mind. I would like to help to make it the best mod ever^^.
Grüße Jase
I have informed myself again on the Internet about the Lapphytan blast furnace. The waterwheel was used to drive a leather piston bellows to keep the fire at the right temperature. the most of the old blast furnaces had a water wheel for that. Maybe you can just leave it out and put a big kick bellows on it like in the picture, I don’t know.
Iron and steel production in the early days is not an easy subject.
Yes it is true, the iron ore was melted there by the high temperatures. In Lapphytan, there was a so-called Stückofen (wolf furnace).
The wolf furnace was the predecessor of the blast furnace. In these furnaces, much larger quantities of pig iron could be obtained. However, the “pieces”, i.e. the forgeable iron, were so large that they could hardly be forged with muscle power. A water-powered hammer replaced the human labour force.
Now, the Blacksmith in “The North” processes the bloom by hammering and glowing it into soft iron or wrought iron. To then make tools from them.
There are over 2,500 types of steel with different compositions and different carbon grades. In contrast to pig iron, steel contains low levels of carbon and phosphorus. Only this makes it possible to form the steel. So actually, the blacksmith makes a kind of steel out of the bloom… because iron cannot be processed into tools.
From the blast furnace comes pig iron, which contains 3.5-4.5% carbon, which makes it brittle and softens immediately when heated. The carbon content in steel is usually <1%. Steels are iron-carbon alloys that contain less than 1% carbon. As the iron melts in the blast furnace, the carbon content is higher than in the bloomery furnace.
For the simplicity of the game I would leave the iron as it is now. And simply say that steel comes out of the new lapphytan furnace because it has already been processed there on site. Like you said, in a workshop next door. And they could use the same water power for the big hammer.
Or you don’t do a workshop next door, use banniepower instead of water and make a finery forge like you see on the picture with the big hammers. This could then be used to make iron bars from the Bloom and steel bars from the pig iron. That way, the blacksmith wouldn’t always have to switch between making iron and making tools.
Or you can simply put a water wheel on the current Blacksmith Shop and say that he has a big hammer to make the steel.
Maybe I like the second variant with the finery forge better because it would extend the work chain of tool production. And it would be more automated.
But both variants are good and logical.
