Need uses for cattails
ScottKillen opened this issue · 9 comments
From #16
Cattails - craft to roots, heads and stalks
Uses for these items can be gleaned from the wiki article.
I like your suggestions very much but am wondering if you can think of any uses for peaceful mode? A lot of people play in peaceful mode and I like to see things that can have use no matter what mode you play.
Keeping in theme with vanilla (in a tongue in cheek way) perhaps Creepers could dislike the cattails plant for whatever reason similar to how they are afraid of cats in-game. I'm particularly fond of creepers being afraid of cats since it was added a week or two after I suggested it to Jeb and/or someone else at mojang on twitter. ;).
This would primarily apply to the actual living plant. So strategic planting or relocation of cattails could help to keep creepers away from a specific area, not to mention make the area more beautiful!
Perhaps cattails could even form natural rings around small areas in minecraft nature, not necessarily every time that they occur but a decent percentage of the time. Peaceful little glens providing natural protection from creepers. This would be a positive manifestation of natures balance in minecraft instead of just having monsters and threats everywhere.
Perhaps a cattail balm could be made out of a sufficient quantity of cattail parts. Each use of a crafted balm on the player could act like Creeper repellant for a period of time.
Maybe Legend Oaks could even repel monsters?
Also; could the cattail stalks be made a more yellowish green? Essentially less green. Or actually, if the current coloring is an accurate representation then perhaps there could be some way or biome within which their stalks could be yellow/brown like below, which is closer to how I'm used to seeing them:
http://ih1.redbubble.net/image.5039215.1321/flat,550x550,075,f.jpg
Thanks both of you. :)
Well, I've actually skimmed the wiki article this time that Scott posted at the start and am starting to think of more things.
Surprisingly my mention of using cattails as a balm was spot on without me even knowing it. According to the wiki the boiled rootstocks have been used mashed to make a jelly-like paste for sores, boils, wounds, burns, scabs, and smallpox pustules. I'd call that a balm.
So perhaps boiling/furnacing the roots could create healing balms without using magic, and adding the fluffy top part into the balm creates the anti-creeper effect.
- I personally love the idea of creating "natural" ways to accomplish various things in minecraft without having to always use "magic". Magic just feels like a cop-out for the type of survival game I original thought minecraft was back in alpha.
And of course the top fluffy part has been used as clothing filler in RL similar to cotton, and for pillows and beds and such. So perhaps it could be another way to make string at the least, and in larger quantities a replacement for wool in a pinch.
-- So it could be a complete replacement for bothering sheep for their wool, which I believe will be desirable for some people. I think it should require a large quantity of these plants to equal the amount of wool that even one sheep can produce though, due to how small the top of each cattail is in comparison, but again, for some people this would still be worth it. It would at least be nice for the option to exist.
I can't help but also think that the stalks could also be used as a sort of reed for weaving and such, at least for lighter things like back-packs or perhaps rope. And maybe as another source for paper?
Also kind of ironically, burning a cattail in RL has insect repellent properties (similar to the creeper repellent properties I suggested). The more I read that wiki about real cattails the more I think my suggestions for these minecraft ones have a solid basis.
- Real = Burning cattails used as insect repellent.
MC = Cattails are Creeper repellant. - Real = Cattail roots used to create paste/balm to assist various healing.
MC = Cattail roots used to create healing balm.
MC Vanilla = Creepers avoid cats.
MC = #1 + Cattail tops mixed into cattail root balm makes a creeper repellant balm. - Real = Cattail tops used as clothing and clothing filler.
MC = Cattail tops, in quantity, can become thread and even wool.
Not a bad setup; to think of it in terms of resource allocation, you have 1 plant that provides 2 resources, A+B.
A = consumable with general use (+HP)
A+B = consumable with niche, interesting, and highly-valuable survival-flavored effect (creeper repellant)
B = inefficient alternative for acquiring another resource
Having the two resources have both split uses and combined uses is very good design; the most "valuable" of these is the combination cost with depletes both resources rapidly. If you favor producing A, then you build a large surplus of B that gives 'free' B stuff, and makes A into the limiting factor for when you want A+B.
Everything should have a use, if not multiple uses, and needless complication should be avoided.
Cattails could possibly be used instead of wheat in a recipe, similar to how toadstools are used.
The wiki link says that cattails can be used to remove arsenic from water; maybe a cooked cattail could remove poison?
Huh. According to that Wiki, cattails are actually a very useful crop. They're a good food source, can make paper, make a substitute for cotton, make ethenol/biofuel, and makes good boats and insulation...
So, some things that come to mind;
- As someone else said, substitute for wheat. (Maybe smelts into bread?)
- Can be fed to animals to heal them.
- 2-1 substitute for reeds in paper?
- Making a canoe?
- Conversion into wool blocks/string. (Maybe two cattail into four string.)
- Also, since there seems to be a number of medical uses, both cleaning arsenic and as a salve. Perhaps they could be brewed into a potion that provides resistance to status effects (at least the harmful ones) by making their durations shorter, and when reversed causes them to last longer instead.