Honey for Crafting

I would love to see honey/beehives added to the game. Honey is used in making mead (and possibly baked goods) and beehives could be harvested for wax.

 

it was confirmed that honey will be a key ingredient for brewing, and knowing RG, he'll also make sure that the wax can be used for bowstrings and repairs, and candles, etc too. i think we should wait until the end of q1, when they add brewing recipes, to see what they will need further. nows the time for ideas like this though.

if you are interested in brewing check out this thread: Brewing: What to Expect and what we want.

 

This actually was talked about but it was a long time ago. It seemed at the time that we would get it eventually.

 

Honey is just not honey, its dependant on what nectar is available and this would maybe be a good area to make regional differences matter.

I think I'm allergic to sugar after many years of experimentation i think it gives me spots so i happily get through 4 jars of honey a week with my sweet tooth so i I'm quite passionate about honey!

 

I might also add that honey can be used in non-magical healing.

 

fully agree there. local antioxidents would allow for locally-brewed methaglins (honey mead medicines like healing potions) to have more potency within its own borders. and that could tie into the nutrition system they're implementing that will kind of overlay every system out there for any item you can eat or drink.

hah great minds...

 

I am really excited about this. I would be a happy producer of honey related products or honey supplier when they put it in game.

 

@Crumpets keep me in mind, i may have need of raw honey from time to time as i plan on brewing mead and methaglins

 

Will do!

 

I hope that the devs remember that with honey there are bees.
Taming skills should be taken into consideration for harvest, as well as timing.
Bees also do not do well in cold, thus beehives in a snow environment would not do well, unless in an enclosed greenhouse with proper flowering plants for them to feed.

 

I am hoping we can beekeep - I would convert part of my greenhouse if we were allowed to do that.

 

Honey and wax as somthing you can gather would be great... but I wouldn't expect something like different types of honey from different blossom-types or something like that. I also could imagine "our" bees being somewhat bigger than the usual ones... we could have some giant killer bee hive as dungeons then

 

The hives could take flowers nearby to produce honey so you either have to plant the flower seeds in planters or purchase flower pots that feed the bees. I would keep the bees just because they would make a great decoration for my gardens.

 

Man made beehives have been in use since ancient Rome and Greece. Those were dome shaped, made of mud or clay and were single use. The bees built their hive inside and the hive was then broken open later to collect the honey which destroyed the hive and the bees. Skeps made of straw or grass are over 2000 years old, were used in the middle ages and most were also single use (same method). There was a later style of skep that was a "skep within a skep" design with a hat on top. The entire hive wasn't destroyed at harvest but it was damaged and the honey yield was lower. What we are used to seeing now - the bee box with internal frames - is a much later invention and unless we are going to have our clever kobold friends make one it wouldn't be very lore friendly. I agree that temperature should be taken into consideration because it is accurate to the care of bees. Given the above in regards to taming, the costs of taming, and that we may have people interested in this craft who are not tamers I would rather have that either be very low level taming specific to bees or give us a skill like a local smoking of the skep to remove the honey while the bees are sleepy if we are keeping the bees. Otherwise it might be okay to have the skeps be the traditional one use and get some bees back with the honey in the same way you get seeds back with planting.

 

Some notes and thoughts...

Ultima VII had a giant bee cave. Apart from being a source of honey.. smoke bombs were used. Also giant bee stingers were used in making special arrows.

Ultima also had bee hives. They were of the dome shaped variety. I don't specifically remember whether they were in Ultima VI or VII.. but probably VII.

A one use variety of bee hive is very likely (assuming we get them) as they would play off the agriculture tech already in-game with different stages of readiness on a 12, 24 or 36 hour timer. The devs would also likely consider using the same system for balance reasons and bee keeping would likely be considered an off-shoot of the agriculture skill.

My only concern is a statement Starr made awhile back regarding not having 'fuels' as harvestable but only purchaseable so they would have finer control of the costs of crafting. On the other hand.. if hives are rare in the wild and you have to buy or craft the hive itself you achieve the same goal.

 

It would be neat to see interaction with green houses; like putting an apiary in a greenhouse gives you a + .x modifier on your planting beds, as well as seeing the type of plants in the greenhouse influence the type of honey produced.

 

hm... or maybe use some sort of fire-based (smoke) AOE to down the swarm itself. if so, i'd prefer a cone, not 360 degree aoe.

 

and you could make candles and wax etc....but i think they need to come out with beesuit! lol go into a town and tell everyone not to worry everything is ok in this suit! lol but beesuits should be needed to harvest if thats what your going to do (hell id do it and im not even a crafter)

 

instead of just beesuits - how about clockpunk bee smokers.. heck, lets get a bundle for this.. suit, smoker, emote, teachable mead recipe, and a beehive deco item (that is usable bor beekeeping)

for the smoker, you could repurpose the lantern/flashlight and put the cone on top of it and add a smoking animation to it instead of a light.

oooo and a beard, that can be your emote, bees buzz in you in a swarm from all directions, and you then wear a beard till you toggle it off, and a slight buzzing sound comes from your avatar.

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