EDIT FOR BREVITY: Add a feature where we can process coal into heating fuel for homes.
I am wondering if we could get an update where we can turn coal into a “firewood” for house heating? I’ve had issues with low firewood but have had piles of coal readily available. Maybe set the firewood maker to use coal as an input and output a “firewood” as a game mechanic? Or perhaps the charcoal maker could have a mode to output “firewood” from coal?
I’m not sure what to call the output, and using coal in this way would likely hurt other industrial processes, but it makes some sense to me that it would be a possibility. Also a good use for the charcoal maker if one has an abundance of coal on the map.
Historically, coal is first mentioned in use to heat homes in the 10th century, in England, so it is perfectly arguable for a Medieval-themed game.
On the other hand, both coal and charcoal burn at much higher temperatures than ‘plain’ firewood does, so at the very least, coal or charcoal heating of homes should result in more homes catching fire - and the occasional wiping out of the inhabitants of the house by carbon monoxide poisoning
I am totally ok with a down side. Perhaps a luxury item like “cast iron stove” would be needed to take advantage of coal for home heating. Keeps it a tier 3 or 4 option, so firewood is still very important early on.
Cast Iron also requires much higher temperatures to produce than the ordinary wrought iron/low grade steel that was typical of Medieval Europe (smelting iron = temperatures of 900 - 1200 C, cast iron up to 1530 C). China was producing cast iron from about 500 BCE, because they had built kilns for firing porcelain that reached nearly the same high temperatures as for cast iron!
BUT if we start building a game of Medieval Technology, it gets ridiculously complicated and not much fun at all. Simpler to just allow Coal or Charcoal to be used instead of Firewood, say, only after you have Tier 3 metalworking like Tools - ‘Tools’ in this case could be the ironwork spits, spoons, skillets and pots to cook with the higher temperatures from coal, which would both impose an extra cost on heating each house (having to provide ‘tools’ for each House) and provide a high-end alternative to Firewood.
I have it so that I have tons of wood for firewood, planks, and logs. But I have had map after map of little to no coal. How I get so much wood, is that I set up two work camps where there is abundant wood (I play in either Idyllic Valley or Lowland Lakes. I know it would be different in other maps). I set them to work, and when they’ve cut some area, I come back and plant decorative trees. I know some people consider this a pain in the patoot, but once I have enough gold to support it, it serves me very well. I have between 2800 and 3000 wood most of the game, once this gets cranked up. So I can provide myself with enough wood. However, when I have no coal, all I can do is have charcoal makers, and that’s where my system with wood works well enough to supply those, too.
I get enough fires to keep busy with them. Sometimes I must have an arsonist running around, I get so many fires. Increased potential for more fires is just something I would rather not deal with.
What was the cause of low firewood? Not enough wood on the map? You didn’t create enough wood choppers to keep up with city growth? You didn’t have enough laborers/work camps to keep up with the tree cutting? All of these are resolvable with current game play.
As for that excess coal you have stored away you can sell it to the traders and buy logs, or use it to purchase a different good which requires firewood to produce.
From a game stand point, the “coal” is a vehicle for resource needed for forge/blacksmith, when really in early medieval times it would probably be all wood. This game makes me wonder about just how much wood was constantly harvested back in the day…
This is one of those suggestions, where I prefer a check list of advanced options for the player to tweak their own experience.
I had a similar thought. Something like, give t3 and above homes a toggle option to enable them to burn coal for heating, but give a five square radius of stacking negative desirability for doing so. Then it becomes an interesting tradeoff.
Just for clarity, it was my own mismanagement that led to me running out of firewood. But it did cause me to think about that pile of coal my town had but nobody burning it for warmth.