We don't have it yet, heat tempering doesn't strictly REQUIRE Steel, but the idea springboards off the process of adjusting carbon proportion in steel.
It's a little tricky to figure out that you don't actually want the same metal throughout your weapon, but that you needed certain parts to be soft and others to be hard.
Wasn't it the case that you wanted a
gradient of hardness on a blade? Hard on the blade and soft on the back? And this is part of the reason for "wave pattern" metals in things like katanas and wootz steel blades?
You were right on the romans; the 1 BC time, and the bit about badlands were both from actual roman uses of primitive versions of it, called "ground sluicing". That said, looking back at the bit about the badlands...:
"The remains at Las Médulas and in surrounding areas show
badland scenery on a gigantic scale owing to hydraulicking of the rich alluvial gold deposits. Las Médulas is now a
UNESCO World Heritage site. The site shows the remains of at least seven large
aqueducts of up to 30 miles (48 km) in length feeding large supplies of water into the site."
It does include aqueducts...we may end up with this either as a midturn decision, or as a mid-ironworks decision, when miners want to use this technique and the priests freak the fuck out over how terrible it is on the environment.
UUuuuuu. Nein! Neit! Iai!
*pinches nose bridge*
That's gonna
suuuuuuck if it comes up. *thinks for a second*
Actually couldn't our extant tailings pits handle it? Glaze the lining bricks like we always do and funnel the water into them using specialized glazed aqueducts?
*tilts head*
@veekie, would our tailings pits be able to halt the badlands effect at an increase in expense?
Ooh, and jumping off your suggestion of it altering policies, maybe it doubles industry policies? and/or gives a free one, a la the Law and infrastructure?
A free one I could see, doubling as well. I think we will have a much better handle on what it
does when we see the description and the action costs.
As for extended project...maybe? If so i imagine it would have to be more like salterns where we have limited sites, not like aqueducts or temples with lots of choices. Thinking on that comparison...maybe it would be for tech what salterns are for wealth?
Maybe? It makes... some sense? But I ain't feelin it, it seems more like a econ or something else. *scratches chin*
*shrug*
It
could definitely work as a drip for
something like a saltern does. Any such sites would be at old iron mines. So we'd have four... I think? One in Redhill eaten by the mega, one in Bleeding Cliff, one in the Stallions and one in Blackiron from West Wall I think.
I could even maybe see an econ drip, though i think if so it would have a wealth cost. So we could effectively trade our trade-based wealth drips for ironworks based econ drips (since iron mines give econ due to more tools)?
Oh Crow I want! Don't tempt me with sweet ideas Abby, I might dig out my old books and sell my soul to see that. My Hype Engine is spinning up!
At that point we could probably even convert them to martial drips (from weapons) during wartime.
And this would just be crazy bullshit. If we can switch all our iron works from "Econ drip" to "Martial drip" we'd be
shiting out Martial.
*clutches head*
It'd be like a weaker version of The King Still Stands(Three) but for
every conflict. And oh boy during a great power war or KOTH war we'd have
nuts martial growth. Green Hulk Vampire we would be.
Let the Armies of Doom march forth from our Ephel Dúath!
