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Large pot

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Large pot
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  • Storage
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Pots, also known as large pots, are containers that function much like barrels, and have the same capacity, but can be made from materials other than wood or metal, such as stone, ceramic, and glass. The game refers to these containers sometimes as "pot" and sometimes as "large pot" but there is no actual distinction.

For most uses, large pots can replace barrels. However, stone pots are usually heavier than wooden barrels, so tasks that require moving stone barrels may be slowed to some extent compared to wooden ones. (See "material selection", below).

Note, however, that large pots cannot replace barrels in all situations. Some tasks may specifically require "barrels", and some workshops specify a barrel for their construction, e.g. an Ashery.

Large Pots can be made from stone by a stone crafter at a craftsdwarf's workshop, ceramic at a kiln, glass at a glass furnace, wood at a craftsdwarf's workshop, or metal at a metalsmith's forge. Pots made from stone, stoneware, glass, wood, porcelain, metal, or glazed earthenware are water-tight and can be used to store liquids, and even for brewing. Unglazed earthenware can only be used for storing dry items. Metal pots are made using the metalcrafting skill, as opposed to metal barrels, which use the blacksmithing skill.

Pots are stored in the Large Pots/Food Storage section of the Furniture stockpile. Empty pots are listed under Tools when viewing the fortress's stocks or when moving them to a trade depot.

Material selection

As with other containers, several factors are relevant in choosing the proper material for making large pots. Namely, availability, value, fire/magma safety, vermin resistance, hippie elf kosherness, and most importantly weight.

Pots made from stone of typical density will be 33% heavier than wooden barrels. Fire clay 'stoneware' pots weigh the same as a wooden barrel, while earthenware pots are lighter but must be glazed. This makes large pots superior for any stockpile that does not require the containers to be moved, such as prepared meals. Pots are only 1/4 as heavy[1] as barrels made from the same material (e.g. metal, glass).

This means metal pots are generally a better storage option than metal barrels, saving the industry precious dwarf-hours by hauling faster due to lighter containers. Additionally, a metal barrel costs 3 bars, but a metal pot only 1, making metal barrels a vastly less attractive option.

But in the case of large pots, stones are typically used chiefly due to their abundance, especially for young outposts. Doing so will conserve wood (likely the only other economic choice) for tasks for which stones cannot be used (and metals are not always practical), such as making beds, bins, buckets, cages, charcoal, crutches and splints, pipe sections, stepladders, training weapons, wheelbarrows, and many other items* of various usefulness and importance.

(* crossbows & bolts could fall here, too, but those often deserve to be made of a weapons-grade metal)

Unless, of course, the embark location has trees aplenty, making it viable to use wood for most everything, including pots, though this obviously requires a sufficient amount of woodcutters, wood crafters, axes, and contempt towards the tree-huggers elves.

Forging and Melting

  • When a pot is melted down, it will return 0.3 metal bars/adamantine wafers for an efficiency of 30%.

Bugs


See also

"Large pot" in other Languages Books-aj.svg aj ashton 01.svg
Dwarven: or tezad
Elvish: lacifa momo
Goblin: sted ag
Human: lod utag