Dev Diary #5 - Explosives & Fertilizer

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all doing well. This dev diary is a bit more "technical" since it goes into a lot of new chemistry-related stuff getting added in 0.10.

Lime

A new rock formation of limestone can now be found on the map. It will drop limestone stones which can be burnt in the new lime kiln to get quicklime (a volume). You can then mix the quicklime with water to get slaked lime.

In this update lime still has very limited use but in the future it's planned to become the key ingredient for a number of products.

Ash & Caustic potash

Burning wood with enough oxygen will now also leave ash as a byproduct. Slaked lime can be mixed with ash to make caustic potash. Mixing animal fats with caustic potash will yield glycerol, a precursor for nitroglycerin (a precursor to dynamite).

Potassium nitrate

As mentioned in post Dev Diary #2 one of the stones of evaporites is potassium niter which can be crushed to get potassium nitrate (a volume). An alternative method to produce it is by mixing caustic potash with nitric acid. Nitric acid is a new acid which can be obtained by mixing sulfuric acid with potassium nitrate. It is another precursor to nitroglycerin.

Nitration

To make nitroglycerin you need to mix glycerol, nitric acid and sulfuric acid. However, doing because doing this reaction generates a lot of heat it will eventually detonate the nitroglycerin in a regular container. Respectively, a new structure you can build is the nitration reactor. It will keep the reactants below a player-specified temperature.

Dynamite

You can then mix nitroglycerin and clay to make dynamite (volume). This volume is the ingredient for crafting dynamite sticks. They can be lit and thrown at enemies or at objects such as buildings or rock boulders to destroy them.

RDX & Frag Grenades

Another explosive you can manufacture is RDX. You just need to add nitric acid, hexamine (can currently only be purchased in shop) and acetic anhydride together in a nitration reactor. RDX can then be used to craft frag grenades and landmines.

For frag grenades you will also need metal pellets which can be crafted in the new metalworking table.

Fertilizer

Each soil tile now has three soil values: Phosphorus, Nitrogen and Potassium. Each plant has a different optimal fertility requirement as well as a tolerated range of fertility values, affecting the growth speed of it.

In order to increase the fertility of a soil tile you can pour a fertilizer such as potassium nitrate (high potassium and a bit of nitrogen) or bone meal (phosphorus and a bit of nitrogen). Cutting down trees. digging up shrubs and decayed organic items can also increase fertility of the surrounding soil.

Some soils have more nutrient retention than others, making fertilizers more efficient.

That's it for the 0.10 update though! Next week's post will already be about the first 0.11 mechanics: New territorial control system and other criminal factions.