Guides > Wood Treatment

Overview

Wood treatment is performed in a wood treatment tank, using small amounts of various chemicals to treat from 1 to 500 boards at a time for various attributes. It costs the same amount of resources to treat a single board as it does to treat a full batch of 500.

During the treating process, the boards are measured on 8 scales: Flexibility, Cuttability, Flammability, Water Resistance, Insect Toxicity, Human Toxicity, Darkness and Glossiness.

They can be adjusted by treating with any or all of: Ash, Beeswax, Lead, Lime, Oil, Tar, Potash, Saltpeter, Sulfur or Water.

(For Tale 1 players, everything in Wood Treatment works exactly the same but now Tar replaces Petroleum as a resource, but with the same values that petroleum used to have)

Each chemical has an 'ideal' set of values for the attributes, and will attract the boards' attributes toward the ideals. The attraction behaves like a magnet; a strong effect when the attribute is already close, and much weaker when the attribute is far from the ideal.

The final outcome will be a set of boards with named properties where the attributes were particularly high or low:

Attribute Chart

Variable	Very Low (<=7)	Low (>7, <=21)	Very High (>=58)
Flexibility:	"Rigid"		"Pliable"
Cuttability:	"Hard"		"Soft"
Flammability:	"Fireproof"		"Volatile"
Water resistance:			"Rotproof"
Insect Toxicity:	"Termite-prone"		"Termite-resistant"
Human Toxicity:	"Nontoxic"
Darkness:	"White"	"Blonde"	"Black"
Glossiness:			"Glossy"

If a set of boards has no named properties, they can be removed unchanged as normal boards and optionally reinserted again to reset them to 'untreated board' values. Boards with named properties cannot be loaded into the treater.

Every 10 seconds of treatment consumes 1 deben of the material. So 385 seconds of beeswax treatment would require 39 debens of beeswax. Boards with extra properties will be accepted by the construction site. "Rigid Hard Blonde" satisfies the "Rigid Hard" requirement.

The numbers given for the properties represent pixels of the blue bar on the screen. A value of -3 means there are no blue pixels left visible on the bar, 69 is the highest value possible with a full bar.

Value Chart

	Untreated Boards	Ash	Beeswax	Lead	Lime	Oil	Tar	Potash	Saltpeter	Sulfur	Water
Flexibility	33	69	45	5	-3	53	37	21	61	13	29
Cuttability	33	53	37	5	21	29	13	61	69	-3	45
Flammability	33	-3	37	21	5	45	69	13	53	61	29
Water Resist	26	21	69	29	45	53	61	5	13	31	-3
Insect Tox	22	37	21	69	5	13	61	29	53	45	-3
Human Tox	15	45	37	61	13	29	53	21	5	69	-3
Darkness	33	45	37	69	-3	53	61	5	13	21	29
Glossiness	4	-3	69	29	13	61	53	5	45	21	37

Three principles of the Wood Treatment Tank

They're mentioned above, but they bear repeating.

1. The closer the value for some attribute is to what the "ideal" for the treatment chemical is, the more effect it will have. The K values mentioned in this article are most useful for determining which properties move the slowest.
2. If it isn't mentioned in the requirements, it doesn't affect you. That is, if you need "Rigid boards", any board type with "Rigid" in the description works. Rigid, Glossy, Rigid Blond, Rigid Black, all would work.
3. Volume counts. 10 seconds of treatment costs the same as 1 second; 500 boards cost the same to treat as 1.

K Values

The guide to calculating K Values, the examples below, and the guide to finding new recipes even further below, and the spreadsheets at the bottom were all written by Dragyn. If you have any questions, complaints, or corrections about this guide feel free to bug him.

K Values are a term that was invented during Tale 1. It refers to the rate of speed at which a given bar will raise/drop for a particular wood treatment tank. Each attribute (Flexibility, Cuttability, etc.) will have a different K Value. Every Wood Treatment Tank has a different set of K Values. Once you calculate the K Values for your specific Wood Treatment Tank, you can then use a simulator to predict with about 99%+ accuracy the results of any given recipe. You can use the simulators listed below without calculating the specific K Values for your wood treatment tank, but it will not give you very accurate results.

Calculating K Values involves some slightly complex math. To Test K Values you only need 1 board to be loaded into the treatment tank. The idea is that you want to measure the amount of resources required to change one of the bars from a given known starting value to a given known final value. The further apart the two known values are that you are testing, the more accurate the K Value you calculate will be. If you only test the Glossiness range from 4 to 13 (difference of 9), you will have a much less accurate result than if you test the full range from -3 to 69 (difference of of 72).

The formula used to calculate the K Value is: (((End Value - Start Value)²)/ResourceSeconds)/2

Simple Example

We know that an untreated board starts with a glossiness of 4 by looking in the table. If we used beeswax to shift the glossiness higher, it would eventually reach 69 according to the table. So the "End Value" would be 69. The "Start Value" would be 4. So next you test with your wood treatment tank and find out how many seconds of beeswax treatment it takes to max out the glossiness on an untreated board. Lets say for this example it took 460 seconds of Beeswax exactly to do that and then the glossiness bar is maxed out at 69.

Formula would then be:
(((69 - 4)²)/460)/2 (or 65²/460/2 or 4225/460/2 or 4.5923913)

So the Glossiness K Value in our example wood treatment tank would be: 4.5923913

Advanced Example

Lets continue from our previous example. With lots of beeswax applied to the untreated board we did before, we can see from the chart that the Water Resistance should also be maxed out at 69. So to calculate the Water Resistance K Value we will need to drop the Water Resistance as low as possible from that high starting point. The resource Water actually lowers the water resistance, and it will take it all the way to -3. So our end value is -3, our start value is 69. Apply lots of water to the board from the previous example until the water resistance bar is completely gone. Let's say that took 593 seconds of water treatment exactly.

Formula would then be:
(((-3 - 69)²)/593)/2 (or -72²/593/2 or 5184/593/2 or 4.3709949)

So the Water Resistance K Value in this example would be 4.3709949.

Complex Example

Continuing from the previous example, after we have added lots of water, we can see on the chart that the Insect Toxicity should currently be -3 (no bar visible). Lead is what raises the Insect Toxicity the most (to 69) but it is a fairly valuable resource, so isn't very desirable for testing. We can also see from the chart that Tar would raise it to 61 but is also a valuable resource. However, the chart says that Saltpeter will raise the Insect Toxicity to 53 and is a cheap material so we will use that. Our end value is then 53 and our starting value is -3. We need to see how many seconds of Saltpeter will raise the bar to the value 53. However, since the bar will not be maxed out, we can't use that clue to let us know when we've reached 53. Since it won't go any higher than 53 though, we know that when the bar stops going up we've reached 53. Lets say for this example it takes us 374 seconds of Saltpeter when the bar finally stops moving.

Formula would then be:
(((-3 - 53))²/374/2 (or -56²/374/2 or 3136/374/2 or 4.1925133)

So the Insect Toxicity K Value in this example would be 4.1925133.

Finding a new recipe with a Simulator

There are links below to different simulators you can use to try to find new recipes for a given type of boards. In order for the simulators to be accurate, you must calculate your K Values above and enter them into the simulator you are using in order to get accurate predictions.

Here is Dragyn's basic methodology for using a simulator to find a new recipe for a given type of boards.

Simple Example

We will use the example of trying to discover a recipe for Pliable, White boards.

To start with, take a look at what values you will need in order to get the attributes "Pliable" and "White" in the Attribute table above.

• Pliable - Requires High Flexibility (>=58)
• White - Requires Low Darkness (<=7)

Then take a look at the Value Table above that shows the value of each resource that can be used to treat boards. We can see that Ash has the highest Flexibility, but it is a rather valuable resource. We also see that Saltpeter has a high enough Flexibility (61) so that will work. For Darkness, we see that Lime and Potash both have low enough Darkness values (-3 and 5). Since lime is generally the cheaper of the two resources we will use that.

So our basic strategy will be to use Saltpeter to raise the Flexibility to Pliable, and Lime to lower the Darkness to White.

Using the K Values for my Wood Treatment Tank in a simulator, I find that adding 83 seconds of saltpeter will change the boards to pliable. I then find that adding 17 seconds of Lime will make the boards White. But the simulator shows 17 seconds of lime will take away the Pliable attribute. So how do you get it back? One way would be to add more salpeter after the lime at the end, but a better way is to try to increase the amount of saltpeter added in the first place. I find that if I add 84 seconds of saltpeter and then 17 seconds of lime, the recipe stays Pliable and is White.

So then the finished recipe would be:
Pliable, White Boards - 84 seconds of saltpeter, 17 seconds of lime

Complex Example

We will use the example of trying to discover a really cheap recipe for Black Glossy Hard boards.

First lets look at the requirements needed for each attribute:

Black = Darkness >=58
Glossy = Glossy >=58
Hard = Cuttability <=7

Then lets look at the resources that can be used to reach those requirements:

Black = Tar (61), Lead (69)
Glossy = Oil (61), Beeswax (69)
Hard = Lead (5), Sulfur (-3)

Notice that Lead will make both Black and Hard, so a valid approach to making this recipe would to use large amounts of lead, however since I do not consider Lead to be a cheap resource, I would rather find a different recipe using cheaper resources or at least small amounts of lead.

One tip that works well when first deciding how to start a recipe, is to compare the values of untreated boards to the values of boards that have been treated to the max with water. Since water is effectively free, we can use it as a starting point if it will make the recipe cheaper. If you look on the Value Chart above, you will see that water treated boards have a much higher glossiness than untreated boards, which makes it a better start.

Using a simulator I can see with my K Values for my Wood Treatment Tank I will need to add 130 seconds of Water to get the glossiness up to the level water can raise it to. This brings Glossy up to 37, over half way to the goal.

To raise glossy the rest of the way, I decide to use Beeswax which is cheap and I find in the simulator I need to apply 120 seconds of beeswax to raise the Glossy the rest of the way. Beeswax is cheap, but its not quite free like water, so I look at the chart and see how I can optimize that. Since the speed at which the bars changes works like a magnet, then the closer the target value you're approaching is to the current value, the faster the change will happen. The resources that raise Glossy from out starting value of 37 are:

Saltpeter 45
Tar 53 <-- too expensive!
Oil 61
Beeswax 69

So rather than apply 130 seconds of beeswax, I use the simulator to find instead I can apply 10 seconds of Saltpeter, (skip the Tar for being to expensive), then 30 seconds of Oil, and 8 seconds of Beeswax to reach the same glossiness. This costs 1 deben of salpeter, 3 debens of oil, and 1 deben of beeswax instead of 13 debens of beeswax, a bit of saving.

Next we need to raise Darkness or lower Cuttability. Lead would work great for this, but I would rather avoid using it except as a last resort. I see on the value chart that Oil will actually raise the Darkness and lower the Cuttability both at the same time from the current values, and using the simulator find that I can apply 32 seconds of Oil. This lowers the Glossy a bit, but is still high enough to be Glossy (61). But it raises Darkness to 53 and lowers Cuttability to 29.

Now I'm starting to get stuck, the only items that will both raise darkness and lower cuttability are tar and lead. So at this point I try to see how I can apply them minimally with the simulator to reach the goals I need. I find that the minimal combination I have to apply is 28 seconds of Tar followed by 6 seconds of Lead. This gives me both Black and Hard boards, but the Glossy has fallen off and it is no longer Glossy.

I find in the simulator that if I add 9 seconds of Oil, the Glossy comes back but then the Black disappears as the Darkness drops to low. I then find that if I add 2 more seconds of lead after that, the Black comes back without taking away the Glossy.

I now have a finished recipe for Black, Glossy, Hard Boards that looks like this:

130 Water, 10 Saltpeter, 30 Oil, 8 Beeswax, 32 Oil, 28 Tar, 6 Lead, 9 Oil, 2 Lead

This recipe could be used to treat 500 boards at the cost of (all listed in debens of resources) 13 water, 1 saltpeter, 8 oil, 1 beeswax, 3 tar, 2 lead. Still a fairly expensive recipe, but a lot cheaper than starting by adding lots of lead. This recipe works in my tank, but may not be the asbolute cheapest possible recipe, it was meant to illustrate the kind of thought that goes into the process of finding a recipe. By juggling around the numbers a little, you can further optimize the recipe and make it even cheaper like this:

130 Water, 20 Beeswax, 30 Oil, 30 Tar, 10 Lead, 12 Oil

Which only uses (listed in debens) 13 water, 2 beeswax, 4 oil, 3 tar, 1 lead. Not a bad cost for such a difficult board.

Why would you want to optimize a recipe to make it as cheap as you possibly can? For making 500 boards the recipe cost is not a big deal, however for building a Mega in Tale 1, we had to make over 50,000 of specific types of treated boards. If you're treating boards in that kind of quantity, the cost of the recipe becomes much more important, and you should consider optimizing it with a simulator as much as possible.

Wood Treatment without K values

AKA the intuitive method. Or just dinking around with it until it works. Proof that you don't HAVE to analyze the spots out of your tank before using it to make real boards...

Getting a board type that has only one property is relatively simple. Choose successive treatments that are closer to the attribute you want, or are cheap.

Using the example of Glossy boards above,

1. 460 seconds to treat with just beeswax.
2. or 130 seconds of water, and 120 of beeswax (250 seconds)
3. or 130 of water (it's essentially free), 10 of saltpeter, 30 of oil, and 8 of beeswax: 178 seconds of treatment.

For your own tank, your times will vary, but (for a single attribute) the order will be largely the same. And time may be cheap, but not all ingredients are: You could do the 460 second beeswax treatment fairly cheaply. But if it were lead instead?

For two (or more) attributes, though, you have to pay more attention to how hard, or how expensive, it is to alter each of the attributes. Ideally, you want to use the treatments that most advance you towards all your goals, or that cause the least disruption FROM your goals. Reserve the most expensive treatments for when they will cause the most positive effect. ... which is not always at the end.

Example: you want boards that are both soft and rotproof. Sulfur and water are both relatively cheap, but sulfur promotes rotproof and not soft, and vice versa for water. However, you can alternate them. Sure, the sulfur will move the boards towards hard, and the water towards rot-prone. But the next cycle of sulfur moves the boards closer to rotproof than the water moved them away.

See Also

Recipes

Recipes listed may not work for you exactly as written because of varying K Values:

• Wood Treatment Recipes
• Old T1 Recipes that should still work

Simulators

Web-based wood treatment tank simulator (with a place to enter your own K Values):

• http://atitd.jayseven.com/woodtreatment/default.asp

Spreadsheet wood treatment tank simulator (with a place to enter your own K Values):

• Open Office Format - Supports macros for dropdowns, clearing, saving and recalling
• Microsoft Excel Format - No macros for dropdowns, clearing, saving, and recalling but basic calculations should still work

 (can someone verify this with Excel please and let me know -Dragyn)

• The Excel speradsheet didn't work for me. I downloaded Open Office from http://www.openoffice.org/ That simulator works perfectly.
  Thnx Dragyn! - EveF, Oct 8/05

Recipe calculater

This little perlscript will generate a recipe for some property. Requires a perl.

• woodtreat.pl - Calculates complete recipes. Made by Cappu. Drop me a chat if you have questions