I might be somewhat experienced in this game mod but for the life of me i cannot figure how to turn my shells into shellplate, the workshop itself seems to want TANNNED_HIDE though im not sure what that means since you do not tan shells as far as i know. also would anyone be able to tell me the difference between the shell,scaleplate, hardened leather and the usual things? also to add i wish to know if bone machetes,horn weapons and other things have actually have an edge? currently im playing asmotubols version
okay leather comes in 4 types: shell, chitin, leather, and scale.
these can be hardened into: shellplate, hardened chitin, hardened leather, and scaleplate. which is just as it sounds a harder version of the basic form and they really aren't that much different between them. you can find their definitions in: material_template_default.txt
all of these basic form from butchering are listed as [MATERIAL_REACTION_PRODUCT:TAN_MAT:LOCAL_CREATURE_MAT:TANNED_{LEATHER|SHELL|CHITIN|SCALE}]
so if you actually get shell its cleaned up at the tanner into leather through this reaction:
[REACTION:TAN_A_HIDE]
[NAME:tan a hide]
[BUILDING:TANNER:CUSTOM_T]
=> These raws are inactive, while the button says YES/ON
YES_MORE_LEATHERMOD!REAGENT:A:1:NONE:NONE:NONE:NONE]
YES_MORE_LEATHERMOD!USE_BODY_COMPONENT]
=> These raws are active, while the buttons says YES/ON
YES_MORE_LEATHERMOD[REAGENT:A:450:GLOB:NONE:NONE:NONE]
YES_MORE_LEATHERMOD[REACTION_CLASS:SKIN]
[UNROTTEN]
[HAS_MATERIAL_REACTION_PRODUCT:TAN_MAT]
[PRODUCT:100:1:SKIN_TANNED:NONE:GET_MATERIAL_FROM_REAGENT:A:TAN_MAT]
[SKILL:TANNER]
[AUTOMATIC]
automatically. after that it should be able to hardened into shellplate. through the reaction:
[REACTION:TAN_A_HIDE_SHELL]
[NAME:harden shell]
[BUILDING:TANNER:CUSTOM_T]
[REAGENT:A:1:SKIN_TANNED:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[REACTION_CLASS:TANNED_SHELL]
[REAGENT:tallow:150:GLOB:NONE:NONE:NONE]
[REACTION_CLASS:TALLOW]
[UNROTTEN]
[HAS_MATERIAL_REACTION_PRODUCT:SOAP_MAT]
[PRODUCT:100:1:SKIN_TANNED:NONE:GET_MATERIAL_FROM_REAGENT:A:TAN_MAT]
[SKILL:TANNER]
there is a similar reaction for all 4 materials using the same reaction_class.
The only issue I can see that may be causing it not to be available is a "more leather mod" issue in the initial tan_a_hide reaction.
Since "more leather mod" is basically a glob system that requires you to gather enough globs to "make a piece of leather"... the glob amount is based on the size of the creature, since most shell comes from vermin their size would make the shell too small to be turned into tanned shell, so you would have to collect some 450 mussels to have enough globs to make 1 tanned shell. If more leather is off... every single mussel would make a tanned shell... so your fisherman would be making tons of shell armor to boot along with increasing the food supply.
In one direction that makes sense... a couple dozen mussels shouldn't be producing enough material to make full sets of armor for a dwarf.