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[zchris13]

You just got magic arced.  Wonderful.  Silkworm silk is not the same thing as spider silk.  Silkworms make coocoons.  Spiders make... ____   Ummm... Drop ropes? Nets? Words... I forget.  Something really awesome sounding and cool.  Fill in the blank please?

[PTTG??]

You just got magic arced.  Wonderful.  Silkworm silk is not the same thing as spider silk.  Silkworms make coocoons.  Spiders make... ____   Ummm... Drop ropes? Nets? Words... I forget.  Something really awesome sounding and cool.  Fill in the blank please?

Webs. As in the not-world-wide-one.

[zchris13]

Well, yeah, but like parachutes and stuff.  Do you see silkworms being airdropped without any equipment?

[Enzo]

See, now I'm confused. We're agreeing, right zchris? Indeed, I cannot see silkworms being airdropped, with or without equipment.
Edit: Nevermind. I think I understand. Anyway, why aren't there silkworms in DF? They're like purring maggots with silk instead of milk.

[Fossaman]

Not quite; silk manufacture involves killing the worms after they've cocooned themselves by dropping the cocoons in water, and then unwrapping the silk by hand and winding it onto a spool. I think it would end up being a little more like the extract from live animal task at the butcher; the animal is destroyed in the process. I suppose you could abstract it a bit by having a silkworm moth vermin that leaves silkworm cocoons scattered around like webs are.

Zchris: Spider 'parachutes' are actually just really long strands of silk. Nothing really parachute-ish about them.

[Draco18s]

Not quite; silk manufacture involves killing the worms after they've cocooned themselves by dropping the cocoons in boiling water,

Fixed.

[Enzo]

Serves them right. Hoarding all that delicious silk for their selfish metamorphic processes.

[Fieari]

By the way, silk was used as armor in the real world as arrow protection-- not because the arrows wouldn't puncture the silk, it would, but because the silk bind to the barb on the head making the wound less deadly, and making it easy to pull the arrow back out.

In DF's world, giant spider silk may actually defend against the arrow wound itself.

[zchris13]

Zchris: Spider 'parachutes' are actually just really long strands of silk. Nothing really parachute-ish about them.

Yeah, the babies go floating with them, to spread themselves out so they don't directly compete against each other.

I would like some alchemists to go all super silk on the spider webs.  But that will have to be magic arc, I couldn't justify it otherwise.

[Footkerchief]

By the way, silk was used as armor in the real world as arrow protection-- not because the arrows wouldn't puncture the silk, it would, but because the silk bind to the barb on the head making the wound less deadly, and making it easy to pull the arrow back out.

I've seen this said often on the internet, but never seen any evidence for it.

[Fossaman]

Step one: Wear lots of silk clothing.

Step two: Stab yourself with barbed arrow.

Step three: Pull it out.

Repeat steps two and three without step one. Compare the results!

I seem to recall hearing this on a tv show somewhere, but that's not necessarily a good measure of whether it's true or not. Maybe we need to write in to the real Mythbuster's show and get them to test it. I'm sure they'd love another excuse to skewer dead pigs.

[zchris13]

Or an excuse to play with crossbows.

[Enzo]

You know, my landlord sells chinese silks. All I need is a barbed arrow and a ham and we can break this case wide open.

[alfie275]

I thought the reason silk protected was because the arrows spin in the air and when they strike the silk twists around the head so you just tug slightly and they pop out, could be wrong though.

[Enzo]

The arrow rotating in the air (definitely true) probably does help the silk wrap around the arrow head.

...you just tug slightly and they pop out...

I imagine you'd describe that event a little differently if you were actually pulling an arrow out of your shoulder, wrapped in silk or not. Just sayin'. It's probably still in there pretty good, just the barbs at the end of the arrow designed to catch when you pull it out are (in theory) disabled.