Silkmoth-ery

[ChickenSlim]

I'm trying to get a small farm setup, so I can eventually have a set of ranger gear... I seem to keep running into a bunch of eggs that a less than q10, and am wondering if they're completely useless to use, or if I should re-breed them and hope to hit 10+...

Any help?

[Horatius]

Just rebreed all eggs until you reach an acceptable number (depends on how much silk you want to produce per day). Then you can start sorting out the worst eggs by turning them into silk filaments and slowly raise quality of the silkmoths this way. If you lack a good mulberry tree or herbalist tables, then quality breeding is in vain of course.

Edit: bad silk filaments can still be turned into better quality silk threads by using a high quality spinning wheel. They're not completely useless.

[ChickenSlim]

I "COULD" still use less than q10 filament for cloth, if I did the math ahead of time to ensure a q10 cloth, right?

[Horatius]

Well, yes

Like I said, a good spinning wheel brings the thread quality up and I'm pretty sure a good loom can also increase the cloth quality a second time. Shouldn't be too difficult to get a q10+ cloth in the end unless your facilities are awful.

[MagicManICT]

Well, yes

Like I said, a good spinning wheel brings the thread quality up and I'm pretty sure a good loom can also increase the cloth quality a second time. Shouldn't be too difficult to get a q10+ cloth in the end unless your facilities are awful.

Right and right, however:

If you lack a good mulberry tree or herbalist tables, then quality breeding is in vain of course.

If you lack an appropriate Q herbalist table, then yes, getting quality above that is impossible (if I'm doing the math in my head right). However, you can get silk quality up with just a q10 tree. It will just be as slow as the apocalypse trying to do so. You'll have to set aside the eggs that are +5 q (and up) above your tree aside and breed them all at once. When the worms feed, they'll lose 4 points, so you'll have only gained one point in average. The sheer number of eggs you have to hatch means you'll only get a couple of points a month.

[Girlinhat]

Keep in mind that you can use bad silk for things like merchant robes. Their quality determines their stat bonuses, but a lame robe still gives inventory slots. Not to mention tablecloths and such. Or produce spare ranger clothes and sell them. But it comes down to be the same as breeding livestock: pair off the best you've got and cull the rest. As mentioned before, without a good tree this is difficult, but not ultimately impossible.

[ChickenSlim]

I've got access to a "good" tree, and one of my own finishing up... My problem is coming up with enough eggs to keep things going constantly.

Should I just breed a tonne of eggs, and then go into cloth? Or is there a magic number people set aside again for eggs before they unravel?

[Coriander]

Roughly 1/3 eggs for breeding. If you "manage" the hatch and pair em up, this may be too many at times.
Also keep the higher Q ones together, separate from the lower Q ones for best eggs/breeding stock next go around.

[ChickenSlim]

What are the odds I've got 3 cupboards already?

Thank you.

[trondaron]

What are the odds I've got 3 cupboards already?

Thank you.

I recall our breeder/silk person trying to have a cupboard worth of eggs for each cycle.