so I was playing Settlers: Rise of an Empire and I was examining my little peasants running amok doing various things. I decided to lock the view on one of my tanners, and when he had came to his house I unlocked the view and looked around. Among other things I noticed a large cauldron with an animal hide in it above a small fire and it got me thinking. Was this a faster way than using the sun to turn hides to leather? I turned to the most reliable source of information available: Google. Google took me to a highly sophisticated site everybody knows of: Wikipedia. Apparently, it's the same if you boil it or let it sit in hot water like a tanning tub with some bark.
So, if you can put a hide in a cauldron and light a fire under it to make leather in real life, we should be able to do this ingame. One cauldron filled with some water and one bark, a hide, maximum fuel capacity. Light it and wait, then presto. Leather for all of those who spent a wise investment into a cauldron.
I can't really think of any reason not to add this. Tanning tubs still have their advantage. It's a lot easier to use the tanning tub method, you don't have to put so much fuel into it(or any at all) and it's just cheap. But for those who don't mind having to put all the fuel in it, it's much faster even if you have to load the fuel. anybody have any thoughts on this or agreements towards this?