Straw matting

Straw matting is a type of floor that prevents the creation of 95% of most types of filth that would otherwise be created on it.

Acquisition

Each tile of straw matting constructed requires 2 Hays and 120 ticks (2 secs) of work.

Summary

Straw matting is one of a few floors that slows down pawns to 93% of their move speed. It is also very flammable. It is not just by far the most flammable flooring, but one of the most flammable structures in general. Precautions should be taken in case of fire in areas where this is a risk, but it can also be exploited by making intentional fire traps. When it burns it leaves burned straw matting behind.

Straw matting has a cleanliness of −0.1, which means a room entirely filled with straw matting will have a cleanliness of the same value. Cleaning filth from straw matting takes the normal amount of work.

Filth multiplier

"How susceptible this surface is to filth. If this is less than 100%, some of the filth deposited here will disappear on contact."
— Filth multiplier description

Straw matting is the only floor with a filth multiplier. For straw matting the amount of filth deposited on it is reduced to only 5%, meaning 95% of filth that would be deposited is not.

Note: Even though the description states the filth is deposited and then disappears, this is not the case. Filth sticking to the feet of pawns will instead be deposited elsewhere, meaning using straw matting as a "dormat" is counter productive. At the time of writing it is unknown if this is a bug.

The filth multiplier is especially important for filth like animal filth, dirt, sand and trash. Some types of filth are excluded from this, however, and will be deposited at the usual rate. These include notably: blood, corpse bile, firefoam and vomit.

For a full list, see filth.

Analysis

This type of floor should be placed in any enclosed area that animals, especially farm animals, are allowed to enter. Care should be taken however - while it may be tempting to give any hauling animals paths to the warehouse where they will create minimal filth, it also essentially provides a wick directly to the same warehouse full of valuable items in the event of a fire.

A compromise would be to use matting with "fire breaks", either non-flammable walls and doors or areas of at least 3-tiles wide of non-flammable flooring at least 3 tiles wide, to minimize the spread of any fire.

Kitchens

For the purposes of cooking, as long as a room's cleanliness is above -2.0, then the chance of food poisoning will not increase. Straw matting's -0.1 is significantly above this threshold. As straw matting only creates 5% of walking filth, it is a very work efficient way to creating "clean enough" kitchens. It takes much longer to reach -2.0 cleanliness with straw than with regular floor.

You can even pair this floor with steel or sterile tiles in areas where filth does not or cannot accumulate, such as under stoves or chairs. This increases the overall base cleanliness of the room, while retaining the filth repellent nature of the straw matting in traffic areas.

Version history

1.3.3066 - Added
1.4.3523 - Cleaning time factor added.

Architect

Floors: Burned floors (Carpet, Straw matting, Wood floor, Bioferrite plate) • Concrete • Flagstones (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Gold tile • Paved tile • Silver tile • Steel tile • Sterile tile • Straw matting • Wood floor • Fungal gravel • Hex tile • Spikecore plates • Totemic boards
(research): Carpet • Stone tiles (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Fine carpets • Fine stone tiles (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Hex carpet • Mindbend carpet • Morbid carpet • Morbid stone tiles (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Spikecore stone tiles (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Totemic stone tiles (Sandstone, Granite, Limestone, Slate, Marble) • Bioferrite plate
Floor coverings: Animalist slab (Medium, Broad) • Morbid slab (Medium, Broad) • Rustic rug (Medium, Broad) • Spikecore floor-star (Medium, Broad) • Totemic slab (Medium, Broad)
Related: Bridge • Smooth stone • Void metal