Quartering and butchering

Doc Feral · March 10, 2019

Since the "moose hunting" topic was going off the tracks I thought it would be interesting to analize the differences in time between quartering and harvesting. I wento out with hatchet, knife and hacksaw and downed a deer. I didn't take the improvised hatchet and I don't have an improvised knife, but let's just say they're slower than the professional versions.

As we all agree about, the hunting knife is your best friend. The hatchet is slower, the hacksaw even worse, bare hands are terrible. I'm level 5 in harvesting. Quartering a deer has a fixed time of an hour, knife, hatchet or hacksaw. The cost in calories varies according to time, not tools or activity.

Now I'll look for something heavier, bears are easier to find than moose. Wish me good luck.

U47 · March 10, 2019

Also some thing to check is start quartering and push the ESC button to stop the process, then continue to quarter. Does the time restart or does is continue where you stopped?

Ice Hole · March 10, 2019

Went out just the other day and quartered a deer. Tried with the hacksaw and was not allowed. Seemed odd and going to report it as a bug. Option was there and makes perfect sense to use a saw to quarter a carcass.

In my opinion a frozen carcass is where the saw should work best but also might be too unbalanced.

Doc Feral · March 10, 2019

Wolf, quartering takes 1 hour, like deer.

Doc Feral · March 10, 2019

I told you I was going after something chubby. Quartering a bear takes two hours, but chopping everything on the spot is a nightmare. Guts take much time, and there's plenty of them. This was my first one-shot of a bear with an arrow, it died in a weird position.

By the way, it seems that as freezing sets in the hatchet is less penalized than the knife and gains the advantage. I play Stalker so I don't use the hacksaw, I don't know. I carried one in this hunt for science's sake.

Doc Feral · March 10, 2019

2 hours ago, U47 said:

Also some thing to check is start quartering and push the ESC button to stop the process, then continue to quarter. Does the time restart or does is continue where you stopped?

It works like crafting, I tried just now. If you cancel the action the requested time decreases but you won't get partial results. Half time doesn't mean you pick half of the guts and three meat bags.

By the way, quartering is a fixed-time process. So when harvesting skill is still low, should a bladed tool be available, it may be the best option since it allows to relocate a whole carcass and start safely working on it. Remember all my screenshots are from a level 5 harvester.

peteloud · March 10, 2019

You make it hard for yourself. Who needs 34kg of meat and 10 bits of gut.

Be more realistic and butcher 10kg of meat and leave the gut. It saves a lot of time.

Bimbobjoejr. · March 10, 2019

Btw,, why is the weight doubled when you quarter an animal?

NardoLoopa · March 10, 2019

10 minutes ago, Bimbobjoejr. said:

Btw,, why is the weight doubled when you quarter an animal?

Bones.

Doc Feral · March 11, 2019

8 hours ago, peteloud said:

You make it hard for yourself. Who needs 34kg of meat and 10 bits of gut.

Be more realistic and butcher 10kg of meat and leave the gut. It saves a lot of time.

Crafting fur clothes uses plenty of guts, repairing them uses guts, making fishing lines, bows and traps use guts, don't understimate guts, no guts no glory.

And as roleplaying would have it, when I manage to kill such a mighty beast I imagine dancing around the fire, painting my face with ash and blood and thanking the fallen animal for granting me life saving supplies, so I feel bad wasting them.

XaldinVii · March 11, 2019

1 hour ago, Doc Feral said:

no guts no glory.

I will never leave guts behind again...

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

Next mission, since I forgot to do it: compare harvesting times for parts (skin, gut, 1kg meat) and amount of stinkpuffs for carrying quarters or pieces.

(Of course I went back to that bear and quartered it leaving nothing)

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

About guts. Tried with a deer. I compared it with a rabbit and it's the same, so the species doesn't matter. Sorry, I left my hacksaw in the Dam, but we already know it's slower than the hatchet.

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

Skin. Again, I checked both deer and bunny. Skinning with an hatchet is quite unpractical. I regret leaving the hacksaw behind, it would have been interesting.

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

And meat. I give up, I'm going to play again just to see what happens with the hacksaw. AND with a frozen carcass.

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

Sorry, it seems at level 5 harvesting it doesn't matter if a carcass is warm or frozen. Hacksaw.

Doc Feral · March 12, 2019

And that's with the improvised hatchet.

I admit counting nematodes and copepods was slightly more exciting than this, but research is research. I leave to someone else the amusement of making the calculations, such as the different combinations of stuff and the quantity beyond which quartering starts being really useful.

From what I've seen walking back and forth, a bear quarter doesn't stink as much as the meat it yelds when harvested. Not sure about smaller ones. I forgot comparing stinkpuffs, and I'm not eager to try it at the moment.

odizzido · March 13, 2019

My biggest problem with quartering an animal is that it takes long enough that you're likely to freeze doing it. If you play with very low or no regen this is a serious problem and the reason why I never seem to use the feature.

Doc Feral · March 13, 2019

Well, the main advantage of quartering is with large animals and long-term planning. If you play on custom settings which won't allow you to live long enough to cure a skin it's pointless. But having discovered that quartering can be stopped and resumed (I didn't know it before making these tests) makes it safer.

hozz1235 · March 13, 2019

I adapt to each situation:

How much weight can I spare?
What's the temperature?
Are predators nearby?

These questions determine whether I quarter or not, also what tool I use. If predators are nearby, I will usually make a fire while I harvest. If conditions are ideal, I will harvest by hand so as to save condition on my tools. The latter is a bit overkill, but I just hit day 1,000 and resources are beginning to get scarce.

earthy · March 14, 2019

i think you've missed that different tools are better in different situations. for instance, a hacksaw is the fastest for harvesting meat if the carcass is frozen, while knife is faster if the carcass is still fresh.

edit: just saw what you said about level 5 harvesting. i think that does mess things up.

Doc Feral · March 14, 2019

2 hours ago, earthy said:

i think you've missed that different tools are better in different situations. for instance, a hacksaw is the fastest for harvesting meat if the carcass is frozen, while knife is faster if the carcass is still fresh.

edit: just saw what you said about level 5 harvesting. i think that does mess things up.

I just started a voyageur mapping run, so I'll do the comparisons at different levels.

Doc Feral · March 16, 2019

HARVESTING LEVEL 1

That's with a frozen carcass. Still have to find an hatchet, but when it comes to meat the hacksaw is faster. One thing I can't understand, why is gutting a wolf different from gutting a deer? More calories, see? I don't think it's the difference in hacksaw condition, and both were 100% frozen. Maybe a frozen deer is harder than a frozen wolf. The plot thickens.