Crude Hunting Knife

[Arwen9]

Just a small suggestion.

One of the things I've had happen multiple times now is that I can't find a hunting knife or hatchet. Though I understand needing to make the tool scarce, I also notice that without the tool you're basically screwed.

No way to acquire gut for snares/fishing line. No way to harvest meat from carcasses unless you just happen to find a fresh, fresh one. No way to harvest the rabbit meat from the snare you receive at the workbench in the camp office (most of the time). No way to break open the ice to fish.

I don't think the loot tables for the hunting knife should be changed. I do like its rarity. But since so much is dependent on having a tool, my suggestion would be to make it possible to craft a "crude knife" or something of that nature.

Scrap metal + reclaimed wood. Or scrap metal + reclaimed wood + cloth. Give it perhaps only 25% condition so it's not a good tool, per say, but it would enable someone to survive in the first few days if the loot tables are cruel.

[FoneBoneJay]

That is not true. There is a way you just have to be resourceful. If you want me to tell you flat out I will but think about the physics of the situation and what is preventing you from making a harvest....

[Arwen9]

I am aware that if its freshly killed I can harvest it.

But the chances of finding a fresh kill not guarded by a wolf, or driving a wolf off, is slim at best. And that doesn't solve the problem of breaking the ice hole.

[FoneBoneJay]

Ok I'm going to share with you my technique. I'm not master guide yet but I'm getting there. [spoil]You can warm the corpse with a fire and then harvest the meat and guts without having a tool. Foraging for the wood doesn't take much in the way to time or energy and the calorie boost is substantial. So it is a good trade. Maybe an hour of foraging, an hour or two for fire, then you can also cook the meat too right there.

Real world it would probably take a fire in close proximity several hours to half a day to thaw an animal but it is possible to do it. You'd have to be careful to slow thaw it too though and not char one side of the animal while the other one is frozen.

In The Long Dark it only takes an hour or two to do it.[/spoil]

How do you like your chances now?

[ErickRedfieldh]

Huh. I never did try harvesting a fresh/thawed corpse without a knife. Didn't know you could. I'mma have to try that on my next run.