how to preserve meat best?

[cranny]

A̷̧̹͕͔̥̍̋͆͒͊̐̈́̂̀̕͜Ȳ̴̬̙̹͇̈̿͘̚Ọ̴̧̬͓̪͉̩͋̀̈̀̏͘̚
 

 

I'm playing on voyager  mode and have decided to call paradise meadows farm (in milton)  home. It's been quite a journey since i first spawned! I started  in broken railroad, found a revolver, looted the map, went through forlorn muskeg to Mystery lake, looted that map, and decided i wanted to settle down somewhere. So, i went back through forlorn muskeg and made it to the farm in milton. all in 7 in game days!

anywho, i have begun to hunt deer and rabbits, and want to stockpile huge amounts of venison and bunny meat. Currently i just have the meat sitting in the snow, but it has only been a few hours since i harvested the meat and they are already 'Gamey'. Is there a better way?

[LilWolf]

Either leaving the meat in the snow or cooking it, I don't think there's another way yet.

[XaldinVii]

The best way to store meat is in the snow and save it until you need to eat it, then cook what you need, unless your low on matches. Meat can sit at 0% in the snow and then be cooked back up to 50%. Also when you get to cooking level 5 you will not get sick from eating meat at 50% too, so it is a good long term strategy. 

[Doc Feral]

Cook it on a well-timed fire and leave it untouched on the cooking slots.

[XaldinVii]

36 minutes ago, Doc Feral said:

Cook it on a well-timed fire and leave it untouched on the cooking slots.

Does that preserve its condition percent, so it stay at that percent until it is picked up @Doc Feral?

[ManicManiac]

10 minutes ago, XaldinVii said:

Does that preserve its condition percent, so it stay at that percent until it is picked up?

If you want to, you can check out thelongdark.fandom.com page: Decay

That should answer your questions on rates of decay (though it is a wiki, so I can't speak to the accuracy of the sources).

[Doc Feral]

45 minutes ago, XaldinVii said:

Does that preserve its condition percent, so it stay at that percent until it is picked up @Doc Feral?

From what I've observed it remains smoked in time. Frozen in time sounded inappropriate for this. A cooked but not picked up piece of meat is like an unfinished crafted item, it has no decay rate because it's not "in game". The process of cooking meat or fish is considered finished only when you pick the steak up (proof is that, as you may have noticed, that's the moment when you get the experience points). So if you don't touch the meat left on the cooking slots of an extinguished fire it won't decay because it's "out of play".

Some may call it an exploit, but since it occupies a whole cooking surface and the advantage is so insignificant I like to pretend I've smoked it and left it on the rack.

[ManicManiac]

1 hour ago, Doc Feral said:

So if you don't touch the meat left on the cooking slots of an extinguished fire it won't decay because it's "out of play"

Neat, I'm going to have to experiment with this...  for science!

[Nogen]

4 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

Cook it on a well-timed fire and leave it untouched on the cooking slots.

I don't have the feeling that the OP was asking for an exploit in game.

[hozz1235]

Depends on your consumption needs.  I usually end up with a surplus of meat so will leave it on a floor inside (so critters can't get it) and make a note so when I reach lvl 5 cooking, I can come back, cook it up and eat!

More short term, yeah, leave it outside (preferably where critters can't get it) or cook it.  Remember, at lvl 5 cooking, you can't eat cooked "spoiled" meat.

[Doc Feral]

1 hour ago, Nogen said:

I don't have the feeling that the OP was asking for an exploit in game.

All "legitimate" ways had already been stated. And it's an irrelevant exploit if ever here was one, it basically gives the illusion of smoking meat.

Edited June 18, 2019 by Doc Feral

[UpUpAway95]

Personally, I don't stockpile.  You're better off to at least explore all the main areas of the maps quickly since the prepared foods and clothing that spawned in those areas will, in effect, decay.  As days go by, you'll encounter foods at lower condition generally and start to encounter ruined clothing in some containers.  Hunt enough to keep yourself fed and to make a whatever clothing you find essential but keep exploring.  There'll be lots of "lazy days" mid-game (usually around the 100-day mark) to hunt and stockpile meat.

[Doc Feral]

True, but if you kill a moose or bear you'll have enough meat to call it a stockpile, unless you allow it to go to waste, which I wouldn't. Same goes for wolves, if I kill one by struggle or to make an area safer I feel bad to just leave it to rot.

[peteloud]

It doesn't seem to matter what you do with meat. 

Raw meat degrades to 'Ruined'' but still can be cooked and eaten.  Cooked meat degrades to 'Ruined'  and can still be eaten.

I think that this needs changing. It makes survival too easy.

[UpUpAway95]

3 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

True, but if you kill a moose or bear you'll have enough meat to call it a stockpile, unless you allow it to go to waste, which I wouldn't. Same goes for wolves, if I kill one by struggle or to make an area safer I feel bad to just leave it to rot.

The difference to me is intent.  I don't go out intending to create a huge stockpile of meat by killing several deer in quick succession.  As you say, you could wind up having a load of wolf meat lying around as well if you're the story that has difficulty leaving any meat on the carcass, but you're intent is basically just fending off attacks.  You can't go for days eating wolf or bear day after day without hosting parasites after every meal either... so sometimes I just don't waste the energy to harvest the meat off the predators.  If they make changes such that you can't recook ruined meat to bring it's condition back, you'll probably just find a lot more people leaving the meat on the carcasses to rot.

[Doc Feral]

23 minutes ago, peteloud said:

It doesn't seem to matter what you do with meat. 

Raw meat degrades to 'Ruined'' but still can be cooked and eaten.  Cooked meat degrades to 'Ruined'  and can still be eaten.

I think that this needs changing. It makes survival too easy.

As someone previously suggested, a decent way to fix this (even keeping the current trashcan behaviour of level 5 cooking) would be to decrease calories of meat as it degrades. Maybe not 1 to 1, but if a ruined steak started to amount 20% calories of the fresh one it would be significant.

1 minute ago, UpUpAway95 said:

The difference to me is intent.  I don't go out intending to create a huge stockpile of meat by killing several deer in quick succession.  As you say, you could wind up having a load of wolf meat lying around as well if you're the story that has difficulty leaving any meat on the carcass, but you're intent is basically just fending off attacks.  You can't go for days eating wolf or bear day after day without hosting parasites after every meal either... so sometimes I just don't waste the energy to harvest the meat off the predators.  If they make changes such that you can't recook ruined meat to bring it's condition back, you'll probably just find a lot more people leaving the meat on the carcasses to rot.

Keep in mind that reaching level 5 cooking is easy, with or without grinding by making mincemeat. Parasites stop being an issue rather early in a game.

[UpUpAway95]

15 minutes ago, Doc Feral said:

As someone previously suggested, a decent way to fix this (even keeping the current trashcan behaviour of level 5 cooking) would be to decrease calories of meat as it degrades. Maybe not 1 to 1, but if a ruined steak started to amount 20% calories of the fresh one it would be significant.

Keep in mind that reaching level 5 cooking is easy, with or without grinding by making mincemeat. Parasites stop being an issue rather early in a game.

I'm of the opinion that they should do something with the cooking skill level-up to negate the "mincemeating" just to level behavior.  Cooking skill could be changed to be based on total weight of items cooked rather than the number of times you cook anything... and that total weight could be set at a much higher amount... making getting to Level 5 cooking as difficult as it is to get to Level 5 in other skills that generally take a lot longer (like fishing or mending).

Edited June 19, 2019 by UpUpAway95

[ManicManiac]

4 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I'm of the opinion that they should do something with the cooking skill level-up to negate the "mincemeating" just to level behavior.

4 hours ago, peteloud said:

Raw meat degrades to 'Ruined'' but still can be cooked and eaten.  Cooked meat degrades to 'Ruined'  and can still be eaten.  I think that this needs changing.

4 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

As someone previously suggested, a decent way to fix this (even keeping the current trashcan behaviour of level 5 cooking) would be to decrease calories of meat as it degrades.

I've mentioned this before in other threads, but I think it bears repeating:

Really I think this just boils down to player choice.  Since it's a single player game, if other want to do it that way... what does it mater?  It makes a certain amount of sense to be able to "practice" as skill by doing so in small increments or portions.  It's the same with being able to cook or eat "ruined" meat... or when a player uses one twig and a torch to practice lighting fires.  If we don't like those ideas, it's easy enough to just choose not to do that.  Instead of changing the game, we can simply change the way we play it.   

I trust the Hinterland team, if they see fit to modify or change the systems to better fit their vision...then fine.  I don't see a need to change the existing systems just because we don't like certain aspects that result from creative players sharing what they've figured out was possible.

Edited June 19, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Arran]

I think using decayed items (like cooking 0% raw meat and eat it) is exploit and I avoid doing it.

Raw meat degrades fast - it takes like 2-3 days to drop to 50% when kept outside. Best way is to cook it before it gets to 50%.

Cooked meat degrades much slower. All meat should be kept outside, inside they degrade like 5x faster. 100% condition cooked meat can easly be stored for 30+ days outside.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Arran

[hozz1235]

3 hours ago, Arran said:

I think using decayed items (like cooking 0% raw meat and eat it) is exploit and I avoid doing it.

I would discourage the use of "exploit" here.  HL is aware of this and was intentional.  

[shade_grey]

2 hours ago, hozz1235 said:

I would discourage the use of "exploit" here.  HL is aware of this and was intentional.  

When you pick fish up from beachcombing, it's most likely going to be at 0% condition. It's the only way to renewably forage for edible fish in DP without having to leave the region.

[ajb1978]

On 6/18/2019 at 9:25 AM, Doc Feral said:

Cook it on a well-timed fire and leave it untouched on the cooking slots.

Great way to leave yourself some emergency rations at a safehouse.  Something to help get you re-settled if you move back after a few months, and haven't gone hunting.

[ajb1978]

2 minutes ago, FrozenCorpse said:

I'm totally gonna use this technique and not feel one ounce of remorse when I do.

And now I bet it'll be patched out of existence with the next major release lol

[Lurve]

On 6/19/2019 at 11:14 AM, ManicManiac said:

I've mentioned this before in other threads, but I think it bears repeating:

Really I think this just boils down to player choice.  Since it's a single player game, if other want to do it that way... what does it mater?  It makes a certain amount of sense to be able to "practice" as skill by doing so in small increments or portions.  It's the same with being able to cook or eat "ruined" meat... or when a player uses one twig and a torch to practice lighting fires.  If we don't like those ideas, it's easy enough to just choose not to do that.  Instead of changing the game, we can simply change the way we play it.   

I trust the Hinterland team, if they see fit to modify or change the systems to better fit their vision...then fine.  I don't see a need to change the existing systems just because we don't like certain aspects that result from creative players sharing what they've figured out was possible.

It's an interesting aspect of game design that turns out to be much more complicated than you'd imagine. 

The real problem is that your advice flatly fails on a particular demographic of players.   Another game dev (Jick) once coined them "dickpunchers."  Reason being, if you ask them to punch themselves in the dick for ten points they'll do it, because free points!  A dickpuncher who knows that mincemeat is the fastest way to level cooking to 5 can't help but mince their way there immediately.  They will complain about how boring the grind is.  They will complain about how easy it makes the game.  They will complain about everything but their own agency.  Because they will never, *never,* not grind through anyway.

But, as you say, it's a singleplayer game.  What one person chooses to do doesn't affect others' experiences.  Except it kinda does.  Because dickpunchers share the same game mechanics as everyone else, and the devs have to put the balance somewhere.  If they tune cooking experience for dickpunching, it'll train impractically slow for everyone else unless they grind too.  If they tune it for everyone else, it'll ruin the dickpunchers' gameplay (and, to repeat, they WILL NOT not grind the skill).  No matter how you set it, people are going to gripe.  Unless, as people have said, you find some way of cutting the Gordian knot, either by making the grind unproductive (xp by weight) or by making the goal less desirable (ruined meat still sucks somehow).  Then everyone gets to gripe a bit while they adjust and life goes on a little happier.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Lurve

[ManicManiac]

3 hours ago, Lurve said:

The real problem is that your advice flatly fails on a particular demographic of players...
...[someone] who knows that mincemeat is the fastest way to level cooking to 5 can't help but mince their way there immediately.  They will complain about how boring the grind is...
...They will complain about everything but their own agency...
...[you say] What one person chooses to do doesn't affect others' experiences.  Except it kinda does...

 but this illustrates my point... if it "ruins" the game for people who want to "game the systems" ...who cares...  They are choosing to play that way, they made that choice.  If they don't like it they can stop... and if they can't stop themselves, that is a personal problem.  As you say they are just looking for ways to cheese it anyways.  It seems silly that those people who are looking for ways to cheese the system are also complaining about being able to do so.   

My point was simple.  They don't need to change the game, when all we need to do is change the way we play.  The solution is as simple as player choice.

Player choice has really been at the core of the Survival Sandbox from the beginning anyway.  You say people will always take the shortcut... well that's not true.  I don't play this game in ways that I think feel cheap.  I also don't feel the need to piss and moan about things the game is capable just because I don't like it.  I mean why ruin the experience for someone else when I can just choose to play differently.

What some are proposing is that the Hinterland Team needs to try to cater to every single player/player type... and that's just not the case.  The team only really needs to do what they feel is right as it lines up with there vision and goals for the game.  It's up to each player to choose how they will use the world, tools, and systems provided by the game.  Limiting player choice in a Survival Sandbox is not the right answer in my opinion.

The bottom line... I feel it's more productive to talk about things the game does not permit that we would like to see incorporated, rather than to fuss about things it does permit.  All we have to do is choose not to do those things.  If a developer creates a situation where there is too little player choice it can ruin the game too... that is a key component of "game balance" as well.  I argue that the Survival Sandbox should remain driven by player choice, and those who don't like what they create can play other things.

...or come to the realization that they are free to play in whatever way they want with what's provided by the game's world and mechanics.