Salt & Jerky

[Jura]

Hi

It occurred to me that it would be interesting to be able to make jerky in-game.

A pack of salt would be found in random containers. It would not spoil or it would at extremely slow pace.

Salt would then be used to salt the fresh meat in inventory.

If you can refuel lamp if you have fuel, you can salt the meat if you have salt in inventory.

Salted meat could be thrown on the ground indoors to dry in the same fashion as tree saplings.

So that would cover the coding part more or less.

 

As for the mechanics

After curing indoors for a few days, salted meat would transform into jerky.

Afte curing, meat will lose some of its calories. For balancing purpose. (i dont know if dry meat has more calories per weight thatn uncooked meat)

It would weight less (it is dry after all)

It would last much longer than regular meat, and would not attract predators as much.

But it would make the player VERY thirsty.

This would make it ideal food for long range expeditions but we will have to compensate by drinking a lot of water and make a fire eventually.

[selachias]

Very cool idea! I've played another survival game where you can salt meats and make jerky and it used a similar system to what you're suggesting -- fewer calories but the meat lasts basically forever. With TLD's weight restrictions, having lighter food is always preferable to carrying around big deer/wolf/bear steaks (at least in my opinion). This would be a really neat addition.

[hozz1235]

And when we run out of table salt, allow harvesting salt from ocean water!

[Skelegutplays]

I would prefer to have a smoker for smoking the meat after salting it to make jerky. Also this would be more balanced because you would not need a fire to prepare the food if you would just let it dry indoors.

[XaldinVii]

I was surprised to find out earlier this year about salt licks. Natural deposits of salt and other materials that animals and early humans would come and consume. Maybe there can be some of these deposits littered around the map to gather salt from. They could also be places where animal gather to do the same or even predators to hunt, making it more challenging to gather the salt. 

[Wade]

On 7/18/2019 at 11:34 AM, Skelegutplays said:

I would prefer to have a smoker for smoking the meat after salting it to make jerky. Also this would be more balanced because you would not need a fire to prepare the food if you would just let it dry indoors.

I particularly like this idea because this game severely lacks crafting options.  Not only would I love to be able to cure meat using salt from the ocean I had boiled down, but I would also like to be able to craft something like a smoker.  Give me a reason to go chop some wood, tie it together with cured gut or fishing line and wrap it in dampened cloth or vastly available pelts.

[MrsHoneypot]

On 7/18/2019 at 7:34 PM, Skelegutplays said:

I would prefer to have a smoker for smoking the meat after salting it to make jerky. Also this would be more balanced because you would not need a fire to prepare the food if you would just let it dry indoors.

This would work well for fish too. Smoked Salmon anyone?

[Calico]

We already have a coding template for the smoker in the snow shelter. You would need three or four saplings, either cured gut or line and two or three deer pelts to construct. Pelts and guts are pretty common mid-late game, but the saplings would be the limiting factor.  (If you want to be really harsh require a fishhook and line to suspend over the smoke.) Then cut cedar wood and spend time processing it into chips for smoking. The smoker would last longer than a snow shelter but still degrade with time and use. 

[rakshasa]

I love this idea! Especially if it were combined with meat disappearing once it becomes ruined.

[ManicManiac]

It's definitely a neat idea, but one that I don't really see as being all that nessisarry.  I think food resources are actually pretty abundant (even in interloper).  Once we get proficient in our survival tasks food isn't all that much of a problem. 

[rakshasa]

4 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

It's definitely a neat idea, but one that I don't really see as being all that nessisarry.  I think food resources are actually pretty abundant (even in interloper).  Once we get proficient in our survival tasks food isn't all that much of a problem. 

I agree. Staying fed in Interloper becomes trivial after cooking 5, and actually isn't too much of a challenge prior to that, except the early game. The ability to cure meat, on its own, wouldn't really add anything to the game. But depending on how this is implemented, it could actually make doing the stockpiling we already do a lot more difficult.

Right now, after harvesting a bear, my food needs are met for the next two weeks. I can leave that 30kg of meat outside for an unlimited amount of time and come back to cook it whenever I want.

Now imagine that meat disappears when it's ruined. If you want to keep that bear meat around, you're going to have to use additional time and resources to do it. I feel like that's a nice trade-off.

[ManicManiac]

4 minutes ago, rakshasa said:

Now imagine that meat disappears when it's ruined.

 It used to...  Man was that rough!  It forced us to only hunt what we really needed and we knew we could eat before it de-spawned (from the condition dropping to zero), thereby wasting the resources to get it.

Edited September 24, 2019 by ManicManiac

[rakshasa]

3 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

 It used to...  Man was that rough!  It forced us to only hunt what we really needed and we knew we could eat before it de-spawned (from the condition dropping to zero), thereby wasting the resources to get it.

Wow, I don't remember that, I've played sporadically since 2015 but the last time I was really into the game was maybe around 2017. When did they change this, and why?

[ManicManiac]

7 minutes ago, rakshasa said:

Wow, I don't remember that, I've played sporadically since 2015 but the last time I was really into the game was maybe around 2017. When did they change this, and why?

Well I came on board just a little after TLD came to Steam back in 2014.  I distinctly remember raw meat disappearing when it hit zero condition, and that taught me not to let meat hit zero no mater what... so maybe that only happened with raw meat, I never bothered to temp it with cooked meat.  As to when exactly that changed... I really don't remember.  I know that by the time Vigilant Flame came out with the overhauled cooking system it was definitely changed by then.  I want to say it changed earlier than that... but I honestly can't recall exactly what update.  I can tray to pick over old patch notes...

Edited September 24, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Lonelyloper]

I think a cured meat with reduced weight and smell, would be great travelling food and a welcome addition to the game.  

[winterstorm]

Partner and I were just discussing this again over dinner a few nights ago. A lot of the ideas already here are the same as what we came up with. At the very least, I'd love to have the ability to smoke or cure fish to make it last longer. 

[Moll]

I think we can use both:

Salting: better conservation, slower decay rate (even indoor) by 30 %, however, lower nutrition level and negative effect for hydratation.

Smoking: Just slower decay rate, like 20 % no negative effect for nutrition.

Curing: can be used for both conservation as additional decay protection. Just salt&cure or smoke&cure.

[ManicManiac]

Maybe, but it all seems unnecessary.  As is, food is really not much of an issue once we get more proficient in our survival tasks (even on interloper).  It could be a neat touch for sure, but I just don't see a need for it at this point.

Edited September 26, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Lonelyloper]

@ManicManiac I don't think anyone is saying this is essential or anything, but I think it would be a nice addition. I'm on day 205 of my best ever interloper run at the moment and to be honest, it's a bit boring lol. I'm well stocked with little to do, except travel around the regions and do some sight seeing. Believe me if I could carry some more of that bear meat I've got piled up without getting quite so many wolves chasing me it would be a nice quality of life improvement   

But this is a wish list after all and I'm not actually expecting this to get implemented, but it's nice to talk about it. 

[Moll]

It seems unnecessary until they shif food resources in game. Also ithink it can be usable, for long habit in areas with no civilisation things where you live like caveman.

[ManicManiac]

@Lonelyloper
Yes... and I agreed it could be a nice touch, but I also gave my opinion from the larger perspective as well.

If you feel your interloper run is boring to you, there are plenty of ways you can change your approach or playstyle to make it interesting again.  I think one of the best parts of this game is that once we get proficient with our survival tasks, the onus is on the player to determine how & for how long they manage to live in the world of Great Bear.

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by ManicManiac

[ManicManiac]

@Moll
I'm not sure what you're getting at...

In it's current form you can setup massive long term stores if you wanted to hunker down in one spot for a lengthy period of time.  Either storing raw  meat, or storing post lv5 cocked meat already has the same effect as what's described...  I imagine that there would be no need for the team to change it, if the same effect is already built into the current iteration.

If that first part of your statement is referring to picking up and moving a food store from one spot to another... I'm not sure why you see that as an issue.  If we have a bunch of stuff in one place and we want to move it to another place... First we decide if it's worth the effort.  If we decide it is, then we plan our trips and get it done.    Since it was player choice to begin with, part of this game is in living with the choices we make.  ...That's my point of view anyways.

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by ManicManiac

[Yavind]

On 7/17/2019 at 1:06 AM, Jura said:

Hi

It occurred to me that it would be interesting to be able to make jerky in-game.

A pack of salt would be found in random containers. It would not spoil or it would at extremely slow pace.

Salt would then be used to salt the fresh meat in inventory.

If you can refuel lamp if you have fuel, you can salt the meat if you have salt in inventory.

Salted meat could be thrown on the ground indoors to dry in the same fashion as tree saplings.

So that would cover the coding part more or less.

 

As for the mechanics

After curing indoors for a few days, salted meat would transform into jerky.

Afte curing, meat will lose some of its calories. For balancing purpose. (i dont know if dry meat has more calories per weight thatn uncooked meat)

It would weight less (it is dry after all)

It would last much longer than regular meat, and would not attract predators as much.

But it would make the player VERY thirsty.

This would make it ideal food for long range expeditions but we will have to compensate by drinking a lot of water and make a fire eventually.

This sounds perfect !  

[Guest kristaok]

I welcome dried meat! home-made jerky! mmm!

[ajb1978]

Jerky has been popping up on the wish list for as long as the wish list has been around.  The most common argument against it is "it doesn't add anything to the game, and development time is better spent elsewhere".  The most common argument for it is "it provides the player with more things to do and additional options that they can take advantage of, or ignore, as they see fit."

A couple years ago I agreed with the former.  There were a lot of things that needed attention first, but I think that with how things have progressed, I'm leaning more towards the latter.  I would say making jerky or smoking meat is my #3 wish list item.  My #1 wish list item is the ability to dismantle furniture for transport and reassembly elsewhere.  Like...dismantle a storage chest, transport the parts to a cave, reassemble it.  And #2 would be a short range melee weapon, like a baseball bat or fire axe or something, that can interrupt a wolf charge if you time it just right.  And then #3 being smoking/curing meat or fish.