Despawn timers

[LostRealist]

Is it just me, or do things despawn much more quickly than they used to?

Partially harvested deer vanish within a few days, which is both annoying and really immersion-breaking sometimes.

I hauled an entire moose in quartered form to the PV Community Hall and left all but two quarters outside - before the hide had finished curing, they were freaking gone. Did the wolves take them or what's good? I punishingly missed out on the largest part of that moose meat because of that and I'm quite peeved. Almost completely certain that this is the first time that's happened to me - but I could be misremembering. It's been a while.

So, is it just me? I don't like it. I don't like anything just vanishing into thin air because it feels very game-y and unsatisfying, even though I understand there's programming implications that have to be taken into account and it's probably not feasible to not despawn carcasses at all. The timers for this seem to have gotten more aggressive though, and even if they haven't... I don't like them at all right now.

[Leeanda]

They do usually disappear after a few days..  I think bad weather affects the decay rate as well but I'm not sure..  

[LostRealist]

I guess I got one for the wish list then. I find it unreasonable and it's just a shame.

[AdamvR]

1 hour ago, LostRealist said:

before the hide had finished curing, they were freaking gone.

I believe this has always been the case... The hide cures for 10 days after placed inside.
According to the fandom the quarters decay by 10%/day (although I also feel it is more like 20%, but have not timed it, and stopped quartering a while ago, and instead slice up the whole guy with a hunting knife on the spot with a fire burning to keep wolves at bay); even with 10%/day it would decay quicker, as the starting condition depends on the condition of the carcass, and would always be less than 100%.
The carcass decays even quicker, around 33%/day, so the sooner you quarter, the longer the quarters would last.

[ManicManiac]

...generally speaking...
"fresh" Deer/Bear/Moose Carcasses (from my experience), will generally linger for about 3-4 (-ish) days of decay before they hit "zero" condition and despawn.   [worth noting, I haven't done any science with the rabbit carcasses... so I didn't list them]

Quarters (meat bags), do indeed decay at a rate of 10% condition until they hit "zero" condition and despawn (this rate of decay appears to be the same both indoors and outdoors... also depending on how much condition they started with will of course dramatically impact how long we have to harvest them before they despawn).

"prop"/ravaged carcasses, will remain "intact" and persistent in the world as long the player doesn't interact with them... once the player interacts with them, they will decay like a fresh carcass (but considering they are already in bad condition to start with... will likely disappear quickly if you only partially harvest and try to come back later).

Edited October 31, 2023 by ManicManiac
Fixing some typos...

[UpUpAway95]

I remember when I first started playing years ago now, I lost nearly half a quartered moose to decay because I thought the bags would last the same as meat portions when frozen outdoors. 

Quarters decay much more rapidly that cuts of meat even when kept frozen.  In addition, if you've placed the bags in a location where they thaw (or don't freeze), they will decay just that much faster. 

Also, item decay rates (which include foods) are affected by your difficulty setting (as can be seen quite clearly by comparing the various templates in the custom menu).  Pilgrim is "Low"; Voyageur is "Medium";  Stalker is "High"; and Interloper is "Very High."

Ravaged "prop" deer carcasses have been fixed and won't despawn until you "tamper" with them.  Even opening the menu to view how much meat is on them does count as "tampering." 

Edited October 31, 2023 by UpUpAway95

[LostRealist]

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

"prop"/ravaged carcasses, will remain "intact" and persistent in the world as long the player doesn't interact with them... once the player interacts with them, they will decay like a fresh carcass (but considering they are already in bad condition to start with... will likely disappear quickly if you only partially harvest and try to come back later).

I'm aware of that mechanic, and it makes the behaviour of other carcasses even more baffling in my opinion. If I had my way, even a 0% carcass wouldn't just disappear, it's just an immersion thing.

Well either way, I guess then I did indeed misremember the behaviour of decaying quarters, or maybe I just never had them sitting out for so "long".

The entire thing is just a mechanic that is implemented rather "artlessly", for lack of a better term, in my opinion. At least it has a lot of chance for improvement.

[Leeanda]

3 minutes ago, LostRealist said:

I'm aware of that mechanic, and it makes the behaviour of other carcasses even more baffling in my opinion. If I had my way, even a 0% carcass wouldn't just disappear, it's just an immersion thing.

Well either way, I guess then I did indeed misremember the behaviour of decaying quarters, or maybe I just never had them sitting out for so "long".

The entire thing is just a mechanic that is implemented rather "artlessly", for lack of a better term, in my opinion. At least it has a lot of chance for improvement.

You mightve missed the bug where everything decayed to 0% in several in game hours..  that was not good but it got fixed pretty quickly.

 

I suppose the difference is that the ravaged ones have been frozen for a while ,whilst the fresh kills are still warm ,maybe that's why they decay quicker.

[LostRealist]

5 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

You mightve missed the bug where everything decayed to 0% in several in game hours..  that was not good but it got fixed pretty quickly.

Indeed I think I missed that. Sounds quite unfunny...

But the ravaged carcass was a fresh kill at some point, eh? Not even gonna go into the magic touch you put on them to start their decay by interacting with them in any way, that's just silly to me. I'd love for carcasses that you "made" to become more or less persistent ravaged ones instead of simply vanishing into thin air after so little time - seems very plausible. Although I do see the issue that on a 500 day run you'd probably be stepping over bodies left and right at some point. Maybe with an option to "clear" them, like was added for campfires at some point?

 

[Leeanda]

1 minute ago, LostRealist said:

Indeed I think I missed that. Sounds quite unfunny...

But the ravaged carcass was a fresh kill at some point, eh? Not even gonna go into the magic touch you put on them to start their decay by interacting with them in any way, that's just silly to me. I'd love for carcasses that you "made" to become more or less persistent ravaged ones instead of simply vanishing into thin air after so little time - seems very plausible. Although I do see the issue that on a 500 day run you'd probably be stepping over bodies left and right at some point. Maybe with an option to "clear" them, like was added for campfires at some point?

 

I can imagine the state of the island if they did stay... outside of my base at pv farm would be covered with bear carcasses lol..😁.  If it was stalker it'd be even worse..

[UpUpAway95]

2 hours ago, Leeanda said:

I can imagine the state of the island if they did stay... outside of my base at pv farm would be covered with bear carcasses lol..😁.  If it was stalker it'd be even worse..

Not to mention that we'd all be buried in crow feathers and just think of the noise (caw, caw, caw)!  It would be deafening.

[Leeanda]

2 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

Not to mention that we'd all be buried in crow feathers and just think of the noise (caw, caw, caw)!  It would be deafening.

I don't mind the feathers but that noise would certainly drive me nuts 

[ajb1978]

Carcasses and by extension quarters begin decaying by 1% per game hour from the moment the animal hits the deck. Whether you quarter it or not, the meat on the carcass begins to decay by 1% per hour the instant the animal dies. This means that in just a hair over 4 full in-game days (96 hours) the carcass will despawn. Quarters despawn at the same rate as the carcass, and share its despawn time. So if you kill a moose and walk away, in a hair over 4 days, it and everything on it is gone. If you kill a moose, quarter it, and walk away, in a hair over 4 days all the quarters will despawn, but the gut and hide on the ground at the quartering site will remain because they are now separate objects. Once meat is removed from a carcass, it also has a reduced decay rate from slightly reduced to borderline preserved, depending on whether you store meat indoors or outdoors. But any meat remaining on a carcass or on a quarter is bound to the 96 hour despawn time, and its condition degrades accordingly

Similarly if you quarter a moose, haul everything away, but fail to harvest the meat from the quarters in time, you can lose the meat entirely while keeping the hide and gut.

TL;DR: Get the meat off the carcass ASAP.

[LostRealist]

15 minutes ago, ajb1978 said:

Similarly if you quarter a moose, haul everything away, but fail to harvest the meat from the quarters in time, you can lose the meat entirely while keeping the hide and gut.

TL;DR: Get the meat off the carcass ASAP.

Yeah, kinda what I thought I had done, so this game keeps surprising me. Bit of a bummer here to be quite honest, especially since I find it much, much neater to have some quarters sitting outside your door rather than a mountain of loose meat for game mechanic purposes. At least the actual feedback in the form of finding the quarters ruined beyond recovery would be nice, rather than just coming back to your place one day and they disappeared. That way, you could at least immediately recognize what happened rather than having to assume/guess/ask the forums what the heck is going on.

Edited October 31, 2023 by LostRealist

[ajb1978]

3 minutes ago, LostRealist said:

At least the actual feedback in the form of finding the quarters ruined beyond recovery would be nice, rather than just coming back to your place one day and they disappeared.

I can't confirm but I strongly suspect (95% certainty) that the game treats quarters as carcasses in and of themselves. Meaning that when they are due to despawn, they simply vanish. Unlike individual cuts of meat sitting out in the world, which would remain indefinitely after they hit 0% and only vanish if placed in a container.

But yeah the rule is get the meat off ASAP. There's no right or wrong way to play this game, but my play style I simply do not quarter animals at all. Against anything smaller than bear or moose it's just not worth it, and even if you're hunting bear and moose you ought to be prepared to do it right anyway. That's my take. Start a fire, harvest everything right there in the field, drop what you can't carry, come back for the rest later. It'll stay fresh longer.

[UpUpAway95]

3 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Carcasses and by extension quarters begin decaying by 1% per game hour from the moment the animal hits the deck. Whether you quarter it or not, the meat on the carcass begins to decay by 1% per hour the instant the animal dies. This means that in just a hair over 4 full in-game days (96 hours) the carcass will despawn. Quarters despawn at the same rate as the carcass, and share its despawn time. So if you kill a moose and walk away, in a hair over 4 days, it and everything on it is gone. If you kill a moose, quarter it, and walk away, in a hair over 4 days all the quarters will despawn, but the gut and hide on the ground at the quartering site will remain because they are now separate objects. Once meat is removed from a carcass, it also has a reduced decay rate from slightly reduced to borderline preserved, depending on whether you store meat indoors or outdoors. But any meat remaining on a carcass or on a quarter is bound to the 96 hour despawn time, and its condition degrades accordingly

Similarly if you quarter a moose, haul everything away, but fail to harvest the meat from the quarters in time, you can lose the meat entirely while keeping the hide and gut.

TL;DR: Get the meat off the carcass ASAP.

Then I can't explain why, about a year ago now,  when I had a bag from a quarter (bear meat) on me and another bag left outside frozen from the same bear had vastly different conditions to the meat when I harvested each bag one right after the other - something like 20% different if I recall correctly.  I remember being very alarmed by the low condition of the one batch of meat.

At the time, I put it off to having the one unharvested bag on me when I was near my fire (it had therefore thawed) while the other bag had remained outdoors frozen; but if it is, as you say, that the quarters, indoors or outdoors all decay at a set rate at 1% per game hour, then the meat from those two bags should have only been minimally different (max 3%).

I decide on whether to quarter or straight harvest depending a lot on where the animal died (i.e. how exposed will my fire be) and how far away is a sheltered spot where I can build a secure fire and harvest the bags.  Sometimes attempting to harvest an entire bear or moose where it died is almost an assured death sentence.

Further note - the carcasses of deer, rabbits or ptarmigan killed by wolves and left (because the player scared them off) will despawn much more quickly than those killed by the player if the player leaves the immediate area without first interacting with the carcass in some way.

Edited November 1, 2023 by UpUpAway95

[MrWolf]

I just quartered a bear so I did a quick test.  I killed the bear near Unnamed Pond late one day, slept for the night, then found the frozen carcass the next day.  I lit a fire to thaw it enough to quarter, then made a few trips to Trapper's cabin with the hide, guts, and quatered bags.  By then it was near the end of that day and I left one quartered bag inside and the rest outside.  All were showing 39% at the time.

I did something else for a few hours, slept for 10, then checked the bags in the morning.  Indoor and outdoor, all were at 25%.  It follows what @ajb1978 said, their condition losing 1% per in-game hour.  I harvested a piece of meat from the indoor bag and from one outdoor bag, both pieces are 25%.

So in this short test, there's no difference in rate of decay with quartered bags left inside or outside, thawed or frozen.  I didn't think to leave a bag in my inventory, maybe that would decay quicker?  I might try another test with a couple of the bags left outside to see if it makes any difference.

 

[UpUpAway95]

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I just quartered a bear so I did a quick test.  I killed the bear near Unnamed Pond late one day, slept for the night, then found the frozen carcass the next day.  I lit a fire to thaw it enough to quarter, then made a few trips to Trapper's cabin with the hide, guts, and quatered bags.  By then it was near the end of that day and I left one quartered bag inside and the rest outside.  All were showing 39% at the time.

I did something else for a few hours, slept for 10, then checked the bags in the morning.  Indoor and outdoor, all were at 25%.  It follows what @ajb1978 said, their condition losing 1% per in-game hour.  I harvested a piece of meat from the indoor bag and from one outdoor bag, both pieces are 25%.

So in this short test, there's no difference in rate of decay with quartered bags left inside or outside, thawed or frozen.  I didn't think to leave a bag in my inventory, maybe that would decay quicker?  I might try another test with a couple of the bags left outside to see if it makes any difference.

 

Must have been a bug then - can't explain it.  All I know is that in the end I had one bag that gave me steaks that were "moldy" and the bag that I left outside and harvested immediately following it resulted in "gamey" slices.  Maybe it is just if the bag is in inventory and maybe being right next to the fire also played a role.  I'll maybe set up a test myself at some point trying to repeat exactly what I did before (if I get the notion to waste a bear on it).

Edited November 1, 2023 by UpUpAway95

[LostRealist]

17 hours ago, ajb1978 said:

Against anything smaller than bear or moose it's just not worth it, and even if you're hunting bear and moose you ought to be prepared to do it right anyway. That's my take

I guess I play more opportunistically than that. Whenever I leave my shelter, I try to travel as light as feasible, but usually taking at least bow and arrows with me... in case I run into a moose. I don't want to take chances with the way those guys can despawn for days even when they're alive, another mechanic that I do not appreciate, but that's another topic. So when I see them, I drop them, and then in many cases I am in no condition to spend much more time than it takes to quarter. It's a point to consider in the future when selecting my loadouts for my days out and about though.

As for the game treating quarters exactly like it does carcasses, I think that appears to be true. I am displeased by either of them simply vanishing and in such short time, too. It breaks immersion for me and I mean, come on - I do have 355 hours of playtime since 2018 and this was a confusing "Oh what did this game do again right here" situation for me. I must imagine that if I had stumbled into this as a new player it's not much better, because it just completely lacks the learning part of the experience.

I mean, had I put those quarters into the storage cabinet in the community hall just by odd chance, a whole thread here could have been averted.

Just a bit of lament here, I know.

Edited November 1, 2023 by LostRealist