Porcupines - source of natural "sewing kit"

[Teakit]

They would be a "neutral" animal. Non-aggressive unless attacked.

Hand combat would be brutal, ranged combat would be easy.

Quills can be used in place of needles for sewing kits.

Spawn points could be near:

- cars (for the salt on the tires and brake lines)

- around houses (for the salt used to de-ice porches)

- around boats (they eat salt left from sweat from hands on boat paddles)

- axe handles and firearms (salt from hands, again)

- in random trees. They eat bark and I've seen a bunch of them in trees, usually about 15 feet up.

After spending almost 5 days of a playthrough looking for a sewing kit... I would have happily hunted a porcupine, even participated in hand-to-porcupine combat if I had found one.

Plus, they waddle, so they would be fun to animate. : )

[Sempophai]

Isn't it easier just to make a needle from a piece of bone from a kill?

[nicko]

or just use the fish hook/line

[Carbunkel]

Yeah. I think hook+ X amount of cloth could be a new kit.

Also with NPC coming it might solve this.

[nicko]

man i dont want to kill a porcupine- they remind me of our native animals that are in decline. The Echidna.

Try to harvest some materials then create the tools you need.

Also from my experience a hook plus line = another sewing kit.

[bethany]

I like the idea, it's pretty creative. Mostly, I can't get the image of an animated porcupine out of my head.

I didn't know porcupines could climb trees until today. Do you feel like you have the necessary know-how to defeat a porcupine aerial attack?

[Bill Tarling]

I still vote for crafting Porcupine long underwear :cry:

[Teakit]

I like the porcupine idea because it would be visually interesting (especially with TLD art style), and it could provide an alternative material for the sewing kit. Makes inventory management a bit more interesting, too.

Porcupines don't "attack" unless you provoke them by touching them. You basically have to be within 2-3 feet for them to attack, and all they will do is turn their back to you and flip their tail. They're pretty fearless because they do so much damage - a predator with a face full of quills can die from infection, and the quills can go super deep into flesh.

Not worried about a porcupine death-from-above. They're more likely to just sit in the tree munching bark and ignoring you as the obvious nonthreatening peasant that you are.

Here's a bunch of links to videos that would be useful for animation:

Walking (more like waddling):

The infants walk the same way the adults do, the adults are usually just slower and more laid back about it. Unless they're running, where they look even more ridiculous.

https://youtu.be/W6Ar19ZbbEs?t=84

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ecKUiWb5Ic

Porcupine Running:

Seriously. Don't tell me your animation team wouldn't have fun with this one... Would love to see how you would make it work with your art style. The elk and wolves are so perfectly stylized, these guys would would be really neat to see simplified down to their basic movements.

Climbing Trees:

The "downed" trees would be a perfect place for them to waddle around on. And the upright trees with bare branches could have their mesh updated with a "support" branch for a porcupine to climb to or sit on. Not sure how you're handling tree collision past ground level, so if you're counting on super optimization there, climbing (though cool looking) might be a problem.

https://youtu.be/fXr7S3MbAaE?t=43

In Tree:

Once they're in a tree, they can stay there for days. Most of the times I've seen them in the wild, it's sitting in a tree eating and ignoring you.

Standing Idle:

I think they do a think with their front paws where they dig around looking for bugs and edible roots, but not sure how well that would work with the snow pack in The Long Dark. Could have FX whip up some neat flying snow as they dig, but that seems like a bit of an investment for something that is only a visual payoff.

01:33 - https://vimeo.com/6650344

Attacking with Quills:

This dude is crazy. Seriously. Crazy.

Hunting (and cooking):

Apparently, porcupine provide more meat than rabbit... But just barely. And they are edible.

[toebar]

Nice job on all these links!

I'd love to have porcupines in TLD, just to have another animal. (to eat.. haha)

That said, I'm not certain porcupine quills would be strong enough to function as sewing needles.. perhaps for sewing very light fabrics, but sewing leather requires quite a strong needle, and having handled numerous quills I can't say I think they fit that bill.

[Teakit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stitching_awl

Notice the first image is of a paleolithic stitching awl, made with bone. Porcupines come with quills and bones, too!

Easy to poke holes in leather with a knife (use the tip), a piece of scrap metal, a sharp rocks, or bones or sticks. Humans have a ridiculous capacity for ingenuity, especially if they're hungry or freezing to death.

And if one quill breaks, you can always use another. A porcupine has a ton of quills. And quills could be used for sewing fabric as is, but the awl (or other sharp equivalent tool) could be used to cut holes in leather for fixing shoes.