Utility of 'quality' in items

[Tom H]

It has been on my mind for a while now- does the quality of cords affect the quality/results of traps/snares or the quality of dried/smoked meats?

I suspect that cord quality only matters for making arrows, that trap quality depends solely upon trapping skill, and that dry/smoked meat quality depends solely upon cooking skill.

 I've made inferior snares and decent snares but nothing of better quality than those. I've noticed no difference in the ability of inferior snares to catch their prey. Although I've occasionally found a trap with only a bunch of feathers in it, that could possibly be the result of predator animals, rather than escapes. Otoh, I'm certain that the various predator birds have attacked trapped prey because I've found mutilated corpses in traps.

[PALU]

Cord quality does not affect the quality of dried/smoked meat. I believe the cord quality affects the snare quality, so to make a superior quality snare you'd have to start with a superior quality cord (and end up with fine most of the time anyway, even with a 100% skill).

I suspect the trapping skill used to set a trap is more important than the quality of the trap itself, although I don't have any proof of that.

Feathers on a trap indicates a predator took the prey, while a triggered, empty trap means the animal escaped. I've seen birds get trapped and then escaped while my character was busy with length tasks. However, it seems animal behavior with regards to traps differs between the situation where you're present and when you're not: I've never encountered an empty, triggered bear trap, but I have had the case that a wolf (from a wolf pack) ran into a bear trap, triggered it, and then proceeded out of it to attack my character. Similarly, I've encountered a dead trader in a bear trap, but when I experimented with traps and Njerps the enemies always managed to get out of the traps to attack my character (taking some damage from the traps, and in some case taking a few turns to get free from a bear trap)

[Tom H]

Palu- On that note, I'll now be perplexed with HOW to craft a 'Superior' cord...lol. I suppose I could try making cords from some Mastercraft clothing?

Do you think a 'polecat' will rob a bird snare? Where I'm from, that's called a skunk. Anyway, I have a couple of traps near home. Found a bird in one and a polecat wandered nearby, while I harvested it. Forgot berries, so, a quick trip home and back. The OTHER trap now had a stack of feathers in it. Hence, my question.

I've had an elk run right through a pit trap and out the other side, though it wound up crippled. Thus far, thankfully, nothing has escaped a deadfall while I was finishing it off.

Btw, I stumbled across a 'wounded hunter' shelter, with the goods scattered around it. I checked around but didn't find the quest village. I tried my usual tactic of setting up a deadfall BUT the bear returned and attacked, killing two of my dogs! I'm sure my trap would have gotten him...heh

[PALU]

I'm using Buiodda's mod, so I don't make cords from hide any longer, so I don't remember if you get any quality out of that process (and I didn't care anyway, as any cord is good for preserving meat).

Skunks are native to North America, not Europe, as far as I know, and according to Wiki skunks are different from polecats, although "In the United States, the term polecat is sometimes applied to the black-footed ferret, a native member of the Mustelinae, and (loosely) to skunks, which are only distantly related".

I'd expect those small predators to take advantage of snared birds, yes.

My experience with wounded hunter quests is that those predators are more aggressive than normal (I've lost one character on such a quest, and have had characters attacked at least once, and probably twice on them). I'm now taking extra care in those quests...