What your heaviest kill so far ?

[hantu1911]

My heaviest kill so far is 588 lbs. Its a big grey seal.   



But its give a very mediocre loot, not proportion to its weight.

[Privateer]

Curious what you used to butcher it.
Blade quality and type can greatly affect the harvest.

[hantu1911]

Curious what you used to butcher it.
Blade quality and type can greatly affect the harvest.

All my weapon are masterwork quality. That why I felt strange getting so few meat compare to elk or bear.

[Ara D.]

696 bull elk (skinned)

[Ara D.]

792 big bull elk 356 cut.

[Saiko Kila]

Curious what you used to butcher it.
Blade quality and type can greatly affect the harvest.

Sorry, but that's not how it works, people shouldn't worry about knife when cutting meat. Grey seals always bring 25% of their mass as meat. 588 lbs carcass would thus always give 147 lbs meat cuts. Grey seals also always give 14 lbs of fat (which is 30% of their standard skin size, i.e. 4.67 lbs, though skin itself can be reduced by 10% if the carcass was in bad condition or skinning failed).

Knife quality may be relevant for skinning, though, but this is controlled by Hideworking skill anyway.

Grey and ringed seals are only animals which give such ratios (most animals give 45% in meat, and 10% of their standard skin size in fat; birds, humans and seals being main exceptions), so their return in meat may seem small, but that's normal.

On the original topic, the heaviest kill must be big bull (bovine), because it's the biggest easily available animal, the biggest I had was over 800 lbs. But out of non domestics, the last BIG ELK course task I finished with had 620 lbs. It was female by the way, because male elk starts being named "big" at 720 lbs... I had some with my current character, but haven't recorded their mass.

All my weapon are masterwork quality. That why I felt strange getting so few meat compare to elk or bear.

Don't worry, it's how seals do. They give less meat than anything, but more fat. Seal meat is also more nutritious and pricey than elk meat.

Regarding knives, my previous masterwork broad knife was "stolen" by knife collector, and it took me a year to find a replacement. Now I always carry worse knives, and have the best one stored on the pack animal, just in case. Though usually when you carry both fine and masterwork broad knives, the collectors request the fine one.

[PALU]

I thought low quality stone knives did actually reduce the meat yield, but then we're talking about something really bad, outside of the normal range.

Regarding "you've got nice gear, gimme!" quests, the buggers always request the masterworks arrows, never the fine ones (I carry both). To avoid that happening with knives I drop the masterworks ones and pick up fine "spare" ones when going to villages to hunt for quests, as I'm fine with losing the fine knives, but not the precious masterworks ones (well, I've lost a couple of those, which is why I've changed the strategy). Letting the dog carry the masterworks gear is a smarter tactic, though.

[Saiko Kila]

To be honest I haven't used a stone knife for butchering. I only used normal rough knives.

However, I must protest your knives quest opinion. Protest in sense I have different experiences. I checked it many times, and purposefully carried both masterwork and fine quality of knives (the same type) expecting this quest, which repeats relatively frequently. The only time they were requesting masterwork was if there was no other knife of the same type, or masterwork was actually cheaper (for example masterwork small knife, or masterwork knife, which both are cheaper than fine or standard quality of kaumo or nothern knives, not to mention skramasaksi (which I have only in fine quality). This happened at least thrice, so either this is a design choice, or possibly totally random.

Also apparently they want mostly small knife, broad knife and hunting knife, while always shunning the fisher's knife. I have even noted the last several knives they wanted:
- fine broad
- fine broad
- masterwork broad
- fine hunting
- fine small
- fine small
- fine small

I no longer carry small knives (which are mostly useless anyway) and fisher's knives (because no one wants them) but always have fine broad, fine hunting, and for some time also fine knife. Also often I do carry masterwork broad. These fine knives are especially for quest, in hope the guy will ask for them. Also my animal carries several spares of them (3-4) If I remember before entering the village, I pack the masterwork broad onto the animal, but often I forget, and then I'm relieved he asked for one of the "finest" instead.

So I agree with your tactics, I use the same most of the time, but sometimes I forget it. This also causes use of fine broad sometimes instead of masterwork in hideworking. I get superior furs anyway (and only fine furs with masterwork knife, too), so probably that's not so important.

[PALU]

Small knives are preferred for some crafting jobs, if I remember correctly. I don't carry hunting knives (as my characters are poor with knives, preferring javelin/spears and bows instead). Thus, my knives are tools, not weapons.

[Saiko Kila]

Small knives are preferred for some crafting jobs, if I remember correctly. I don't carry hunting knives (as my characters are poor with knives, preferring javelin/spears and bows instead). Thus, my knives are tools, not weapons.

Maybe small knives were used for some crafting jobs in the past versions (or are still in mods), but I have checked all common crafting jobs in vanilla game, and small knife never was preferred. The only use I find for it is for bark removal - because it is indeed preferred then, and removes bark faster than other knives.

However, since bark has no quality modifiers, it only results in shortening the time by several minutes, which is not worth it in my opinion (to carry around). Also, if you drop a small knife near you favourite tree, it will be used for de-barking, which means it doesn't really need to be carried anyway.

My favourite weapons are spear/northern spear/javelin and bow, so very similar. However, I've found that the knife is the best tool to preserve hide of small animals, like hares, and it's actually also great for finishing off every animal, even elks. I use blunt aspect on body to make birds and hares unconscious, and then point aspect on head to kill them quickly, without damaging the skin too much. I always damage them if use javelins. Using point aspect on head of big, unconscious animals sometimes kills them outright too, and is less damaging than repeated blunt bashes by big spear, it seems.

So "combat" use of knife is solely for finishing animals (or robbers) off. But usually I use broad knife, even if I carry hunting one. The hunting knife is for knife stealers, so the chance of taking broad knife is smaller.

[PALU]

I whack animals with the shaft of my javelin (or northern spear if it's winter and I'm not dealing with a trapped animal), constantly aiming for the head. It takes quite some time to whack an unconscious elk on the head before it finally dies, so it provides a fair bit of training, and it seems that melee aimed hits against unconscious targets never miss. That obviously isn't the case when defending against an aggressive predator (or human), where I want the period of danger to be as short as possible. Once I reach 100% in Spear (which will take a long time) I'll switch to another weapon type for "training" combat.

I generally engage robbers and Njerps with the bow, although robber quests involves dealing with hirelings and trying to keep them alive in the mess that's called battle, so it often starts with a kill of one robber with the bow, followed by a frantic attempt to engage the buggers with the spear, as it tends to be hard to get clear shots (and I make very sure no hirelings have any missile weapons).

It may well be that the small knife preference is indeed a mod one.

[Saiko Kila]

I whack animals with the shaft of my javelin (or northern spear if it's winter and I'm not dealing with a trapped animal), constantly aiming for the head. It takes quite some time to whack an unconscious elk on the head before it finally dies, so it provides a fair bit of training, and it seems that melee aimed hits against unconscious targets never miss. That obviously isn't the case when defending against an aggressive predator (or human), where I want the period of danger to be as short as possible. Once I reach 100% in Spear (which will take a long time) I'll switch to another weapon type for "training" combat.

Heh, my guy has 96 in Spear (in his 4th year), and the fight still can take much time. As for elks, it usually takes 1-4 hit for unconscious to die when whacked with the blunt end, in my case, though I must say that it is mostly because while it can't miss apparently, it can hit another part, like foreleg. But knife, with pointy aspect takes at most 4 hit too, so I sometimes prefer it against animal.

Most armour, and animals pelts, are really weak against point damage, while they excel against edge (metal) or blunt (pelt). This is why finishing hits with a knife are devastating, I think. My char has about 75 skill in knife, all of this only thanks to finishers and training by wounded adventurers (who can train in different skills, by knife is probably most often chosen).

Another weapon I sometimes use for training on trapped elks and other big animals is shields (blunt damage). My cow carries 25 shields, I pick it up (which prevents moving, due to weight) and throw at the elk. This sometimes raises Shield skill. It also kills the elk eventually, sometimes before all 25 shields are thrown, and leaves corpse in fair condition.

I generally engage robbers and Njerps with the bow, although robber quests involves dealing with hirelings and trying to keep them alive in the mess that's called battle, so it often starts with a kill of one robber with the bow, followed by a frantic attempt to engage the buggers with the spear, as it tends to be hard to get clear shots (and I make very sure no hirelings have any missile weapons).

It may well be that the small knife preference is indeed a mod one.

You know, I remember the robber quest from some previous version, but haven't encountered one yet with the current character. Don't know what are conditions for it to trigger. I pursue robbers on my own, because I feel the are the only challenge left at this stage. Last in-game month I went for a short trip, which lasted about sixteen days, and encountered FOUR bands of robbers! I wiped them all thanks to my animal shield and bow. My guy wasn't even injured... I have a favourite setup, hide behind a line of three trees (perpendicular to the line of sight to target), which prevents my animals from interfering, and shoot the bow.

Although arrows are far less deadly than javelins, they have much greater range. The bandits are able to shoot arrows being prone, which happens strangely often (even if they have 12+ arrow wounds, like happened in one last case, though unable to walk, for some reason they are still able to shoot).

I don't hire hirerlings, because they annoy me. There is a guy in one village who still demands payment for a job done three years later, even though he can barely walk from all the stuff I gave him. Can you imagine?

Ad for Njerp, I have a policy of attacking only ones which attack me (or the villagers, rare case). When they run, and most of them run, I either let them, or sometimes sneak or just walk behind for fun, leaving them breathless.

Still, the most dangerous guy I fought quite recently was a Njerp, even though it was just after killing four bandits, who didn't impress me so much. The Njerp was apparently a sword master, armed only with a single sword, and no armour except some rags (like a barbarian). He killed one of my dogs in his first move, and then was striking, blocking and countering so skilfully he damaged both my northspear and his bastard sword, and it left me exhausted. I didn't even know that my weapon can be damaged without blocking (I always dodge instead).

But overall, I consider bandits the worst threat, all other being negligible, as long as I have animals to help distract them.

[koteko]

Still, the most dangerous guy I fought quite recently was a Njerp, even though it was just after killing four bandits, who didn't impress me so much. The Njerp was apparently a sword master, armed only with a single sword, and no armour except some rags (like a barbarian). He killed one of my dogs in his first move, and then was striking, blocking and countering so skilfully he damaged both my northspear and his bastard sword, and it left me exhausted. I didn't even know that my weapon can be damaged without blocking (I always dodge instead).

Really cool!

[Tom H]

Last night I trapped a bull elk weighing over 800! I lost about half the carcass because, having found it after tiring, it was too heavy to load on my bull so I tired myself further skinning and butchering until I passed out. I came to, still very tired. After putting the skin, cuts, and remainder of the carcass (still well over 200 but now reduced in weight from butchering) on my bull, I got it all to my cabin (which was close by!) and dropped it all in the cellar. After resting, I worked the hide through the first two steps and proceeded to dry the meat, whereupon I noted that the carcass was now rotted. RATS!

Still, I got 368 cuts from what I'd already butchered and I think that was my highest.