Traps - what am i doing wrong?

[Iskandryu]

Ok, here i am with another question. I've been trapping for the last couple of days (about a month in game), but nothing seems to catch on.

I've first tried placing pit traps in an area where there were Elk tracks, and i've positioned them the way you see in the screenshot, but nothing ever fell in them. I've even tried the Favor of the trap ritual until i've upset some spirits, and still nothing. Thing is, a few times when i came back to check on them there were fresh tracks of elk right next to a couple of pits, but nothing inside.

I have a trapping skill of 31%, so upon reading on the forums, i've started placing lots of light lever in lines around a lake, but nothing fell in those neither.

So? am i doing something wrong? is that suppose to happen at my skill level? Do traps just really take a long time to catch something?

[Privateer]

Just a tip;
You may want to invest in some fencing.
Here's some images of some trap lines I use
(from some game stories i've done)

[PALU]

As Privateer said, large game traps more or less require either bait or trap fences (or both).
There seems to be some "push" factor on traps that makes animals weary of them (I think the trapping skill and die roll affects this), and this can keep them from taking the bait in baited traps. A trap fence makes it impossible (with a reasonable effort) to go around the trap, so animals that wish to go to the other side of the fence (try to) pass over the trap, even if it's somewhat fishy (but they can still balk at it).

For small game traps I tend to place them in arrays, in particular in between trees, to create the same kind of lines that have to be crossed despite some reluctance.

[Iskandryu]

Well, the algorithm for me succeeding things in URW seems to be posting on the forum
Because i got a big stag in one of those pit traps as soon as i logged in today. Of course, i see the wisdom in the fences, and i started building them around that lake especially.

Now i'm just curious about one more thing: what to do with all the meat? I definitely can't eat all of it until it gets spoiled, and i don't have a house to smoke it yet. So i'm thinking i should sell it in the village for some dried or smoked meat (or arrows, arrows are always good). What's the best way to do that? should i sell it raw, or roasted? What has more value? The logical thing would be to sell it raw, because then the village people can smoke it. Is that how the game works too?

[PALU]

If you haven't got a sauna yet and it's too warm for drying, I'd roast the meat and sell it in a village. If you've got a cellar, the meat should be stored there at all times you're not using it, as it lasts a bit longer there.

I believe roasted meat is more valuable than raw (additional labor has put into it, so it's ready to eat). In addition to that there are a couple of additional reasons:
- Roasted meat starts the decay cycle afresh, provided they where roasted when fresh, which means it will last a few days longer.
- Roasting the meat provides cooking training, which is always good. If your skill is extremely poor so what you cook is almost unfit for eating, the most valuable use of the food is usually to improve the cooking skill so you reliably get decent quality food (the lowest quality of food can't be sold: it can still be eaten and provides some reduced nutrition, though).
- You typically need to extend the shelf life of your meat by roasting it as killing a stag implies butchering and skinning it, which takes a fair while, plus preparing at least the first stage of the skin. All these lengthy activities will probably require you to sleep. If you haul the raw meat to village at that time there's a decent risk some or all of it goes bad on the way. (From a more gamey perspective, roasting the meat will split it into several groups based on quality and staleness, so an unlucky roll won't cause you to lose all of it).

[JEB Davis]

I like to make the rounds of my traps every 2 or 3 days and kick & reset them.
The traps I really have high hopes for, I'll sometimes use the "favorableness" ritual.
Patience and persistence seem to pay off, especially if animals/birds have been seen in the area.

The latest thing was an Elk coming around several days in a row, so I set just one bear deadfall
with about 5 different types of leaves for bait. After minding other business while the Elk continued
to roam around, after a few more days it was caught in that trap. It had walked right past the trap
several times previously. Typically, no fences are used, just randomly scattered traps of several kinds.

[PALU]

Well, baiting a trap with desirable food will increase the likelihood of trapping the target animal. Without either bait or a fence an animal will walk into your traps only by chance AND that only if their fishiness detectors are failing.

If a trap hasn't been triggered I generally won't tear them down. The exception to that is when the skill has increased significantly so I want to try to replace the trap with a higher quality one (and I've only done that with snares where I've produced higher quality snares than the ones currently used).

[codyo]

You will probably get an animal in those traps eventually. It's already been said, but might as well hammer the point in. Make a fence that bottlenecks the traps. Which leads large game towards it. My best spots have been natural isthmuses where you could block off a narrow stretch of land easily and catch anything trying to pass through your bottleneck.
* This doesn't mean you have to block off an entire area to get something. You can have trap fences in the middle of the forest and still catch something. Use trees as part of your fence as they are impassable too to large game.

Even my most unsuccessful trap areas had at least one animal per season.
Though the likelihood of success depends on your Trapping skill too. As you progress through the game, inevitably you'll randomly receive the Trap Blessing ritual which improves the catch chance.

I'm adding to what PALU said here. If you don't have a sauna, instead I recommend using the nearest village's sauna or any heated room and smoke your cuts inside it. Then safely grab everything later.

[Saiko Kila]

Now i'm just curious about one more thing: what to do with all the meat? I definitely can't eat all of it until it gets spoiled, and i don't have a house to smoke it yet. So i'm thinking i should sell it in the village for some dried or smoked meat (or arrows, arrows are always good). What's the best way to do that? should i sell it raw, or roasted? What has more value? The logical thing would be to sell it raw, because then the village people can smoke it. Is that how the game works too?

Roast it. It will have 15% more value than raw meat, and it will hold a couple of days longer. Also you will train cooking skill. In time, high cooking can give you high profits, because most of the roasted (or otherwise prepared) meat will have higher value than default. The best way of roasting is relatively close to a tree, from which you can indefinitely collect branches or twigs to fuel fire. Keep the rest of meat behind you (so it won't spoil in the meantime from high temperature), and keep the dogs chained to yet another tree few tiles away (so they won't eat the meat you are going to prepare).

For smoking (50% added value), go to the village and smoke in a room with fireplace. The common room is better than sauna, because it keeps temperature (and ability to smoke) even after fire is out, while in sauna the fire must be present when you start preparing you batch, at least that's my experience.

For drying (60% added value), you can go to any building during dry season, but I would suggest using a small kota entry (the tile with door), preferably on the eastern outskirts of village. That's because no one uses such building, and you can sneak into it in case you
are not in good standing with villagers, and take items without walking inside, which could be a trap. Also it's easier to remember where you put that thing, if you always use a similar place.

Don't use ropes and leather ropes, only cords. You can buy summer elk/stag pelts for cords, or rough quality clothing, preferably cloaks, for even cheaper cords.

About the traps - elks will occasionally get in the trap without a bait, and you can force the elk to move in desired direction by flanking it and running to it, but the best way is just to drop a turnip on the trap and go away. Elks love turnips. Turnips are cheap to buy during season, and easy to farm later. (Also containers with turnip seeds are great to carry herbal beverages, but that's for another day)

[PALU]

If you have a cellar, keep all meat not in the current processing batch in the cellar while roasting. If you haven't got one, use Saiko Kila's advice.
There's no need to tie up the dog while roasting in my experience, as dogs bark when hungry and most of the time give you some time to feed them before they help themselves (might be dependent on dog personality). Also the loss isn't great (I haven't been able to feed dogs more than 3 cuts, but I don't starve them).
The reason a sauna might need priming while a common room doesn't might be because the common room is heated regularly, while the sauna might not be.
When the weather is suitable for drying meat I'd definitely recommend building a shelter, as it can be used as the "wall" for drying, unless you're just starting out and have just bagged your first major kill, in which case I'd roast the meat and sell it for tools. That also saves you the hassle of trekking to a village.