I swear by shutters!

[Tom H]

For the first time ever, I was attacked by robbers at my cabin! Fortunately, on a whim I had built every wall with shutters, so, I actually saw these coming on the other side of my fence (I had built no traps!).

I rushed to my weapon stash (I was inside my cabin) and grabbed a lot of Fine Broadheads and ran back to the shutter. I managed to put 3 of them on the ground, though they were not dead yet. Then, I heard a door opening behind me! lol... I fired two more arrows and had to switch to my spear. My previous arrow work had badly injured the two inside and I finished them with my spear. Then I went outside and killed another lying on the ground. Circling the cabin, I found the last one and got a kill with a thrown javelin. I assume that there were only 4 because that's all I found.

What a great adventure! I have to ask, though, would my cabin have been robbed if I had not been home then? 

[Saiko Kila]

You have much luck to get robbers on your home turf. Never happened to me, though I had robbers in the same region. There are never robbers when you need them. Recently I had a robber quest, and couldn't find any during a month...

I highly doubt they would take items when you are not home, unless you are present in nearby tiles (like to two tiles away), when they are simulated more thoroughly. But since it never happened to me I cannot be sure.

[Tom H]

Now I'm wondering, if I'd been defeated, would they have taken everything in my cabin??

[PALU]

Robbers (and Njerps) pick up things they stumble upon, so if they walk around after dumping your character they'd probably loot the place, but since they enter abstraction limbo when the character is away (i.e. has been dumped) they probably won't do that. I'd expect the robbers to remain in place if you return from where you were dumped and zoom in to your homestead.

I've considered exploiting the picking up behavior to load potential hostiles down with excessive loot, but haven't been very successful at it.

[Saiko Kila]

They certainly won't take everything (and I suppose they will be still there to fight you when you return), because when picking up is modelled, the carry limit is also modelled. And they dump excessive load, if somehow encumbered. So they just can't carry much.

[Tom H]

A different character, in-cabin with 8 shutters. I wake in daylight and am setting about feeding my dogs, who slept inside with me (it was a two-dog night..lol) when my dogs start barking alarm!

Prowling my cabin was a wolf pack and they're right next to the door! At point-blank range, through the shutter, my first shot puts one down, unconscious.  I shoot him again and he jumps and runs, taking 1 more hit of the next three arrows I fired. Then I open my door and target the 2nd wolf with my best broadhead arrow and HE starts running. I follow the blood trail of the first wolf and find him dead on the ice of the river. Following the 2nd wolf's blood trail, he, too, has died of blood loss.

I skin and butcher them inside and get two decent hides and 70 cuts. After preparing the hides, I check the big deadfall that's placed across the frozen ford I've built on and there's a third wolf caught in it!

In the end, he rendered a fine winter pelt and another 30 cuts. If I had NOT had shutters, I'd have walked out my door smack into the pair of wolves!

[Dr.Hossa]

incredible stories man!

I always wondered if my home defenses, which i put up sparingly, would pay out some day. I also placed some shutters in tactical positions, so i got some kind of killing zones outside of my cabin, blind spots covered by trap pits. 

But i feared placing too many shutter-walls would make my hut too cold in the winter.
I remember reading about shutters providing less "warmth" than normal walls, but i cannot find it anymore on the net.

Anyway, as i survived winter quite well just having a kota up in the far north, living stone age-style, i think warmth is not really a problem when you have a cabin.

[Tom H]

I've read other people's stories of how they've trapped invaders and even traders. The first successful character I had, now long dead, had a fence around his cabin and the fence, itself, was almost entirely surrounded by pit traps. For all that work I got only a couple of elk stumbling into a trap. Since then I've read various posts considering whether or not bad guys see the traps and avoid them. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on it.

I've got a suspicion that mere fences provide pathing problems for NPCs so I've taken to creating multiple fence lines. In the initial post, I had only one fence line. In the last story, I had no fence at all. Fences and traps are a lot of work and I don't get around to multiple lines of defense until a character is well established. I have five at the moment and only one has developed a deep defense.

Shutters don't cost any more time than a regular wall. As the last story tells, it has paid off but the fact is that only two of my 5 characters have had anything worse than marauding lynx, gluttons, and badgers...heh.

[jonottawa]

I never let my dogs inside. It makes them soft. I wish there was a way to discipline bad dogs who go inside or who wander on thin ice or (the worst thing) who get in the way when I'm pushing a log. I suppose I could tie the damn thing to a tree as a 'time out.'

As for shutters, or multiple doors, it's a shame there's no downside. You shouldn't be able to build adjacent shutters and ideally it would be harder to heat a cabin that has shutters everywhere and make saunas less effective or ineffective.

As for wolves, fighting a pair of wolves sounds exciting. By the time you have a cabin built, that should be eminently doable. (And 2 of my 3 deaths have been via wolf, but never when I was properly dressed for the job.)

[Tom H]

Until I have a separate building with a tree in it, I keep my animals inside with me. I've lost a number of them to lynx and wolves WHILE they were on leashes in my hands. So, I've come to believe that one bad night outside, tied to a tree, could lead to disaster. Since fences don't stop either lynx or wolf, it has to be a building. The tree is for tying them up, to keep them from wandering every time I open the door. 

[jonottawa]

Interesting. I virtually never put my dog on a leash. Kiting is one of their strengths and I wouldn't want to take that away from them. I would NEVER do it, but they don't obey when I tell them to stay (even when I leave them a plentiful supply of bones,) so occasionally I tie them up so I don't have to go hunting for them.

[Tom H]

Well, when they're leashed they are usually located behind me when I encounter something, so I can get off a shot or throw a javelin without the nuisance of hitting my own animal. My usual tactic is to unleash them, THEN shoot. They immediately target who/whatever I shot at.

Considering how often they aggro on randomly encountered birds and rabbits, I'd worry about them running completely free. I also don't want them free when I run into a lynx, bear, or wolves... because I don't intend to melee with these unless it's unavoidable. When I run, they come with me, which I'm not certain would be the case if they are not leashed.

[Dr.Hossa]

So, what is it about shutters providing less insulation in winter?
Anybodyhere who can confirm that? Im pretty sure did read something on the web, but i dont know how reliable that information is, and i cannot find it anymore

[Tom H]

IF you have a gap in your walls, you can't smoke meat in that building. If a building has shutters, you can still smoke meat. If you leave a door open, it doesn't interfere with smoking meat. The long process of smoking meat requires a fire only at the start of the process. Food can be cooked even though no fire is apparent in a fireplace.

In short, it seems the game's determination of, and tracking of, warmth is dependent on factors other than having shutters.

[Dr.Hossa]

Hm, not totally convinced as there is not any causal connection, but i also think(but do not know!) shutters dont change a thing in terms of insulation of your hut. at least you can be safe when you got a good amount of firewood.

So, i would agree and say: I also swear by shutters!...