Various questions from a new player

[jonottawa]

So I've been wasting my time drying 19 at a time, then? I can just dry like 95 in one go if I have 50 feet of cord?

Part of the roleplay reason I used to justify the 19 for 10 feet was that I was being slow and deliberate and spreading the meat all around my cabin (to give it more air.) But if the mechanic has been fixed, that's great. I did notice that when I did 19 cuts at a time that the 19 popped in on its own, I didn't manually override, so that made it feel less greasy.

[Privateer]

Yes,
 Cord used to be 0.5 lb with no length designation.

[PALU]

I believe the maximum batch size is now 50. However, you might waste your time slightly by still doing 19 at a time, but you don't waste much time for your character, as the time it takes used to be 2 minutes per cut, and I don't think that's changed, so the wasted character time is the time it takes to pick up an additional batch of cuts and typing equipment.

Also note that a larger batch increases the risk of having to abandon the task (with all progress lost) due to cold, frostbite, or interrupting hostiles.

[jonottawa]

Another couple of questions:

Does the amount of kindling (twigs/branches) you use affect the chance that you will successfully start a fire? (I realize that the more wood you use the longer a fire will burn, but that's not what I'm asking.) So if I use 5 twigs is there just as good a chance that I will start a fire as if I use 10 twigs?

Does anything spoil in the winter in a (at least occasionally heated) cabin that wouldn't spoil outside? Either cuts of meat or skins or whatnot?

[PALU]

I don't think the amount of wood affects the chances. I use 3 twigs for cooking and one cutting of branches for lighting a warming fire (so I can cut more while being heated by the newly lit one).

I don't know about heated cabins: I never heat mine (the stove is for looks only, and smoking/cooking is done in the "sauna"), and all perishables not kept in the character inventory are stored in the cellar (as soon as one is built, which is a very high priority task, and certainly built before a cabin has been built).

[Tom H]

Now nearing the 4th year with a character. I've had some smoked meat that spoiled even in the cellar. I made a habit of hiring Companions and buying items with the smoked meats, thereafter, to get rid of it before it went bad.

I've also had some foods like grain/beans/flour that spoiled, that I'd not kept in the cellar. I've still got lake reed roots and flour from the first year that has stayed viable in the cellar. I have not had any herbs go bad yet.

There doesn't seem to be any correlation to the amount of wood and the chance of starting a fire. I've failed a dozen times to light a cabin fireplace with 16 branches and likewise failed a dozen times outside with only 3 branches.

I've gotten messages saying I'm cold INSIDE my cabin when the temp drops significantly. I've been awakened from sleep by the cold, inside the cabin. Having lost my first established character to the cold, I always try to keep the cabin warm. The only way I can think of to test the cabin's warmth is to try to bake bread, or cook a stew. If it says I can't, I assume the cabin is getting cold.

Note that you can make cooked food spoil by leaving it too long by the fire. So, cooking inside village houses with their long-lasting fires can result in spoilage if you walk away for a while. Palu's "3 twigs" fires are always safe, but you can't do the more advanced dishes with just a campfire.

Regarding that Masterwork staff, it will probably result in a FINE javelin. I've made Fine javelins from Fine staffs. I'm keeping my Masterwork staff...heh.

As for cooking large batches of meat, I pick it all up and keep pressing the 'R' key, to get it done quickly. That's always been with newer characters who had not the needed cords or the like to smoke/dry it.
I've had meat that spoiled before I could finish the roasting even as I raced to cook it all. At least it's still good for dog food. Occasionally, I've traded the whole of a kill, cut down, while it's uncooked.

Re: Companion skills- Companion's fires last a goodly amount of time. They don't use any wood, it's just magic!

They seem to fell trees in accordance with their given skill level, possibly even faster. I've had a master down a dozen in a day with a handaxe! My guy would be too tired out to do so many. On the downside, they'll cut down trees randomly. They don't care if that tree is part of your fence. It seems they ONLY cut down large spruce trees. I could be wrong on that, but, they've avoided the birch and alders around my cabin. Think I'll take one to a grove and test that.

They'll make logs from tree trunks, nothing special. Maybe it's just me but they seem to take a long time doing it for small results.
 
They are acceptable at skinning/butchering. The pelts I've gotten from them have been either Decent or Fine. Otoh, waiting around for them while they skin a kill is monotonous. I'd like to hear how timely they perform this when you, also, have a carcass to skin/butcher.

They roast whatever uncooked foods you give them. If you don't take it from them, they'll eat it, too.

[jonottawa]

I intend to compile these answers in the OP at some point, along with all of the questions (at least the ones that get answered (in a seemingly knowledgeable way.)) But for now I'll keep asking:

Does it matter which weapon is in the 1 slot and which weapon is in the 2 slot? If you throw a javelin in the 2 slot does it have a lower hit chance or a lower damage roll than a javelin thrown from the 1 slot? If you only have a weapon in the 2 slot (say a 2-handed weapon) does the game treat it the same as if it were in the 1 slot?

Thanks for the companions discussion, I'm completely ignorant of that subject as my one companion experience ended abruptly. Do folks hire companions mainly to get them killed so they can take their stuff? Does the village care what you do with the loot of the companion who died? My understanding is that the only penalty is that the villagers won't want to join you on your adventures for a while, is there more to it than that? (I really should research this on my own first, which I haven't done, but if you want to give me a link to the info, that works too.)

If you have dark green protection on a body part, will more clothing/armour have any marginal utility to the protection of that body part or basically is armour protection capped at dark green?

[PALU]

As far as I understand you can cook food that don't require an open fire as long as there are embers in the stove, and you can just look at the stove to see the embers (look as in the in-game command).

I never attempt to get companions killed, but when they do their stuff joins the pile of robber items recovered when the robbers that killed the companion(s) have been taken care of.
The penalty for getting companions killed has been that no further companions will ever join me from that village, but that might have been fixed (there was a bug that caused former companion to never be available for recruiting again: it was always "not now, but maybe in the future" for many years. That bug has been fixed, though).

[Tom H]

I've never tried to get my Companions killed, either, although I've lost a fair number of them to combat and one to nature. When they die, their gear goes into my stash.

Unlike many folks here, I've never hired a large crew to hunt down robbers or Njerp villages. In fact, I only really want them (one of them) to help me deal with the individual Njerp I run across in my general area. I just consider it necessary because they can, and do, find their way to my settlement. It's been a shock to me to look up from some activity near home and find a Njerp, or a robber gang, heading for me.

Anyway, after taking a few arrows in the back, and from the stories people have related of their experiences with Companion gangs, I usually won't hire a Companion that has a bow and arrows. However, since they often offer the arrows in trade, I sometimes trade for their arrows and THEN hire them.

When they leave your employ, Companions often have pathing problems. My last one such forced me to open a hole in my fence because he wouldn't climb over it. When they reach a river, they can take a long time crossing over it. I've had another just stand in the road for weeks, even though his village was close by. I thought he was a robber and finally hired a guy and went to confront him, only to find it was a previous hire.

This is NOT gospel, but, supposedly the weapon quality affects the amount of damage inflicted, so, presumably, the armor quality could affect the damage taken. Otoh, I've been one-shotted by an arrow through the eyehole of my Masterwork Iron Spectacle helm, so, 'put not your faith in the works of Man'...lol. It makes a difference, too, what weapon type is used against you. Dark green can change to a lesser color, depending on the damage type the weapon causes.

(Edit: I took a Companion into a grove next to a village and told him to fell trees. He walked right through the grove, ignoring all the trees, and was heading into the village, apparently to cross it and get to some spruce trees on the other border.)

[jonottawa]

I had a bit of an interesting dilemma yesterday. A wolf had fallen through the ice and drowned about 8 tiles offshore. I was weary. It was a few degrees below freezing. I'll tell you what I did, but what would YOU have done? (FWIW this character has 100% swimming.)

Spoiler: show

I found a slender trunk and 3 branches and set a fire. I removed my clothes, dropped everything, and went in after the wolf. I went about 3 tiles (falling through the ice each tile) and then came back to the fire. (In hindsight, I think I should have just bitten the bullet and gone all the way for the wolf on the first go.) Once I got back to cold I went back in, went all the way to the wolf and brought it back. By the time I got back next to the fire I was just Numbingly Cold so I thought I was fine. I thought I'd warm more quickly next to the fire without my clothes on, so I just started skinning the wolf. I'm almost positive that I briefly dipped to Freezing while I was skinning the wolf, before I slowly warmed up and by the time I finished skinning it I was only up to Bitterly Cold. I ended up with a harsh skin (yuck.)

My adventure suggested a few more questions:

Does the concept of 'wet clothes' exist in the game? Do you warm more quickly next to a robust fire if you aren't wearing anything or if you're wearing furs? (I think I know the answer to that now.) Is there a (hidden) crafting penalty if you start a crafting job while Cold, Numbingly Cold, or Bitterly Cold? How about if the game says 'Your hand feels cold.'?

My dog also has a tendency to wander out onto any nearby ice and fall through (multiple times.) Is he at any risk of drowning or freezing? Does the concept of cold only apply to the player? Or to all NPC humans as well? Or to all creatures in the game?

[PALU]

Questions first:
Wet clothes do not exist. If you get into cold water you warm up faster with your clothes than without them, and I assume the fire effect is combined with the clothing effect to warm you up.

I don't think clumsy hands (or other parts) due to cold affects crafting.

Dogs on ice are in circumstantial danger. If you use a craft to get out on the water (smashing ice to go forward), the dog is in no danger, nor is it swimming in ice cold water while traveling by craft.
While you are on land the "normal" animal rules seem to apply. Normal traveling along the shore with the dog falling through occasionally is probably not dangerous, but traveling around a single tile lake is, because the dog tried to move towards you, which means further out on the ice. I've lost a dog due to this.

Fighting Njerps and robber while on a craft and they're in water occasionally leads to them going unconscious and dying, with no bleeding accounting for the death. I think it's cold rather than drowning.
The concept of cold as such probably applies only to the PC, but the combination of cold and water applies to NPCs as well (the villagers keep drowning in the village "well" bug has mostly been fixed, but not entirely, I believe).

What would I do?
- Best option: Go a short distance to the homestead to pick up a punt, return, and smash the ice to get to the carcass.
- Usual option: I don't think I wouldn't risk it with a wolf, but usually do with an elk (it sounds like a wolf is light enough that you're guaranteed to fall through): Prepare a fire on the shore. drop all carried equipment and then lie down. Crawl out on the ice (UrW takes position, and weight into consideration, and skis also allow you to move on thinner ice safely, although I assume it doesn't combine with prone), and retreat if it sounds like it's going to break. When reaching the carcass, pull it towards the character, crawl backwards, pull, crawl,... until reaching the shore (with the carcass still lying on the ice). Rest, as the fatigue tends to be very high (I've had cases where I had to retreat, rest up, and then continue to pull the rest of the way). Skin only when fully rested.

[Bert Preast]

I just had the same sort of thing happen, an apparently lone wolf came to my cabin and attacked my two dogs.  I poked my head out the door to see what all the noise was about, then grabbed a javelin and chucked it at wolfie.  I got him and he ran out onto the ice about 8 tiles before falling through and expiring.  I got a fire going, stripped off, went prone and crawled out to him, and as expected i fell through a few times.  I even ended up with a harsh skin too!  I think because my dogs got a couple of bites in before I appeared.

However!  I didn't strip off everything - I kept a javelin and handaxe on me as I understand they help you climb back onto the ice after falling through.  I remember reading that somewhere, but I can't remember where. 

[PALU]

I just had the same sort of thing happen, an apparently lone wolf came to my cabin and attacked my two dogs.  I poked my head out the door to see what all the noise was about, then grabbed a javelin and chucked it at wolfie.  I got him and he ran out onto the ice about 8 tiles before falling through and expiring.  I got a fire going, stripped off, went prone and crawled out to him, and as expected i fell through a few times.  I even ended up with a harsh skin too!  I think because my dogs got a couple of bites in before I appeared.

However!  I didn't strip off everything - I kept a javelin and handaxe on me as I understand they help you climb back onto the ice after falling through.  I remember reading that somewhere, but I can't remember where. 

Yes, I believe Sami said that. I'd suggest the best tools would be a couple of knives, as they're light weight and the closest approximation of the tools people use nowadays in case of falling through.

[Tom H]

Just another edit to my previous post: Companions apparently only fell large spruce AND large pine trees. They seem to ignore the trees on which one can strip bark.

[jonottawa]

More questions:

Can the player craft 'fine' clothing? Can the player craft 'fine' javelins? Is there any gameplay difference between fine cord and inferior cord (does fine cord tend to create better tasting dried cuts for example?) or does it only matter if you were to want to trade it? Has anyone done a fairly recent analysis of all of the damage protection profiles for various furs and leathers? Is there a crafting difference between winter fur and non-winter fur of the same animal type? I'd heard/read somewhere that winter bear fur is the best fur to make clothing out of, is that generally true? Is bear leather also the best leather? I can't imagine there's such a thing as 'winter leather', but just in case, is there?

If I put my dog on a 100 foot leash and tie him to a tree, will he use that 100 feet or will he stay within 1 hex of the tree?