Snares need yarn now?!

[GrimmSpector]

Using 3.80 ... why the heck do I need YARN for snares? Snares should be trivially easy to make, but I have to wait until I'm in a season where I can harvest and then ret plants and have access to them to spin yarn to make a snare? Instead of using a withe, or some birch bark cord ... or some leather? What the heck!

[Galgana]

Yarn is really cheap to trade for in villages. 1 squirrel hide can get you 150 feet of yarn, which can provide you with 25 snares for trapping.
Or you can trade those snares to get even more yarn.

To put things into perspective, 135 feet of yarn is required to make 1 cord.

[PALU]

I don't think you'd be able to make a snare from withes, as that's just a somewhat flexible twig without any ability to make a slide knot.
As for leather, I would guess a leather cord might be too thick and stiff to really function well as a snare. Birch bark similarly isn't supple enough to make a suitable string (I'd guess it might be similar to trying to make a snare out of cardboard).

The lightest lever trap is aimed at the same game as the snare and doesn't use anything you can't just collect by spending efforts searching the surroundings (although twigs can also be harvested without tools).

It can also be noted that the behavior was the same in 3.72.2 (and probably was introduced when yarn was introduced).

[GrimmSpector]

I don't think you'd be able to make a snare from withes, as that's just a somewhat flexible twig without any ability to make a slide knot.
As for leather, I would guess a leather cord might be too thick and stiff to really function well as a snare. Birch bark similarly isn't supple enough to make a suitable string (I'd guess it might be similar to trying to make a snare out of cardboard).

The lightest lever trap is aimed at the same game as the snare and doesn't use anything you can't just collect by spending efforts searching the surroundings (although twigs can also be harvested without tools).

It can also be noted that the behavior was the same in 3.72.2 (and probably was introduced when yarn was introduced).

Birds can get caught by a light lever trap?

I have no bait for birds sadly, and I haven't seen much other wildlife where I am too early to forage wild plants as I started in spring, and am only 15 days in, and short on food.

[Bert Preast]

Light lever traps can catch birds, hares, foxes and other small game.  They are cheap and easy to build, and usually work best on the shores of a lake where there are lots of birds around.  I also put them on berries or plants that are close to ripening, so there's no need for bait.

If you're in spring and hungry; and from your other posts not much use at fishing, you need to either make things to trade for food, or hunt game.  Trapping birds will likely just make you starve a little more slowly - there's not much meat on a raven!     

[PALU]

Light lever traps can catch birds without bait when placed in lines (and you're lucky).

There are a few advantages to catching birds:
- You stave off starvation: I suspect it can actually keep you in the semi starved state indefinitely if you get enough and spend all your time processing the birds (if you were lucky enough to catch that many).
- Bird skin provides Hide working training (and also some small amounts of leather).
- It's a passive hunting that provides some base supplement which is important when you haven't got any means of preserving the meat off of large kills.

I generally start by setting up a bunch of lever traps and then try to find a large animal to kill (and bears satisfy the large part, but probably not the "to kill" one). With a little bit of luck I'm able to dry some meat off the side of the shelter before it gets too warm. After than excess meat can be roasted and sold to villagers living within a reasonable distance, or left to spoil and be used as dog food for when you get a dog. Note that roasted meat can be traded for preserved food

[GrimmSpector]

Light lever traps can catch birds without bait when placed in lines (and you're lucky).

There are a few advantages to catching birds:
- You stave off starvation: I suspect it can actually keep you in the semi starved state indefinitely if you get enough and spend all your time processing the birds (if you were lucky enough to catch that many).
- Bird skin provides Hide working training (and also some small amounts of leather).
- It's a passive hunting that provides some base supplement which is important when you haven't got any means of preserving the meat off of large kills.

I generally start by setting up a bunch of lever traps and then try to find a large animal to kill (and bears satisfy the large part, but probably not the "to kill" one). With a little bit of luck I'm able to dry some meat off the side of the shelter before it gets too warm. After than excess meat can be roasted and sold to villagers living within a reasonable distance, or left to spoil and be used as dog food for when you get a dog. Note that roasted meat can be traded for preserved food

I need to find better villages to trade with and move there, because the only two near me suck, and aren't honestly that close, especially when I can't yet make a paddle.

[Bert Preast]

Don't settle too close to a village, or they may consider your stuff as belonging to them - after all, it's on their lands!

I think having at lest three overland tiles between you and the village is considered safe, but I usually settle a lot further away than that.

If you need a paddle and the village has an axe in it somewhere, you can drag a tree to the axe then make boards and a paddle without picking up the axe.  This should not anger the villagers.

[GrimmSpector]

Don't settle too close to a village, or they may consider your stuff as belonging to them - after all, it's on their lands!

I think having at lest three overland tiles between you and the village is considered safe, but I usually settle a lot further away than that.

If you need a paddle and the village has an axe in it somewhere, you can drag a tree to the axe then make boards and a paddle without picking up the axe.  This should not anger the villagers.

They don't have an axe, and I'm barely inside the culture bubble, the nearest village is across a lake and several rivers.

[Bert Preast]

Look for fords to cross rivers, if it's cold then prepare to build a fire to warm you when you reach the other bank.  Take along 3 branches or twigs.  Don't take more if, as with some fords, you have to swim - the extra weight can drown you!

Some lakes are massive, others you can easily go around.

[GrimmSpector]

Look for fords to cross rivers, if it's cold then prepare to build a fire to warm you when you reach the other bank.  Take along 3 branches or twigs.  Don't take more if, as with some fords, you have to swim - the extra weight can drown you!

Some lakes are massive, others you can easily go around.

Days to go around this one. Where can I find and how can I recognize fords? I don't have the ability to swim across the rivers for sure, will die trying.

[Felius]

Look for fords to cross rivers, if it's cold then prepare to build a fire to warm you when you reach the other bank.  Take along 3 branches or twigs.  Don't take more if, as with some fords, you have to swim - the extra weight can drown you!

Some lakes are massive, others you can easily go around.

Days to go around this one. Where can I find and how can I recognize fords? I don't have the ability to swim across the rivers for sure, will die trying.

Fords are labeled as such in the terrain type. Also slightly different zoomed out map tile, so when you do find one, try to look closely.

Alternatively, if you do have an axe, time and enough food to live off about a week or so, you can make a raft. Peel a bunch of birch barks, make rope out of that, three three trunks (or was it logs?) near a river, make the raft, drag it to the riverbank. Also, a paddle or sesta, of course. Then you can just cross safely anywhere. I recommend doing that in rapids even, so that you can keep crossing during the early freezes when the ice is not strong enough to hold a person.

[PALU]

As mentioned, fords have a different overworld graphic tile, although I can't see any difference during the winter...

I generally settle outside of the cultural bubbles close to rapids (it sure is convenient to have easy access to water during the winter, and an escape route when hostile critters invade your turf (you need a paddle for that, plus a craft).

Note that sestas only work in shallow water, so you should be able to use a raft with a sesta to cross a ford without having to deal with the cold water (in summer the water temperature isn't a problem, so you should be able to wade across, even if you might get a little cold you'll heat up soon enough). A sesta won't get you across deep water, though.

[Brygun]

Personally I don't like the limited to yarn thing as its not something a survival person could make if its supposed to be wool yarn. It might be a wording thing with yarn being the thin lighter than cord.

Light lever traps to start with work.

Experience taught me when doing long travel to often carry a few loop snares to fill in the gaps amid trees of my shelter area to make a mini-fort. If nothing else its a noise maker. Loop snare s are quick to pack up to take with you at a light weight.

[GrimmSpector]

Personally I don't like the limited to yarn thing as its not something a survival person could make if its supposed to be wool yarn. It might be a wording thing with yarn being the thin lighter than cord.

Light lever traps to start with work.

Experience taught me when doing long travel to often carry a few loop snares to fill in the gaps amid trees of my shelter area to make a mini-fort. If nothing else its a noise maker. Loop snare s are quick to pack up to take with you at a light weight.

Yeah I've made snares out of all sorts of random things in real life, not always with success obviously.